10-21-18 Standing in the Footsteps of Melchizedek

Thomas J Parlette

“Standing in the Footsteps of Melchizedek”

Hebrews 5: 1-10, Mark 10: 35-45

10/21/18

           In a recent issue of the Christian Century, Episcopal priest Heidi Havercamp writes about an old-fashioned image of Christ that can still be found in many Episcopal churches. It is the image of Christ on the cross – not nailed, naked and suffering – but rather tranquil, triumphant and vested in stole, chausable, and even a maniple, a High Church vestment resembling a fancy dish towel. “This image,” she writes, “the resurrected Jesus as Episcopal priest always strikes me as both presumptuous and odd. But I can’t help think that this Sunday’s reading from Hebrews might provide the perfect caption: “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”(1)

          It’s quite possible that you may be unfamiliar with this priest named Melchizedek. He was King of Salem, possibly an early forerunner of the place that would become Jeru-Salem, and a priest – which is peculiar because no one else in scripture was ever both. You were either a King or a Priest – but never both at the same time. And Melchizedek’s story occurred many years before the Levitical priesthood was even established. Very odd indeed.

          Melchizedek’s story is entirely contained within a few verses near the end of Genesis 14, where he meets Abram, before he became Abraham, after a battle and offers him bread and wine, blesses him, and vanishes – although not before Abram gifts him one tenth of his family’s possessions.

          We remember Melchizedek because his name means “King of Righteousness.” And the place he rules, Salem, has the same spelling in Hebrew as “shalom” – meaning peace. So many people make comparisons between Melchizedek and Jesus. You can see why. Here is a priest, the King of Righteousness and Peace, who appears in the wilderness, offers bread and wine and blessings and is deserving of tithes and offerings. You can see the parallels, the foreshadowing of the Messiah, Jesus the Christ.

          Melchizedek appears in Hebrews, in Genesis 14 and in Psalm 110, where we find the first use of the “priest forever” line. This image of the Great High Priest, who sacrifices himself is very important to the writer of Hebrews, as it is referred to 7 times in the book.

          A priest is one who is authorized to perform the sacred rituals and teach the traditions and beliefs of an organization – whether it is religious or secular. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, a priest was one chosen by God to be a mediatory agent between God and humanity. Before Christ, the thought was that individuals did not have direct access to God – you needed a go between, a middleman between God and humanity. This was done by a priest. And as time went by and communities grew and Temples came into existence – especially the Temple at Jerusalem – there was an office called the High Priest. This was the priest designated to enter the Holy of Holies and make offerings, prayers and supplications directly to God.

          The writer of Hebrews makes the theological case that Jesus in the Great High Priest. Jesus is the one chosen by God, with direct access to God, to make the sacrifice of himself to bring reconciliation between God and humanity. This text makes clear that being a priest is not a status symbol with rewards and perks, but rather a priest is set aside as a matter of function. It is a position of service, not privilege.

          This is where James and John go off track in our Gospel lesson from Mark. The brothers approach Jesus with their request to sit on either side of him basking in Jesus’ glory, because they think they deserve it. But they don’t understand yet what that means. To drink from the same cup as Jesus is live with humility, in obedience to God, as a servant to others. They will learn this lesson as Jesus completes his work on the cross and defeats the power of death by rising from death – but for now, they don’t quite get it. Their hearts are in the right place, their intentions are good, but they don’t quite know what they’re getting into yet.

          There is a wonderful story about the British author Graham Greene. Greene once waited two and half years for a 15 minute appointment with the Roman Catholic mystic Padre Pio, who lived in an Italian monastery. Padre Pio was reputed to be a “living saint” and bore on his body the stigmata, or the wounds of Christ.

          On the day Greene was due to meet with this revered mystic, Greene first attended a mass where Padre Pio officiated. Their appointment was to begin immediately after the mass. However, when the mass was over, instead of keeping this much awaited appointment, Greene left the church, headed for the airport and flew right back to London.

          When asked why he broke the appointment he had waited on for two and a half years, Greene said, “I was not ready for the manner in which that man could change my life.”(2)

          James and John didn’t know it yet – but they weren’t ready to be changed as Jesus would change them.

          The writer of Hebrews places Jesus squarely in the footsteps of the ancient, mysterious priest Melchizedek – and Jesus redefines what it means to be a priest. For Jesus, a priest is one who lives with humility, in obedience to God, to serve others. As the Great High Priest, Jesus sacrificed himself for humanity.

          But Jesus is not the only one who stands in the footsteps of Melchizedek. We do too. During the Reformation, Protestant theologians described all of us as priests, referring to the church as “the priesthood of all believers.” As disciples of Christ, we are called to live in humble obedience to God in order to make known in our service. That’s a tall order – the footsteps of Melchizedek are big footprints to fill. But that is our call.

          God calls us to be priests that bridge the gap between God’s dreams for the world and humanity’s needs in this world. As Jesus, the Great High Priest, is called to be the reconciliation of God – so too are those who bear Christ’s name are called to show this reconciliation to the world. As Susan Andrews has written: “As baptized “priests” we are given all the power, vision, and grace to be who we are called to be – not because we are perfect, but because God’s grace is made perfect in us. We can be “bridge people”: standing in the middle of red state/blue state politics, standing in the middle of violent conflicts, standing in the middle of broken relationships, standing in the middle of theological skirmishes, standing in the middle of the enormous gaps between rich and poor, black and white, immigrant and citizen - standing in the middle, between God’s vision of shalom and the disharmony of contemporary life. Yet, as “priest,” each of us is called to stretch out our arms to embrace all that is dissident, becoming a dwelling place of reconciliation where all of creation finds a harmonious home in God’s heart.”(3)

          Sounds a little crazy, I know – but it’s true.

          Michael B. Curry, Presiding bishop of the Episcopal church, tells about an old Apple computer commercial from the 1990’s that went viral on Youtube on the day in 2011 when Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, died. The tag line of the commercial was “Think different.”

          In the commercial, they showed a collage of photographs and film footage of people who have invented and inspired, created and sacrificed to improve the world, to make a difference. They showed Bob Dylan, Amelia Earhart, Frank Lloyd Wright, Maria Callas, Muhammed Ali, Martin Luther King Jr., Jim Henson, Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Mahatma Gandhi and on and on and on. As the images rolled by, a voice reads this poem:

          “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.

          They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward.

          While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”(4)

          Anthropologist Margaret Mead once made the well-known statement that we should never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world, indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.(5)

          As disciples of Jesus Christ, we stand in the footsteps of Melchizedek – to live as priests, as bridge people, to be an example of God’s vision of peace and reconciliation for this broken and dysfunctional world. It’s a bit of a crazy thing to do. But here’s to the crazy ones.

          May God be praised. Amen.

1.    Heidi Havercamp, Christian Century, September 26th, 2018, p21.

2.    Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXIV, No.4, p17.

3.    Susan Andrews, Feasting on the Word, Westminster John Knox Press, 2009, p184, 186.

4.    Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXIV, No. 4, p16.

5.    Ibid… p17.

10-14-18 Losing God

A sermon preached by Rev. Jay Rowland, Sunday October 14, 2018 at First Presbyterian Church, Rochester MN. 

Texts: Psalm 22:1-15,19

            Job 23:1-9, 16-17

Losing God 

I feel like I should apologize for the scriptures today. The lectionary provides at least four scriptures every Sunday. Our custom here is to select two of the four. Usually, at least one contains a message of hope, or encouragement, or something positive.  

Not today!   

Sorry. 

Not sorry.   

Psalm 22 and Job 23 may lack optimism, but they don’t lack for meaning.  There’s something powerful about the raw emotion and the sharp edges of human suffering on display. When it comes to suffering, it seems to me there’s just no good that comes from pretending or putting on a brave face.   

And Job is suffering.  

Psalm 22 is often noted for being spoken/prayed by Jesus on the cross, “Oh God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”  Paired with Job today, one can easily imagine Job speaking/praying these words.  If you’re not familiar with Job, all you need to know about him is that he’s a good, honest man. He worked hard. He obeyed the law.  He was by all accounts a good husband, good father, a good neighbor and member of his community.  He was regarded as a man of integrity and conscience.  Job was also wealthy and accumulated material wealth and property.  In Hebrew culture, prosperity like Job’s was presumed to be indicative of God’s favor.   

But then Job lost everything: his wealth, his property, his health, and worst of all calamity came upon his family and they all died.   

To say that Job was despondent is an understatement.  In his agony, Job cries, Oh, that I knew where I might find [God], that I might come even to his dwelling.”  Job gives voice to the most basic question of faith and life: “where are you God?”!   

For many, Job represents the reality that bad things happen to good people.  Leaving aside some of the various theological questions Job often provokes, I prefer today to focus upon on Job.  How he deals with the bottom dropping out from under him. 

In his Introduction to Job in The Message, Eugene Peterson writes  

It is not only because Job suffered that he is important to us [but] because he suffered in the same ways we do, in the vital areas of family, personal health, and material things. Job searchingly questioned and boldly protested his suffering.…  [he] says boldly what some of us are too timid to say (out loud). … He shouts out to God what a lot of us (keep locked away in silent thought).  Job … refuses to take silence for an answer. He refuses to take cliches for an answer. He refuses to let God off the hook. [1] 

Job struggles to make sense out of the senseless loss he’s experienced.  We can identify with his struggle.  He searches desperately for anything or anyone who might comfort him in the midst of his agony.  Wendell Berry says that "the distinguishing characteristic of absolute despair is silence.”[2]  A memorable scene from Job is when Job’s friends first visit him. They sit in silence with Job for seven days (2:13). This speaks volumes about the sacredness of presence, and silence.  

But eventually their silence ends.  And when Job’s friends open their mouths, they manage to do the impossible: they found a way to make Job feel even worse.  They felt compelled to explain this awful turn in Job’s life.  There had to be an explanation. They quickly determined that Job must have done something terribly wrong.  They think they’re being helpful, but they’re only distancing themselves from Job.  One commentator observes that Job’s friends show their own anxiety and discomfort over Job’s suffering, “protecting themselves from the chaos that engulfed their friend.” (Kathryn M. Schifferdecker, see end notes) 

Job is the oldest, most ancient story in scripture. Job’s assertion that his sin did not bring down God’s wrath upon him is a crucial declaration that should reverberate through all of scripture and human experience.  And yet the opposite seems to be true:  Whenever life goes terribly wrong, we impulsively suspect that we did something “wrong” in God’s eyes, that adversity is the result of somehow running afoul of God’s love and mercy.   

Job refuses to believe that his situation is beyond God’s reach. He clearly feels abandoned by God and isolated from human community.  But he rejects the notion that he somehow deserves what has happened to him or that it’s merely his “fate”.  He protests his situation and on the contrary believes that God could and would make a difference, if only he could find God and appeal to God’s righteousness:

I would lay out my case

    and present my arguments.

Then I would listen to [God’s] reply

    and understand what [God] says to me.

Would [God] use his great power to argue with me?

    No, [God] would give me a fair hearing.

Honest people can reason with [God],

    and so I would be forever acquitted by my judge.

I go east, but [God] is not there.

    I go west, but I cannot find [God there].

I do not see [God] in the north, for [God] is hidden.

    I look to the south, but [God] is concealed.

Job 23:4-9 New Living Translation 

Even though Job laments God’s absence, at times Job speaks directly to God.  He refuses to believe or accept that God is unconcerned.  This would have been so comforting if at least one of his friends would have backed him up.  Instead, give Job advice about what he should do. They even claim to speak for God (Job 13:7-12). Not even one of them thought to speak to God on Job’s behalf or even join Job in appealing to God’s mercy.  

I suppose Job’s friends are indicative of how most people react.  We just don’t know what to say to someone we know is suffering terribly.  When people don’t know what to say it’s easy to do like Job’s friends, blurting out things that are more harmful than helpful.  Even though people mean well, it’s common to hear people say things like,

"God must have needed your [spouse, child, relative] in heaven."

"Everything happens for a reason."

"God must be testing you."[3] 

Job models a stout response to our own suffering.  Job speaks directly to God even though he also describes feeling like God “isn’t there”.  Job holds nothing back: he directs his anger, his pain, his grief, and his despair directly to God.  He knows that God is big enough to handle it.  Job’s lament is not mere complaint, it is ultimately an expression of hope.  Implicit in his lament (and lament in scripture) is conviction that what has happened is contrary to God’s covenant of love and community. Lament holds God to account whenever life spirals into despair.  Lament clings desperately to hope. 

In this way, Job has something valuable to teach us.  Job models the importance of lament: speaking our anger, pain, grief and despair directly to God, even when—perhaps especially when—we only feel God's absence.  In this unlikely way, Job teaches us how to cultivate hope in the midst of hopelessness.  Job reminds us that there are times and situations (in our own life and in events we witness) where what happens doesn’t make sense, defies reason, can’t be explained or excused or accepted.  

Sometimes life doesn’t make sense.  

When that happens, lament is the best we can do, and the best we must do to avoid losing God. 

[1] Eugene Peterson, The Message, Introduction to Job, p.822-823  Note: I’ve altered his text; my words are in parentheses. 

[2] Wendell Berry, "A Poem of Difficult Hope," in What Are People For? (New York: North Point, 1990), 59 

[3] Kathryn M. Schifferdecker http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1420.  She adds, “we do the same thing, of course, though more subtly. When we hear of a tragedy, our gut reaction is often to reason to ourselves why it won't happen to us: They built their house in a flood plain. He wasn't watching his child closely enough. She lives in the wrong neighborhood. This instinct begins early. When my 8-year-old daughter heard of a 9-year-old child who had been shot, her first reaction was "But the child was a boy, right?"

10-7-18 The Year of the Woman

Thomas J Parlette

“The Year of the Woman”

Gen. 2: 18-23

10/7/18

          Pastor Billy Strayhorn tells about a certain church which held a Sunday service patterned after those in colonial America. The pastor dressed in long coat and knickers, and the congregation was divided by gender: men on the left side of the aisle and women on the right. At collection time, the pastor announced that this, too, would be done in colonial fashion. He asked the “head of the household” to come forward and place their offering on the altar. All the men stood. To the amusement of the entire congregation, however, many of them crossed over the aisle to get money from their wives.(1)

          Way back in 1992, four women joined Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland as members of the US Senate. Head-line writers consequently dubbed 1992 as “The Year of the Woman” because the United States now had 5 women in the Senate. But Senator Mikulski was offended at this title. She said, “Calling 1992 the Year of the Woman makes it sound like the Year of the Caribou or the Year of the Asparagus.” Then she added, “We’re not a fad, a fancy or a year.”(2)

          There are quite a few pundits who are predicting that we could see another Year of the Woman in 2018. More women than ever are running for office – at the state and federal level. And in the primaries, they are winning. It’s interesting to note that currently the Congress has 23 female Senators and 84 in the House of Representatives, an all-time high. And we will probably see that number rise after the mid-terms. The numbers aren’t equal yet, but they getting closer.

          Popular columnist Kathleen Parker, in an online article, adds her voice to those who think that 2018 might finally be the Year of the Woman. She notes that many of the original goals of the women’s movement have already been reached. Woman now outnumber men in college, graduate schools and medical and law schools; three of the nine Supreme Court justices are female; and, incrementally, women are reaching what Parker calls the dubious objective of serving alongside men in combat roles. Then in her humorous way she adds, “Nor would it be wise to underestimate women’s determination to clean House…” and then she adds in parenthesis (“and Senate.”)(3)

          That phrase “Cleaning House” has taken on a new connotation for some women. With Congress nearly equally unpopular with both Democrats and Republicans, many wonder if the situation cannot but be improved by the addition of a few more women in both houses.

          Clearly God thinks the world is a better place with women in it.

          Our passage for this morning from Genesis is one of the Creation narratives. The first chapter of Genesis is about what Gerhard Von Rad called “the Primordial History”(4) and what Walter Brueggemann called “the Pre-History.”(5) It was the story of how all creation came from God, and God considered all of it “good.”

          In this next part of the Pre-History, the writer focuses on human beings and their ultimate calling or destiny. This text focuses on humans as the glory of creation – made in the image of God, but also as the central problem of creation, as described in the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden giving in to the temptation to be like God. But for now – we’re not quite to the story about the Garden. Today we are looking at the story of God creating human beings.

          Our passage begins with the Lord God saying, “It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper as his partner.” So the first point to make about this story is that God doesn’t want us to be alone. We’ve just gone through the story of creation, and God called everything good. But now, God declares something not good for the first time. It is not good for humans to be alone.

          That’s true, isn’t it. It is not good for human beings to be alone. People are made for relationship. That is a practical statement of fact. That doesn’t necessarily refer to a spouse, it could also apply to family, friends, church, and of our social networks. Having family and friends, being connected to a community is good for our health.

          Lisa Berkmann of the Harvard School of Public Health has found that older people with more friends are much more likely to recover from a heart attack than people with few or no friends or social supports. Another study demonstrated that people with no friends were three times more likely to die than those with at least one or more sources of social support. These outcomes apparently have physiological underpinnings, since contact with friends and loved ones may also lower the levels of hormones like cortisol that are released in stressful situations. A friendly face, says one author, may be just as health giving as an aspirin or vitamin E. It is not good for our health for us to be alone. It is also not good for our emotional well-being. It is not good to be alone.(6)

          From the very beginning, God wants us to live in community.

          Author J. Allan Petersen tells about a flight he took on a 747 out of Brazil one time. Midway through the flight he was awakened by a strong voice announcing, “We have a serious emergency.” The emergency was that three engines had quit and the fourth was expected to go at any moment. The plane began to drop and turn in the night, preparing for an emergency landing.

          At first the situation seemed unreal to Petersen, but when the steward barked, “Prepare for impact,” he found himself – and everyone around him praying. He buried his head in his lap and prayed, God, thank you. Thank you for the privilege of knowing you. Life has been wonderful.”

          But as the plane approached the ground, Petersen’s last cry was, “Oh God, my wife! My kids!”

          Petersen survived the emergency landing. As he wandered around the airport in a daze after disembarking from the damaged plane, aching all over, he found he couldn’t speak, but his mind was racing. “What were my last words,” he thought. “What was the bottom line?” As his last thoughts came back to him, he had his answer – relationship. Reunited with his wife and children, he found that the only thing he could say was, “Thank God. Thank God.”(7)

          It is not good for us to be alone. We are made to be in relationship.

          So God goes about creating some more creatures. God creates all the animals and birds and lets the human name them. But none of them were suitable as a helper or a companion. So God took a piece from his human and fashioned an equal for the man. And the man recognizes this new creation as his equal – “Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.”

          Which brings us to the second thing we can say about this passage. It is not good for humans to be alone. We are called to live in community. And men and women – humanity – are created in God’s image. God created both from the same essence and in God’s image. One is not favored over the other. One is not superior over the other.

          Now we all know that men and women are different. Man are from Mars and Women are from Venus as the bestseller says. Comedienne Elaine Boosler notes this difference when she says “when women are depressed, they either eat and go shopping. Men invade another country.”(8)

          Yes, men and women are different – but they are created equal, in the image of God. And as such, women deserve to be taken seriously, just as men are. Women deserve to be heard, just as me are. Women deserve the right to be believed. Women deserve the right to take their place alongside men as leaders in our society – in business, education and government. From the beginning, God created males and females to be equals – both created in the image of God.

          From the start, God recognized that it was not good to be alone. So God called us to live in community and gave us the world as a garden filled with the riches of God’s creation – plants, animals, oceans, skies, birds, the sun, the moon and the stars of heaven. And God gave us each other, created as equals, to love and to serve.

          That’s what we celebrate on this world communion Sunday, as Christians all over the world gather at the Table – God’s call to live in community, as equals. Because it is not good to be alone.

          May God be praised. Amen.

1.    Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXIV, No. 4, p4.

2.    Ibid… p4.

3.    Ibid… p4.

4.    Gerhard Von Rad, Genesis, The Westminster Press, 1972, p5.

5.    Walter Brueggemann, Genesis, John Knox Press, 1982, p11.

6.    Dynamic Preaching, Vol XXXIV, No. 4, p5

7.    Ibid… p5.

8.    Ibid… p6.

Maundy Thursday/Communion and Tenebrae

Rev. Thomas J. Parlette

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La Paz de Dios

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After Emmaus

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Holy Disruption

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