September 24, 2017 God's Election, Romans 9:16-24

Examination time, a one question test.  How many Biblical people can you name who went on spiritual quests to find God?  Don’t think about too long or too hard, and don’t doubt yourself if you think you don’t have enough biblical knowledge.  The answer is easy – zero.

In our scriptures no one ever goes on a quest to find God.  It is always the other way around.  God seeks people and finds them.  Sometimes they run away, like Jonah.  But God hounds them until he gets them.

It is important for us to remember that it is God who seeks us, and it is God who chooses us, not the other way around.  It is God who creates faith in us, and it is God who maintains that faith within us.  You cannot come to God by the power of your intellect or your righteousness.

This all seems good until you think about it a bit.  What then about people who reject God?  What about people who are evil?  What about people who do not know God at all.  What about them?  And in all of this with God seeking us and creating faith in us and maintaining that faith within us, where does that leave free will?  Do we have a choice?  These are not new questions.  We know they’ve been around for as long as there has been Christianity because St. Paul writes about it.  We find one of the times he writes about it in our second reading.  There to the Romans he says, “So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy…  God has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses.  You will then say to me then, ‘Why then does he still find fault?  For who can resist his will?’  But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God?  Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’”  And Paul goes on.

This can leave us unsettled.  Again, we like to think we have free will.  And it leaves us wondering about the many people who do not know God and who do not seem to have faith.  We probably even care deeply about any number of people who do not live in faith.  Has God rejected them?  Has God made them as objects of his wrath, as Paul says?

I don’t have any answers to these questions.  I wish I did, but I think we just have to let God be God and realize that there are lots of things we simply cannot understand.  I do think it is good that we have questions like this.  It shows that we care.  We are concerned about the people around us and we do not want God to withhold grace and mercy from them.

But it is also important for us to move on.  Martin Luther understood that the way God does things with faith held great comfort for him.  In his essay, The Bondage of the Will, Luther writes:

(Copyright regulations do not allow for the text to be printed here.  See Luther's Works, Volume 33, Pg. 288-289)

Can you feel the comfort and certainty Luther writes about?  It is as if he has relaxed from the greatest worry and burden of his life, which indeed he has.  In early life he was constantly plagued by worry.  Was he good enough for God?  Did he do enough?  How could he be sure God liked him and would save him?  Realizing how securely God held him brought him real joy.  And it’s ironic that when he realized he didn’t have freedom in determining his salvation actually gave him freedom in life.

Instead of constantly asking himself if God approved or disapproved of something that whole way of thinking was thrown away.  He was God’s!  He was saved!  Now he wanted to share that reality and invite others to know it too.  That is the root of true evangelism – having something good you want to share.

I’m sure you’ve all had a task or a problem that worried you.  You may have even lost sleep over it.  And then when the task is over, assuming you succeeded, you feel light hearted and joyful.  You want to share your success with someone.

If you’ve helped with the garden project at Wymans you know there’s a little equipment shed at the top of the hill.  It’s a simple structure but creating it was tricky because zoning won’t allow for a building to be put there.  All of the equipment we use for the garden could be just left outside in the weather but I’m obsessive about keeping things inside.  I came up with the design for a structure to store the equipment but would be moveable, so it technically wouldn’t count as a building – at least as far as zoning regulations were concerned.  The question is, would it work?  Now that building isn’t complicated or expensive or heavy.  I shouldn’t have worried about it at all.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?  But I have to confess I lost more than one night’s sleep over the thing.  What if my design was flawed?  What if it couldn’t be moved once it was all put together?  What if it twisted and distorted into a pile of broken wood and bent metal?

Mark helped me when we loaded it onto the church’s wagon to move it to its final place.  My heart thudded every time the structure creaked and groaned while being loaded.  The wooden structure of the wagon bent under the load, but in short order it was loaded.  It moved, and moved well.  And when it came to tweaking it into the exact spot where we wanted it Mark and I discovered we could roll this 12ft. by 24ft. structure around by hand.  The idea had worked!  And when it was solidly on the ground I relaxed for the first time in days; the joy of seeing an idea succeed!

Perhaps this is too trite an example when compared to salvation, but the relief is the same.  You don’t want to have to figure out your own salvation.  You don’t want to have to build your value based on your own skill and brains and then just hope it will be good enough for God when you die.  That’s not salvation.  That’s torment.  No, you want to live in confidence.  You want to have the confidence that you can make mistakes and know that you’re still God’s.  You quit worrying about building and are able to just start enjoying.  Again, that is the root of real evangelism.

You’ve heard me say this before but it bears repeating.  God made you.  And God likes the work he did in your creation.  God delights to have you and is glad to save you.  Your relationship with God is not one where God just puts up with you the way you put up with annoying relatives at the Thanksgiving table.  No, God sees you as a guest he is excited to have.

Salvation is God’s work through and through, beginning to end.  How it works is beyond what our minds can comprehend.  But it is God’s mind that counts here, not ours.  And God will hold and keep us always.

September 17, 2017 Jacob’s Homeward Journey Genesis 32:1-33:17

I don’t know what your opinion of Jacob is but I don’t like him.  He lies.  He cheats.  He steals.  And he swindles.  While he gets caught from time to time he usually gets the better end of the deal and comes out on top.  At the beginning of today’s reading I consider Jacob to be a coward.  He’s heading home and at some point he’s going to have to face his brother.  You’ll remember well that the last time these two were together Esau avowed to kill Jacob.  After all, Jacob had swindled him in a pretty big way.  Now Jacob learns that Esau is coming out to meet him with 400 men.  Jacob could only imagine this to be an army. 

Should Jacob run away?  Where would he go?  He was already on the move away from his uncle Laban.  Jacob decides to send presents to his brother.  Perhaps these will placate Esau’s anger, and also Jacob can learn how Esau reacts.  If Esau destroys them violently Jacob knows he’s in trouble.  Do you see how Jacob is using other people and other things as a buffer around himself? 

Jacob prays to God asking for help.  It’s hard to know how sincere this prayer is.  It is definitely the prayer of a desperate man.  And then he does what I think is the most cowardly thing of all.  He separates himself from his wives and children and goes off by himself.  No one knows exactly what he meant to do with this.  It looks to me like a man who is running away.  Let Esau kill the wives and children and have all the stuff.  If he comes looking for Jacob among them, the most likely place to look, Jacob will be gone; total cowardice.

Jacob may be able to flee from Esau.  Jacob could not flee from God.  You simply can’t get away from God, as Jacob discovered.

The wrestling match between Jacob and this mysterious man, who we later learn is God, is about the most bizarre stories in the Bible.  It raises hosts of questions, most especially, how can it be that God can’t beat Jacob?  But I suggest you set a literal interpretation of this text aside if you can.  In the same way Adam and Eve aren’t intended to be seen as historical people neither do I think the equality in this wrestling match is to be taken literally.

There are two issues in play here, and that is where we are to focus.  First, God makes Jacob a down and desperate man.  To use terms of struggling with an addiction, Jacob hits rock bottom.  He’s in deep trouble.  All is lost.  There’s nowhere to turn.  There’s no one to help him, and there’s no one to blame but himself.

We all have struggles in life.  Sometimes we have to learn things the hard way.  I wouldn’t wish anyone to have to bottom out before they can begin to recover but sometimes it is that way.  And God takes Jacob there.  God completely takes away Jacob’s ability to fend for himself.  He will emerge from this wrestling match limping and injured.  Actually the text is probably using euphemisms here when it says the man struck Jacob on the hip socket.  A serious permanent injury, yes.  But you’ll remember from last week that Jacob was having lots of kids.  He’ll have one more, but that one’s already been conceived.  There will be no more.  This injury has probably caused sterilization for him.

Do you see how incredibly rock bottom Jacob has become? God has even had to take away a big part of his manhood.  Harsh; but when we the readers take a step back and consider all the deceptive schemes this man has been up to his whole life and the number of people he’s swindled, we realize he probably deserves it.

Before we move forward there is the second issue in play here.  Look carefully at the order of events in this wrestling match.  Jacob’s been wrestling with this man all night until daybreak.  He’s exhausted, and now he’s been crippled with a serious injury.  Does Jacob let go?  He has no hope of winning after all.  No.  He doesn’t.  He clings on.

Put yourself in the place of a Jew living in exile in Babylon in the sixth century B.C.  Your nation’s defeated.  Your capital city lies in ruins.  The temple, the house of God, the house where God has promised to dwell forever, has been destroyed.  You feel as beaten down and helpless as Jacob did.  Are you going to let go?  Are you going to give up on faith?  Are you going to say, “Well, I guess God’s promises weren’t real after all.  And perhaps there is no God at all.”  Indeed some Jews did feel that way.  But many did not.  Instead they clung on, and just like Jacob refusing to let go without a blessing so too did the Jews cling on to God and remind God of his promises:  You promised us a land.  You promised to dwell in the temple.  You promised an ancestor of David would be king.

Why couldn’t God truly beat Jacob in the story?  It is for the exact same reason that God remains bound by his promises.  God could have annihilated Jacob that night.  God could have had the Babylonians completely destroy the Jews for their sins.  But God had made promises.  And they were going to hang on and boldly hold God to those promises.

We often think of faith as a personal experience where we seek tranquility and peace.  It can be that way, and indeed it often is.  But it isn’t necessarily so.  Our Jewish faith ancestors knew that faith could resemble a wrestling match with God.  Each hurts the other, but neither ever lets go.

God wouldn’t let go of Jacob no matter how cowardly and disgusting his life was, and Jacob wouldn’t let go of God either.  That is true faith.

The next day Jacob faces his own problems for the first time in his life.  Alone, limping, emasculated… Jacob goes out in front of his wives and children and servants and many possessions to meet his brother.  He has no possibility whatsoever of defending himself.  What will come will come, and he’s going to have to take it like a doormat.

The story takes a startling turn.  Esau is not at all mad but rejoices to be reunited with his brother!  And there’s more.  Esau asks why Jacob had sent all the gifts.  Jacob says they were to find favor with him.  But Esau says, “I have enough my brother; keep what you have for yourself.”

Esau is not asking for anything, not even his birthright which Jacob swindled from him, and not even the blessing of their father which Jacob outright stole from him.  Esau doesn’t even ask for an apology.  Esau is kind, merciful and forgiving.  He embodies every virtue the Bible holds up.

That is one of the most bizarre story twists I’ve ever encountered.  You’ll remember that the Jews traced their ancestry to Jacob.  The nearby nation of the Edomites traced their ancestry to Esau.  The Jews hated the Edomites and the Edomites hated the Jews.  Yet here in Jewish scripture we find that Jacob, their ancestor, acts scandalously most of the time.  Esau, the ancestor of one of their enemies, embodies all virtue.

Jacob has had a long hard road.  He’s been a tough character.  But God never let go of him.  And Jacob wouldn’t let go of God either.  Though the story isn’t nice Jacob finally comes round to where God wants him to be.  It would be wrong to say, “And they all lived happily ever after,” because they didn’t.  We’re going to skip over most of the remaining chapters about Jacob’s life, but from here on out we find Jacob a more honest man.  It took a long time and a lot of pain for him to get there.

May we learn from Jacob’s mistakes and have the integrity and courage he shows without having to have a wrestling match with God.  But know that if necessary God will do what God needs to do to have you.  May we always cling to God with the same ferocity that God clings to us.

September 3, 2017 Jacob’s Vision Genesis 28:10-22

We pick the story of Jacob in Genesis exactly where we left off last week.  You may remember that Jacob has swindled his brother out of their father’s blessing.  This blessing wasn’t just some ordinary words like you’d find in a Hallmark card.  This blessing was to receive headship of the family, which was far more than just land or money.  It included the covenant that God made with Abraham.  You’ll remember God reinstated this covenant when it was passed on to Abraham’s son Isaac.  And now the covenant rested with Jacob.  This was a covenant about being a nation, God’s chosen people.  The people who would bear God’s name into the world.

How could Jacob have acquired for himself such a covenant by means of trickery and theft?  He and his mother had conspired to swindle it from Esau, its rightful recipient.  What makes it even more complicated is that we remember that Jacob and his mother are really only acting to bring about a word from God about Jacob and Esau before they were born.  They knew it was to be God’s will that Jacob got the blessing, not Esau.  They were merely acting to make it reality.

Last week I tried to show how puzzling this all was.  By what Genesis tells us Esau appears to be a hard-working, decent, upright sort of man.  Perhaps he’s a bit dim, but that’s hardly a fatal drawback.  On the other hand Jacob has a history of manipulation and exploitation.  Why would God choose treacherous Jacob over good Esau? 

I’ve been using four commentaries from four different biblical experts as we’ve been working our way through Genesis; trying to make sense of these difficult stories.  The experts seldom agree with one another, often outright refuting the other’s interpretation!  That’s okay.  The biblical texts are complex and speak in different ways to different times and places.  It is okay to interpret them differently.  But for some things we just want a bit more clarity.  With the whole Jacob and Esau situation we are left to realize that we have to let God be God.  God does things in God’s own way and in God’s own time.  Sometimes things make sense to us.  Sometimes they don’t, but we are encouraged to trust all the same.

Well, not surprisingly, Esau is livid when he finds out what Jacob has done.  He begins to plot to kill his brother because then all things will come back to him.  Of course killing someone is not something to consider lightly.  Who knows if Esau was just blowing off steam or if he was really planning to do it?  Whatever the case, Jacob realizes it is time to get out of town. 

Picture him.  He’s forty years old.  He has no spouse, no children, no money, no house.  He has only the clothes on his back.  Who knows what’s going on in his heart, but he certainly can’t feel good about the fact that he’s in this situation because he obtained a holy blessing through deceitful means.  He’s heading off for his uncle in Haran.  The distance from Beer-sheba to Haran is no short jaunt.  He’s not going to do this in an afternoon.  It’s about 500 miles.  On foot.  With nothing.

I think the Interpreter’s Bible Commentary sets it up nicely for us.  I want to read a few paragraphs from it:

“In the Genesis story Jacob was a wanderer; that is the first fact which makes his story so poignant for many a heart.  Men and women often feel themselves in spiritual exile – not pilgrims, for there is no clear quest before their eyes; but just poor, lonely travelers through what often seems an empty land.  They long for an experience like Jacob’s, to show that in the most desolate place there can be a shining something which bridges the gap between earth and heaven so that henceforth all the horizons of hope and trust are lifted and enlarged.  And the promise that lies in the story of Bethel becomes the more touching when it is remember that Jacob was not only a wanderer, but a guilty and burdened and remorseful one.  He had not deserved a vision of God.  But he needed it; and all his life in his groping and unworthy way he had desired it…

“Thus is was in beauty and benediction that the vision came to Jacob.  Notwithstanding all that he had done, communication between earth and heaven was not broken.  The Lord God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac – the God of his fathers and of all the inheritance of his home – was with him still, and would go with him on the way ahead.  In that experience of Jacob is expressed what the Hebrew people felt about their whole contradictory history: in the midst of ignorance and evil there is still the possibility of a saving revelation.  Even on the rocky slopes where Jacob was alone there rose the shining stairway that brought the heavenly glory, with angels going up like prayers of [humans] to God and angels coming down like the grace of God to [humans].  That vision epitomizes the whole wonder of the Hebrew faith and hope as they move through the Old Testament to their culmination in Christ.”  (Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Volume 1, Pg. 689-90)

This vision is the first recorded time that God has communicated directly with Jacob.  Who knows how Jacob felt about what he had done?  Perhaps he was afraid of what God would do to him because of his stealing the covenant position God had established with his ancestors.  Whatever the case, in the vision God verifies that he will indeed be with Jacob.  That includes all Jacob’s flaws and failings, and his successes too.

It would be great if when we return to Jacob next week we find him to be a reformed character; as if the vision had caused him to mend his ways and start walking the straight and narrow path.  We’ll discover that is not the case.  He’s heading to his mother’s brother, Uncle Laban.   We’ll discover that Laban and Rebekah are cut from the same cloth.  Laban will be conniving and deceitful with Jacob, and Jacob will continue to be conniving and deceitful himself; ultimately fleeing again when his deeds catch up to him. 

No, like an addict who can’t beat an addiction, Jacob’s ways won’t change for a long long time.  But we will read when he hits rock bottom, and when he does then he does change.  For now he knows that God is with him, and God will stay with him.

Perhaps you’ve always felt like you were a good person and that you deserved God’s blessings.  If that’s the case then the story of Jacob probably has little to teach you.  But if you are a person who’s made mistakes, and continued to make mistakes, and sometimes found bad things inside yourself that are absolutely unbeatable no matter how hard you try, then you can understand Jacob.

It would be great if God gave each of us a vision when we were down and desperate.  (Actually it would be great if God gave us visions before we got to that point!)  But I suspect few if any of us can truly claim such a thing.  God seems distant and silent.

But God is not.  God speaks to us in many and various ways all the time.  We have benefits Jacob did not have.  Jacob was all alone.  There was no church to go to, no synagogue, no community of likeminded believers he could turn to.  He had no Christ, no atoning sacrifice, no sacraments, and no scripture to turn to.  All of this was yet to be, for we are still in Genesis, the story of origins.  It is hard to be a trail blazer.  We cannot read our life situation onto Jacob.

Let’s conclude with the deal that Jacob makes with God, for Jacob is still a wheeler-dealer.  He makes a vow to God saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one tenth to you.”

This is the passage that gives root to the idea of tithing ten percent.  Jacob is not asking God for a lot – not prosperity or land or prestige – just food, clothing, and a peaceful return.  He acknowledges that what comes to him, by whatever means it comes, is coming from God.  This is actually a profound vow coming from this accomplished manipulator.  We too do well to recognize that even if we’ve acquired something by toil and hard work and the sweat of our brow, it is still coming from God.  Only God can create from nothingness.  I think blessings come to us all the time.  We just fool ourselves into thinking we’ve earned them, and thus we deserve them.  No, all things are God’s gifts.

We’ll leave Jacob there until next week when we see him starting to get into the business of women, wives, and children.  Not surprisingly that’s not going to go too well.  But until then we live in faith and hope and honoring the God who created us, loves us, and like Jacob, is always with us.  

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.