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  • Extravagance

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    Extravagance

    Lillian Dauie] First Congregational Church United Church of Christ, Glen Ellyn, Illinois

    This year a beloved member of our church passed away and left behind more than one thousand cookbooks. Since one of the many things Charlene was known for at the church was her cooking, her family brought huge piles of these cookbooks in to church for all of us to peruse at coffee hour a couple of Sundays. We were invited to take any we wanted, as a way to remember Charlene and to be thankful for her life of generous hospitality. Well, these cookbooks at coffee hour became a source of delight and good conversation as strangers stood side by side laughing at some of the dated material. We were laughing at recipes that called for two and three sticks ofbutter and heavy cream, and all without apology ٢٠any kind of alternative healthy option. But I think I ended up nabbing the two very best cookbooks of a bygone era, one put out by the Republican Farty of Nebraska featuring a recipe entitled, I kid you not, GOP Beans. ^ofoertasurolfoundw asac^l^kp^ Cream: The New Carbo-Cal Way to Lose Weight ﻣﺤﺲStay Slim. As foe cover put it, “With this proven method, you may eat as much as you’re eating now, fried foods, appetizers, gravies, sauces, dressings, caviar, ice cream, even eat between meals, and you should lose weight safely and stay slim naturally.” 1 had to learn more. As you may have guessed from foe title,Martinis ، ﻣﺢ»اWhippedCream was a very early diet book based on a low carb diet which insisted that foe dieter avoid sugars and starches, but unlike foe more austere diets of our day, fois one included things like martinis and whipped cream. Here’s how they described one man’s typical day on this diet back in 1966, and it’s like entering a culinary world ftom another planet.

    Breakfast: Four ٢٠five ounces of beef, kidneys, lamb, fish, or bacon. One slice of dry toast. (Dry? Fresumably to avoid fat?) Lunch: Five ٢٠six ounces of meat, any vegetable except potato, one ounce of dry toast, two ٢٠three glasses of claret, Madeira, ٢٠sherry wine. Supper: Three ٢٠four ounces of meat and a glass ٢٠two of wine. Nightcap: Gin, whisky, ٢٠wine.

    Analyzing fois day’s typical diet, complete with a minimum of six drinks, the author explained that it had “all foe necessary vitamins and minerals that foe body retires.” And here’s foe key to this particular diet’s success: “It consisted almost entirely of protein, fat, and alcohol,” which is foe diet that many people stay on through most of the holiday season. You just didn’t realize how healthy it was. Gr at least how healthy it was in 1966. Good times. We can laugh about it now. It’s easy to see the excess of decades gone by. But it’s more difficult to see excess when you’re in the middle of it. I was doing some Christmas shopping in a very crowded store, one of those no frills discount places where you really have to kiss a lot of frogs before finding a prince, if you know what I mean. But I had found a lot of good stuff. The sign on foe

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    restroom said I had to leave all that merchandise outside, but when 1 came back out, all my Christmas shopping was gone. As hard as it had been to find all that good stuff, 1 beseeched every store clerk I saw to ask if they had seen my things, because if they’d been put back. I’d never find them all again. Or what if another shopper had taken all my bargains? I appealed to the sympathy of the shop clerks to put out an A.?.B. on my stuff, explaining that they were Christmas presents that I had spent significant time carefully selecting. So, in order to find my cart, they asked me to describe my gifts. “Well, there’s a size four short pair of pants, another dress and skirt the same size, a small sweater, and a size four jacket, petite, with a cute scarf that kind of ties it all together.” “Oh, I see,” she said. “So we’re looking for a bunch of Christmas presents, all of which are like. ..for a small, rather short woman, say…exactly your size.” “Hey, I never said who the presents were for, did I?” We finally found my things, which someone had hung up to keep them safe. “I hope your twin sister enjoys all those gifts,” the clerk said. “Oh stop it.” No, it’s hard to spot excess when you’re in the middle of it, when you’re the one swearing by the martinis and whipped cream diet with no clue that filture generations will wonder what you were thinking. Lately, given the economy, in the holiday season of excess, I’ve really had in my prayers and on my heart all those folks who are unemployed ٢٠underemployed. I’m fired of hearing about this jobless recovery, which by the way is not a moneyless recovery. The so-called recovery, money and jobs, doesn’t seem to be trickling down to regular folks. From the janitors who have to clean more rooms to the folks who are patching together consulting work as well as their own benefits, it’s a hard time, particularly when everyone around you is shopping. Cne person poignantly summed up her situation saying, “After volunteering at my local food bank for three years, I became a client two months ago. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, even though I was surrounded by supportive friends who served me.” Friends, when you come to church on Christmas Eve, you do a brave thing. ¥ ٧٠ stand at the intersection of excess and justice, because as people of faith, we can’t indulge in one and not care about the other. ٠٧ the one hand, we celebrate with glorious music, good food, candlelight at the dining room table, and candlelight here in church. We enter into a sort of divine extravagance that spills over into our ordinary lives and makes this night as holy as the night Jesus was bom. But in the meantime, as followers of Jesus, we have the gift of knowing that he grew up to be a man, who as far as I can tell spent his adult life unemployed and somehow changed fire world. Dependent upon fire generosity of others, Jesus was tough ٧٠the rich, gentle wife fee poor, and brave in fee face of injustice. This Christmas Eve, I’m particularly eager for him to get here. God could have come to earth in any form, but God came to earth as a helpless baby, nowhere to lay his head, to parents whose marriage was tenuous, both personally and by fee rules of the state, parents who had ٠٧health insurance and no support system otherthan the compassion of strangers,parents who would soonleaveNazareth and raise that holy baby as undocumented immigrants in Egypt until they returned to their land where their grown son scandalized people by eating wife tax collectors and sinners saying, “I have come feat you might have life and have it abundantly.” Now that’s extravagant. Out in fee world, there’s always some new get rich quick plan or a ridiculous

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    diet that ean’t deliver on its promises ٢٠a bait and switch in which the average person doesn’t win. But in the end, we can’t survive on a diet of martinis and whipped cream. We need more. And as all those cookbooks demonstrated, what you serve at the table, the latest styles ٢٠fads, those trends come and go. But when we remember our special meals, it’s seldom the food. It’s the love behind the food. Whether it had two sticks of warm butter ٢٠three sticks of crisp celery, heavy cream ٢٠cream of wheat, what we remember is that someone loved us enough to cook for us and that there was a place for us at tire table. No matter what, no matter who, no matter where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here into the extravagant love of Christ. ? ٢٠a child has been bom to us, a son given to us: authority rests upon his shoulders, and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty Cod, Everlasting Father, Frince ofFeace. May this extravagant gift fill you with joy and compassion, giving bread to those who have none and a hunger and thirst for justice to those who have plenty. Noel.

  • Across the miles

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    Across the Miles

    1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

    Mary Hinkle Shore The Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Brevard, North Carolina

    Do you know the experienee of missing someone? You know, like really missing someone, missing them so much that you could actually feel an ache at your core? Feeling another’s absence this way is a mixture of longing and grief and impatience and the feeling of being bereft. Whoever you are missing, you love them, and while there may be a thousand good reasons why you are in one place and they are in another , you still ache to see them. Years ago, when telephones had cords coming out of them, cords that eventually connected to wires on poles alongside roads that transmitted sound from one place to another, when you missed someone like this and the two of you were talking on the phone, you would sometimes say ٢٠hear, “I wish 1 could crawl through the telephone line to get to you!” Hearing the voice of the loved one, disembodied as it was, made things better and worse at the same time. It connected you to each other, and it highlighted the physical distance between you. You could hear them: “You sound like you’re in the next room,” you ٢٠they might marvel into the phone. But still, you were apart, aching. You longed to see them, to wrap them up in a hug, to hold on tight. In my experience Skype and FaceTime do not solve this problem. We marvel at the technology and still we are left with nothing warmer than a laptop to wrap our arms around. With neither telephone nor laptop, Faul dictates a letter to the Thessalonians. He longs to see them. He writes two thanksgivings for them at the beginning of the letter —as if one paragraph of thanks is just not enough to speak his gratitude. Paul has been separated from them, and even though he has tried again and again to visit, his efforts to go to them have been thwarted, he says, by Satan (cf. 1 Thess. 2:18)! As he is telling them all this, he says, “For who is our hope or joy or crown to boast of before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not of course you? For you are our glory and joy!” (2:19-20). Paul loves these people. At the end of the letter Paul leaves his friends with nine verses of commands. “Rejoice… , pray… , give thanks…. Do not quench the Spirit….” If you don’t have much use for the apostle Paul, you may hear these instructions and think, “Paul was so controlling! Always with the ‘Do this’ and ‘Don’t do that.’” But to read the letter that way is to misunderstand it. When I was a seminary student, the school I attended was about a 14-hour drive from my parents’ home. The trip included driving around Chicago, and in winter, it often included driving in bad weather. In spite of the fact that I drove the route regularly without incident, my mom never quite trusted that I would get from Minnesota to Ghio in one piece. At least that was the way I experienced her anxious imperatives over the phone: “Stay safe: take your time. Just get off the road if you run into bad weather.” I would hear a speech like that with all of its instructions and reply with as much impatience in my voice as a daughter can produce, “Mother, I’m not sixteen anymore. I’m in my twenties[ I’ve driven in snow for years. Everything will be fine.”

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    I am now the age my mom was when she was giving advice ove¡־ the telephone, and 1 wish 1 eould thwaek my younger self on the side of her head. “She loves you, you silly girl,” I would say. “She is not saying she doesn’t trust you. She is saying she loves you.” Likewise the instruetions that Paul leaves with the Thessalonians.He loves them. My mom knew I was driving home in a world with drunk drivers and iee storms. Paul knows that his friends have just recently “turned from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for God’s Son from heaven, whom God raised from the dead…” (1 Thess l:9f). They may be living at the turn of the ages, but idols are in their recent past, and suffering and grief are still their daily companions. Their new life includes alienation and even persecution from people they used to be close to, and even as they look for the return of Christ, they are troubled by continuing to lose loved ones to death. This last bit points us to a deeper longing even than longing for a loved one from whom we are separated by time or space. Paul and the Thessalonians long to see each other, but more than that, they long for the completion of what has begun in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The resurrection is the beginning of life having the last word rather than death. The Christian’s hope is not merely for enough money or pretty good health, all things considered. We hope for shalom, for peace, healing, and wholeness. We hope for life, especially when all around we experience death. In the words of the psalm, we hope that “those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves” (Psalm 126:6). Gur hope is that “the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations” (Isaiah 61:11). “We look for the resurrection of the dead,” we say in the Nicene Creed, “and the life of the world to come.” For those he loves and longs to see and who are themselves longing to see a whole new world, Paul offers encouragement for the meantime. As Paul and his friends wait, he commends to them joy, prayer, and thanksgiving, along with openness and discernment with respect to the movement of the Spirit. Rejoicing, prayer, and thanksgiving are not three items to add to your pre-Christmas to-do list. They are words for what God is up to in and among us even now. Dirk Lange has noticed that joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), prayer is work that the Spirit does on our behalf (Romans 8:15-16), and thanksgiving is the practice of the Spirit-gathered community in the Lord’s Supper.1 Paul himself spoke of the Spirit as a down payment on all that God has promised in Christ Jesus (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:22; 5:5). Discerning the Spirit and testing evetything is a call to notice the future we hope for as it breaks into our present time of longing. What does it mean to notice the future now? A friend tells the story of caroling in a rough neighborhood in Durham, North Carolina. Gur church had offered a “Saturday Fun Day” for kids in Hearthside—kind of Sunday School on Saturday, with songs and lessons and snacks. Twenty kids would come for the fun day, but the congregation had not realty made any deeper connections with the neighborhood. Some people from church decided Christmas caroling might help. It went about as you would expect. Strangers walking door to door were not particularly welcome in a ^aech^cteriedby^vetty,<^gdealin^^ More people looked out through a slit in the draperies than actually opened a door to the carolers. Given this reception, my friend Paul was surprised when a woman in a

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    bathrobe opened the door and walked down her front steps to join the little group of singers in her driveway. They sang “Silent Night.”

    Silent night, Holy night, All is calm, all is bright. Round yon virgin, mother and ehild. Holy infant so, tender and mild; Sleep in heavenly peaee, sleep in heavenly peace.

    When they got to the words “Sleep in heavenly peace,” the woman lifted her arms and turned her hands up to heaven with tears streaming down her face. The group finished the song. She thanked them, and they walked on to another driveway. What they did not know when they were singing was that two weeks before, the woman,s son had been shot dead in the driveway where they sang. “Holy infant, so tender and mild; sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.” There were thousands of days between one youngster’s holy infancy and his violent death in that driveway. His mother knew both events and the path between them. Her baby was gone, her longing for him ever-present. She heard in the carolers’ song the news that God’s own heavenly peace was his. The news we share with each other in these short days is that our waiting, watching , and longing for a world made new is matched—and exceeded—by God’s own longing for the wholeness of all that God has made. The incarnation is God crawling through the telephone line to get to God’s own most beloved. The work of the spirit is God keeping at it, healing, forgiving, embracing even now until, at the last, heavenly peace is wholly peace on earth.

    Notes Dirk G. Lan^e, “Co!nment؛uy o n اThessalonian$ . :٩16-24,” Working Preacher (Dec. 11,2011) URL: http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1151, accessed 08/08/2014.

  • Beyond damage control

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    Beyond Damage Control

    John 20:11-18 (with Acts 10:34-43)

    Mary Hinkle Shore Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Brevard, North Carolina

    Christ is risen, and Mary is weeping. Mary Magdalene looks into an empty tomb, and she can only think toe worst. Someone has taken the body. Under usual Creumstances, of course, she would be right. It is a truism to say that just when you think things cannot get worse, they do. You lose your job, and then someone in the family gets sick. You lose your job, someone gets sick, and then a tree falls onto toe roof of your house. It is raining when toe tree falls, and toe gash in the roof provides a conduit that the water likes better than toe rain gutters. Just when you think things cannot get worse, they do. This sort ofthing can go on for a while. 1 remember once having to read the book of Job all toe way through for a class, forty-two chapters of Job complaining about his lot, documenting his troubles, declaring his innocence,forty-two chapters ofJob’s friends saying pious, blaming, and just annoying things in toe name of friendship and good advice. After about 14 chapters ofthis, you want to say, “Enough already,” and you still have 28 chapters to go. The book is exhausting. Someone mentioned this feature of the story to our instructor. He responded to all of us youngsters in toe class by saying, “Took, it’s the book of Job: you’re supposed to be sick of it before you’re done with it. The medium is toe message, and part of the message here is that lito is exhausting sometimes, especially when you’re sick or grieving.” That Sunday morning in toe garden, Mary was grieving. Women, like men, followed Jesus during his ministry. Some of the women among his followers provided for him from their own wealth.All toe gospels mention that women followers ofJesus kept vigil during the crucifixion and watched to see where the body was laid. Mary was there. She had been there also when rumors of an arrest began to circulate. With others who followed Jesus, she would have hoped that Jesus would escape danger somehow. After all, Jesus had been threatened at other times in his ministry and had been able to meft into toe crowd and walk to safety. But this time he did not escape. After Jesus was arrested, Maty could hope that the authorities only wanted to scare him. Maybe they would settle for a beating and not an execution. Maybe they would just detain him until after toe festival. They might let him go after the crowds at ?assover had left Jerusalem and the threat he posed to good order in toe temple and in the Roman province was past. But then came toe order for crueifixion. At toe crucifixion, she would have been praying for some judgment of God, some mercy, some miracle to free Jesus from toe torture. Finally, though, the only mercy forthcoming was a death that took hours rather than days to claim him. When we catch up with Mary on Sunday, it is hard to imagine how things could get worse. And then they do. The body is missing, and a stranger is imposing himself upon her grief with toe ridieulous question, “Why are you weeping?” 1 imagine Mary thinking, “Why am 1 weeping? How much time do you have? How much do you really want to know? Things just keep getting worse and worse.” Of course, she does not say any of that. Whatever Mary is thinking or feeling in

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    response to the (Question about why she is weepin§, she says only, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and 1 will take him away.” It is as if she had said, “kook, I just do not want anything worse to happen. Let me have the body, and my friends and I will find a way to give it a proper burial.” Mary embodies for us the move from hope to horror to damage control. A week before, as Jesus entered Jerusalem, Mary and the others had dared to hope for the Rule of God inaugurated on earth. Then she watched in horror as he was crucified and died. Now in the garden, she wants only to make sure her loved one’s body is not further desecrated in death. Hope, horror, damage control. If you hope for something as fervently as Mary had hoped for a different ending to Friday, and then you see the worst possible scenario unfold before your eyes, come Sunday morning you are probably not interested in hoping for anything at all. Mary looked into an empty tomb and turned away weeping. Mary looked at Jesus and could think only about how quickly a missing corpse could be located. After my dad died of cancer, my mom responded to people’s condolences by saying , “He was in so much pain at the end. I couldn’t wish him back the way he was.” It was tme of course. At the end, no one wanted my dad’s life to continue as it was, but that truth begged more questions than it answered. Why cancer in the first place? Was it too much to hope that Dad might have lived a healthy retirement alongside Mom for ten or fifteen years past his sixtieth birthday? By the time Dad had endured cancer and its treatment for five years, Mom was way past hoping for anything except that the horror ofhis being eaten from the inside out would cease and that she would learn to live alone, and so she said, “I couldn’t wish him back the way he was.” Damage control offers the comfort that maybe at least the worst is over. And when the choices in this world are between unchecked damage and damage control, then trying to make the best of a temible situation is exactly the right thing to do. Farents going through a divorce struggle to minimize the damage to their kids. Feople who are grieving comfort themselves with the reminder that their loved ones are no longer in pain. Folitical enemies agree to gmmbling compromises and fragile cease-fires. This is the fine, noble work of damage control. The resurrection of Jesus,however, testifies to the fact that God’s will for creation extends beyond such work. When Mary pleads to be told where the body is, the risen Jesus says simply, “Mary.” Jesus calls her by name, and she can see him. She hears his voice and realizes her teacher is standing there beside her. Beyond damage control is life from the dead. At that point, Mary must have hugged Jesus because the next line in the text is, “Do not hold onto me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father.” He has work to do, and so does she. Jesus sends her to the others. With the message that he gives Mary for the other disciples, Jesus reminds me of a kid who brings his friends home after school. The house, the food, the video games, all of them are shared as if the kids all belonged to the same family. Like that kid bringing his friends home, Jesus opens up the relationship he has with God to all of those with him. “Go to my brothers ,” Jesus says, “and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” The relationship that Jesus has with God is open now to everyone Jesus brings home. The resurrection of Jesus brings one experience after another that looks less like damage control and more like 1نﺀث from the dead. Jesus gets his life back. Then Mary

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    gets her life back as she reccgnizes him. Then she carries the news to the others. By Easter evening, instead of suffocating from guilt and fear behind locked doors, the tittle band of disciples is breathing in the Holy spirit given by Jesus himself. After that, it begins to look like God just has this thing for empty tombs and open doors. Eventually God opens the door to the home of the Roman centurion, Cornelius, and through that open door walks the Jewish fisherman, Simon ?eter. ?eter finds himself saying to Cornelius and his household, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34f). Before Easter, neither Mary’s witness to new tiff nor ?eter’s would have made sense. After Easter, they begin to. I say that these witnesses to new life begin to make sense because I know that the reality of resurrection in our lives is seen, as the apostle Paul would say, “through a glass darkly.” There is much to obscure our vision of liff from the dead. I think of Mary Magdalene there right beside the risen Jesus yet not able to recognize him, obscured as he was by her tears. The new tiff of the risen Christ takes shape in the still-contested world in which he was killed. Nonetheless, Mary testifies simply, “1 have seen the Lord!” Are you perhaps not there yet, at the clarity Mary has by the end of the gospel reading? When you and I are living closer to Mary’s tears than her testimony, when we are skeptical about the great victory that the Easter hymns proclaim, we are in exactly the same place where the followers of Jesus found themselves after his crucifixion. Part of the joy of this day is that nothing about the reality of the resurrection depends on whether we can honestly hope for it or not. In fact, Easter marks an event greater than anything Mary Magdalene or Peter or you or I could possibly have hoped for. ¥et here it is: beyond damage control God brings life from the dead—for Jesus, for Mary, for Peter, for Cornelius and his whole household, for you and me. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia?

  • Words for Peter

    This text was converted from the original print edition for full-text searchability. Formatting may differ from the original. Consult the PDF for citation and presentation details.

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    only later, in the morning. Here we are with our words and with many tears. But the reservoir of our faith is deep and resilient, and so we locate ?eter’s death in the midst of that faith that surpasses all of our anguish and pain. In the Heidelberg Cateehism, a wondrous Reformation statement of our faith, the first question of the teaching is this: “What is our only comfort, in life and in death?” This is an urgent question, given that the poet has said over and over, “There is none to comfort.” And the answer in the catechism is this: “My only comfort is that I belong—body and soul, in life and in death—not to myself, but to my faithful savior, Jesus Christ who has completely freed me from fee dominion of evil.” We belong to Christ in his faithfulness! ?eter belongs to him! And so do we! The catechism answer goes on to say, “He protects me so well that without fee will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fell from my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation.” This is fee truth for us in this day of loss and death. All of our sadness and anger and bewilderment are held in fee heart of God who knows fee hair on our heads and fee yearning of our hearts and fee our hunger for wellbeing. Feter is left to rest in that good assurance. And we, in our turn, can rest there as well. The God who birthed us and knows us and counts our hairs is the one we know in steadfast love, mercy, and faithfulness. That is our only comfort. We wait for that comfort to come among us. It is poised and will come for us in time to come.

    ؛ﺀ ب ه Wordsfor Peter

    Teigh Knauert Denver, Colorado

    For those of you who do not know, I am Feter’s mom. I thought it was important for you to hear from Peter’s mom today. I thought it was important because when I think about my situation as someone else’s, I can’t help but think that the first place I would go in my mind would be to the mother, in this case fee only surviving parent. How is she doing? What is she thinking? How can she survive another tragedy? What will she do? How can they go on? Although I don’t know fee answers to most of these questions, I do feel called to tell you at least part of what it is like to be me right now. I have had fee privilege over the past nine years to be exposed to a man who has taught me more about survival than anyone. I was married to one of his most prized students and am very close friends with two of his others. Walter Brueggemann’s years ofwork on fee psalms has provided me wife much ofwhat I have needed to deal wife the death of my husband, David. Because ofWalter’s work and his presence in my life through my darkest days, I have been reminded that my cries of pain have to be uttered, whether through soft and controlled words or through literal shouts and screams. The psalms are our Biblical model of the utterance of pain making possible fee sight of hope. Once we have cried out and have felt heard, we are then able to move to a new place. Only because my cries have been heard, by God and by many of you, have I been able to stand in this new place and enter into the healing that has

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    taken place in my life over the past three years. Because 1 have been able to say how bad the bad is, 1 can also say how good t1؛e good is. 1 remember well in the weeks after David died feeling like I was every bit as overwhelmed by the goodness of people stepping in and caring for us in unimaginable ways as I was by the awfulness of the fact that my husband had just died and 1 was left alone to face life and raise four children. 1 realized even then that this was a remarkable thing to be experiencing. 1 am not sure I am there this time. The horror of ?eter’s death is overwhelming in a much different way, and I have, in one week, been faced with things that have not yet and never will surface in grieving David. What 1 do know is this: like those being addressed in the Did Testament book of Deuteronomy, I have two choices in front of me. Chapter 30, verse 19 says, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that 1 have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life, so that you and your descendants ^^١١١live.” This choice is one we are faced with over and over every day. It is difficult, especially when we have so many voices coaxing us away from the choice we know will bring life. The forces of evil want to pull us toward death, both literal death and paths that lead toward eventual destruction. Hundreds of you, from my close friends to those with whom I am loosely connected, have been amazing examples to me of choosing life. You choose life when you fly across the country, twice now, to be by my side and give me a hug. You choose life when you bring my family a meal, allowing me one less dinner to think about. You choose life when you take my family on vacation, pay for us to ski, spend time with my children, provide me ways of caring for myself that go far beyond my basic needs. You choose life when you give and give and give to me. Some of the acts of generosity are so huge, I promise they would take your breath away. So, how can I make any other choice than that which has been so beautifully modeled to me? I would literally have to bury my head in a hole to not be blinded by the light of God’s love that so many of you have allowed to shine through yourselves. I cannot reject it; I cannot turn away from it. Indeed I can and will be distracted from it, pulled back into the painful places of the other parts of my reality, but I am convinced that choosing life will always be my ultimate decision because I have had the gift of seeing what that choice looks like in toe very best and in toe very worst situations. As a result, I stand here today to tell you that even in the unspeakable awfulness of what has happened to ?eter, death will not have the final word, not in my house and not in my family. Horrific images and haunting questions of why will not be my focus, even if they manage to creep in sometimes. Darkness and evil and horror and sadness and guilt and pain will not be toe last thing left at toe end of the day. I will continue to tell them that they have no place in a life and in a family that has been won over by Jesus’ message of triumphant love. That love will triumph over everything, even this. “Where, 0 Death, is your sting?” That I can answer. The sting of death has been and will continue to be a big part of my life experience. However, I can also answer the question asked next to that one in I Crinthians 15: “Where, 0 Death, is your Victory?” And my answer is, “Not here.” I hope that you as my community can keep answering this question with me this way. Death will have to find another place to settle in. We will keep choosing life together, and we will move ahead in our faith in the Gne that will, one day, banish all death forever, toe day when we meet ?eter

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    again face to face and see that beaming smile and know that all of this is behind us, and love has won once and for all. As we struggle with moving from this day back into the Christmas season, 1 find that this poem ofAnne Weems offers us an acceptable way to deal with foe otherwise difficult messages of good tidings of great joy that will surround us:

    Your burden is too great to bear? Your loneliness is intensified during this Christmas season? Your tears have no end? Not celebrate? You should lead the celebration! You should run through the streets to ring bells and sing foe loudest! You should fling tinsel on foe tree. And open your house to your neighbors and call them in to dance! For it is you above all others who know foe joy of Advent. It is unto you that a Savior is bom this day, One who comes to liff your burden from your shoulders, One who comes to wipe foe tears from your eyes. You are not alone, For He is born this day unto you.

  • Jester and tester

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    Page 33

    Jester and Tester

    John 6:1-14

    Frank G. Honeycutt

    St. John’s Lutheran Church, W alhalla, South Carolina

    He said {¡!is to test him,for he himselfknew what he was going to do. (John 6:6)

    1 don’t know exactly how to say this without appearing a bit irreverent, but have you ever noticed that Jesus seems to he something of a sly tease in the Bible? It’s Easter Sunday morning. Mary Magdalene has been crying her eyes out there at the empty tomb for a couple of hours, and Jesus appears to her, but he seems to be in disguise. She mistakes him for the gardener? He’s wearing different clothes, and this guy she knew so well before the previous Friday is not even recognizable. Now why does Jesus do this? Why does he seem to play with Mary and her fragile emotional state? It’s Easter Sunday evening. Two forlorn followers of Jesus walk a lonely road away from Jerusalem. They’ve completely given up on this entire kingdom of God enterprise when this guy walks up and asks them what’s wrong. We know it’s Jesus, but these two haven’t a clue. The two sad guys ask Jesus if he’s the only stranger in four counties who hasn’t heard the things that have transpired recently. Jesus, incognito , coyly answers, “What things?”2 Now what’s up with that? Why not help these two grieving guys feel better quicker? The disciples are crossing a stormy sea. The boat is on toe verge of going down, and all twelve guys are bailing like crazy, but Jesus is snoozing on a soft little pillow in the stem? Comfy, Jesus? He makes things right in the end, but why does he let these disciples squirm like fish on a hook? Part of our lesson involves Jesus walking on water. In Mark’s version of this same story, Jesus comes striding across toe sea, but then here comes this lidie detail: “He intended to pass them by.”* Just out for a little stroll, I guess. “Hey guys, please notice me in all my buoyancy, but I’ve got to be moving on. Ta-ta for now.” These are not isolated passages in toe scriptures, but a running theme—Jesus as trickster, joker, something of a theological tease. And so today’s story should not really surprise me. Jesus sees a large crowd coming his way. His popularity is on toe rise. It’s Passover and toe area is full of faithful pilgrims, so Jesus and toe disciples retreat to a mountain for a bit of privacy. But toe throngs just keep on coming. They all take toe blue-blazed side trail and follow Jesus up the hill. I should know Jesus well enough by now to sense toe twinkle in his eye, to look between toe lines of scripture, the words themselves, and try to set this scene in all its sensory lushness—the grass, the crowd; the wind, water, and weather; even Jesus’ emotions. The hymn “Break Now toe Bread of Life” is wonderfully inviting: “Beyond the sacred page, I seek you Lord.”5 Beyond it. I should know this is coming. I should know that Jesus has a tri،:k up his sleeve to make some point. But it does take me by surprise. Again! The disciples are nervous in this scene. They should be. Think about your last dinner party and how much ci’i’ort you put in to entertain a single table of invited guests. Now imagine 5,000 uninvited souls knocking on your door for some supper. It’s like toe whole town of Walhalla (and a couple of thousand more) hearing about

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    a picnic in your backyard. You can oniy stretch hotdogs so far. But Jesus sits there as calm as a cucumber. And he says to ?hilip, “Gee. Gee whillikers.” And perhaps there’s a pause here for dramatic effect. “1 wonder how we’re gonna’ feed all these people?” That line alone, if I’d been there, may have left me wondering about Jesus and his sanity. But we arc privy to more. Wc are privy to the mind of Jesus, editorial information that trusting, innocent Philip did not have. And this is what was going on in Jesus’ mind: he said this to test Philip because he himself knew what he was going to do. Now perhaps we should not skip over this line too quickly. This is no anomaly with Jesus. This seems to be a character trait—the man’s a ]ester, a tease, a tester. This is not just my opinion. There are far too many biblical examples to argue with the facts. What intrigues me is the obvious follow-up question— ﻣﺄ/وWhy does Jesus behave this way so consistently? Why this bait and switch style of theological teaching ? And why does he do it still—with individuals like you and me? With entire congregations maybe? Here’s a bit of truth that all serious students of the Bible will need to get used to at some point: Jesus is not going to make it all obvious for us. He’s going to tease and nudge and drop small pieces of bread along the path for us to pick up one at a time. Why? Because fois is what good teachers do. Jesus refuses to serve up a soufflé of universal principles that will magically fix all oflife’s problems. Jesus rarely provides instant solutions. This is hard for us to get used to in a world of instant everything. “My life was a mess. 1 was on my seventh marriage. I’d maxed out seventeen credit cards. I was addicted to Snickers Bars. And then I found Jesus and everything was instantly okay.” Instantly? Now come on. You can call it testing if you want. But I prefer to call it teaching. And I prefer to call foe result discipleship—where we follow in trust, where we mimic foe man, where we slowly over time are transformed, converted bit by bit into something the Bible calls foe very Body of Ghrist. ؛ ﺀهk ؛k

    And so a little boy comes forward with just a meager amount of food. But here’s foe thing: it’s all he has. In some ways he reminds me of the old woman at the temple treasury who put in “all she had.” ؛kike foe woman, foe little boy does not hold back. Now don’t get bogged down in how it all happens. The point is that Jesus does foe rest. Jesus takes even what appears to be a meager offering presented in hope and trust and transforms our offerings for foe sake of the whole. The story says that “Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them” to all in foe crowd. I hope you recognize those very familiar words. They are almost the Words of Institution, foe words we hear in conjunction with each Lord’s Supper. The Greek word for “give thanks” at this mountainside picnic thtown by Jesus is eucharistein—a word that gave birth to one of foe names for fois holy meal: Eucharist. Jesus can do lots even with a little. But he needs to know if our hearts are in it. ?erhaps he even tests our hearts as he once did with his disciples of old. There is a marvelous line from the Book of Ephesians where ?aul prays that God foe Father “may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being, with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (3:16-17). Paul is concerned here about foe inner being of the Christian. It’s surely no secret that we are obsessed with the external being in foe American

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    culture. We value beauty and washbeard abs aud wealth and first place and so many external things. It’s easy to spend two hours waxing the car while complaining there’s no time for prayer. I’ve done this. We all have. Why do we spend so much time on external stuff to the neglect of our inner lives? Because if truth were told, there’s a lot of darkness we Irani around internally, stuff we hide from friends, spouse, and even try to hide from God. It’s easier, we think, to stay busy, stay distracted, watch a lot of TV, and try to keep the internal darkness at bay. But one great truth of Christianity is that our external problems have internal solutions, not the other way around. Christ wants to probe places where 1 prefer to keep him at a distance. “May you be strengthened in your inner being,” says Paul, ff we really want to change, we do so from the inside out, not the other way around. Maybe this explains the teaching style of Jesus with his disciples. Knowing that all of us would be so secretive about our inner lives, the private place we hide so well, Christ has to surprise us with grace, even sneak up on us when we’re not looking, when our artfully protected guards are down.

    Notes 1 John 20:15. 2 Luke 24:19. 3 Mark 4:38. 4 Mark 6:48. 5 “Break Now the Bread 0 ؛Life” 6Luke21:4.

  • Protagonist corner [vol 37 no 2 2014]

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    Page 63

    Protagonist Corner

    Norman Shanks

    Glasgow, Scotland

    “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive….“ Wordsworth’s optimistic spin on the French Revolution somehow reflects, at least in part, the mood within Scotland at present. On 18 September, a referendum is to be held, and Scottish voters will be presented with a clear choice, whether to remain part of the United Kingdom or to regain independence and complete autonomy. As many readers in the us may know, Scotland was a separate nation with its own monarch nntil 1603 and had its own governance until 1707, when in rather controversial circumstances the Scottish and English parliaments were united. A movement for Scottish independence developed over the years, gaining momentum with an increasing groundswell of opposition to the policies of Tory governments, especially Margaret Thatcher’s. This led in 1999 to the creation of the present Scottish parliament at Holyrood in Edinburgh, with extensive powers on a wide range of social matters (health, education, local government, etc.), while foreign, defence, fiscal, and macro-economic policies continue to be determined in London. Since then there has been a continuing call for the devolution of more powers from Westminster, strengthened by the Scottish National Party surprisingly gaining an absolute majority at the most recent elections in 2011 and since then having been, by fairly general agreement, a responsible and effective government. The Scottish churches played an important part in the build-up to the creation of the Scottish parliament, in particular through their participation in a leading role in the work of the Scottish Constitutional Convention, which to a large extent laid the parliament’s foundation. In particular, the Church of Scotland as the national church (not strictly “established” like the Church of England, but more independent and separate from, and therefore able to adopt a more critical relationship with, government), had for many years taken a close interest in the constitutional discussions. Indeed at the time of the first devolution referendum in 1979, it got into some difficulties as to whether or not it was appropriate to reach an official view and urge church members to vote, specifically in favour of devolution – which narrowly failed at that point to gain the necessary overall electoral support. This time round the newspapers and broadcast media have for months been full of discussion of the issues. The different camps (“Better together” and “¥es for Scotland”) have been promoting their arguments vigorously, although too much attention has been concentrated on the potential economic benefits, “what’s in it for us” rather than “what outcome will be best for the good of all.” While opinion polls have been suggesting that there will be a clear majority who opt for the status ,٠٧٩ expert commentators are indicating that the result will be much closer and that the gap wifi narrow considerably as September approaches. The Church of Scotland’s Church and Society Council has dealt with the issues in successive reports to the 2012 and 2013 General Assemblies and has effectively encouraged local discussion within and among congregations with a view not to advocating one ٠٢ other side of the argument, but to encouraging people to reflect on the values that are important to Scotland’s future, how the churches can help to make Scotland a better place to

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    be, and how peo^e’s aspiïations and hopes ean be put into aetion. Within our loeal group ofeongregations (of different denominations),we are holding meetings in 2014 to help people think about the issues at stake. Within the Iona Community of whieh l ama member, a vigorous diseussion is under way. This topie was the eentral focus of members’ Community Week on Iona in Cetober last year, and the Community’s magazine Coracle is carrying a series of thought-provoking articles by former Leaders and others. Whenever the subject comes up when Community members gather, the conversation is likely to be lively – emotions run high؛ questions of distinctive identity and culture, social justice, and practical politics are interwoven؛ and there may even be, (thoroughly good-natured and well-intentioned of course!) charges of chauvinism and xenophobia. At least it ie a ^ r in g that on this occasion, contrary to what may have happened in foe past, there is little sign of any questioning ofthe appropriateness ofthe churches’ inolvement in discussion of these issues. There seems a general recognition that it is right that we should be engaging in this debate about foe kind of society we want Scotland to be, what should be its social and political priorities, what values should underpin and drive it, and what process of governance is most likely to deliver what we are seeking. Of course among grass-roots members of foe churches, there are different views on these matters؛ but it is an open, as yet unresolved question as to whether foe leadership of the churches should seek to give an indication of support one way or foe other. On foe one hand, this would be regarded by some as inadvisedly partisan and unduly divisive, and contrary to foe traditional “middle axiom” approach that on issues involving Christian ethics, church statements should be confined to general principles,grounded in theology,andshouldnotengage w it^actic^ political particularities. The alternative viewpoint, more persuasive in my opinion I confess, would suggest that on matters of critical social significance, where Gospel values and social wellbeing are at stake, foe church is justified in getting off foe fence and speaking out more decisively. At present in Scotland foe general feeling is that foe present Scottish National Party government has been doing a pretty good job. On many social issues, especially perhaps in foe fields of health and education, there is foe feeling that Scotland’s policies are better and fairer than those operative in England. There is, incredible as it may seem, at present only one Tory MP from Scotland at Westminster, and the indications of increasingly right-wing tendencies south of the border are disturbing. The commitment there to economic austerity and welfare reform is widening foe gap between richer and poorer, and there is the real possibility that a “No” vote in the referendum could have foe undesirable result of Scotland being stuck with a thoroughly uncongenial Westminster government and, into foe bargain, being taken out of the European Union. On foe other hand, a “Yes” vote would almost certainly reduce the chances of a Labour government, which has always depended on its substantial backing in Scotland, ever achieving victory again at Westminster! At such a time, it is salutary to remind ourselves that the Gospel is iforinsically counter-cultural, calling us to express “eschatological dis^isfaction” with foe prevailing culture of selfishness and consumerism and to take seriously our calling as “resident aliens.” As Christians, as churches, we are challenged not just to embody and thereby through our worship and witness to draw attention to foe vision and values of God’s kingdom؛ we are required not just to “love mercy and walk humbly

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    with God,” but to ، ؛٠justice. So we must be ready to engage with social and political realities, affirming the priority of the common good and mutual responsibility, pointing to the hope of a better, fairer world and the transforming potential of God’s grace. It remains to be seen how all this wifi play out over the months ahead: watch this space!

  • Good Friday meditation: ‘the seven last words’

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    Page 18

    Good Friday Meditation: “The Seven Last Words ”

    Ed Searcy

    University Hiil Congregation, United Church of Canada,

    Vancouver, British Columbia

    There is a tradition of marking Good Friday with a service that begins at noon and continues until three o’clock. It is worship that remembers the three hours of darkness when the sun does not shine. In these services it is customary to have not one sermon, not two, not even three, but seven, yes seven, sermons! Imagine. A sermon marathon. In some communities multiple congregations gather to mark the three hours, inviting seven different preachers to preach seven different sermons. Each sermon considers one of the seven last words that Jesus utters from the cress. Some of you are right now saying prayers of thanksgiving that we do not have a similar tradition here. You will forgive me if I confess that it is a dream of mine to one day be one of seven preachers caught up in foe Spirit, ^oclaiming the gospel on this crucial day. But since such a service does not appear to be on foe immediate horizon, I am taking the liberty of lining out a brief synopsis of seven sermons that might be preached if we decided to stay behind at noon until three this afternoon. John’s gospel records three ofthe seven words.Luke records three more. Matthew and Mark each record foe same one, making the total seven. Seven is a significant numberintheBible.Itisanumberof completeness. Together these final words provide foe church with a powerfully complete meditation on the gospel and foe cross. They also give us speech for our own dying, our own suffering, our own participation in Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. When we wonder what a good death, a faithful death, a death that participates in Christ’s dying and rising is like, we speak and we listen for words like these.

    “Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Forgiveness. With Jesus, it always involves forgiveness. Welcoming sinners. Teaching us to pray, “Forgive us as we forgive.” Answering foe gestion of how many times with (choose your translation) “seventy-seven times” or “seventy times seven.” Lifting foe cup saying, “This is my blood ofthe new covenant, poured out for many for foe forgiveness of sins.” Uis death on the cross is itself God’s massive work of forgiveness and reconciliation. Soon Jesus, risen from foe dead, will breathe on his disciples saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them.” Forgive. Forgiven. Hard words to utter. Fainful words to embody. Words that require dying to the wrong that has been done so that lifo in relationship can be restored. And when forgiveness seems utterly beyond us, Jesus teaches us to pray, “Father forgive.”

    “Truly / tell you, today you will be with me in paradise ” (Luke 23:43). It is Jesus’ response to a follow sufferer. “Jesus, remember me,” he cries, “when you come into your kingdom.” Remember me. Remember me because I am alone, because I have been forgotten, because I long to live in a realm where the last and foe least are the first and foe greatest, where the meek inherit foe earth and the hungry are fed, where captives are freed and burdens are shared. “Today,” replies Jesus, “you

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    will be with me in paradise, in my kingdom eome where God’s will is done. For those with eyes to see and ears to hear, the kingdom of God, paradise, is at hand.” It is as elose, Jesus is as close, as the decision to turn and to receive and to enter.

    “Woman, here is your son…. Here is your mother” (John 19:26-27). On the cross Jesus is forming a new community, a new family, a new people. His adoption agency called the church is in full view. His mother is not left without a son. His beloved disciple is not o!^haned. At the cross we discover once again what we learn first at baptism, that here water is thicker than blood. Here lost lambs are returned to the flock by the Good Shepherd. Here prodigal sons and daughters find, to their great surprise, that they are no longer “nobodies” given up for dead. Now they are redeemed “somebodies” who once were lost but now are found.

    “My God, my God why have youforsaken me? ” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). We regularly imagine that to feel abandoned by God is to lose faith in God. We portray ourselves as not good enough at believing. But here, on the cross, Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, experiences God-forsakenness. It is not the result of Christ’s lack offaith. It is a chapter in the human story. When God becomes inearnate in human flesh, God cannot escape this dark valley on the pilgrimage through life. Fortunately Jesus knows the mother tongue of the pilgrim people and has on his lips the ^enty-second Fsalm, a poem of deep faith that beyond abandonment lies rescue, redemption, salvation.

    “I thirst” (John 19:28). Jesus, source of living water, thirsts. The one whose life is outpoured to quench our thirst is himself thirsty. Thirsty for water. Thirsty also perhaps for love, for life, for God’s kingdom to come. He is in need. He cries out for care. He has burdens to be shared. We do not want to become burdens, dependent, needing care. We want to be on the giving, not the receiving end. But in the economy of the burden bearing society called the church, there comes a time when each one of us cries out in need: “I hunger, I thirst, I ache.”

    “It is finished” (John 19:30). “It is finished, but it is not over.”؛ These are words of completion, of fulfilment, of victory rather than of defeat. Jesus’ death is the triumphant moment when the ages turn, when earth’s axis shifts, when the curtain of the Temple is tom in two, and when God’s suffering love is revealed for all to see and to know. It is finished, but it is not over. What is finished is our old way of self-created life. What is completed is the new world in which we now live, a world in which we no longer need to live captive to anxiety and our need to control, a world in which we are freed to live as agents of God’s reconciling love. Because it is finished, but it is not over.

    “Father, into your hands / commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). Jesus is embarking on a journey of descent to the dead. He is on his way to the Father via “the ice cold silence of hell.”2 It is not that he has an immortal soul that will pass peacefully into joyous reunion in heaven, ft is that he is about to die, to really die. It is what it means to be mortal, not immortal. What lies beyond the ice cold

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    silence of death is not our doing; it is not Jesus’ doing. This cruciform pilgrimage through death to lifo is God’s handiwork. It is this holy pilgrimage through death to life that we begin in our baptism and continue hero today. In the words of the apostle ?aul, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from foe dead by foe glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3-4).” So we too might walk in newness of life. It is true.

    Notes 1 Stanley Hauerwas, Cross-Shattered Christ: Meditations on the Seven Last Words (Brazos Press: Grand Rapids, 2004), 902. 2 Ibid., 96.

  • Should bad singers be allowed in the choir?

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    Protagonist Corner

    Should Bad Singers Be Allowed in the Choir?

    Tamara Puffer

    Asheville, North Carolina

    Many years a§0, a man told me about singing in a small ehurch choir which had a woman in it who eould not carry a tune. She blasted out her part a quarter tone flat. My friend tried to stand as far away from her as possible because he eould not sing his part with her singing out of tune into his ear. Another woman, a trained singer, told about attending a loeal church. Listening to this particular church’s choir was a painful experience for her because several singers had no musical talent. The ؟uality of the choir was a hindrance to her worship. Another person echoed her sentiments: “Why would a church hire an expert to flx the roof yet allow those with no musical talent to participate in the choir? If a person is not a gifted singer, that person should become involved somewhere in the church where his or her gifts could best be used.” One man added, “Why do we have choirs in the first place? Isn’t the congregation supposed to participate together? The whole concept of the choir is opposed to liturgy which involves participation.” Worship is not a ^rformance with the a c tu a ry being a concert hall. However, this idea is a difficult concept for ministers, worship leaders, and congregational members. I am a ?resbyterian minister and worked as a professional violinist and violist prior to seminary. As a result, there is always a tension inside me between worship and performance. While in college in the early 80’s, I directed a small church choir. One year for ?اال1ه Sunday, we worked for weeks on a very difficult contemporary cantata. The schedule allowed only one rehearsal for the narrators, elders, and organist, but on that day there was a major snow storm, and we had to cancel. When Palm Sunday finally arrived, I was a nervous wreck. Yet, something extraordinary happened. The choir and other participants were more attentive than usual, and the spirit of God was present as we sang. There were mistakes to be sure, and visitors may have wondered about some of the musical problems. The piece told the poweritil story of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. Our presentation of it also told the story of 21 men and women who were determined to proclaim the gospel even though they were unprepared. And aren’t all of us unprepared to proclaim toe gospel? Letty Russell’s model of the “Household ofFreedom”؛ can shed light on the question , “Should bad singers be allowed in toe choir?” The image ofa “household” holds much baggage, for too often the “house” is a dangerous place, which is evident in toe amount of sexual abuse and domestic violence prevalent in our society. However when one carefully unpacks Russell’s image, one will see this “household” does not mirror our cultural understanding of toe home. Russell points out that toe image of toe household is peppered throughout toe Old and New Testaments, ft is evident in toe story of the family of Israel as well as those who were later grafted onto that family through toe life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.2 When told his mothers and brothers wished to speak to him, Jesus

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    answered, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” ?ointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:46-50). In the ^€ ٧١Testament, a house becomes a prevalent metaphor for Christ’s resurrected body and for the church. This metaphor for the church has many ^acteristics. First, all may p^ticipate. Paul’s instruction concerning the Lord’s Supper is an example of this, but there are many others. A second characteristic of this household is the lack of favored sons or daughters. In fact, the normal hierarchies are dissolved. A third characteristic is that everyone is challenged to try something new. Uneducated fisher folks learned how to preach. Martha was challenged to listen to Jesus rather than to be busy with chores. Worship is part of the household’s life together. It is both our act and God’s action . We enact worship using sermon, prayer, and music, but it is an action of the Spirit stirring deep inside us in often imperceptible ways that enlivens our worship. In my Palm Sunday story, the choir performed an act while God’s Spirit was active in kindling the worshiping community to go out and serve. Often music in worship and other settings is intended only for contemplation. If we wish to hear great music, we go to the concert hall and listen to the symphony. When we wish to see great paintings, we go to the museum. However, Roger Sessions , an American composer, points out that this way of listening to art is a recent phenomenon. Composers of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance wrote their music for church services and for secular occasions, or it was composed for amateurs who had received musical training as part of their education. Sessions believes that a listener is a true participant. By listening, one is sharing in toe work of the composer and toe performer and, to a greater or lesser extent, receives a sense of the music ^rformed.^ Many folks have told me that poor music in a church service inhibits their ability to worship, which I understand since I find it difficult to worship when toe music is Hawed. What we are really saying is poor performance inhibits our ability to participate in worship. In the Household of Freedom, music touches toe tender places inside while rousing us to go out and follow Jesus.The 21 members of the small choir I directed were proclaiming toe power of Jesus’ triumphant death and Resurrection. They were also proclaiming, “You know our hurts and struggles, yet look at what God is doing in our lives! God will do the same for you!” At Oakhurst Fresbyterian Church in Decatur, Georgia, there’s a gospel choir whose songs always push members to clap, sing, and be energized for ministry. Bob, one of the members, s ta in e d aTraumatic Brain Injury (TBI) several years ago and after a TBI, it’s pretty common for a person to have difficulty inhibiting one’s emotions . When the choir sings, members often clap and move, but Bob takes it one step further. In addition to swaying, he moves his arms in a swooping motion, and there is such joy on his face. It can be distracting if you’re a visitor and don’t know his story. However, toe Household of Freedom knows he is a retired man whose life was broken apart due to his accident. The Household of Freedom also knows that despite his many challenges, he serves God with reckless abandon in a way many of us fear. Every time toe Household of Freedom watches him, it is reminded of the power of

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    God ﻫﻦhis many challenges and how God prevails in the vicissitudes of life. In this way, music functions as more than contemplation in the worship service. It is where God’s story of Christ’s Resurrecting power and the Household’s story come togetherinpowerful,haling ways. T e h of Freedom. Members of the Household should be free to sing in the choir, even if they do not sing well. In this household, members are encouraged to try new things. Members are encouraged to discover new ways to participate in the storytelling. Sometimes, we talk about the church choir in terms of its quality. Feople will say, “We have a wonderful choir. They sing beautifully and add much to the service.” However, this is not the choir’s purpose—for in the Household ofFreedom, the choir is to be understood by how it helps the whole congregation grow in our relationship with God, in our relationships with each other, and how it helps move us to action. This is what it means to sing in the Household of God and what congregations must consider when addressing the question, “Should bad singers be allowed in the choir?”

    Notes 1 Letty Russell, Household of Freedom: Authority in Feminist Theology (?hiladelphia:Westminster ?res$, 1?87). 2Ihid.,37. 3 Nicholas Wolterstorff, Art in Action (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans ?ublishing Co., 1?80), 25.

  • With you always

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    With You Always

    Matthew 28:16-20

    Agnes w. Norfleet

    Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Chure’h, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

    Of tire four gospels, only Matthew has what we might eall a proper, definitive ending. The endings of both Mark and John are disputed by biblical scholars as having later editorial additions, and Luke’s gospel doesn’t end exactly, but continues with his sequel, the Acts of the Apostles. Only Matthew comes to a real moment of closure, and it is a scene abundantly filled with significance. The gathering itself is significant. The last time we saw Jesus together with the disciples was when they had “deserted him and fled” back in chapter 26 on the night of Jesus’ arrest before the crucifixion. So here we see them not only in full daytime, but also in light of the resurrection. The passage notes that eleven disciples are there, so that we can presume the memory of Judas’ betrayal still lingers. The location is significant. This unnamed mountaintop on which the Pisen Lord greets them recalls so many other mountains, from Sinai where the Law was given to Moses to the Sermon on the Mount, ever a high vista of divine revelation. Finally, what Jesus tells them is hugely significant. “The Great Commission” we call it, complete with its Trinitarian baptismal sending: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that 1 have commanded you.” The gospel ends, you see, where the work of the church begins, to spread the love of God in Christ by obeying his teachings. This is no easy task according to Matthew, but as ethically demanding as loving our enemies, turning the other cheek, walking the extra mile, forgiving seventy times seven, and giving our worldly possessions away! These are not easy lessons to take to the ends of the earth. But my guess is, few passages of scripture fueled foe fires of previous missionary movements as much as this one with its active, imperative verbs of “Go, Make, Baptize, Teach, and Obey.” And we all know that while some of that missionary movement spread foe grace of foe gospel, centuries ago that zeal also wem with systematic cultural and religious oppression .Christianizing NativeAmericans meant they were forced to bum ceremonial robes and destroy artifacts representing their cultural heritage. Taking the gospel to Africa meant asking people to give up their profoundly meaningful African names for their new so-called “Christian names,” which of course were merely Western, European names. Mayans in Central and South America were asked to leave behind their reverence for nature as they assumed this new cloak of Christianity. Given the not so distant history, then, of the ways this Great Commission was taken to heart and put imo practice, and with a broader, twenty-first century sensitivity and acceptance of religious pluralism, we have to listen, 1 believe, to how these closing words of Matthew’s gospel send us forth anew. The good news is foe text itself drops a big clue as to how contemporary Christians can reinterpret and respond to Jesus’ parting words. It comes when Matthew describes foe posture of the disciples. “When the disciples saw Jesus, they worshipped him; but some doubted.” At first hearing, it sounds like most of them recognized Jesus and worshipped him, while only a few of

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    them ١١ ا؛ ؛ doubt. If we were to put ourselves in that scene, we might wonder which one we would be, a worshipper ٢٠a doubter. But to read it that way as an either/or misses something in the translation. The original words are aetually better translated “They worshipped and they doubted!” Biblical scholar Mark Allen ?owell notes that Jesus neither rebukes the doubt ٢٠٨divides the disciples into two eamps, sending the worshippers in one direction to spread the gospel and the doubters back to discipleship sehool. Rather, Jesus reeeives both their worship and their wavering, their awe-struck reverence before the Risen Tord and their uncertainty about what it means, ?owell notes, “The church in Matthew is a community of worshipping doubters, and they always make the best evangelists. We can only testify to Jesus as people who do not have it all together, as people whose lives are still a bit of a mess.”1 I think this is very good news for us because we know we do not have perfect faith. We don’t understand a lot of what the Bible says, we are curious about the theology behind our longstanding and treasured affirmations of faith, and we know the mission of the church in this new era of being Christian is changing, even as the world is changing. An increasing number of Americans, when surveyed about their religious belief, check “٠٨ ؛a؛th whatsoever.” And when polled as to their negative connotations of the word Christian, young adults from age 16 to 29 rank high ٨٠their list of negatives “judgmental,” “hypocritical,” “out of touch with reality.” I cannot help but wonder if those of us who heed these words of Jesus were a little bit more honest about our doubts and what we do not know for sure, the gospel might be more easily received. We can take this Great Commission every bit as seriously as previous generations have, but maybe now we can hear it filtered through some humility, knowing that Jesus himself doesn’t let our doubts stand ؛٨the way. He sends us, nonetheless, with a job to do: Go, Make disciples, Baptize, Teach, and Obey, because he knew that in the activity of spreading the gospel, something besides pure, unquestioning faith would help us along the way. Tom Tong notes that this is ٠٨hit-and-run evangelism. What the disciples are sent to do is not hurl gospel leaflets into the wind ٢٠hold a rally in a stadium. They are called to the harder, less glamorous, more patient task of making dimples, of building Christian communities…. Only one word could have strengthened their resolve and sent them out to the vast and forbidding world carrying the gospel, and that was the word Jesus spoke: ‘And remember, 1 am with you always, to the end of the age.’… This parting, but enduring word ،’rom the risen Christ is the heart ofMatthew’s whole gospel. As the church goes out with.. .faith and doubt. ..todo the work of Christ, it is not promised success at every turn, a glad welcome in every heart, ٢٠even freedom from persecution and suffering. What the church is promised is that God in Christ will not abandon us but is present in our midst…} We are assured that it is not our faith alone that sends us into the world to do the work of the gospel; rather it is Jesus himself at our side, whether we believe it fully ٢٠not. A new translation of the last sentence of Matthew from the Common English Bible puts it this way: “Took, Jesus says, I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age.” Always…every day… here ٨٠earth…while we try to obey Jesus and support the Christian nurture of others for the sake of the world. “Emmanuel . God-with-us turns into Jesus-with-us. There is ٠٨greater personal promise

    7.7 Pentecost 2014

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    than that.’* I have been reading Barbara Bradley Hagerty’s bestseller Fingerprints ofGod: What Science is Learning about the Brain and Spiritual Experience. She is a journalist , and from a reporter’s perspective took a decade to investigate new scientific research probing howfoifoand spirituality m g^ psychologically. She traveled all over the place and interviewed all kinds of scientists who are studying things like what happens to the brain in people who meditate, if prayer affects the body, can spirituality be measured, is there a gene in our DNA that underlies some propensity to faith. Her research is compelling, and while admitting that what she discovers and what she discerns cannot yet be proven, her insights are fascinating. She begins and ends her book with personal reflection on her own growth in faith. Before she launched into this journalistic investigation she writes, “The faith 1 had ac؟uired and polished over the previous decade was a lovely thing. At its center shined a personal God, one who would sit down with me at a wedding reception and share a glass of wine.” Then toward the end of her book, she admits two things: she feared that this investigation into the science of spirituality might take some of her faith away, and she discovered a God who was more present than a date at a wedding reception. “As 1 delved into the science,” she writes, “1 realized I need not discard my faith. Rather, I must distinguish it from spiritual experience. Unlike spiritual experience, religious belief can never be tested by a brain scanner or even by historical record. No one can prove Jesus is the Son of God. What religious belief does is attempt to explain in a compelling narrative the unseen reality that lies at the heart of the spiritual experience.” She goes on, “I remember once pondering, if God wanted to speak to us, what would He say? The answer is simple: God tells stories. “When Jesus says that the way to eternal life is to follow Him, that means trying to live the story he lived feeding the poor, helping those who cannot benefit you, loving your enemies, sacrificing rather than promoting yourself, living as if every moment on earth counts for eternity.”* 1 think Hagerty’s concluding insight about her faith is not unlike the conclusion of Matthew’s gospel. The gospel ends only insofar as foe story of Jesus becomes foe story of our lives. With fhith and with doubt, with foe humility of not fully understanding , we are nonetheless sent to do what Jesus did. And the only thing we need to do the work of Jesus, we already have. He is with us.. .always.. .every day.

    Notes لMark Allen Powell. Loving Jesus (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress. 2004). 2 Thotr1،؛s G. l.ong. Matthew: Westminster Bible Companion (Foulsellle: Westminster .lohn Knox, 2004), 326-328. 3 Tom Wright, Matthewfor Everyone, Part 2 (Fonlsxllle: Westminster John Knox. 2004), 209. 4 Barbara Bradley Hagerty, Fingerprints ofGod: What Science is Learning about the Brain and Spiritual Experience (New York: Penguin Group, 2009) 10; 281-283.

  • He is going ahead of you

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    He Is Going Ahead of You

    Mark 16:1-8

    First Presbyterian Church, Charlotte, North Carolina

    The seven-year-old who lives in my house is turning into an avid reader. Good Night Moon led to The Runaway Bunny which led to some quirky books his aunt gave him about pet dinosaurs which led to the series du jour, toe Choose Your Own Adventure collection. What excites my seven-year-old almost as much as being able to read a book with chapters ( “Look Dad, chapters!”) is the thrill of participating in toe outcome of the story he reads. If you are not familiar with toe Choose Your Own Adventure series, toe concept goes like this: you start reading a story where you, the reader, are toe main character, and once toe author has introduced enough intrigue into the equation, you are forced to pick between two outcomes at the bottom of each page. The outcome you pick determines the shape of the rest of the story. Sometimes, the story takes a long time to read and ends well. Other times, if you choose the wrong adventure, toe book ends quickly and badly. Tike my seven-year-old. I, too, was enamored by the Choose Your Own Adventure series. And, in toe company of the saints this morning, I must confess that as an elementary student, I had the habit of exploring each of my options at toe bottom of the page by reading ahead to ensure that my adventure ended well. In Mark’s gospel account of Easter Sunday, the adventure is wide open. After Jesus’ crucifixion, after his burial, on toe third day, after toe women arrive at toe tomb carrying their spice, after they see that toe tomb is empty, and after the angel of the Lord tells them thatJesus is raised,those womenrunaway afraid.What happens next? Where does toe adventure lead? Mark doesn’t say. He puts those choices squarely on toe shoulders of those of us who hear this story. I know your Bibles show that there are more verses that pick up after I stopped reading the passage. But just about every Bible scholar will tell you that those verses, those endings, were written much later than the original gospel by people who couldn’t handle toe kind of adventure that Mark encouraged by leaving toe story unfinished. For Mark, toe good news of Jesus Christ ends with an empty tomb and with fear. Feriod. Have you ever wondered why the women were afraid? Sure, it’s not every day you see an angel or a vacant grave where there should be a body. I get that. Maybe that was toe cause of their fear. Or, maybe it was because the women were worried that someone—the disciples, the Roman guards, the temple uthority—would suspect that they were responsible for the to ^ ^ a ra n c e of Jesus’ body. It could be. That would also make sense. But today, on this reading of the Easter story, I’m convinced those women were afraid for a different reason. Along with one of my seminary professors, Cam Murchison , I think toe reason toe women were afraid upon seeing that empty tomb was because they knew that if Jesus wasn’t there, dead, laid out in the tomb, they knew that if Jesus really was ahead of them in Galilee like that angel told them, they knew that if this was toe case, then their lives were going to be completely different than what they expected as they set out that morning?

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    Earlier that morning, before the light of the sun had painted the edges of the Jerusalem sky, Mary, Mary, and Salome started out for the tomb where Jesus was buried with their hearts full of grief. But, as anyone who has ever grieved can tell you, a heart full of grief is also a heart full of a lot of other emotions beyond sadness. It’s not something we talk about mueh in polite company, but often one of those feelings wrapped into the grieving proeess is relief:

    relief that our loved one no longer has to suffer, relief to have elosure, relief of being free from the financial stress that eomes along with earetaking ,and relief to have our lives back.

    During his ministry, the life that Jesus laid out before his disciples, men and women, was demanding. Shot through Mark’s gospel is evidence of this. Jesus encouraged his disciples to

    deny themselves, take up their crosses, consort with the wrong kinds of people, love the unlovable as well as the enemy, practice forgiveness, turn the other cheek, reject the idolatry of money and possessions, and display a radical obedience to God in the face of persecution and rejection.

    Mark’s gospel is clear that a life spent following Jesus was not for the feint of heart. This kind of life that Jesus called his disciples to lead was predicated upon a dream—a dream that one day the world would conform to God’s vision. That vision is what the prophets wrote about. It was what Jesus talked about when he described the Kingdom of God. A commitment to that vision was the reason that Jesus went willingly to the cross and was crucified. And one reason why leading this kind of life demanded so much is that the world was a far cry from what God intended. One reason it was so difficult for the disciples to follow Jesus was that they had trouble seeing beyond the broken world right in front of them to the Kingdom about which Jesus taught. So Jesus’ death, beyond being tragic and horrible and saddening, also meant that this dream was dead too, that what Jesus worked for and yearned for and believed was for nothing, that the dream had been defeated. You can see how the death ofthat dream could lead the disciples to believe that they were off the hook; for if their teacher and Lord had failed at bringing about that dream, then certainly there was no point in their effort. That, I think, is the relief the women felt on the first Easter morning, the relief of knowing that their lives were, once again, their own, that the demands of Jesus’ claim on their lives were gone, closed, locked away in the tomb, a tomb that much to their dismay was empty. Instead of a body which they expected, these women who arrived at Jesus’ tomb received a message: “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He

    Journal/or Preachers

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    h a te e n raised. He is not Intte. He is going ahead of you to Galilee, t e r e you will see him.” But the women had been to Galilee. They knew that Galilee was full of disappointment. They knew that Galilee had problems, problems with injustiee and bad sehools and moral deeay and poverty and violence. The women had been to Galilee. They knew that in Galilee, being a disciple and being committed to God’s dream for the world would be demanding, almost impossibly so. So when the angel told them that Jesus had been raised and was ahead of them in Galilee, those women fled from the tomb and said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. We’ve been to Galilee. Even on Easter Sunday we know the world out there is full of problems and disappointments and despair and complicated questions and reasons to believe that God’s dream really has been defeated. So what is our response going to be to that angel? “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised. He is not here. He is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him.” What will our response be? Brian Blount says that fear is to be expected. In feet, he says feat if we are not afraid of what is being asked of us as followers of the resurrected Jesus in the world that you and 1 live in, then we are not paying attention.2 A friend relayed to me a story about a community organizer in New York named Mike Gecan. Mike tells of meeting Icie Johnson—a tall, trim and regal young African -American woman who belonged to St. Baul Baptist Church in East New York. When they met around a challenge to the im m unity one warm evening, wife the streets loud and edgy and angry and threatening, Gecan asked Icie why she wasn’t afraid. “I am afraid,” she said, as she prepared to leave an evening training session and head for fee bus stop two blocks away. “I am afraid,” she repeated. “Then why not wait for a ride or call a cab?” Gecan asked. “Because I’m not fearful,” she said, “not / اﻳﻴﺮof fear.” Wife that, she headed out into the street. “About an hour later,” Gecan writes, “after attaining session,I [headed into the street] too. And,in a [way], I’ve been following Icie Johnson ever since.”3 So often we believe (and we preach) that Easter is about understanding, about knowledge, about whether we can wrap our minds around this mystery that is the empty tomb and what that means about the nature of God and fee depth of God’s love for us. And that’s all right. Yet I want to tell you that Easter is also about courage. It is about risking participating in fee adventure. Because that is what it takes to really follow Christ. Easter is about looking at fee world clear eyed, full-force, wife all of its wonder and all of its problems and remembering that the tomb is empty, that Jesus is alive; he has gone on ahead of us. That the dream is not defeated. That an adventure awaits. And, yes, it will take work. And, yes, it will exact cost. And, yes, it will be worth it. Because, after all, we are a people of fee resurrection.

    Notes 1 Cameron Murchison, “Mark 16:1-8, ?astoral ?erspective,” Feasting on the Word (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2008), 352,354. 2 Brian Blount and Gary Charles, Preaching Mark in Two Voices (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002), 261. 3 With thanks to the Rev. Jessica Tate (The Well, Austin, 2002), 22.