Fruit Trees

Today, I'm going to remain with the same text from yesterday, but with a different perspective.

This is a wonderful passage that speaks to the diversity present among those that are part of God's family.  Sometimes there is a tendency in the church to lump all people of faith together, to try and make them all the same.  Have you ever been to a church where there seemed to be an unofficial dress code?  What about an unofficial requirement of income?  All too often, the folks that gather together to worship and praise God together all look and act remarkably the same.  Which makes those places more than a little uncomfortable for a visitor or searcher who wanders in and looks, acts, or comes from a different place than the "norm."

I love how this passage declares that the righteous grow like a palm tree or a cedar.  These are not the same.  They are different.  There is few things of similarity other than they are trees.  Yet, they are both used to describe the righteous.  Do we need to look and act the same to be righteous?

What I think is even more interesting is how the Psalmist declares that the righteous bear fruit.  Last I checked a cedar tree doesn't bear fruit, at least not in the way we might normally think of fruit.  And perhaps that's the lesson that we need to learn today.

God doesn't have one vision or desire for what the "righteous" should look like.  They are just to grow.  Perhaps they grow tall and strong, perhaps shorter and fuller.  Perhaps they are quiet and solid in their faith, perhaps they are loud and boisterous, perhaps their faith is private.  Regardless, they are growing.  And the fruit is being produced, each in his own way.  The fruit from the palm tree and cedar are very different from the fruit of the apple or peach tree.  Each tree bears it's own fruit according to its tree.  An apple tree cannot produce peaches no matter how hard it tries to make itself.

In the church maybe we need to focus less on trying to get us all to be the same; to have the same views and theologies, the same "faith", producing the same fruit, and instead celebrate the many ways that God grows us, and the many ways that we produce fruit for the glory of God.

God has no unrighteousness

Psalm 92:1-4,12-15

It is good to give thanks to God,   to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
to declare your steadfast love in the morning,   and your faithfulness by night,
to the music of the lute and the harp,   to the melody of the lyre.
For you, O God, have made me glad by your work;   at the works of your hands I sing for joy.
The righteous flourish like the palm tree,   and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
They are planted in the house of God;   they flourish in the courts of our God.
In old age they still produce fruit;    they are always green and full of sap,showing that God is upright; 
God is my rock, and has no unrighteousness.

Righteousness in scripture is very closely related to justice.  In many places they are interchangeable - the one who is just is righteous, and the one who is righteous is just.  Does this passage change at all when you replace the word righteous with just or justice?  "Those who are just (concerned and focused on justice) flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon...they flourish in the courts of our God."  In God there is no injustice.

In our culture, when we think of justice we tend to think of the court system.  The pervasiveness of crime and law dramas on television have caused us to form our vocabulary and understandings in that realm.  But, there is more to justice than determining between right and wrong, making sure that those who are "wrong" receive their due punishment, that justice is delivered.  Justice is also about making sure that all are given the respect they deserve.  In the court of law, the ideal is that the rich defendant and the impoverished plaintiff both get equal treatment.  That's the ideal, how well that actually works out is another conversation.

In God, they get equal treatment.  In God's eyes there is nothing to make one person receive better treatment or respect, or whatever, than anyone else - except justice.  How you think of and treat those around you.  God's grace extends to all in equal measure.  God's love is available to all.

Is your love extended to all?  Are justice and equality an important part of your life and faith?  Is there any injustice in you?  Are you flourishing in the courts of our God?  Are you loving (and seeking the justice for) your neighbor in the same ways (and with as much energy)as you are fighting for your own justice?

I know I can do better.  Thanks be to God that our God is not only full of love, but also patience and grace.  Each day is a new one, and in each day may we seek to live our lives in the ways of God, seeking to follow in the steps and ways of Jesus.  May the Reign of God, the reign of justice and peace, the reign of love and servanthood, be not only our place of residence but the focus of our life and actions.  

Trinity Sunday

John 3:1-17

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."

            When I was in Seminary, one of the most interesting and animated discussions we had in our Systematic Theology class involved the nature of God being Triune.  It became obvious very quickly that we all came at it in different ways.  Some people simply shrugged their shoulders, said they would never be able to understand it.  Others, went through mental gymnastics seeking to put forth one metaphor after another seeking to explain it.  Still others, it seemed, discounted the idea of the Trinity completely.  Our understanding of God being Triune in nature is without question one of the most difficult to understand and mysterious aspects of our faith.  How is it that something can be three fully formed, unique persons, separate and distinct from each other, yet at the same time be one that is not divided in any way?  No matter the mental gymnastics we perform, the metaphors and analogies we make, it’s likely that we will never truly understand it.  And that’s okay.  Our individual understanding of specific doctrines and theologies of the church is secondary to our recognition of Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  I’m one of those, who though I love to try and come up with ways of understanding this confusing nature of God, accept and embrace the mystery; exclaiming with wonder and surprise at each new insight I receive into who God is.  Faith, knowledge and mystery are in their own Trinitarian relationship when it comes to who we are as the people of God.

            In this morning’s Gospel text we heard what may be the most widely known verse in the Bible, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”  It’s a verse that all have us probably memorized in Sunday School.  It’s a verse we see displayed on banners at athletic events.  It’s a verse that we see on billboards and bumper stickers.  We all know it; we see it all the time.  So, it’s no surprise that when we hear or read this passage we focus on that verse about how much God loves us.  .It’s comforting to hear it, and so we focus on it.  That’s natural.  But, there is so much more happening in today’s lesson than verse sixteen.

            Here in the Midwest, many of us have experienced the power of the wind.  We have all seen the damage that can come from tornadoes and strong storms.  We also have felt the comfort and calm of a gentle breeze on a steamy hot summer day.  We know how just a gentle breeze can take the temperature down, and bring a sense of calm.  In recent years anyone who has driven the roads of north-central Iowa has seen the large windmills that are now being used to produce electricity.  For a long time, similar windmills were used to bring water up from far underground.  The long voyages of our early explorers across the seas would have been impossible but for wind.  Anyone who lives in an older home knows the occasional frustration of having a “leaky house”, where windows and tiny gaps allow the wind to make entry.    The first verses of the Bible speak to the spirit of God moving across the face of the deep.  We remember stories in the Bible of the voice of God being heard in the wind.  When the Spirit came on Pentecost, it did so with the sound of a rushing wind.  The wind has ever been seen and understood as one of the ways in which God’s presence is felt by us.

            Just as in a “leaky house” it often seems as if the wind seeks out those gaps, going every-which-way looking for an entry point, so too does the Spirit of God seek to make entry into the lives of humanity, into your life and mine.  “The wind blows where it chooses,” is a powerful image of how God is ever seeking us out, ever seeking ways to be in relationship with us.  God chooses to turn toward us, chooses to be in relationship with us, chooses to reveal Himself to us in that search.  It is the nature of God to be in relationship.  On this Sunday, on Trinity Sunday we embrace the reality that God is in relationship within himself.  “God the Father is with the Son who is with the Spirit who is with the Father, self-communicating, self-giving, self-receiving.”[i]  When we think of God, we must do so in terms of relationship, and do so recognizing that that relationship always finds its starting point with God.  God is the one who moves first, who takes the initiative and reaches out to us, to pursue us, to come to us.

            God comes to us, seeking us, pursuing us, desiring for us to be in relationship with him.  God’s seeking doesn’t depend on our situation, our individual or communal worthiness, our understanding of theology or doctrine.  God seeks because that’s who God is, and what God is about.  God wants, desires, for all creation to be in communion with God and with one another, and God seeks, pursues and comes to us to make that happen.  Jesus was not sent by God with a message of condemnation and judgment, but in order that the world might be saved; the world that God created, the world that God loved.  It was God’s love that brought salvation and life through the lifting up of Jesus on the cross.  In faith we are recipients of God’s love and grace.

            It is in faith that we receive God’s salvation.  Faith is not about having to believe in a certain way, about having to have the correct theological understanding, the correct doctrine; it’s about turning to God trusting that God will deliver.  During the years following the Exodus, the Israelites were beset by poisonous snakes because they had turned against God, and questioned God’s ways.  God provided a way of life.  Moses lifted up a golden snake on a pole, and all that looked to it when they had been bitten by a poisonous serpent lived.  In faith they looked to the pole, in faith they claimed the promise that they would live, and they lived.  They didn’t have to know how it worked, why it worked.  They didn’t have to look to the pole with a specific doctrine, a specific theology.  They didn’t have to go first to the priests, go to temple, be accepted into community.  They looked to the pole, claimed the promise of God, and were saved.

            We also look up in faith.  We look to the cross and are saved.  We look to the cross, claim the promise of God that we will have life, and are saved.  God’s desire and intention is never to condemn, but to save, to bring a fullness, a wholeness, a completion to life itself.  God’s love is ever reaching out, ever spreading, ever pursuing.  God’s love is ever inviting and is ever hoping for a response, a movement on our part to complete the circle to complete the action.  Just as the Israelites needed to look to the pole to be saved, we need to look to the cross to be saved.  Just as Isaiah had to respond to the call of God, we too need to respond, “Here I am Lord.” Amen.

           

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[i][i] P. 47; Feasting on the Word; Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary; Year B, Volume 3; Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 2009

Just some thoughts

In recent days and weeks among a variety of settings I have been witness to a great amount of discussion that was of a theological nature (I know big surprise!).  Much of that discussion seemed to revolve around having a correct position or understanding of one issue or another.  Was the position taken “theologically correct?”  Following from that assumption, assertions and defense were made as to the state of a person’s eternity because of said position.  In other words, based on a position you held on a specific belief, you were deemed to be either in accord or contrary to scripture, and from that whether or not your eternal soul was in danger.  I’ve sought to stay out of much of the discussions and arguments.  For many of us, our theological positions are very personal, and we get very emotionally involved when we either find our positions to be challenged or when we believe we find fault in others.  I really don’t want to get involved in these discussions, as I too have become emotionally involved when simply reading and hearing what others say, but I feel like I need to say something.

One of the realities of modern Christianity is that we are made up of a great number of denominations.  Each of those denominations have confessions and understandings that are uniquely theirs.  Many denominations claim to have a corner on the truth when it comes to how they understand the sacraments, or predestination, or scripture, etc.  If that is followed to its end, that claim says that their version of Christianity is the only “true” understanding, and that all other claims to the contrary are false.  If that is to be understood as true, how are we to know what is “truly Christian?”  There are many different perspectives and opinions in modern Christianity, and many of them are contrary to positions held by others in the Christian tradition.  Are women allowed to be pastors?  Can pastors be married?  Is the Bible the literal word of God?  Is drinking alcohol or smoking a sin?  Is baptism of infants a useless?  Each of these positions are either enthusiastically embraced or denied by members of the Christian tradition, who each feel that they are correct in their position.

Thus, it seems difficult if not impossible to truly know what is right.  So, does that mean we are supposed to just throw our arms up in the air and give up?  Of course not.  But, we must also always be careful when we make statements that are universal in their claim to truth or correctness.  I’m a person who tends to be very theological, I like to think deep thoughts about why we believe the things we do, why we hold as truth certain things and not others.  But, I’m also very aware that I must always remember that I cannot truly know anything about God, all I can do is believe.  I know that when I drop a rock, it will fall.  But I do not, I can not, know what God feels about a certain issue; I can believe based on scripture and tradition that God feels a certain way, but I cannot know.  For who can truly know the mind of God? (1 Cor. 2;11)

As people, and as denominations we have marked out specific territories and positions, and will often go to extremes to defend them.  We are very concerned that we have the correct theology; that we are not thinking about God in a wrong way.   We often feel that our very soul is dependent on having a correct theological understanding.  Perhaps it is, perhaps not.

Matthew 25:31-46 has some very important words to speak, and I think we would all do well to listen (myself included.)  According to Jesus himself, in the final judgment will we be judged based on how we understand the sacraments or the trinity or soteriology?  Jesus declares that we will be judged not on our theological understandings or positions, but on the way in which we have served those in need.  Serving them not to get something out of it (like salvation), but simply because they are in need.  If you notice, the list doesn’t include helping those who had “wrong beliefs”.  I challenge you to find the word faith or belief anywhere in that passage.

Are our personal and denominational theologies and understandings as important to God as how we treat and care for one another?  Is it possible that perhaps we all don’t need to believe the same things about God?  Is it possible that perhaps what is one persons “sin” is not for another (Romans 14)?  Perhaps God’s desire isn’t that we all agree on what is right or wrong, on a specific Biblical interpretation, on a certain theological understanding.  Perhaps God is more concerned with how we live in community with one another.  Not seeking to prove ourselves right and another wrong, not seeking to show how we are theologically correct, or how we will be saved in the end and someone else won’t.  Perhaps, just perhaps, God could care less what we believe if our actions are done in love and servanthood to those around us.

What saves you?  Your belief about God or God?  When it comes down to the final judgment, when you are kneeling before the throne of God, do you really want to be judged on whether you held the right position on some theological issue, or whether or not you sought to live your life as best you can following the path that was laid out for us by our Savior.  Who though he was the very Son of God, God himself incarnate among us, did not think of himself as better, but took the role of a servant, and served humanity without limit – even to the point of death (Philippians 2:5-11).

Set Apart to Live

Seventh Sunday of Easter

May 20, 2012

John 17:6-19

[Jesus said:] "I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.

"And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

"Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth."

            In just a few short weeks summer will well and truly be upon us.  Already in the last few weeks, as the temperature has been going up and the days have been getting longer many of us are beginning to get itchy for the months to come.  We are getting our summer toys out of the garage, we are making sure our bikes are in good shape, that the boat motor is running smoothly.  We might be looking at our summer calendars, trying to see if there is a time that will work best to get away for a day or two, perhaps a week or so.  Summer is a great time for many of us to relax, for many of us to “get away from it all.”

            In recent years many people that study the way we function as human beings have been looking at the way technology is affecting our lives.  They have noticed that the easy access of technology, the way many of us are plugged in all the time has caused problems.  I know that several of us (myself included) have access to the entire internet right here, on our phones.  I can read my emails, I can send email, I can watch youtube videos, I can watch full-length movies, I can update my facebook status.

The sociologists point out that many of us now rarely actually truly get away from our work and responsibilities.  It used to be that you could go home from work, or go on vacation and truly get away from it.  But now, we are just a text message or a phone call away.  When I watch news shows on television, it’s normal now to see the host and guest with a laptop next to them, or a cell phone just a foot away.  I’ve even seen guests texting on their phones in the middle of the show when they are not being spoken to directly.  We’ve all seen people so engrossed with their phones they aren’t aware of what’s going on around them.  Many marriage counselors recommend that the bedroom be a technology free space – no phones, no computer, no television, no radio.

Getting away from it all isn’t so easy.  In fact, hotels and resorts are now offering technology free vacations.  In the Dubuque area, where the river bluffs cause terrible cell phone coverage, hotels are using their lack of cell phone connections as a selling point.  “Come stay with us, you won’t be able to get a signal even if you want.”  There are some bed and breakfasts that ask you to check your technology at the front desk when you check in, you’ll get it back when you leave.

            Getting away from the chaos of our lives, getting ‘unplugged’ is something that we all hunger for.  We like to have those moments when we can sit on the front porch and just watch the world go by as we sip on our lemonade.  Many of us long for those mornings when we can just lie in bed while someone else takes care of the kids, or the dog, or the laundry.  Moms (and dads) can all relate to the phrase, “Calgon, take me away!”  For some people getting away from it all can truly be as simple as locking the bathroom door and slipping into a bubble bath.  For others, there needs to be greater space.

There are whole industries that are there to do nothing more than help us get away.  They spend millions of dollars to lure us on luxury cruises where all our needs, our every whim are met, to buy into a time share of a house on a beach someplace warm, to buy a second home in the mountains, to live in a gated community so we can lock the world away.  Although the ways in which the media and advertisers are selling these retreats may be new, the desire to get away from it all is as old as the Bible itself.

Religious faith may actually intensify the desire for escape from the world.  We have been given a glimpse, a foretaste of the life to come, and that foretaste may cause us to hunger not for a luxury resort, or a tropical isle, but for a community and a way of being that avoids all the chaos and conflict of the world.  If we look back through Christian history, we see numerous expressions of that desire: monasteries, convents, reform movements, communal living, retreat centers, small groups and communities centered in prayer and piety, many different separatist groups.  While each of these developed their own unique ways of being, all of them have been efforts to create a space, separate from the world, a place where it was perhaps more possible to pursue a holy way of living.

As Christians, though, we are not called to life away from the world.  We are called to be in the world, just not of it.  As Christians we are to be about the work of God in the world.  It might not be easy, but you can engage the world without being a part of it.  An astronaut can go into space, live in space, but not be a part of space.  It’s about what you surround yourself with.  An astronaut puts on a spacesuit, and can work in space, do the things that need to be done.  The spacesuit gives the astronaut the ability to be in space, but not of space.

As Christians, we are called to put on Christ; that is our spacesuit.  Because of Jesus we are protected from the atmosphere of the world around us, we can safely breath in the Spirit.  But just because we have a spacesuit, just because we have been found by Jesus, does not mean we can just safely hang out in our little space station and watch the world go by.   No, we have been given our spacesuit, our Armor of Christ that we might go out into the world.  Putting on Christ is not just about allowing ourselves to live, but equipping us to live out; to live out our faith, to live out our calling.

We are to live in the world, under God’s protective care.  We are to live in the midst of the chaos and complexities, the temptations and pitfalls of the world without getting ourselves entangled in all of it.  In fact, Jesus desires us to be in the world, he prays, “As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”  In one simple verse Jesus reminds us that the pattern of his own life was not escape from the world, but engagement with it, with all its distorted powers and pressures.

The world in and of itself is not evil.  God doesn’t love evil, and we all know God loved the world so much that he sent Jesus to die for the sake of the world.  Jesus came into the world, and filled it with his love.  He didn’t seek to escape pain when he saw it, he did everything in his power to remove the pain.  He brought healing and wholeness.  He didn’t seek to escape intolerance and injustice when he encountered it, he did everything in his power to re-create community, tolerance and justice.  He didn’t seek to escape from religious bigotry and judgementalism, he did everything in his power to bring awareness of the fullness of God’s love and grace.  He didn’t seek to escape from the ways we as humans divide ourselves into us and them, he did everything in his power to unite us under the shadow of the cross and in the blinding light of the resurrection.

Jesus’ prayer to God the Father is that we be ‘sanctified in the truth.’  Sanctified doesn’t mean being made holy, it doesn’t mean being saved, it means being set apart.  We have been set apart, we have been chosen for a reason, for a mission, for a calling.  We have been sanctified in the truth that God is love, that God’s love for us is beyond our understanding.  We have been sanctified, set apart so that we might bring the good news of that love to the world.  We have been sanctified, set apart, so that we might in our own awkward stumbling ways seek to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, seeking to live our lives in a reflection of how he lived.  We have been sanctified, set apart from the ways of the world so we can fight against the ways of the world; so we can fight against the many ‘isms’ that we encounter in our daily lives.  We have been sanctified so that we may have life, and live that life to its fullest.

Life is Busy

Life has been busy, and I have not been posting as much as I should.  I'll try and be better about it.  Beginning tomorrow.....

An Accent on Grace

As a pastor in a denomination that has “that they may all be one” (John 17:22) as its formational theme, ecumenism and interfaith relations is near and dear to my heart.  In recent days I have been shown once again how important that work is, and how far we still have to go.

Time after time I’ve run into people whose religious perspectives are so strong, so dogmatic they are virtually incapable of thinking in a positive way about any other faith tradition or denomination.  I have no problem with people who wish to believe something different than me.  I personally believe that there is truth to be found in all faith traditions.  We cannot control how God shares the Spirit with us wacky humans down here on Earth.

Theology, doctrine or denomination will never save you.  If you put those things ahead of God, you’ve done a huge disservice to yourself, and committed idolatry.  As a Christian, I feel that we have a unique way of seeing our relationship with God, but I am not going to say that other faith traditions are false, just different.  All of us are speaking the language of God, just with different accents.

I’ve traveled here and there, both in the United States and internationally.  One thing I have discovered is that it can sometimes be impossible to understand another person who is speaking English in an accent other than mine.  Sometimes, it doesn’t even sound as if we are speaking the same language.  Then, as I spend more time with them, as I listen hard, as I give them my attention and value what they are saying, I find I am beginning to hear what they are saying, I’m beginning to understand them more and more.  I’m sure they found my accent to be difficult to understand as well.  We are speaking the same language, it’s just that our accents are so different.  Neither one of us can claim that we are speaking with the “correct” accent, but we can agree that our accents are different.

God’s grace is shown to us in the many faith traditions we have upon this spinning orb we call Earth.  We are called to be “one” as God and Jesus were one.  They were not the same, but they were united.  We are called to celebrate our unity as people of faith, as people who speak “faith”, and we do this while we live out our differences.

Do you know someone whose faith traditions differ greatly from your own?  Have you engaged in ‘God’ talk with them, not in the desire to convert them, but in the hopes that you may be able to understand their accent better?  Might now be a good time to listen?