Moscow First United Methodist Church
Worshiping, Supporting, Renewing
By Pastor Sue Ostrom
unless otherwise indicated
November 16, 2008
Judges 4:1-9
Bold Faith
For months now, the name Barack has dominated the news.
It was with a sense of irony then, that a couple of weeks before the
election, I first read our lesson today from the Book of Judges and there,
once again, was the name Barak.
I want to be clear that they are two completely different people, as
distinct, for example, as John McCain and John the Baptist,
As far as I know, Mr. Obama’s name has no relationship to the
biblical character. Today when I
talk about Barak I mean the person from Judges.
Period.
This Barak was the commander of the Israelite army.
He led a force of 10,000 soldiers. It seems fair to assume that he
was a strong leader, a courageous man whom others looked up to.
A person doesn’t get to be a general, after all, by sitting at home
with his head under the pillows.
Barak is a good guy. He
believes in God and is doing his best to keep
Israel
strong and secure.
Barak is a person of average faith.
He’s no villain, no heretic, no unbeliever.
Neither, however, is he a shining star, a hero of the faith.
He is just an ordinary, every day believer who is facing the trials
of life as they come to him and trying to figure out where God is in all of
it.
The nation of
Israel
had crossed over into the
land
of
Canaan,
the Promised Land they had spent forty years waiting for.
The only problem with settling into
Canaan
was, well, the Canaanites. God
may have promised this land to Israel but no one, God included, had told
that to the Canaanites.
Furthermore, they worshiped other gods which were sorely tempting to
Israel.
So God told
Israel
to rid the land of all other peoples.
It would keep their faith pure and ultimately make them more secure.
In our day and time such extreme steps seem offensive.
After all, don’t the Palestinians deserve a homeland too?
We shudder at the treatment of Native Americans during the westward
expansion of this country. The
conquest of
Canaan,
as the Israelites settling into the Promised Land is called, seems no
better. Holy wars, then or now,
can easily be used to justify inhumane actions.
There are no easy answers here.
Our understandings of fair play and cross cultural relationships have
changed in the millennia since this story was first told and put in the
Bible. One of the dangers in
interpreting the Bible literally is that it does not take into account the
cross cultural nature of Biblical study and faith itself.
God is eternal and unchanging, but human understandings of God have
evolved over time.
That said, I think there are some truths here for us to learn.
One of the ironies for
Israel
is that their very attempt to guarantee security by forming an alliance with
Canaan
became a source of ongoing insecurity for them. It was for this very reason
that Barak faced a real crisis.
Israel
is still at war. Like the
diabetic who gets rid of all the Halloween candy but keeps a stash of M&M’s
hidden in her desk drawer in case of a low blood sugar and therefore has a
high blood sugar, so the temptation to worship the Canaanite gods was too
great for
Israel.
Alliance
with other nations compromised security rather than guaranteeing it.
In the midst of all this, our reading today gives us a picture of
Barak’s average faith. Judge
Deborah tells him how to lay a trap for General Sisera from the Canaanite
army. Barak says to Deborah, “OK
fine, but I won’t go without you.”
Barak’s average faith needs Deborah to bolster it.
The world is filled with Barak’s.
The church is filled with Barak’s, with Joe and Jane Christian, good
people, believers in God who are kind and caring, honest and responsible. We
go to church, say our prayers, lend helping hands to our neighbors and give
generously to help with a disaster that strikes half way across the globe.
We are even strong leaders whom others look up to.
We’re on God’s side. Very
often, however, we look for other people to take the initiative.
Like Barak, we say, “If you will go with me, I will go; but if you
will not go with me, I will not go.”
It is so much easier to go on a mission trip that someone else has
planned than it is to start the whole thing myself.
Safer to send money off to the Shalom Zone to help homeless people
than to take a homeless person to lunch with me.
I’ll support the good work other people do, just don’t ask me, God,
to begin such a ministry. Oh
yes, I am a Barak, a person of average faith, Jane Christian.
Fortunately for Barak, there was Deborah, whose bold faith bolstered
his average faith. Deborah was a
judge in
Israel.
Judges at that time did not preside over courts of law like judges do
today. Rather they were short
term military leaders whom God raised up to get
Israel
out of a crisis. Once the crisis
was resolved, judges went back to their ordinary lives.
Deborah stands out from these others servants of God because she is
the only woman listed. She is
evidence that women even then served God in many ways.
Unlike Barak, Deborah does not hesitate to act, heedless of her own
security and reputation. “I will
surely go with you,” she assures Barak.
They summon the other officers and all the troops and head off to the
battlefield, where the Canaanites have the latest technology and, one would
guess, the best chances. But God
throws the Canaanites into a panic and
Israel
emerges triumphant.
Deborah’s bold faith goes beyond belief to action.
She tells Barak what he is to do and then accompanies him as he does
it. Action then transforms her
belief as she sees God in new ways.
Fortunately for those of us Joe and Jane Christians, there are
Deborah’s in our world. One
crisis of our day comes not so much on the battlefield as it does in the
market place. It rises up for us
when quarterly statements arrive from our investment firms or the University
institutes a hiring pause. Like
Israel,
the very things we have trusted in for our security become for us sources of
insecurity. That beautiful new
house paid for with a flexible rate mortgage is now worth less than it was
when you moved in. The last
several years of his working career, my brother put a major percentage of
his pay check into his retirement fund. “That was money down the hole,” he
said to me the other day, shortly after he retired.
People who have depended on stock dividends to pay the fuel bill find
there are no dividends.
Thank goodness for the Deborah’s in our lives who teach us that
security is found in giving not getting.
Nobuko Kajitani worked as a textile conservator at the
New
York
Metropolitan
Museum
of Art. She lived modestly.
Two years after her retirement, she stunned the
Manhattan
Asian Cultural Council by pledging to them $1 million.
They had aided her work with an $8000 grant a number of years before.
Her gift represented the bulk of her estate.
She is a Deborah who leads the way forward in faith through her
generosity and vision. According
to the Spokesman Review, she is just one of a number of ordinary people from
modest backgrounds who are making “stretch” donations which are not only
generous but impact their own standards of living.
They dig deeply into the security they might otherwise be expected to
find in their savings. Thanks be to God for Deborah’s in our time whose bold
faith bolsters our average faith.
November 9, 2008
Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
Standing at Shechem
I’ve always loved stories about the settlers who packed their
Conestoga wagons and headed west to start new lives.
Most of them have people leaving from
Missouri
and traveling across the
Dakotas.
At the start, many people didn’t know whether they would head to
California
or to the
Oregon
Territory.
The decision point came at Fort Hall, in what we know now as
Pocatello.
According to Wickepedia it was there that the two trails diverged.
At Fort Hall they had to choose one way or the other.
Our reading today from the Book of Joshua tells of another decision
point, this one for the people of
Israel.
They had followed Moses out of
Egypt
and wandered in the wilderness for forty years.
The reins of leadership had passed from Moses to Joshua, who had led
them across the
Jordan River
to the Promised Land. That land
was not empty, however, so they had to fight with the various peoples who
occupied it. There must have
been many deciding points along the way, but today’s reading marks a special
one. Like the settlers at Fort
Hall at last choosing to go either north or south, the people of
Israel
had to decide one way or the other.
Their deciding point was at a place called Shechem.
As is so often the case, it is a place with a lot of history.
Centuries before, the old patriarch, Abraham, heard God call to him
at Shechem. God had already told
Abraham to leave all that was familiar and go to a new land where God would
bless him that he might be a blessing.
Abraham had done so and on his way passed through Shechem.
“To your offspring I will give this land,” God had told him, though
Abraham was childless at that point.
Abraham built an altar there to mark God’s appearance to him.
Many years after that, Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, also passed through
Shechem. He did so after he had
wrestled with an angel and reconciled with his brother, Esau, whom Jacob had
cheated twice. Jacob bought a
small piece of land there which ended up becoming the burial plot for his
son, Joseph.
So now, many generations later, the people of
Israel
come again to Shechem. They have
conquered the
land
of
Canaan,
which is at last to be their home.
Now is the hour when they must choose.
And the choice? Joshua
lays it before them in the starkest of terms.
“Choose this day whom you will serve,” he says, “whether the gods our
ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites
in whose land you are now living.”
Shechem is the deciding place in part because as
Israel
claims this new land there will be other gods.
The Canaanites worshiped fertility gods who were supposed to
guarantee abundant crops and healthy children.
These gods were in many ways the newest technology.
As a farmer today listens to the advice of the extension agent about
how to get the best yields on wheat, or parents pay heed to their
pediatrician’s suggestions, so
Israel
noticed the local forms of worship.
In addition to being the latest technology, worship of the local gods
offered
Israel
a chance to fit in with the crowd.
Israel
may have been the conqueror but she still had to get along with the people
who were already there. When in
Canaan,
do as the Canaanites do.
Furthermore, the Canaanite gods did not demand exclusive worship.
Most peoples believed in more than one god. While a person might
focus on one god in particular, it was normal to also recognize the power of
other gods. Why not do it all –
worship YHWH, the God who had brought them out of
Egypt
AND worship the local fertility gods, just to cover all the bases.
Except, as Joshua reminded them, “You cannot serve the LORD, for he
is a holy God. He is a jealous
God.” One of the basic creeds of
Judaism is, “The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.” No polytheism, or worship
of many gods. The covenant
Abraham had made was with a monotheistic God, with one God.
YHWH will not tolerate idolatry or worship of other gods, demanding
instead that the people be fully engaged with him and reflect his purity.
So Joshua told them, “You can’t have it both ways.
Either you will serve YHWH or you’ll serve the local gods.
Choose this day whom you will serve.
I believe that today we are standing at another Shechem.
In our case it is not a geographical place like Shechem or Fort Hall.
Our Shechem comes in the headlines of the news, in reports from our
stock brokers, and in foreclosure notices.
The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression nearly eighty
years ago takes us to a Shechem, a major turning point in our lives and our
faith.
I am no economist. It
seems clear to me, however, that one of the reasons we are in this crisis
today is because of the greed and consumerism which have characterized our
society for so many years. We
have worshiped at the altars of easy credit that allowed us to live beyond
our means. Increasingly smaller
families live in increasingly larger houses.
We have more gadgets and toys.
We have knelt before the gods of pleasure with what we call
affordable luxuries like $4 lattes every morning.
Now we are discovering those little luxuries aren’t so affordable.
That $4 latte five days a week amounts to $1000 a year.
That’s real money. We
have bowed down before the gods of a material culture which defines our
worth by the stuff we have, even as we carry the charges on our credit cards
for months.
Now we find ourselves at Shechem.
Choose this day whom you will serve: the gods who entice us from four
color ads to keep up with the Jones’s, or the God who frees us from
possessions that possess us. The
God of Jesus Christ is a holy God, even a jealous God.
Jesus noted that we cannot serve both God and money.
If we do indeed choose this day to serve the LORD then we must be
willing to lead simpler lives. I
know that’s easy for me to say when I still get a paycheck every month and
go home each night to a warm and comfortable house.
It is a lot harder for those of you who were depending on your stock
dividends to pay for groceries or whose jobs were tied to the housing market
and now look precarious. Some
people’s Shechems are more obvious and painful than others.
Twenty-five years ago, in the midst of another recession, a woman
named Cynthia Hollander wrote a Newsweek essay entitled, “Thanks for the
Recession.” She told how her
family had to sell their house and do without a number of the things they
had come to enjoy. She said,
“Through our economic crisis we discovered that you can lower your standard
of living and be happy – probably happier than you are now.”
She came to Shechem and made her choice.
Choose this day whom you will serve.
If we say, “let us serve the LORD,” then let charity and compassion
rule our hearts. Donations of
toiletries for the Shalom Zone or bags of pasta for the food bank are a good
start. Inviting a homeless
person to have lunch with you or becoming a foster parent to a troubled
child is even better.
Choose this day whom you will serve.
If we say, “We will serve the LORD,” let us shed our attachment to
our stuff and place God at the center of our lives.
Choose this day whom you will serve.
If we say, “We will serve the LORD,” let us turn from the gods of
pleasure and personal satisfaction to offer our very selves at the foot of
the cross.
We stand today at Shechem.
Choose this day whom you will serve.
November 2, 2008
Joshua 3:7-17
Crossing Over
The city of
Aberdeen,
WA is built on the edges of Gray’s Harbor, and along the banks of the
Chehalis, Wishkah, and
Hoquiam
Rivers.
This means that getting from one side of town to the other or to the
neighboring towns of Hoquiam and Cosmopolis necessitates crossing some body
of water. Two of the bridges are
drawbridges. Because boats take longer to slow down than cars, river traffic
always has the right of way. Up
goes a bridge and traffic backs up behind it until the boat has passed.
Every once in a while, one of the draw bridges gets stuck in the “up”
position, which further delays the road traffic.
People in town have learned to keep books in their cars to read as
they sit waiting for the bridge to come down.
When late to a meeting, a good excuse is always, “I got bridged.”
Crossing over is not automatic or easy.
In our reading today from the Book of Joshua, the Hebrew people
prepare to cross over the
Jordan River
into the Promised Land. This is
a momentous event for them. They
have waited for this moment for 40 years.
Moses had led them out of slavery in
Egypt
with the promise that God would provide them a land so fertile and
productive that it would flow with milk and honey.
They wandered in the desert for all those years, not because it was
all that far, but because it took them a long time to learn to trust and
obey God. They got bridged
because of their own stubbornness and sin.
By the time they reach the
Jordan River
most of the people who had originally left
Egypt
had died. It is the next
generation will cross over. Even
Moses himself was only allowed to look over into the Promised Land before he
died, but he could not go there himself.
A new leader, Joshua, will lead them on this final phase of their
journey. Crossing over marks for
them passage from a life of wandering to becoming a landed people.
In a few moments, we will read the Honor Roll of Saints.
These are the names of those blessed people from this congregation or
our families who have died in the last 12 months.
They have crossed over from this life to eternal life.
Some of them got bridged along the way.
“I didn’t know it would take so long to die!” Vivian Hofmann
complained a couple of days before her death.
Ina Probasco spent the last two years of her life disappointed every
time she woke up and realized she was not dead.
Others crossed over before they were ready.
Today we honor their memory and give thanks for the models of faith
and life they present to us.
Death may be the last, but it is not the only crossing over in a life
of faith. As a people the
Hebrews had crossed over the
Red
Sea.
After a long battle of wills, the Pharaoh had at last allowed the
Hebrews to leave
Egypt.
Once they were gone, however, Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his
army after them. The Hebrews
were caught between the approaching army on the one side and the
Red
Sea on the other.
God opened a path through the sea and they crossed over on dry
ground.
Our saints made many crossings in their lives: coming to faith in
Christ, marriage and children, careers and retirement, grief and loss, and
learning to follow God’s lead in the best and worst of times.
Some of the crossings were easy and joyful, others were scary and
challenging. Along the way, they
sometimes got bridged and weren’t sure how to cross at all.
The same thing is true in each of our lives.
Like the Hebrews, we may get bridged by our own stubbornness and
refusal to listen for God’s leading.
We may get bridged when one door in life closes for no apparent
reason. Most of today’s saints
lived through the Great Depression and WWII.
Now it looks as if we too will live not only through the war on
terrorism but another great financial crisis.
As the Hebrew people prepared to cross over into the Promised Land,
priests carrying the ark of the covenant went before them.
The ark of the covenant contained the 10 Commandments and represented
God’s presence. As soon as those
priests stepped into the
Jordan River
the waters stopped flowing. The
priests stood on the banks of what used to be the river until the entire
nation finished crossing over.
The saints we honor today are the ones now standing at the river bank
holding back the waters so that we too can cross over.
We cross over not only into eternal life when our turns come, but we
cross over into the faith that will carry us through financial crisis, war,
loss and grief in whatever forms they present themselves.
As we approach the river, let us listen to the lessons they have to
teach us.
“Draw near and hear the words of the Lord your God,” Joshua told the
Hebrew people. Whether it was
morning devotions at
Good
Samaritan
Village,
participation in a Bible Study class, or Sunday worship, our saints listened
for the words of God in their lives.
Crossing over the flood of an economy in turmoil or the wilderness of
years of waiting for a promise to come true, let us too listen for the words
of our God. They come to us in
the words of the Bible. They
come to us also in the wisdom of a friend and the glory of fall leaves
glowing golden in the sun. They
tell us that God goes before us in all our crossings and promises life
abundant.
God sent an east wind to blow a path through the
Red
Sea
and by the ark of the covenant stopped the waters of the
Jordan
from flowing. In both cases, the
people still had to risk crossing over.
It must have been scary to walk through the tunnel in the water, but
they did it. So too each of our
saints dared multiple crossings in their lives.
They went to new places and dared new loves.
The third lesson about crossing over which comes to us from our
reading today and from the lives of our saints is that it is a community
crossing. The priests carrying
the ark of the covenant stayed in position until the entire nation had
crossed over. Estel Summerfield,
who died last spring a few months shy of her 100th birthday,
resisted death because she did not want to leave her family.
Mildred Prater, on the other hand, looked forward to the reunion with
her beloved Louie which death would bring.
Vivian Hofmann stayed interested in people until her last hours.
All of them in one form or another knew that the community of faith
must participate in crossing over, whether it was into eternal life or one
of the other passages of life.
So today as we anticipate the various crossings which come our way, let us
join with these saints of the faith.
They stand at the rivers’ edge holding back the waters.
They lead us forward, giving us courage in difficult times. They
teach us to listen for God. Let
us give thanks for the witness and strength of our saints.
October 26, 2008
Deuteronomy 34:10-12
I Thessalonians 2:1-8
Six Habits of
Highly Effective Spiritual Leaders
As our nation prepares for the elections, the issue of leadership is
before us. The candidates each
do their best to convince us that they have the best qualifications for
leading us through the immense challenges before us – and that their
opponents lack the necessary skills and traits.
God bless us all as we make our choices.
Today’s Scripture lessons talk about leadership in another capacity:
spiritual leadership. Moses’
obituary in the book of Deuteronomy, and Paul’s words to the church in
Thessalonica address spiritual leadership, not just of clergy or other
representative spiritual leadership, but of all believers.
A friend of mine once told the story of his mother’s memorial service
and his appreciation of the prayer offered by his developmentally delayed
brother. It was a form of
spiritual leadership by someone not usually seen in that role.
Whether it is in the family, one’s job, as a member of the community,
or as a member of a church, all believers are leaders in some way.
With apologies then to Steven Covey, let us consider six habits of
highly effective spiritual leaders.
The first habit is to know God intimately.
Summing up Moses’ life, the Book of Deuteronomy says, “Never since
has there arisen a prophet in
Israel
like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.”
I think we could fairly turn that around to say that Moses knew God
face to face. From the moment
when God first called to Moses from a burning bush to Moses’ receipt of the
Ten Commandments from the hand of God, Moses spent time with God and knew
God.
The Apostle Paul got knocked off his feet by Jesus’ voice as Paul
traveled to
Damascus
to get authorization to put Christians in jail. From that day forward, Paul
knew Jesus as his daily companion and Sovereign guide.
Some of you know Gerry Hagedorn, a longtime member of this church who
now lives at
Good
Samaritan
Village
and doesn’t get out much. Every
time I visit Gerry, he speaks with love and appreciation of his mother,
Elizabeth. She taught Gerry to
know God intimately by bringing him to church, praying with him, and working
in the church herself. She
taught Gerry to recognize God’s glory all around him.
Many of us can point to other highly effective spiritual leaders in
our lives who taught us to love God.
“Our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or
trickery,” Paul wrote to the Thessalonians.
“You have sinned a great sin!” Moses chastised the Israelites.
The second habit of highly effective spiritual leaders is honesty
about their own motives and a lack of hesitation to confront other people
with their mistakes. ImoGene
Rush tells the story of a particular
pastor
with whom she was unhappy. She
grumbled about him to several people, until finally Evangeline Johnson
(Robert Pope’s grandmother) took ImoGene aside.
“If you have a problem, do something about it!” she said.
Mrs. Johnson’s highly effective spiritual leadership taught ImoGene
to deal with a problem directly rather than to complain about it behind the
scenes.
“We had already suffered and been shamefully mistreated,” Paul said
to the Thessalonians. Elsewhere
he numbers his beatings, shipwrecks and the other calamities he encountered
in his travels to preach about Jesus.
None of them stopped him.
The third habit of highly effective spiritual leadership is persistence in
the face of struggle. Moses too
kept on going when Pharaoh changed his mind again and again about letting
the Hebrews leave
Egypt.
He continued to guide the Hebrews when they complained, whined,
sinned, and balked. Mother
Teresa was a beacon of faith to many.
Last year a book was published that contained decades of her letters,
journal entries and other writings.
They revealed her struggles.
It took years for her to gain permission to start the Missionaries of
Charity. As a young woman she
had felt the presence of Christ nearly tangibly, but for most of her adult
life she felt only darkness.
Through it all she stayed faithful to God and obedient to her calling.
Few can doubt the effectiveness of her spiritual leadership.
The fourth habit of highly effective spiritual leadership is team
work. Moses learned from his
father-in-law to delegate the administration of the law to able people who
could share the load. Paul
nearly always traveled with at least one other person, usually Timothy or
Silas. Among the many joys of
ministry here at
First
United
Methodist
Church
are our incredibly strong committees.
Whether it is coming up with a realistic and yet visionary budget in
these tough financial times, planning Vacation Bible School, working through
a difficult staff issue, or supporting local and global missions, our
committees work well. Their
leaders turn tasks over to committee members so many people contribute their
skills to the task. Because of
the gifts and work of all these people, our ministry is effective.
“We were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own
children,” Paul says of his own ministry.
The fifth habit of highly effective spiritual leadership is
gentleness. Elizabeth Hagedorn
kept the cradle roll and taught the youngest Sunday School children for
years. Often the strongest
pillars of the church are found in the nursery, rocking babies or playing
patty cake with toddlers.
Gentleness extends to more than small children.
I think of the husband tenderly caring for his wife whose dementia
has progressed to the point she no longer knows him, or the high school
guidance counselor listening intently to a troubled youth.
Gentleness is a habit, or maybe it’s better said, a characteristic of
highly effective spiritual leaders.
Paul wrote, “We speak, not to please mortals but to please God who
tests our hearts.” Moses stood
before Pharaoh, the most powerful person on earth at that time, and
demanded, “Let my people go!” as God had directed him.
The sixth habit of highly effective spiritual leaders is to aim
always at pleasing God, even when that means not pleasing people.
In Letter From a Birmingham
Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote to a group of clergymen who had
criticized his protests. He
said, “One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just
laws. Conversely, one has a
moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.
I would agree with
St.
Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.’”
King sought to please God not human beings.
In the end he paid with his life.
He lived and died by the sixth habit of highly effective spiritual
leaders.
Six habits. Countless highly effective spiritual leaders.
May we adopt those habits in our leadership at home and school and
work.
October 19, 2008
I Thessalonians 1:1-10
A Joint Venture
The brave hero setting off alone to slay the dragon or defeat evil
has become a romantic idyll. The
lone ranger rides into town and leaves a silver bullet.
Frodo takes the ring of doom to Mordor.
Flik saves the colony when no one else believes in him.
American culture loves the image of the rugged individualist pulling
himself up by his own bootstraps.
“Me do it myself,” we say, echoing the toddler proudly buttoning her
own shirt, however crookedly.
Whether it is discovering oneself or conquering a foe, we take pride in
doing things by ourselves.
Often the same thing can be said of our faith.
“And he walks with me and he talks with me,” we sing, cherishing the
image of me and Jesus in the garden.
“Your love is extravagant, your friendship, it is intimate.”
Centuries ago,
St.
Augustine said, “God loves each one of us as if
there were only one to love.”
Not only do we picture our relationship with God as an individual
relationship, we long to build the
kingdom
of
God
on the merits of our faith and good works.
If I just pray hard enough, love deeply enough, or preach eloquently
enough, then people will flock to church and the world will be transformed –
or at least Moscow First will meet its budget even in these tough economic
times.
The New Testament challenges this vision
of Christianity as a solo voyage with just me and Jesus off to save the
world. It comes at the very
beginning of our reading today from I Thessalonians, which by the way, is
the earliest writing in the entire New Testament.
We usually think of these epistles or letters, as the words of the
Apostle Paul. It’s how I usually
refer to them. But note that it
actually begins, “Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy.”
The letter comes not from Paul alone, but from Silvanus (probably
also known as Silas) and Timothy.
Indeed, about two thirds of the time when Paul writes to churches he
does so in concert with someone else.
It is no accident that he traveled and ministered with other people.
He is not on a solo journey but in a joint venture.
Jesus sent people out in teams not as individuals.
They write, “To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ.” The
Greek word we translate as church is ekklesia.
In the first century it usually referred to a regular assembly of
citizens. Typically, it was a
secular word. Think of the
League of Women Voters holding a candidates forum, or a city council meeting
at which concerned citizens show up to speak about a new ordinance.
The Greek translation of what we call the Old Testament did use
ekklesia to talk about the gathering of
Israel
as God’s people. Paul and
company draw on that sense when they write to the gathered community of
Christians in Thessalonica and refer to them as the ekklesia or church.
They are a community gathered in God and Jesus Christ.
Essential to that community is their corporate sense of belonging to
Christ. It is not simply a
matter of me and Jesus in the garden, of Frodo heading off to the Crack of
Doom on his own, nor Flik saving the colony through his own innovation and
bravery. They belong to God as a
body.
This gathered community join with Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy in
becoming imitators of Jesus. The
trio of authors writes to encourage the Thessalonians in the midst of
persecution. Imitators is better translated as “followed the example of,” or
“shared the experience of.” Just
as Jesus had been rejected by his own people and suffered on the cross, so
now the trials the Thessalonians are undergoing are a part of living their
faith. As this gathered
community they share with Jesus in his death and resurrection.
I am personally glad that being a Christian in twenty-first century
America
does not mean living with the threat of physical torture and death.
Martyrdom strikes me as not all it is cracked up to be.
Still, even today we as the gathered community of Jesus Christ in
Moscow,
Idaho
share in Christ’s death and resurrection.
We share in Christ’s death by giving up our own wills.
We share in Christ’s death by giving time really needed to study for
the big test to help another student understand the lesson.
We share in Christ’s death by eating beans and rice in order to give
an extra gift to the food bank so other people can eat.
Lives of sacrifice and service follow the example of Jesus.
Paul and company give thanks for the Thessalonian’s example, “to all
the believers in
Macedonia
and Achaia,” which was the region around the city of
Thessalonica.
More than that, “The word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not
only in
Macedonia
and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known.”
Belonging to Jesus Christ means that they belong to each other and to
all believers throughout the world.
Christianity was a joint venture not a solo voyage.
Still today following the example of Jesus Christ calls us into a
joint venture with Christians around the globe.
We share the Gospel with Orthodox Christians in
Russia
praying through icons, with African Christians singing praises under a
banyan tree, with Chinese Christians meeting in secret, and Christians in
Brazil
reaching out to children who live in the city dump.
We share with Methodists and Mennonites, Pentecostals and
Presbyterians, Nazarenes and non denominational churches.
Together we sail through turbulent waters and calm seas to proclaim
to all that God is love.
This morning Taylor Lynn joins that community of believers as she is
baptized. She joins Elijah
Daniel and Emma Grace who were baptized a couple of weeks ago, and Noah
James who will be baptized next month.
She joins each of us who have been baptized at some point.
These baptisms properly take place as part of our worship. They are
not private family Christenings to mark the arrival of a new child, but
public professions of faith in which we all renew the covenant made at our
baptisms. These children join
all of us as believers in Christ.
We promise to surround them with a community of love and forgiveness
that they (and we) may grow in our service to others.
They join with us in the assembly of people called out to walk
together in the way that leads to life.
October 12, 2008
Philippians 4:1-9
Different Opinions and
the Mind of Christ
The Presidential election is just three weeks from this coming
Tuesday. I think it is fair to
say that the people of the
United States
are not of one mind about who should be our next president.
The polls have seesawed over the last six months.
First Obama led, then McCain surged forward, then Obama regained some
ground. Not every poll gets the
same results. We’ll find out on
November 4 – assuming we don’t end up with another election so close that it
hangs in the balance for days.
As a nation we are not of one mind on many things:
when and how to withdraw our troops from
Iraq,
how to solve our economic woes, whether to keep abortion legal.
There are those who so passionately believe in one approach or the
other that they cannot speak civilly to people on the other side.
A few even resort to violence.
Sometimes we get downright disagreeable in our disagreements.
Disagreements arise in churches too.
Sadly, in
Moscow
the predominantly mainline churches and the predominantly fundamentalist
churches seldom ever speak to each other.
Even within denominations issues divide.
The
United
Methodist
Church
has fought over issues relating to homosexuality for three decades.
We are not of one mind about the ordination of gay clergy or the
blessing of homosexual unions. I
don’t anticipate we’ll reach agreement in my lifetime.
Individual congregations are seldom of one mind about things either.
Whether it is serving grape juice or wine at communion or what color
to choose for the sanctuary carpet, church battles can be ugly.
It is not a new problem.
In our reading today from Philippians, the Apostle Paul says, “I urge Euodia
and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.”
Obviously, these two women were having a conflict.
We don’t know what it was about. Paul describes them as having
struggled beside him in the work of the Gospel.
Now news of their conflict has reached Paul, who was in prison,
possibly in
Rome
or maybe in
Ephesus.
Whatever it was about, it was no minor spat, made up the next
morning.
Furthermore, there were other problems
in the church at
Philippi.
Paul himself was a part of them.
He warns them about “the dogs” who taught that in order to be
Christian, all men had to undergo the Jewish rite of circumcision.
In essence, some people thought Christianity was an adaptation of
Judaism. Paul believed
Christianity was an entirely new thing.
Throughout this brief letter, Paul hints at other conflicts.
He talks about opponents, he warns against selfish ambition and
conceit, and those who live as enemies of the cross of Christ.
Some of that may refer to persecution from people outside the church,
but some of it clearly refers to conflicts and struggles within the church.
In the midst of it all, Paul calls, not just Euodia and Syntyche, but
all the Philippians, to be of the same mind.
He uses that phrase four times in these four chapters.
He tells them to make his joy complete by being of the same mind.
A few short verses later he says, “Let the same mind be in you that
was in Christ Jesus,” and then quotes a hymn that celebrates Jesus’ humility
and servant hood. In the next
chapter he seems to refer to disagreements when he says, “Let those of us
then who are mature be of the same mind.”
Finally, in today’s reading, he calls these two women to be of the
same mind.
When I disagree with someone, it is tempting to say that the whole
problem could be solved if only the other person would have the good sense
to recognize how right I am. “We
need to agree more,” people say of the
United
Methodist
Church,
of community conflicts, of their own marriages. Seldom do they mean they
should change their minds. But I
don’t think that is what Paul means when he talks about being of the same
mind. “Let those of us then who
are mature be of the same mind,” he’d said, and then he added, “And if you
think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you.
Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.”
Paul is looking past the specifics of any one particular issue to
something far bigger. He is
looking to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in other words to God’s love made
known in Jesus. God loved both
Euodia and Syntyche. God loves
both conservatives and liberals, both pro life and pro choice, both you and
me.
A well known quotation sums up Paul’s challenge:
“In essentials, unity; in doubtful matters, liberty; in all things,
charity.” It’s been credited to
John Wesley,
St.
Augustine,
and a man named Rupertus Melendus.
Whoever said it, there’s great wisdom in it.
I think Paul would have liked it.
He would have recognized that thoughtful, dedicated citizens, proud
of their country and longing for the best, might vote for either John McCain
or Barack Obama. Faithful,
dedicated Christians might be either pro life or pro choice.
Loving family members may still see different sides to any issue
before them.
Paul calls the Philippians, including Euodia and Syntyche, to
proclaim the love of God, something which was bigger and more important than
the issues which so easily divided them.
“Let the same mind be in you that was in the Lord Jesus.”
Paul is not talking about Issue A or Issue B.
He is talking about having the mind of Christ.
“The Lord is near,” he says.
Many early Christians believed Jesus would return to earth any day –
that the Lord was indeed near.
Two thousand years later we are still waiting.
We know, however, that Christ is near to us with every breath of life
for Jesus comes to us daily through the Holy Spirit.
“Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever
is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any
excellence, and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these
things.” These virtues, after
all, are the things of Christ.
To focus on them is to have the mind of Christ.
The mind that was in Christ Jesus calls us still today to focus on
the true, the honorable, the just, and the pure.
The mind that was in Christ Jesus calls us to empty ourselves of
pride and be filled instead with humility and service.
In these last weeks before the election, I pray that each of us can
have the mind that is in Christ Jesus.
That doesn’t mean we’ll all vote for the same candidates.
It does mean that we will listen respectfully to each other and honor
each person’s integrity. It
means we will recognize that no one party or candidate or church member has
all of the truth. It means we
will each make the best choice we can make and then work for the good of our
nation whoever is elected. It
means that in all we do and all we are we proclaim the love of God.
And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard our
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
October 5, 2008
Philippians 3:4b-14
To Know Christ More
“Bulls eye!” Hagar the Horrible says to his young son, who is holding
a bow. The next frame shows the
two of them rejoicing as they look at an arrow dead center in the middle of
the target. All around it are
other arrows, some on the floor, others on the wall, but none of them are
remotely close to the target. “I
told you,” Hagar says, “Practice makes perfect!”
Bull’s eye, the end zone, a basket hanging above the floor: every
game has some sort of goal.
Athletes know that success comes only after many failures and lots and lots
of practice. In most sports,
even the most gifted athlete will fail far more often than s/he succeeds.
The batter who hits one out of every three balls is doing
exceptionally well. Quarterbacks
throw multiple passes not caught by their intended receivers.
Practice helps, but it doesn’t lead to perfection, if perfection
means hitting the bull’s eye with every single arrow.
In an old Hi &
Lois cartoon, the little girl clutches her
doll and glares at her twin brother:
“People who break other people’s dolls don’t go to heaven,” she says.
In the next frame he is kneeling before a large book.
His mother says, “Why Ditto, you’re reading the Bible.
How nice.” “I’m looking up a rule,” he explains.
Spiritual goals are more nebulous than hitting the bull’s eye.
It’s easy enough to say, “Do not kill, do not steal, do not lie,” but
where exactly does breaking a doll fit in?
What about that little white lie you told so as to not hurt someone’s
feelings? Moral perfection is a
moving target. Like it or not,
all ethics ARE situational ethics.
Certainly there are specific and measurable spiritual goals.
Ostrom family lore has it that my great-great grandfather, Nels
Nelson Ostrom, had vast portions of the Bible memorized, including most of
the Book of Revelation. That
knowledge was a comfort to him as he went blind in his old age.
I don’t know what his exact goal was, but at least as far as the
family stories go, he may have been pretty close to meeting it.
Writing to the church in
Philippi, the Apostle Paul said, “I press on
toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Paul’s goal was not a home run or the bull’s eye.
It was not even moral perfection or memorizing a lot of Scripture.
His goal was, quite simply, Christ.
In the words of the song:
I want to know you,
I want to hear your voice,
I want to know you more.
I want to touch you,
I want to see your face,
I want to know you more.
Paul’s goal was not a moral state or an
intellectual attainment. It was
a relationship.
Paul stated his goal as part of his argument with various factions in
Philippi
who had different ideas about perfection.
Certain Greek religions promised perfection to their initiates
through rituals and secret knowledge.
Some adherents of those mystery religions saw, what to them, was a
logical connection with this new faith that became known as Christianity.
So they taught that the Christian rite of initiation, baptism, was
the key to perfection. Or
participating in the secret and mysterious meal of bread and wine could
bring perfection. In that era of
persecution, Christians sometimes had to remain secret and only insiders
knew the password. It’s a common
story that when early Christians met strangers, they would draw half a fish.
If the stranger drew the other half of the fish, then that person too
was a Christian. It was easy in
Paul’s day to believe that perfection came through secret knowledge and
practices known only to insiders.
But Paul said, “no, perfection came in a relationship with Jesus
Christ.” He said:
I want to know you,
I want to hear your voice,
I want to know you more.
I want to touch you,
I want to see your face,
I want to know you more.
To know Christ was to share in Christ’s suffering and resurrection.
In baptism, Christians die to their old lives, which are washed away
with water or even plunged under water.
They rise to new life in Christ as they emerge from the water.
The ritual itself has no inherent power to convey perfection.
Rather it enacts the mystery of Christ’s own suffering and death.
Young as she, today little Emma will receive new life
in Christ as she is baptized.
In
Holy Communion, broken bread becomes for us the broken body of Christ.
The fruit of the vine, be it juice or water, becomes for us the blood
of Christ. These are more than
symbols. They are for us ways of participating in the suffering and death of
Jesus Christ. Through them we
pray:
I want to know you,
I want to hear your voice,
I want to know you more.
I want to touch you,
I want to see your face,
I want to know you more.
Thanks be to God, we know
Christ, not through our own merit or
hard work.
I want to know you,
I want to hear your voice,
I want to know you more.
I want to touch you,
I want to see your face,
I want to know you more.
We meet the goal of knowing Jesus because he came among us as one of us.
We know Jesus because he loves us just as we are.
September 28, 2008
Matthew 21:23-32
The Authority of Water
This diploma hangs on the wall of my office.
Yes, it came with this fancy frame, which is part of why I’ve put it
up. It’s from George Fox
Evangelical Seminary. It says,
“Be it known that, Susan E. Ostrom, having completed the required course of
study and having been recommended by the faculty, is awarded the degree of
Doctor of Ministry with all the rights, honors, and privileges pertaining
thereto.” A lot of you have or
are working on something similar, although probably in a different field.
Some degrees have more rights, honors, and privileges than others.
When I started this program, a colleague of mine noted, “A Doctor of
Ministry and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee.”
This is my certificate of ordination.
It lives in my file cabinet, not on my wall, but it actually grants
me more authority than the degree.
Ordination gives me the authority to preside over the sacraments,
such as the baptism we’ll celebrate in a few moments.
Sometimes the sign of authority comes in a badge, such as those worn
by police officers. Whether it
is a badge or a piece of paper, these signs of authority come from sources
outside of ourselves. Usually it
is an institution – a church, a college, a police department – which
determines that a person has jumped through the appropriate hoops and met
designated standards. These days
a person cannot decide, “I think I’ll practice law,” hang out a sign and
begin to see clients, without first getting both a law degree and passing
the state bar.
“Who gave you the authority?” the religious officials of his day
challenged Jesus. He had no
ordination certificate, no academic degree, no license to heal or teach.
He just did it. Many
people questioned Jesus’ authority.
He rode into
Jerusalem,
the capital city and home of the temple where the most sacred festivals were
held, and acted like he was somebody.
He sent two of his disciples ahead to bring him a donkey.
“If anyone says anything to you just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’”
Like that gave him the right to borrow a donkey.
Then Jesus marched into the temple and drove out the people selling
animals acceptable for sacrifice in the temple.
He cured blind and lame people, and listened to children shouting,
“Hosanna to the Son of David.”
The religious officials asked, “Do you hear what these are saying?”
To call Jesus the Son of David was to call him the king – yet no one
had ever crowned him.
In one of the stranger stories in the Bible, Jesus cursed a fig tree
for not bearing fruit, even though it was out of season.
The tree withered. His
disciples asked, “How did he do that?”
He told them, “Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will
receive.” Jesus apparently had
the authority of faith.
In today’s reading, Jesus again enters the temple, and the religious
officials challenge him openly:
“By what authority are you doing these things?”
In essence, “Ok buddy, let’s see your badge, your diploma, your bona
fides.” Jesus has none of those things.
He says to the chief priests and elders, “I will also ask you one
question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what
authority I do these things. Did
the baptism of John come from heaven or was it of human origin?”
Jesus had them there.
People had flocked out to the desert to be baptized by John, who also had no
ordination certificate, no credentials from anywhere.
The religious officials were caught.
If they said John’s baptism was of human origin, the crowds who
thought John was a prophet, would be mad.
If they said, “Of heaven,” Jesus would ask them why they hadn’t
believed John when he told them to repent.
They answered Jesus, “Um, we don’t know.”
Jesus then told a story about one son who said all the right things
when his Dad told him to do his chores, but failed to do them, and another
son who said no but then did as directed.
Who really obeyed? The
one who did the work or the one who mouthed obedience?
The story was a rather pointed barb against the religious officials
who had gone to the temple and been good citizens and done well in life, but
never believed John. They had
all the outer signs of human authority but had lost sight of God’s
authority. The Spirit of God
needs no institutional credentialing. It does not require jumping through
any organizational hoops.
I’ve jumped through a lot of hoops in my life.
I’ve even been a part of holding hoops up for other people to jump
through. I understand them and
even see the logic in them. I am
a Pharisee, a chief priest, an elder.
At the same time, I know that sometimes the old ways become stale.
We get so attached to our human institutions that we forget that God
is not limited by them. For
people like me, the fresh movement of God’s Spirit can be so surprising that
we fail to recognize it as God.
At times, God’s Spirit threatens my attachment to the comfort I find in the
way I’ve always done things.
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,” Paul wrote to
the Philippians, “who though he was in the form of God, did not regard
equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking
the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient
to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Jesus’ authority was one of self emptying.
He was God but took on all the limitations of humanity.
Jesus’ authority was that of obedience.
He suffered and died to demonstrate the depth of God’s love for us.
Jesus’ authority was one of love.
In a moment, we as a congregation will vest little Elijah Daniel with
the authority of baptism. I’ll
give his parents a certificate to show he has been baptized, but really the
ultimate source is from God, for in this sacrament God claims Elijah once
and for all, as God’s. “You are
mine,” God says to Elijah. From
this day forward, he will carry the authority of water, the authority to
empty himself of sin and self because he belongs to God.
Each of us who has been baptized, whether as a little baby or as an
adult, carries the authority of water.
We carry the authority to empty ourselves of sin for God has forgiven
us. We carry the authority to
empty ourselves of our human will for we continually pray that God’s will be
done in us. We carry the
authority of God for God has claimed us as God’s own.
Thanks be to God.