Day 36 - Fire and Chaff

My sermon reading 1/13/13: Isaiah 43:1-7;  Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Last week I said the readings for worship since Advent provide hints or pieces of the answer to the question, “Why did Jesus come to earth?” Today we shall think about the baptism of Jesus in the light of that question. 

Did you ever wonder why Jesus the Son of God was baptized?

When you read these words of John the Baptist about gathering the grain and throwing the chaff into the fire, what do you think?  Your answer really depends a lot on your religious heritage. If you are of a more Pentecostal bent or come from a Baptist tradition like me, you may think of some of the old fire and brimstone preachers you heard challenging you to repent or risk burning in the fire of Hell.

Presbyterians, and for that matter all of the reformed faith, believe baptism is the sign of new birth, we have discarded the old clothes of death and put on the new clothes of life as begin a Christian life. Presbyterians might also say some of us are elected to receive that grace and others the fire of Hell. 

I’m not going to argue with John Calvin on predestination for at least two reasons, first I’m not presumptuous enough to know if you or I are elected or not; and second, like Paul I know that no matter how clearly I know the good thing to do, I will do what is bad.

Baptism is a sign of our redemption from that inescapable reality of sin. Our strength in Baptism opens the way for the Holy Spirit to come to us and seal our redemption.

Think about it like this. If I have the option to choose to be saved, then may be I don’t need Jesus, I can do it own my own. But if I accept the fact that I am a totally lost person and can do absolutely nothing to be saved; the freely given gift of God’s grace of salvation and redemption through Christ takes on very great power and meaning as an unmerited gift.

 The traditional way we describe this gift is to say God has reckoned us righteous in spite of our sin; he has justified us.  To reckon someone righteous means regardless of guilt, before there even is a trial God has dismissed the charges and said, “I make you righteous.” That is what he did to Abraham. When Abraham obeyed the Lord he was reckoned righteous for his faith alone.

That is quite a gift and obligation that I am not sure we can fully understand unless we find an answer to the question, “Why did Jesus come to earth?”

Sometimes we don’t really appreciate that Jesus came to earth as a complete human being. We think he is really God and God can do anything. God could have blessed us with the grace of salvation with no more than a willful thought or wave of the hand…

Why did God work in this way, come to earth in the complete form of a human and suffer our life of temptations, compassion, mean-spirited urges and death? Why did Jesus come to earth as a human? I suggest to you that it is tied up in God’s declaration, “It is very good.” In Genesis after all, when he created us he said it was very good.  That sounds really close to the words from heaven at Jesus’ baptism, “You are my Son with you I am well pleased.”

We can see the baptism of Jesus as a validation of that blessing at our original creation. Baptism is a sign of redemption for humankind accomplished by the ultimate human experience of the death by crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.  It is a sign of our justification as one of God’s beloved children, the gift of grace of salvation.

Let me explain it this way. Paul’s remark about knowing what is right strikes at the heart of what baptism means. Baptism is more than a sign of redemption and justification of righteousness in the face of that sin. Being reckoned righteous is Jesus walking up to you and saying, “I just wrote your name in the book of life and now that I have reckoned you a compassionate, righteous person, go act like it.” Our obligation when we put on those new clothes - when we are reborn – is to seek something called sanctification.   That is what the great commission speaks to the disciples: 

Matt. 28:19-20 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 I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (NOTE: There are only 2 commandments – what are they?)

A Story about Justification and Sanctification

In my spare time, which I find very little of lately, I build furniture and work on our house. When I need to I can rewire an old circuit if it is simple or run a new one. I can repair the end of rotted roof rafters, install a gutter, rough in a doorframe or an interior wall or even build my own kitchen cabinetry.

I’m not bragging though because I would never call myself a carpenter or electrician, I’m only good enough to get in trouble. In fact every time I look at one of my pieces of furniture, I see an edge that should have run differently, or a less than perfect gaps on that cabinet door. I see my mistakes that most folks don’t ever see.

I picked up these skills over the years. I lived in Pittsburgh thirty or so years ago while I was working as a metallurgist for Alcoa. I bought my first house, a wood-framed two-story structure about a hundred years old. It was framed out of 2x4 hemlock two stories tall. If you know anything about old houses, you know I bought a project. That is where I started practicing on rotten roof rafters, roofing and tile work. Like many of you who a lot better at it than I am, when something needs to be done, I just go out and do it.

I hadn’t thought a lot about that old house until this past December. My oldest son who I love dearly is a “starving artist-type.”  That means under-employed, but finally he has found a way to purchase a house. For him, buying a house means buying a fixer upper - a serious fixer-upper. It reminded me how I learned to work on old houses.

He called to ask, “Dad, can you come down to Atlanta and help me assess what needed to be done on my house? Dad, I don’t want you to do the work l want to do it myself, but I don’t know much about carpentry or electrical work and I’m really not very confident tackling what needs to be done. If you could come down and help, show me how to do things and what tools I need, and maybe loan me some of your tools, then I can learn from you, ask you for advice when I’m in a bind, and do the rest myself.”

After I got down off cloud number 9 from where that complement sent me, and packed away my pride, I thought about how what he said so mirrors sanctification.

I realize I had absolutely no choice about being born in Akron, Ohio or growing up in Rome, GA where my father grew up, no choice to be born in a poor family barely a generation removed from poor, working farms or even of being on this green earth at all. Who I am, where I am, is all beyond my control. God put us here for his reasons.

Two of my blessings are my father and mother. My dad, long deceased, worked as an electrician with his stepfather early in his youth. His stepfather was the first one who didn’t work on a farm but they were still poor. Granddad and my tag-along Dad did most of the work that needed to be done. By the time my dad was an adult, he never hesitated to tackle a problem on our home. When he wanted to convert our duplex into a single family home he learned to build a roof truss in the attic so he could tear out a load-bearing wall and not have the ceiling fall.

My confidence came from watching my Dad do it. I learned not so much techniques as confidence in the face of challenge.  And now, here I have my son calling with the confidence he can do it, if I’ll help him learn.

 That confidence to do what needs to be done is what being reckoned righteous means -justification. I realized I could watch my Dad, or find the information in a book and then start trying it by myself.  My first few projects were not ready for Country Living Magazine or Fine Homebuilding, more likely better for firewood. But with every project my skill improved.

That practice and learning is what sanctification is all about, watching fellow Christians do good things; reading about how Jesus lived his life as a model for us; and practice, practice, practice. For us, the human catch to being reckoned righteous, of being justified without having any say to it is the hard work of sanctification that follows - unless we want to abuse that gift of righteousness.

Only God Can Do It

Why did Jesus come to earth?   God chose the time, place and human person. It is important is that Jesus came to earth as a human person and felt every positive and negative thought and urge…and experienced our death. This is God’s ultimate statement of our relationship to him, being a comrade in arms with Jesus.

He experienced every trial and temptation we experience but filled with the Holy Spirit, the helper and advocate, he remained sinless and fully sanctified. He promised to leave to us that Holy Spirit that he called our guide, our helper, our defender. Baptism is the mark of that we are justified righteous and empowered by the Holy Spirit with the charge to seek sanctification.

The task before us now is every day to get a little closer to living this life as Jesus lived his.

None of us are the perfect grain of wheat or rice to be plucked and placed in the granary as is. We are not gods. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  Sin is the great equalizer. What we can do is work in humility with our fellow travelers seeking to perfect our behavior and thoughts, rubbing our shoulders with the world and breaking off the husks, the chaff and the dirt that cover us until we begin to shine like polished grains of life in the darkness of the world spreading the compassion being made righteousness brings.

We are reckoned righteous… God did that. We can’t say, “Oh today I’m going to be saved.” We can choose to say, “Today I know I am going to stumble, I’m going to forget to measure twice and cut once but with God’s help, the Holy Spirit, I am going to pick myself up from my stumble, hug my neighbor, ask for forgiveness, and begin again to perfect my living as an example of Christ.”

Paul said our path is to seek justice and peace. That is what the Church is about, that is what we are about, that is baptism is about. That is what Jesus being on earth is about - growing in justice and peace honoring the greatest two commandments. Amen.

Day 29 - The Theology of Power

In a recent Facebook post two friends debated the (personal) significance of conservative and radical views of social activism. Here is a view of the subject:

Are you (theologically) a conservative, moderate or radical?

Before I reflect on that question let us consider the theology of power.

The theology of power has at least 2 ordained parts:

1. One exercises power as a vocation for the purpose of witnessing Christ's mission to humanity, that is, social or political witness is done under the authority(ies) of that (co)mission.

2. Power is a gift rooted in the creation story; we are human agents that have a moral imperative within the constraints imposed by God.

I purposefully am not quoting scripture as proof text, I'll leave it to you to carefully read Micah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, the Gospels and the epistles and be informed of your own take on it.

But, following (1.) and (2.); the measure of a faithful leader is how they use of social power to achieve rightful moral ends. Those ends are clearly established in our religious tradition:

1. Does it defend the weak?
2. Ddoes it uphold the cause of the poor and oppressed?
3. Does it rescue the weak?

Arguments for conservative, moderate or radical social/political/religious purposes often are not supported by the reasons we might like to wish.

1. To have power.  Israel rebuked God and asked for a king rather than Him. He consented and we have what we desired, the page is turned, we live in a world of our own choosing. One might say this was the point of original sin - we  wanted control (power) and we got it.

2. To exercise a moral use of power. A moderate may propose a moral use for power, ignoring the fundamental motive/desire of power in the previous point. It will corrupt.

3. To challenge power. The radical may challenge that (im)moral use of power based on its practical consequences that abuse, suppress and oppress. Their motive may be relatively or ideally pure, but regardless of the person every one who challenges power uses power, even the anarchist and ultimately falls to the seduction of our intrinsic humanity that desires to impose by power, their anarchist perspective to overthrow the perceived immoral order. The anarchist soon finds no alternative than to defend their own de facto political order and begin the oppression again.

Every radical, every moderate, every reactionary for their own sanity, much less their own spiritual perspective benefits from reading Henry Richard Niebuhr's works to appreciate that they too follow a common path toward institutionalization or accommodation of culture and consequent immoral (sinful) exercise of power.

Power eventually corrupts, whether satanic evil or denominationalism all face a common time-proved fate.

In the end, the only saving grace is humility, knowing regardless of how we try though we may advance the faith eventually we will be followed by those prepared if not also ordained to take the next step forward.

Grace and peace,
Henry

Day 28 - An Opportunity to Shine - Epiphany

Today We Observe Epiphany. 

 The word means a sudden appearance. You probably have heard or remarked yourself when you had a sudden realization about some matter of importance, “I had an epiphany yesterday,” or remarked after explaining something for the nth time, "She finally saw the light!" More particularly drawing on its Greek origin, epiphany means a sudden appearance of a bright light, or by extension, a revelation of God. Epiphany celebrates the day our tradition holds that the Magi(wisemen) visited Jesus. 

What kind of revelation caused a group of Gentiles called magi to take a difficult trek with from deep in Iraq or Persia to find the infant Jesus? 

 The Path to From Advent Season to Epiphany. 

 I do not know how often you read the bible or how closely. Most folks don’t read it as closely as they used to and now even our children and grandchildren read it even less. I encourage you to set a time to read it daily, especially the readings for Sundays. The Revised Common Lectionary (Internet) is a good place to start. It provides readings for daily worship and preaching on Sundays. 

 Each Sunday from Advent to Epiphany the lectionary has explored the question, “Why did Jesus come to earth?” If you will indulge me, let’s do a quick review of what has happened since Advent began. 

The advent season began not with a reading of his birth, but with Jesus just before the arrest and crucifixion talking about the future beyond the cross, (Luke 21:34-35) “…Take care that your hearts are not dulled by…the anxieties of day-to-day life. Don’t let that day (of the coming of the Son of Man) fall upon you like a trap.” 

 Zechariah, father of unborn John the Baptist, and filled with the Holy Spirit proclaims his son will tell the people (Luke 1:78-79) that “ By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, (Jesus Christ will come) to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” … “To give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.” [Those who sit in darkness is a euphemism for Gentiles.] 

 Following that the Baptist himself speaks a more somber message (Luke 7:17): “His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” 

 We heard Mary’s beautiful song recalling Micah (Lk1:50-52) : “His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.

 Each Sunday we received a hint to the answer to the question, “Why did Jesus come to earth?” We will get final answer in his own words to the question the last Sunday of the month. 

 Today we have the visit of the magi. You may wonder, “How does the story of the visit of the Magi answer the question of why Jesus came to earth?” 

 The Magi and A Great Light. 

 Our word magic comes from magi, but the magi weren’t magicians or Jews by the way but Gentile people of knowledge of the practical world that most people did not have. When they used this knowledge it seemed to most that they accomplished seemingly mysterious things. They just knew how the world worked; we might even call them astrologers, but  a more accurate description might be scientists of their day. 

 They knew following this great light, a star of some kind in the sky would lead them to Jesus, the new king of the Jews. But scientific knowledge and rationality can't explain this light and foreknowledge to know where to go and what to find. 

 How could the magi in Iraq or Persia know this light led to a new king of the Jews except by a revelation of the Holy Spirit? 

 Thus, Epiphany honors the day of revelation that Jesus has brought light into the world of the darkness of Gentiles. The magi signify that Jesus came into the world as the great light of salvation for all who live in darkness… 

 The Problem of Darkness. 

 We all have a problem with darkness, especially if sin is involved. What we do behind closed doors, in the cover of night, or in the privacy of our thoughts is not visible to the world and therefore, we can delude ourselves it isn't visible to us or to God. We prefer to use darkness to hide our inner self from others rather than use our public deportment as a light to others. That love of darkness blinds us, leaving us hopelessly lost from grace in the world of our fellow people. 

 A knock on the door in the middle of the night or your phone ringing is hardly ever a welcome sign of good news. Herod and the Jewish religious leaders certainly took the visit of the Magi saying a new King of the Jews was in Bethlehem that way. 

Herod was a Jewish puppet leader who curried the favor of Rome but kept the collusion hidden from his people. He and his minions knew the words of Micah that Mary proclaimed (Luke 1:52- 53, The Message Translation): “He knocked tyrants off their high horses, pulled victims out of the mud.  The starving poor sat down to a banquet; the callous rich were left out in the cold.” 

No, the news of a new king didn’t sit well with the tyrant Herod. He killed many young boys trying to extinguish that light because he had his foot on his people’s neck, pressing them further down into the darkness of oppression. 

 The Good News: Misery Can Be An Opportunity to Shine. 

 If someone needed darkness as much as Herod, it was Paul. How much easier for Paul the preacher if he could hide his history of pursuing Christians to their death – you remember reading in Acts that he held the coats of the high priest and the others that stoned Stephen to death for proclaiming the Gospel story. 

 The light of the Holy Spirit caught Paul on the road to Damascus. That light illumined his soul and he “owned up” to his past and embraced the forgiveness and freedom of faith. 

Rather than hide his infamy in the darkness of the past he talked about it and made it part of his own testimony about the Good News. In Ephesians Paul said he was the least of the saints because of his past. Paul used his weakness as strength. 

He used his grievous, miserable past of persecuting Christians to demonstrate by his new life and testimony to the Gentiles that he was forgiven in the Good News. Those congregations he started, most all of them small and struggling, grew strong and became lights shining on a hill pointing the way to new life. 

 Listen to Jesus in Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

 …Why did Jesus come to earth?... Today we learn he came to bring underserved grace… light to people who love darkness - an unjustified, freely given light that takes us into the congregation of citizens of Heaven, just as it led the magi to the King. 

 Because this gift is so precious, can we do any less in every circumstance of our life than to strive constantly to live as Christ lived ? 

 It is a wonderful and glorious opportunity for us here at Soddy-Daisy First Presbyterian Church to know that we have been given the grace to take every circumstance of our lives, every blessing and every hardship as an opportunity to shine with the light of Christ in the world. In that way even our hardships can be a blessing. 

 Friends, “Why did Jesus come to earth?” Jesus came to bring this Good News: Take every circumstance as an opportunity to shine as Christ does to the world.   Amen.

Day 23- Occupy!

What is the product of work? Is it a human property?

When I hear someone shout that word, “Occupy!” I think about the recent shouts over Wall Street and the shouts of the 1960’s and 1970’s over some administration building on a university campus.

The similarity of inspiration in both shouts as advocacy for justice is apparent. In the former case it was to end a war sired by a distorted political worldview, and the latter to overturn an oppressive economic order sired by centuries of capitalism and globalization that draws its fuel from science and technology.

But, I can also see an insidious temptation in that shout to embrace of the very thing the shouts opposes, the idea that the product of work is human property.

In the former case, motivation was as much to avoid being drafted and sent to Vietnam with the risk of death as it was to obtain justice for a country habitually ruled by Western influence. In the latter case, the motivation comes as much from the self-interest to get as much of that pie that the rich have as it does for the desire to “feed my sheep.”

One may argue, “What does it matter if we achieve a good purpose, namely, ending an unjust war, or redistributing selfishly acquired wealth to those in need?”

Perhaps it does matter. I wonder if it really boils down to rejecting or embracing that basic premise about work. To make an absolute claim on property as an exercise of individual freedom has to give way to the reality that everything we have is on loan from God.

Our private claim to the product of work is as heretical as the idea of the self-made person.  We do not own the product of our work; therefore, when we propose to take it (occupy it) regardless of who holds it at present we are seeking to take from God something that is rightfully God's. When we do this we seem to have found the heart of sin.

When we see the product of our work as a blessing from God and strive to share the creation of our own work with the remainder of his creation, then we have found the heart of grace.

The only person we can change is our self. Once we have done that, perhaps our deportment will encourage others to do the same.

Happy New Year!

Day 16 - Merry Christmas, He has come!

For me, the "problem" with sermons is that I tend to keep thinking about them.

Today we celebrate  Christ's coming to the world and as  suggested, wonder about the answer to the question, "Why did Jesus come to earth?' Perhaps there is another question posed by Micah in that Dec. 23^rd reading,  "When will Jesus come to earth?"

Again.

Merry Christmas to everyone.