God, the Finder (a sermon)

The following was preached at the First Presbyterian Church of Washingtonville, NY on Sunday, September 12, 2010. The primary scripture lesson was Luke 15:1-10.

When we meet up with Jesus in our Gospel lesson this morning, he has gathered quite the variety of people around him. Townspeople, ordinary folks, religious leaders, Pharisees and scribes, and sinners and tax collectors. Of course, we're used to seeing Jesus with that latter bunch of folks - the sinners and tax collectors. But, the Pharisees and scribes are apparently a little taken aback by the company that Jesus keeps. And so we hear the Pharisees and scribes "grumbling". (They just never seem to be in a good mood, do they?)

"This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them!" The religious leaders are disgusted. And, they are full of themselves... You can hear the disdain and contempt just dripping from every word. "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them!" These "sinners" aren't worth it, they think. These "creatures" are hopeless. Why would anyone worth anything - which Jesus claims to be, saying that he is the very Son of God - why would he waste his time with those kinds of people?

Of course, Jesus hears what they have to say. Most likely, everyone hears what they have to say. Rather like hot-headed people threatening to burn religious texts... or like loud-mouthed, hateful protesters at a military funeral... Everyone hears what the Pharisees and scribes have to say - they make sure of that. And Jesus responds. Not by chastising them. Not by yelling or reprimanding or turning over tables. Jesus responds by telling a story - a parable. He tells 3 parables, actually - though our scripture lesson today only includes 2 of the 3.

Jesus asks all of the people who are present: "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?...And what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?..."

Who among us is like that? Which one of us would do these things? Jesus asks these questions in such a way that they seem to beg us to respond "Well duh...we would," as if it is obvious that all of us would do those things without a thought. But, of course, it really isn't that obvious - it really isn't that way at all! Most likely, if we are honest with ourselves, none of us would do those things. Instead, we would cut our losses. We'd be crazy to risk the safety of 99 sheep - leaving them in the wilderness - to search for just one that is lost! It would be foolish to lose an entire day's work - or longer - to search for one list coin, when there are 9 other coins safely tucked away in our wallet already.

But Jesus, the asker of the questions and the teller of the stories, says: "Just what makes you think that these stories are about you? These aren't stories about how you behave - these are about how God behaves!"

If the Pharisees and scribes were grumbling before Jesus told these stories, they must have been fuming afterward. You see, the Pharisees believed that they had God all figured out. God was safe. God was predictable. God looked after the righteous and God damned the unrighteous. Everything was black and white. God had created us, given us rules to follow, and was now out there in the great beyond, waiting for us to obey. And only then - if we obeyed - would God welcome us. Anyone who dared to step off the path that they Pharisees knew and guarded so carefully were cursed. That was how God worked, they thought. And so, religion was all about separating the good from the bad. It was all about being righteous and staying as far away as possible from anything thought to be sinful, lest the righteous be "tainted" in any way...

Does anyone get the feeling that the Pharisees would have gotten along with Fred Phelps and Terry Jones?

Jesus tells a very different story. He paints a very different picture of God. Jesus describes God as a devoted, seeking shepherd. Jesus describes God as a persistent, searching woman. As Jesus describes, God is not some distant, hands-off rule-maker or taskmaster. God is closer than we think. God is relentlessly pursuing us! God values the "lost" just as much (and perhaps, even more so) as the not-so-lost. So, there is never even a question of God's simply cutting any losses and just shrugging off the lost - that sort of behaviour isn't even on God's radar. Regardless of any risks, God searches for us until we are found. It isn't a matter of "if" - it is always a "when".

Now, it is common to hear people say that they are "looking for something" when they come to church. Likely, we have all said it or thought it at some point ourselves. And, I suppose that the lost sheep in the parable was "looking for something", too. Yes, we like to think that we are here because we are looking for something - that we're searching for answers - that we're looking for God. And that's fine. There isn't really anything all that wrong with our thinking that. But, our scriptures describes something else. Time and time again, our scriptures describe sheep - people just like you and me. But we don't read about how these sheep go searching for and find a shepherd. We don't read about coins who search for and find an owner. No! We read and learn about a shepherd who searches non-stop for the sheep until they are found. We read and learn about a woman who turns the whole house upside-down for one coin until it is found.

Jesus tells these parables while he is sitting with sinners, and the Pharisees grumble about it. And, in effect, Jesus demonstrates with his actions - by his dining with the outcasts - the same amazing grace and love that God shows through the actions of the seeking shepherd and the searching woman. Jesus says to the Pharisees and scribes - to all those who want to put up walls and make distinctions between "us" and "them" - that he is exactly where he needs to be. Jesus says to those who grumble about his actions, "I came to seek and save the lost...why are you here?"

Father Robert Capon - an Episcopalian priest and scholar - said this of these parables in Luke's gospel: "The point is that what these two parables put together says is that what governs God's behavior to us is not our sins. It's not our problems. It's his need to find us. These parables go by the need of the finder to find, not about the need of the lost to be found... the universe is driven by the need of the finder to find all of us in our lostness."

God, the Finder, needs to find us - all of us. Now that is good news! No matter who we are, no matter where we are, no matter what we've done, no matter what we'll do, no matter what kind of "lostness" we are wrapped up in, and no matter whether we even realize that we're lost or not - God the Finder is searching non-stop for each of us. And God won't stop searching for us until we are found. And, when we get lost again... God will search again...

And every time we are found...scriptures tell us that the heavens will rejoice! There's a party like we can't even imagine every time we are found...

May God, the Almighty and Eternal Finder, find each of us - again and again. And may we all take a lesson from Christ, learning to dine in peace with our fellow "lost", resting in the knowledge that God will never give up on searching for each and every one of us...

Taking It All to Heart...

Sometimes I wonder why I bother to read the news or check out online opinion articles from certain affinity groups that associate themselves with the PCUSA. In my attempts to stay informed about what is going on in the world around me, as well as my commitment to do my best to listen to voices on all sides of the issues that face the church, I find that there are easy days and hard days. Today is NOT one of the easy days. It seems that - with the exception of the news that BP may have finally capped the oil leak in the Gulf - most everything that I have read today has been written to throw daggers at, well, folks like me. It isn't easy to NOT take it all to heart...

First, I read about the latest revision to the Vatican's in-house rules. The revision of these rules came about to address the various "sex scandal" issues that the Roman Catholic Church has struggled with in recent months/years. But, the Vatican - in all its "wisdom" - also made a rather startling addition to their in-house rules regarding the attempted ordination of women. Any attempt to ordain a woman is now considered to be a "grave crime", which happens to have the same set of punishments as those named for sex abuse! A "grave crime"??? Any woman who feels God's call to share the Good News of the Gospel and offer the Sacraments in the name of Christ is guilty of a "grave crime"? The Devil must be having a wonderful laugh with this one, as the Church continues to deny the movement of the Spirit in the name of "holiness"! I was ordained almost 5 years ago as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the PCUSA, and I must admit that it is difficult not to take this announcement from the Vatican to heart. I was called to this ministry - it isn't a game, it isn't "just a job", and it isn't some sort of political statement. I wonder what this pronouncement by the Vatican is going to do to inter-faith and inter-denominational relations. The church that is directly next door to the church I serve is a Roman Catholic Church. I pray that this latest bit of "goodness" from Rome will not hinder our ability to do ministry together.

Second, I read some of the opinion pieces and letters to the editor that were posted on The Layman Online. The vast majority of them were all commenting on the 219th General Assembly of the PCUSA. Now, I could go into how much I disagree with their assessment of the Assembly's decisions on various issues, but I will save that for another time. What really struck me today was the ever-present assumption that folks like me (people who don't agree with The Layman or PFR and the like) don't study Scripture, don't value the Lordship of Christ, and don't practice prayerful discernment of the will of God.

Hmm...how can I put this...? THAT COULDN'T BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH!!! (Phew! I feel a little better. Sorry for yelling.)

I DO study the Scriptures. And I don't just read one English translation and then claim full and complete knowledge of what God is speaking in a particular text. I do my utmost to read Scripture in ways that are faithful to our denomination's statements from 1982 & 1983: Presbyterian Understanding and Use of Holy Scripture and Biblical Authority and Interpretation.

I DO value the Lordship of Jesus the Christ. In fact, I depend on it. Jesus Christ is Head of the Church and Lord of all. Not the Scriptures. Not the Church. Not my understanding of God - and not the understanding of God belonging to anyone else, either... Only Christ.

I DO practice prayerful discernment. I find it fascinating that people on all sides of the many issues that we wrestle with as a Church seem so ready, willing, and able to point at "them" and claim that "they" aren't praying or seeking to discern the will of God. What is the basis for these claims - the fact that we don't agree? Considering that NONE of us have God's vision (to claim that we do is idolatrous and delusional, at best), what on earth makes us think that we can rightly judge who is in conversation with God or not? Personally, I am getting very tired of my fellows in the Church who claim (whenever a decision doesn't go their way) that clearly God's will is being ignored or denied. Could it be that maybe - just maybe - God is trying to tell you something when you don't get your way? I seem to recall there being a prayer that asks God "Thy will be done", not "My will be done"...

I am wrestling with trying to not take these things to heart....

The Lenten Journey Begins...

For several years now, I have opted out of the whole "give something up for Lent" thing. Instead, I have chosen to dare to "take something on for Lent". This year, I am challenging myself to take on 2 things:

1. Zumba
2. Actually posting to my blog on a regular basis

Yes, I am beginning Zumba classes. For those who aren't familiar with Zumba, it is a workout program/class that feels more like a Latin dance fiesta than your average exercise program. I've been to one class so far, and I loved it! In many respects, this one is all about the practice of Honoring the Body. As one who was created in the image of God, I need to remember that my body is worthy of care - it is, after all, "a temple of the Holy Spirit within [me]" (1 Corinthians 6:19).

My second challenge...well... I know that I have tried to post on a more regular basis in the past. I've even managed to succeed on occasion! But I really do want to work on this one. I find that I am forever thinking about things to post - things to write about, talk about, ask you all about...but then I don't bother to sit down and actually blog about it! This has got to change. So, considering another Christian practice - Saying Yes and Saying No - I am determined to do better.

You may be curious about this "Saying Yes and Saying No" business. Good. I hope you are curious! Once again, as I have done in the past, I am leading a study on several Christian practices during this season of Lent. I am a huge fan of the book Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for a Searching People (edited by Dorothy C. Bass) - it is a wonderful resource, and it provides for a fantastic book study. In conjunction with the book study, I am also going to be preaching on Christian practices during the entire season of Lent (and likely into the Easter season, as well). I plan to invite you all into the conversation here on my blog, too!

So...that's what I'm looking forward to as I begin this Lenten journey once again. How about you?

Let Them Grow Together

On Sunday, I dared to preach on the parable that is commonly referred to as “The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares (Weeds)”. You know the one – a guy plants wheat, someone else plants weeds (that look exactly like the wheat) in the same field, and the two types of plants are allowed to grow together until the harvest… at which point, the weeds are gathered up to be used as fuel for the fire, and the wheat finds sanctuary in the barn. Yep… I think a lot of us like to read the parable that way – with the emphasis being on how the “nasty weeds” are going to “get it” in the end. We tend to read it as if it is one of Aesop’s Fables with some moral to be grasped by the time we reach the last sentence. That’s how I learned it decades ago at VBS: “Remember kids… don’t be a weed!”

But is that what Jesus is trying to say in this parable? I don’t think it is. It is a shame that we so often read parables as if they are Biblical Aesop’s Fables, with characters who represent certain kinds of people and a clear “moral to the story” to be learned with each. When we read parables in this way, I believe that we miss most of the point of parables. Parables – if we really read them, instead of reading into them – don’t give clear answers. Parables usually leave us with more questions than answers – and I think that is exactly why Jesus used parables to talk about things like the Kingdom of God. Why? Because by his using parables to teach, Jesus invites us into an ongoing conversation with him (as opposed to just giving us the answers – which we probably couldn’t handle anyway – and letting us live our lives without needing to be dependent on Jesus).

I believe that Jesus wants us to join him in wrestling with the scriptures instead of constantly wrestling with each other. Wrestling with each other isn’t going to get us anywhere. But, wrestling with Scripture as we remain in conversation with Christ gets us closer to the Word of God.

One of the questions that I have wrestled with as I read this parable is, “what are we supposed to do with the Wheat and the Weeds?” (We always want to know what to do, right?) The response to that given in the parable is “Let them both grow together.” For those who are fans of Greek, check out the word that is translated here as “let them”… it is also used in the Lord’s Prayer, but it is translated there as “forgive”. Forgive and grow together…? Oh, if we would dare to take this to heart and live this way as Christians! The world expects Christians to point fingers and place blame (check out chapter 8 of UnChristian). I hope and pray that we will dare to take the world by surprise and live as people characterized by forgiveness instead of judgment!