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Righteousness and Rewards

The Gospel for The Third Sunday in Lent this year is Luke 13:1-9. Jesus seems to give a non-answer to a very serious question about suffering.

Rabbi Harold Kushner's book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, was a best seller. In the book, the rabbi addresses the haunting question about the correlation between sin and suffering, about righteousness and rewards. Rabbi Kushner says it all has to do with luck. There is good luck and there is bad luck – neither of which is dependent upon a person's goodness or badness. There is a kind of randomness to life.

Jesus dealt with the question in an entirely different way. Some people came to him with serious questions about some Galileans whom Pilate's soldiers murdered while they were trying to offer their sacrifices at the Temple and some Jerusalemites who were minding their own business when there was an earthquake and the tower at Siloam fell on them. Why did they deserve such a fate?

And, Jesus wasn't very easy on them. He didn't take Rabbi Kushner's approach. He just said, "Do you think those Galileans or those Jerusalemites were any better or any worse than others? I tell you unless you repent you will all likewise perish." In today's climate, Jesus wouldn't win any awards in the pastoral care department. Today, we want explanations, answers that make sense to us and reassure us that we are o.k. Thousands perish of AIDS and famine in Africa, people are crushed in an earthquake in Haiti or Chile, floodwaters destroy people's homes, terrorists gun down innocent people in the streets. How can God be good and still allow bad things like these to inflict good people like us?

Jesus' own disciples asked him questions like that. "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus didn't deal with that question to my satisfaction either. He said, "neither. This man was born blind so that the glory of God might be revealed." Consistently, Jesus denies any direct correlation between the kind of person you are and what happens to you. God sends the sunshine and the rain on both the good and the bad.

Why did this happen to me? Probably, for no good reason. Bad things happen to the good and the bad all the time. The notion that only good things happen to good people was put to rest when they crucified Jesus. Now, this same Jesus takes our question and makes it cruciform: can you trust God – in joy or in pain – to be your God? Can you love God without linking your love to the cards life deals you?

God's love carries no promises about good or bad save the promise that God will not allow anything worse to happen to you than happened to his own Son.

Saint Augustine mused over the great suffering that occurred when the barbarians sacked Rome. He noted in his City of God that when the barbarians raped and pillaged, Christians suffered just as much as non-Christians. Faith in Christ did not make them immune to pain and tragedy. Augustine wrote, "Christians differ from Pagans, not in the ills which befall them but in what they do with the ills that befall them." The Christian faith does not give us a way around tragedy. It gives us a way through it!

What do we do with our neat little distinctions in a church where we think being nice is the way to salvation? God's sunshine and rain keep blurring them! And there is Jesus, standing before us with his non-answer to our question: "I tell you, unless you repent you will all likewise perish." So, on Sunday we come to the Lord's Table, and you are given, not answers, but bread and wine, which are for us nothing less than his broken body and spilled blood. This is the way God responds to our questions – not with answers that flatter us, or make the world simpler than it really is, but with his life given for us, that we might more fully give our lives to him. Are you holding out on God?

March 4, 2010
What do Christians mean when we use the word faith?
What do Christians mean when we use the word faith? Often, we are speaking of a set of beliefs or doctrines. But there is a more important meaning without which all our doctrines and words are empty.

That more important meaning has to do with hearing and responding to God when God reaches out to us, offering us a promise, wooing us, calling us into a living redemptive relationship. Scriptures for the Second Sunday in Lent this year reveal a pattern having to do with God's invitation into a covenant relationship and our response to it. It is a pattern duplicated in dozens of similar stories throughout the Bible. And, it is a pattern we can recognize in our own lives today. It goes like this:
- God calls, promising to use our lives for God's high purposes.
- The recipient of the call expresses fear, doubt, or anxiety.
- Then comes divine reassurance.
- Finally, there is a faithful response to the promise of God.
We see it in the life of Abraham and Sarah. We see it in the life of Moses. We see it in the life of Jeremiah. We see it in the life of Mary and Joseph. We see it in the Apostle Paul.

And, of course, we see it in the life of Jesus. In his baptism and on the mount of Transfiguration there is the call. In the wilderness there is the question and the divine reassurance that comes to him. Then, there is the faithful response.

When we meet Jesus in this Sunday's Gospel reading (Luke 13:31-35), he is ministering to people up in the Galilean territory. Some friendly Pharisees have come to warn him that the tetrarch of that region, Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, is out to get him. They urge him to leave the area. He gives them a response that is to Herod but also to God. "I will finish what I need to do here but then I am going on my way to Jerusalem where my work will be fulfilled." He does not let either the warning of his friends or the threat of his foe deter him from what God has called him to do and the promise which lies before him.

In his book, Living Faith While Holding Doubts, Martin B. Copenhaver writes, "There are times when we must make a 100% commitment to something about which we are only 51% certain" (Pilgrim Press: Cleveland, OH, 1989).

But let's be clear about something. Faith, in this sense, is not a momentary phenomenon, an act at one point in time. Faith is a long-term trust, a committed, continuous response to the promises of God. Out of real doubts and deep questions, Abram ventures forth with God. The venturing forth does not erase those doubts and questions. Rather, he gathers up his doubts and stumbles on behind God into a future on the basis of nothing but the promise. This is what we Christians mean when we say, "faith."

John Dillenberger says that in Christianity, the term faith refers to the "dynamic and vital stance of the believer's dependence on God…faith is a living confidence and trust in God in the experience of knowing God's gracious presence as manifest in Christ…a reality that one would not have unearthed by oneself but that has come to be present as a sort of miracle, a happening that encompasses but does not seem to be dependent either on one's seeking or on fleeing the divine (A New Handbook of Christian Theology, Nashville: Abingdon, 1992, p.182).

God promised Abraham that he would be a blessing to all the people of the earth and that the promise would be extended to his descendants forever. The old Rabbis used to teach that when God promised Abraham that his descendants would be like the dust, he was referring not only to numbers but to the fact that they would outlast those who trampled upon them. St. Paul tells us that all who trust God the way Abraham did are his descendants, not just those who have his genes. Jesus shows us that the way of the cross is the way of faith. God's promise of a relationship, a peace surpassing understanding, a permanent place at the banquet table of our heavenly Father, is absolutely dependable.

When God calls to you, how do you answer? With doubts, anxieties, fears? You are not alone! But can you listen beyond them to God's reassuring voice, calling you to trust God to lead you through them, perhaps even to use those obstacles to faith as bridges into the future where he is trying to get you to go with him? Can you say, I'm 51% sure, Lord, but I'll trust you with the other 49%? If you can, you are not far from the kingdom of God.
February 25, 2010
What’s that strange ceremony all about?

The covenant narrative found in Genesis 15:1-18 gives us a rare glimpse into some of the liturgical practices of the ancient patriarchs and an insight into how they understood their relationship to God. The story describing a covenant and the ceremony that sealed it was passed down through oral tradition for several generations before it was written in the form we read today.

The story begins with a visit from the LORD to Abram. The patriarch's name has not yet been changed to Abraham. The encounter is set in the context of a vision and later a deep sleep. The LORD tells Abram that he is favored and will receive a great reward. Abram is concerned because he does not have a natural heir. Nevertheless, the LORD promises Abram that he will not remain childless and that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars.

Abram trusted God's promises ("believed the LORD") and because of that he was considered to be in a right relationship with the LORD ("righteous"). St. Paul later uses Abram as an example in his explanation of "justification by faith" in Romans 4:3. In fact, for Paul, Abraham is the paradigm of justification.

The verses that follow deal, not with sacrifice, but with an obscure covenant ceremony called the "cutting of the covenant." Animals were killed and their carcasses were split in half. The person or persons involved in the ritual would walk between them and curses were called down if the covenant was not honored. The images of a flaming torch and a smoking fire pot are symbols of the divine presence, reinforcing the belief that the LORD was confirming the covenant.

God always initiates the covenant and our role is one of response. A covenant differs from a contract in that both parties to a covenant are bound to uphold their promises even if the other party does not. the story of the People of God is the story of God's faithfulness in the face of our unfaithfulness. Instead of cursing us, God comes to us and calls us back into a right and just relationship.

Ultimately, God's most profound act was to make covenant with the world through Jesus, though St. Paul makes it clear in Romans 9-11 that the new covenant does not take the place of the old one – it expands it. The Abrahamic Covenant was initiated for the benefit of Abraham and his descendants, who would be used by God to bring blessings to others. It is still valid. "For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable" (Romans 11:29). The Christ Covenant was initiated for the world world and for all people, including you and me.

We don't carve up animals and pass through the carcasses with smoking fire pot and flaming torch. Instead, the covenant ceremony for us is Holy Baptism, in which we are joined to Christ in his death and resurrection, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and "marked as Christ's own for ever."

February 25, 2010
In this day and age, is gluttony still a sin?

Sarah Henning, the Features Editor for the Lawrence Journal-World, asked me to respond to a question for "Faith Forum," which is a weekly Saturday column in which two local religious figures share their views on a topic. The topic for this week is "In this day and age, is gluttony still a sin?" I suppose the question is related to the season of Lent. Here is my response:

If sin is seeking our own will instead of God’s will, thereby distorting our relationship with God, others, and creation itself, and gluttony is overconsumption of the gifts God provides, then in light of what we now know about the impacts of overconsumption, there is more reason than ever to consider gluttony a sin.

The biblical revelation makes us conscious that we were intended to have a dynamic relationship with our Creator. The privilege of stewardship is a vocation given to no other creature. Caring for creation involves consideration for the needs of others. When my overconsumption (gluttony) results in a shortage of the necessities of life for others whom God also created and loves, my relationship with God, other people, and creation is distorted.

As much as 64% of the adult U.S. population is overweight. One-third are obese. The chief causes are simple: eating more food than the body needs, drinking too much alcohol, and getting too little exercise. The impact on healthcare alone is startling. Studies indicate that increases in the prevalence of obesity in the U.S. accounts for 12% of the growth in health spending.

Our appetites are enormous in a world where people are starving. The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed, and one-third is starving. During the time you’ve been reading this, at least 200 people have died of starvation. Over 4 million will die this year.

This condition is a distortion of God’s vision. To live my life in a gluttonous way contributes to the perpetuation of the distortion. So, yes, gluttony is still a sin. Since I’m 20 lb. overweight, I’m among the sinners and need to repent. Better stewardship of the body God has given me expresses love for God and for my neighbor.

P.S. The following sources were helpful to me in preparing my response and I commend them to others who are exploring the relationship between gluttony, obesity, and world hunger.

Obesity in America

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

An End to World Hunger: Hope for the Future

World Health Organization: Millennium Development Goals

February 18, 2010
Congratulations! Keep moving.

The official feast day for the Transfiguration of Our Lord is August 6. Since it is normally not on a Sunday, it doesn't get much attention. However, the planners of the Sunday lectionary have placed the Transfiguration on the Last Sunday After the Epiphany each year. You can read Luke's account here.

Peter, James, and John were with Jesus on the mountaintop when they saw this itinerant rabbi in a whole new light. It was one of the most powerful and numinous of all the manifestations of Jesus as the Messiah. They heard the voice of God confirming the divine nature and mission of the Only Begotten.

The appearance of Moses the Lawgiver and Elijah the Prophet assure us that Jesus was the One who had come to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. It was as if Moses and Elijah were passing their ministries on to Jesus the Messiah for him to complete.

Peter's suggestion that they build dwellings and take up residence in the experience reminds us of our tendency to want to stop the procession. When something wonderful happens, we feel as if it can't get any better than this and we want to preserve everything just the way it is. But Jesus had to come down from the mountain, respond to human need, and face the cross. Mountaintop experiences have their place. But there is always more to be done in the mission to which we are called.

I once heard about a university commencement in which the president's lapel microphone remained on as he was presenting the diplomas to the graduates, broadcasting his voice as he said to each one of them, "Congratulations! Keep moving."

Perhaps that is a message for us when we have an epiphany, a mountaintop experience. It is an important and wonderful thing, but not an end in itself. We draw inspiration and derive courage from it and we keep moving toward new opportunities God is preparing for us to walk in. "Congratulations! Keep moving."

February 11, 2010
Networking

Next Sunday's gospel is Luke 5:1-11. It is the story of Jesus' encounter with Simon, James, and John on the shore of Lake Gennesaret (the Sea of Galilee). You might want to read the story here to refresh your memory of their miraculous catch of fish and how Jesus told them they would be catching people.

The Greek word zogron, which means "catching," was commonly used of teachers: they "caught" their students and brought them new life. At dinner one evening, my wife, Gay, who is a high school English teacher, was talking about a new data projector she had been issued by her school. She explained how she can project a movie on an entire classroom wall for the students to watch and she described their response to a movie she wanted them to see. One of our dinner companions exclaimed, "You caught them!" That is what Jesus means when he says to Simon, James, and John, "don't be afraid; from now on you will be catching people."

The sense in which the followers of Jesus are called to "catch" people has to do with inclusion in a redemptive, prophetic, community of faith. We are woven into a network. Someone has said, "Christianity is more easily caught than taught." Another person expressed it like this, "We belong before we believe." Our life and witness as disciples, students, followers of Jesus Christ is not done in isolation either from Jesus or from the community of faith.

The First Baptist Church of Austin, Texas is remarkable for its progressive faith and its architecture. It is one of the few Southern Baptist Churches with the pulpit on the side instead of in the center. A large communion table sits in the center, surrounded by seats. Rising above the table in a recessed area are about four stories of organ pipes. And draped in the opening in front of the pipes are two enormous fish nets. I don't know that I've ever seen a more powerful reminder of the network of disciples Jesus has called to carry on his work in the world.

As we live and grow in our relationship with him and with one another, we are woven into this amazingly strong and reliable net that the Lover of our souls casts out into the world so that his love manifested among us may catch others, draw them in, and give them life. This net really works!

February 4, 2010
Sermon for January 31, 2010

Here is my sermon for January 31, 2010, The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany:

Audio

Text

January 31, 2010
Stephen’s Seven Effective Ways to Follow God’s Call

Last Sunday, our friend Deacon Stephen L. Segebrecht preached a fine sermon about following the call of God. The entire text of the sermon can be downloaded from here. Included in his sermon was an illustration involving a tigress and some piglets along with a list of seven effective ways to follow God's call. I commend these seven principles and the sermon for your own reflections.

Stephen’s Seven Effective Ways to Follow God’s Call

One ~ We have to put on the clothes of those we serve.
Two ~ We strive for the greatest gift that we have to offer God at any given time.
Three ~ Often we are led to do something we normally wouldn’t do.
Four ~ Service is done with a sense of affection or attachment.
Five ~ Our call to service can have an effect on others that we never expected.
Six ~ Our ministry seems to change with time.
Seven ~ When we give of ourselves and serve Christ in others, we too are nourished.

January 28, 2010
Do prayers really help?

We've been asked to pray for those who are suffering in Haiti and those who have gone to their aid. People have been praying for a member of our parish who is a Haitian student living in Lawrence. A mother came by the office yesterday to place her daughter's name on the prayer list because she has gone to Haiti to help out in the relief effort.

Do our prayers really help?

The following message from former Presiding Bishop Ed Browning speaks to this question.

"Almighty God, you have promised to hear the petitions of those who ask in your Son's Name…" (For the answering of prayer, BCP p. 834)

Some researcher somewhere has determined that people who pray, or who have people praying for them, have such-and-such better chance of recovery from gallstones than people who don't. Good. I often pray that sick people will get well.

But I also pray for many people who don't get better. If my prayers do not turn these things into the releases and healings for which I long, does that mean they've failed? Does it mean I didn't pray right? Didn't pray hard enough? Only if the narrow test of immediate historical change is the only test of prayer's efficacy. If the only useful prayer is a prayer that works right here and right now, in just the way I want it to work, we're in trouble.

Prayer is not a way to get around human sorrow, a special incantation that produces a desired result God would otherwise withhold from us. It is a thread of holy energy that binds us together. It enables the communion of my soul with the souls of others, whether I know them or not. "I could feel myself lifted by all the prayers," someone will often tell me after a serious illness. Get enough of these holy threads wrapped around a person, and she will feel them, quite apart from the issue of whether or not she gets what she wants.

– From A Year of Days with the Book of Common Prayer by Bishop Edmond Lee Browning.

May God use our prayers as a "thread of holy energy that binds us together" with one another and all those for whom we offer prayers!

January 21, 2010
Presiding Bishop’s Sermon at Haiti Prayer Service

The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church delivered the sermon this evening at the Washington National Cathedral prayer service for Haiti. The links below will take you to the video and to the text of her sermon. You may need to download a Microsoft application in order to view the video, but if you do, it will come in handy anytime you want to watch a video from the Washington Cathedral.

Video of Presiding Bishop's Sermon

Download Text of Presiding Bishop's Sermon

January 17, 2010