11-05-2023 A Wake-Up Call

Thomas J Parlette
“A Wake-Up Call”
Matt. 23: 1-12
11/05/23

          If you’re involved in the leadership of the church in any way, whether it be as a pastor, church staff, elder, deacon or committee member – it’s hard not to squirm a bit upon hearing Jesus’ words today from Matthew 23. They are a wake-up call in no uncertain terms.

          In the previous chapters, Jesus has been engaged with a series of debates with the religious officials – the Pharisees, Herodians and Sadducees. Whenever we hear those groups mentioned, we immediately think – “Oh, the bad guys!” But in reality, these religious officials were the faithful, devout, church-going people of their day. They were not the priests, working in the Temple, they were the teachers of the Law. They are actually very much like us. It’s tempting to hear Jesus’ words as applying to someone else. But that is not Jesus’ intent. Notice that right there in verse 1, Jesus addresses the crowd, but also his own disciples. This wake-up call is meant for us, as well as the Pharisees and the scribes.

          Jesus starts out by acknowledging that the Pharisees and scribes are legitimate, they have authority – as they sit on Moses’ seat. Think of Moses’ seat as you would the endowed position at a major university. For instance, one of the authors we’ve studied during our Lenten study is Amy Jill-Levine – she occupies the Mary Jane Werthan chair as Professor of Jewish Studies Emerita at Vanderbilt Divinity School. Moses’ seat was similar – those who sat in the seat had authority to teach and explain the meaning of God’s law. Jesus acknowledges this and says “do whatever they teach you.” BUT – and it’s a big BUT – do NOT do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.

          We’ve all been in that situation. You say one thing, but end up doing another. Anybody who has kids has probably been caught in that trap. You forget to use a turn signal when changing lanes, go a bit over the speed limit or coast through a stop sign, and a voice comes from the back seat – “Dad, I thought you said to always come to full stop at a stop sign.” Yes, yes, I know. Do what I say, not as I do. It happens to all of us.

          History is littered with examples of people whose actions do not match their words, in good ways and bad. The starkest contrast might come the time of the Crusades. As described in John Mann’s book from 2017, Saladin: The Sultan Who Vanquished the Crusades and Built an Islamic Empire, during the First Crusade from 1095 – 1099, the Christian knights who sought to free the Holy Land from the infidels did not at particularly Christlike.

          On July 15th, 1099, the months long siege of Jerusalem ended when the Crusaders, led by Godfrey of Buoillon, breached the defenses. Once they were in the city, the men who bore the sign of Christ on their breast plates mercilessly slaughtered all the inhabitants – men, women and children, Muslims and Jews. Eyewitness accounts tell of streets running with the blood of the dead. Even at a time of brutal warfare, the atrocities committed by the Crusaders drew criticism.

          Fast forward 90 years, and Saladin, the great Fatimid general, defeated the Crusaders in the Battle of Hattin in 1187. Saladin then moved on to take Jerusalem and, after a short siege, entered the city. The Christian inhabitants of Jerusalem were terrified; they remembered what the Crusaders had done in 1099 and thought that Saladin would take his revenge.

          However, Saladin was merciful. He granted amnesty to the Christians and set a low ransom price, which enabled the residents to leave the city. For those who were too poor to pay, Saladin forgave the ransom or paid it himself, much to his advisor’s chagrin. The Jews, who had been banished by the Christians, were invited to return to Jerusalem. Saladin did not even destroy the Crusader churches; instead, he repurposed them. Anyone who has been to Jerusalem and stood under the medieval arches of the Church of St. Anne has witnessed the work of Saladin. Though largely forgotten in the Muslim world until the 20th century, Saladin was hailed as the epitome of chivalry in medieval Europe and celebrated for his bravery, his wisdom, and his generosity. (1)

          Both the Crusaders and the Muslims talked a good game when it came to following God’s laws and showing mercy, but actually practiced what they taught. The Christian faith is more than a set of words or ideas – it is a way of acting in the world. That is the wake-up call Jesus is talking about here. Yes, listen to the teachers, but do not do what they do, because they do not practice what they teach.

          After a long list of examples of the kind of selfish activities that he’s taking about, Jesus offers up the real kicker – “The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

          There is a fine French restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio, called EDWINS. The place is known for its duck confit and rabbit pie, but it is not just the food that is extraordinary. Brandon Chrostowski is the owner and head chef; he is also a convicted drug dealer. Chrostowski discovered for himself how difficult it is to get a job when you have a criminal conviction. Many employers simply reject any applicant with a  record. So Chrostowski decided to open a restaurant that would serve more than food. He wanted to open a restaurant that would also serve his fellow ex-convicts. The mission of EDWINS is to give formerly incarcerated adults a foundation in the culinary and hospitality industry, while providing a support network necessary for their long-term success. Thus, EDWINS Leadership and Restaurant Institute was born.

          Chrostowski struggled to get financial support for his venture. Many foundations thought his business model was too risky; turning convicted criminals into chefs and waiters seemed like a recipe for disaster. After years of rejection, Chrostowski finally cobbled together enough money to launch the Institute, and it has been a wild success. Since 2013, hundreds of people have graduated from the EDWINS program. They have a 97 percent employment rate and a 1 percent recidivism rate. The Institute has won dozens of awards and has been hailed as a new model for social entrepreneurship, but the statistics and awards don’t tell the whole story.

          The story of EDWINS was turned into a short documentary called Knife Skills, which was nominated for an academy award in 2017. The film follows a group of students from the first day of class to graduation. At first, the students tell depressing tales of poverty, incarceration and rejection – but by the end of the course, they have a sense of accomplishment, pride and hope. The final scene in the graduation ceremony, and one man leans in to Chrostowski and says, “Thanks for believing in us.”

          At first, no one wanted to invest in EDWINS, and now it is hard to get a table on a Friday night. Chrostowski doesn’t claim to be a Christian, but it’s hard to deny that he is displaying the kind of humble servant leadership that Jesus talks about. He often says, “Everyone has a past, and everyone deserves a future” – sounds a lot like grace to me. (2)

          As we gather around the table on this All Saints Sunday, we are not alone. A great cloud of witnesses joins us, witnesses that tried to live life in humble servant leadership. Let us strive to follow their example – for the greatest among us will be a servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.

          May God be praised. Amen.

1. Shawnthea Monroe, Connections, Year A, Volume 3, Westminster John Knox Press, 2020, p 351.
2. Ibid… p 370-371.

10-29-2023 Another Batch of Trick Questions

Thomas J Parlette

“Another Batch of Trick Questions”

Matt. 22: 34-46

10/29/23

           Today we are once again in the Gospel of Matthew, and we have before us another batch of trick questions. Perhaps “trick” questions is the wrong phrase – maybe challenging questions would be better. They are, at the very least “head-scratchers.”

          Last week, the Pharisees sent some of their disciples, along with some of the Herodians to ask Jesus a question designed to trap him. Jesus was faced with the question of whether or not to pay taxes to the Emperor. But he managed to avoid the trap and instructed the people to give to the emperor what belongs to the emperor – but give to God the things that belong to God.

          Next up, a group of Sadducees approach Jesus with a rather ridiculous hypothetical question about a woman who remarries a bunch of brothers after each brother passes away – wondering whose wife she will be in the after-life. Again Jesus doesn’t answer directly, but instead points out that God is the God of the living, not the dead.

          Finally, we come back to the Pharisees, who gather together and select one of their group, a lawyer, to ask Jesus another question – a question intended to “test” him. There are some interesting word choices that Matthew uses here.

          First, the word for “lawyer” – nomikos – is unique. This is the only time Matthew uses this term. (1) When Mark tells this same story, he describes the questioner as just a scribe, but Matthew intentionally changes it to a lawyer, upping the stakes a bit and building up the tension.

          Then there’s the word Matthew uses for “test”, in Greek, peirazo. Matthew only uses that word four other times, always in reference to either the Devil, or the Pharisees. (2)  So, we know that Matthew is portraying this scene as a menacing one – this lawyer is trying to trip Jesus up and lure him into a trap.

          After some more insincere flattery, by calling Jesus “Teacher,” the lawyer gets to his question – “Which commandment in the law is greatest?”

          This was, and still is, a very common practice for Rabbi’s to summarize the law. There are after all, 613 commandments in scripture. There was a tradition of dividing the laws of the Hebrew Bible into “greater” and “lesser” commands. This had the unintended effect of ranking some commandments as important and others not so important. So, a common question was - Is there a hierarchy of laws in the Torah? Do some laws mean more to God than others? Can we simply disregard the insignificant laws and only worry about the more important ones? The question is attempting to goad Jesus into devaluing the law and discrediting himself as a teacher. But once again, Jesus does not take the bait. Jesus himself once said, “I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.”

          The strategy here is very similar to what we see in political debates and campaign ads in our own time. How many times have we seen candidates take positions on some issues but not others – only to have their opponents point out that they must not care about that issue, because they didn’t even mention it.

          So, instead of fighting a losing battle over the most important commandment, Jesus quotes words that every Jew knew by heart. They are the words of the Shema from Deuteronomy, chapter 6, the primary confession of the Israelites, with a somewhat unusual edit, especially for Matthew who quotes so often from the Torah. For some reason, Matthew leaves off the opening line, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.” But the rest is the Shema, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.”

           Then Jesus adds another commandment that he says is like the first. He quotes a little known commandment “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

           Jesus links these two commandments together, as if to say you cannot love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind, UNLESS you also love your neighbor – AND yourself.

           But what does it mean to love God?

           In our culture, to love something can mean many things, and there’s no end of objects to love or like, for that matter. We love our dogs and cats, hats, shoes, movies, artwork, music, photography and sometimes, hopefully, people.

           Sometimes we try to parse the differences. The old, “Do you like him – or  do you like, like him,” that we used to do in Junior High .

           To like someone, we say, is to know the best of someone, and like them for it. Whereas to love someone is to know the worst, and yet love them still. Or, as an Eastern philosopher might say, “When you like a flower, you pluck it. But when you love a flower, you water it daily.”(3)

           So, how might we do that? How do we water God? We feed and pet our cats and dogs. We buy and wear our shoes and clothes. We patronize the arts. We spend time listening to music, and we are kind to people and try to take of others as best we can.

           But what about God? We’ve never seen God. God is a spirit, a presence. Loving God is a mysterious, nebulous idea. Most of us are not against loving God. We’re just not sure what’s expected.

           One of the most beloved songs in the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar” put it well when Mary Magdalene sings about following Jesus – “I don’t know how to love him.” We’ve all felt that way.

           Loving God need not be without passion, but emotion is not the key element. The Greek word agape used here has nothing to do with passion, whereas the word eros has everything to do with passion.

           That being said, although loving God may be passionless, it is not passive. One cannot love God without being responsive to God. Jesus himself gave us a rubric to help us know and learn how to love God.

           We live in a way that responds to God… with our hearts and our souls and our minds. In other words, our love for God is not passive love – on the contrary, it is very active, visible and demonstrative. In fact, to use the words heart, soul and mind pretty much covers everything that we are, our total selves. That is how we are to love God : with everything in our being, all that we are and the best versions of ourselves. When we love God, we are all in. Nothing is held back.

           First, we love God with all our heart. This can be difficult for Presbyterians, because it might involve some emotion, and that is not our strong point historically. We, and many traditional mainline denominations can be a bit cold and formal sometimes.

           For instance, there was a Christian from a small, informal country church who went to visit a large and formal church in the city. The preacher was preaching a beautiful sermon and the visitor shouted out “Amen!” The congregation became a little disturbed, this was not done in church. The ushers moved in and sat on either side of the visitor. The preacher continued, and again the guest shouted out, “Hallelujah!” and he raised his hands. The head usher leaned in and said, “Sir, you’ll have to behave yourself or I will have to ask you to leave.” The visitor answered, “I can’t help it, I’ve got religion.” The usher answered back, “Well, you didn’t get it here, so please be quiet!”(4) Loving God with all our hearts can be challenging for Presbyterians, especially if it involved showing emotion – but it can be done. In fact, sometimes it should be done.

           We are also called to love God with all of our soul, with everything that makes us aware and alive, able to express joy and empathy for one another – in effect, we love God with everything that makes us human.

           The composer Joseph Haydn was once criticized for the lightness and joy in his church music. To his critics he replied, “I cannot help it. I give forth what is in me. When I think of the Divine Being, my heart is so full of joy that the notes fly off as from a spindle. And as I have a cheerful heart, he will pardon me if I serve Him cheerfully.”(5)

           We are also called to love God with all our mind – referring to all our thoughts, understanding and rational being and intellectual capacity. So, we return to the thought that when Jesus “heart, soul and mind,” it is a way of saying “with all that you are.”

           The great preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick used to say, “If we could GET religion like a Methodist, be SURE of it like a Baptist, PREACH it like a Presbyterian, and ENJOY it like an African Methodist Episcopalian, then we’d really have something.” (6) How true that is. That would be loving God with our whole selves, everything we are.

           Jesus gives a good answer to this trick question. But now he has a question of his own, and it too is a bit tricky. While all the Pharisees were still gathered together, Jesus asks, “What do you think of the Messiah? Whose Son is he?

           They were quick to answer, it seemed obvious – “The Son of David.”

           Really – how is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord.” Jesus is quoting Psalm 110 here: “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under my feet?”

           If David calls him Lord, how can he be his son?

           And the answer from the Pharisee – crickets. Nothing. Nobody could give Jesus an answer. Jesus is tying that Psalm directly to the Messiah, in essence foreshadowing that he is that Messiah. And from that day on, nobody dared to ask Jesus any more questions.

           So, the “Trick Question” part of Matthew’s Gospel comes to an end, with Jesus coming out the victor. The cornerstone of his victory with these debates with the religious leaders is “Love the Lord your God with all that you are, and love your neighbor as well as yourself.”

           The well- known Rabbi - Rabbi Hillel was once approached by a man who challenged him to teach him the whole of Torah while standing on one foot. The Babylonian Talmud reports Hillel’s response as follows: “That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary.” (7)

           Jesus could have done the same thing. Love God. Love neighbor. Love yourself. That’s it. The rest is commentary.

           Praise be to God. Amen.

1. Douglas T. King, “Feasting on the Gospels,” Westminster John Knox Press, 2013, p201.

2. Ibid… p201.

3. Homileticsonline, retrieved 10/11/23.

4. Stephen M. Crotts, “How to Love God” Sermons on the Gospel Readings, CSS Publishing Inc. 2004, p368.

5. Crotts… p368.

6. Crotts… p371.

7. Patrick Gray, “Feasting on the Word” Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p215.

10-22-2023 Show Me the Money

Thomas J Parlette
“Show Me the Money”
Matthew 22: 15-22
10/22/23

          Letters. Diaries. Poems. Receipts. Contracts. Manuscripts of various kinds, written in ink on yellowed paper. All composed by hand, during the Civil War. The kind of treasure trove that Ken Burns drools over.

          All of those documents were included in a new textbook that Professor Drew Gilpin Faust was using in her college history class. At the end of the semester, she asked her students what they thought about the book. One of the students said the photographs of the old documents were not very helpful to him because he couldn’t read cursive writing.
          “What?” thought the professor. “Did I hear him right? He can’t read cursive?”
          So she asked the rest of the class, “Who else can’t read cursive?”
          About two thirds of the class raised their hands.
           “And who can’t write cursive?”
          Even more hands went up.

          Apparently this is not a new thing. According to The Atlantic, cursive was omitted from the Common Core standards for education back in 2010. (1) At that point, handwriting instruction had already been in decline for some time. Cursive was historically associated with good character and virtue – it was widely taught in the 19th century as a “a Christian ideal… occasionally credited with disciplining the mind.” But that was the high point. The use of cursive declined throughout the 20th century as people shifted to typewriters in the 30’s and 40’s, and then to the first computers and now to tablets and smartphones. (2)

          The result? An increasing number of students cannot read or write cursive, including handwritten manuscripts. They have trouble understanding what is right in front of them in writing.

          In our passage for today, the Pharisees and the Herodians seem to be having a hard time reading and interpreting what was right in front of them as well.

          When we left the gospel of Matthew a few weeks ago, we were in Chapter 18 where Jesus delivered a long lesson about living together in community. We have now moved into Chapter 22. Jesus has entered the city of Jerusalem, he has driven the moneychangers out of the Temple and he has been telling parables about two brothers asked to go work in the family vineyard – one says yes and one says no. But the one who said yes, never went and the one who had said no, he eventually changes his mind and goes to work. We also heard the troublesome story about the vineyard owner trying to collect his share of the harvest and the greedy farmhands working in the vineyard, kill those who come to collect, including the vineyard owners own son. At the end of Chapter 21, we are told that the religious leaders knew these stories were aimed at them, so they went away to try and figure out a way to discredit Jesus.

          After they heard Jesus’ parable about the wedding banquet, also aimed at them, they hatched a plot to trap Jesus into saying something that would get him into trouble with the Roman government. In all honesty, it’s a pretty good plan. They come to Jesus with a question about paying taxes.

          First though, the religious officials try to butter Jesus up with some good old fashioned flattery. “Teacher, we know you have integrity and teach the way of God accurately. We know you don’t care what other people think and that you are an honest person. So tell us, is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?

          That sounds like a simple question, but it’s actually a loaded question. According to New Testament scholar N.T. Wright in his book Matthew for Everyone, Volume 2, “The issue of paying tax to the Roman government was one of the hottest topics in the Middle East in Jesus’ day. Imagine how you’d like it if you woke up one morning and discovered that people from the other end of the world had marched in to your country and demanded that you pay them tax as the reward for having your land stolen! That sort of thing still causes riots and revolutions, and it had done just that when Jesus was growing up in Galilee.

          One of the most famous Jewish leaders when Jesus was a boy, a named Judas (a good revolutionary name in the Jewish world), had led a revolt precisely on this issue. The Romans had crushed it mercilessly, leaving crosses around the countryside, with dead and dying revolutionaries on them, as a warning that paying the tax was compulsory, not optional. The Pharisees question came with a health warning. If you don’t pay the tax, you might end up on a cross.” (3)

          The Pharisees figure that if Jesus approves of paying taxes, then he’ll offend the people who are trying to rebel against the Roman Empire. But if he disapproves of paying taxes, then he might be reported to the empire and maybe even arrested. They are in effect asking, “Do you support rebellion or Rome?”

          Of course, anyone leading a Kingdom-of-God movement would be expected to oppose the tax. If Jesus wasn’t intending to get rid of the tax and all that it meant, what had they followed him from Galilee for – what was the point?

          This question put Jesus in a tight spot. Fortunately, Jesus sees right through them and turns the tables on them. He asks them to show him the money. “Show me the coin used for the tax.” They bring him a denarius, a Roman coin. “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answer – “The emperor’s.” Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and give God the things are God’s.” He makes them read the writing on the coin, and uses their failure to comprehend it as a way to slip out of their trap.

          Matthew tells us that when they heard Jesus say this, they were amazed. They have no response, so they leave him and go away. At least for awhile.

          This story is popular because it shows Jesus outwitting his opponents with cleverness and reasoning. It’s the kind of moment where people can pump their fists and say – “ Yea, Go gettem Jesus!”

          Over the years, this story has been used to support the notion of separation of church and state. It seems Jesus is giving a nice, clean way of serving both government and God. Give the emperor one thing and God another thing. Keep them separate, don’t let them mix. Focus on spiritual things on Sunday, and on secular things Monday through Friday.

          But if we jump to that conclusion, we are not reading the cursive on the coin, so to speak. Remember, what’s written on the coin is a title, “Tiberius Caesar, august son of the divine Augustus and high priest.” That coin belongs to an empire that worshipped a godlike leader – which was deeply offensive to both the Pharisees and Jesus, who consider only the God of Israel to be divine. According to N.T. Wright, “Jesus wasn’t trying to give an answer, for all time, on the relationship between God and political authority. That wasn’t the point. Jesus was countering the Pharisee’s challenge to him with a sharp challenge in return. Was it, after all, they who were compromised? Had they really given their full allegiance to God? Weren’t they themselves playing games, keeping Caesar happy while speaking of God?” (4)

          This story is really about what we owe God. It’s about being a good steward. When we give to God the things that are God’s, we are offering our whole selves – body mind, soul and heart. We hold back nothing, seven days a week. We give God everything we have.

          Jesus clears this all up just a few verses later, when one of the Pharisees asks Jesus to identify the greatest commandment – another loaded question to try and trip him up. And Jesus answers, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” That’s what Jesus means by giving God the things that are God’s. That’s loving God with everything you have. Then Jesus adds a second part – “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” – a reminder that love goes not only to God, but to your neighbor and yourself, people made in the image of God, not Caesar.

          For Jesus, that’s it. That’s the whole law. Love God. Love your neighbor. Love yourself. Such love is at the heart of the Christian faith, directed to God and to the people made in the image of God.

          Back in the third century, Rome was still the dominant power in the world and Christians were undergoing persecution. In the year 258, the emperor Valerian commanded his Imperial treasury to confiscate all the money and possessions belonging to the Christian church. Responding to this threat, Pope Sixtus II, put a young man named Lawrence in charge of the church’s riches, and he also gave him the responsibility for the church’s outreach to the poor.

          The Roman emperor demanded that Lawrence turn over all the riches of the church and gave him three days to gather it all together. Lawrence quickly sold all the church valuables and gave the money to widows and to the sick. He then distributed all the church’s property to the poor.

          On the third day, the emperor summoned Lawrence to his palace and asked for the wealth of the church. With great fanfare, Lawrence entered the palace, stopped, and gestured back to the door. Streaming in behind him were crowds of poor, crippled, blind and suffering people. And Lawrence proclaimed, “These are the true treasures of the church.” (5)

          Perhaps you’re familiar with a more modern example of this idea. You’ve probably seen some of the commercials launched by the Servant Christian Foundation, a non-profit organization supported by anonymous Christian donors. It’s a campaign called “He Gets Us.” One recent 30 second video is called “Jesus was rich,” While images of common folks play on the screen, a voice over says:

          “He didn’t go to college.
           He never asked for a raise.
           He didn’t wear fancy shoes.
          He never took out a mortgage.
           His friends didn’t belong to a country club.
           His parents didn’t have a will,
           So, he worked hard and he invested wisely.
           Not in stocks or bonds – but in others.”

       And it closes with the words on the screen:

           “Jesus was rich. He gets us. All of Us.” (6)

          Yes, the treasures of the church, it’s riches, are the people made in the image of God. We give to God the things that are God’s when we do our part to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless and care for the vulnerable. We do God’s work when we look for the face of Jesus in the faces of the common everyday people around.

          May God be praised. Amen.

1. homileticsonline.com, retrieved 10/2/23.
2. Ibid…
3. Ibid…
4. Ibid…
5. Ibid…
6. retrieved from YouTube, 10/18/23

10-15-2023 The Real Housewives of Philippi

Thomas J Parlette

“The Real Housewives of Philippi”

Philippians 4: 1-9

10/15/23

          When it comes to reality TV filled with drama and conflict – nobody does it better than Bravo. One of my guilty pleasures is following the food competition Top Chef. It’s mostly a good-natured, but highly competitive show that pits chefs from all over the country looking to make a name for themselves in the culinary world. I’ve watched it for years – in fact, I think I’ve seen every season.

          My other guilty pleasure on Bravo is the reality series Below Deck. The show alternates between private chartered yachts in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and now down under, in Australia. If nothing else, it’s enjoyable escapism to look at the blue waters and exotic locations. The show revolves around the challenge and drama of serving sometimes very demanding charter guests and combining that with the drama that exists below deck with the relationships among the crew.

          But the reality series that really went over the top with drama and conflict was the Real Housewives series, which I am proud to say I do not watch. It started with the Real Housewives of Orange County. In all, there have been 11 different shows in the series, all taking place in some interesting city, usually in the United States – but there was one done in Dubai. They’ve been everywhere from New York City to the Potomac, from Dallas to Salt Lake City, from Beverly Hills to New Jersey. The biggest irony of the Real Housewives series, is that the women featured on these shows are hardly “real” at all – and neither are most of the situations. In fact, the basic plotline seems to be – “let’s go out to dinner or take a trip together and see how many fights we can get into, the cattier the better.” Every show is just one big drama filled conflict. It’s the life blood of the series.

          At the end of the season, all the cast members get together in the Bravo Clubhouse and Andy Cohen stirs the drama pot even more. It’s all based on the drama of conflict.

          Which is exactly what Paul is trying to avoid at his favorite little church in Philippi. Rather than stirring the pot, Paul is trying to find a way to turn down the heat and resolve the conflict and drama that appears to be simmering in Philippi.

          We’ve spent the last few weeks working through our lectionary selections from Paul’s letter to the Philippians. We started in the first chapter as Paul encouraged us to live a life worthy of the Gospel of Christ. Then we considered Paul’s words about humility as he directed us to consider the needs of others, but also consider your own needs as well. And last week, we learned that we’re never really done with the life of discipleship – all we can do is press on towards the goal of for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

          Today, we end our tour of Philippians with Paul’s final words to his favorite church.  It’s possible that Paul wrote other letters after this one, but in Paul’s mind, he considered this his final correspondence. You can hear that in his words.

          “Rejoice in the Lord always… Let your gentleness be known to everyone. Don’t worry about anything, but make your requests known to God. Whatever is true. Honorable, just and pure, think of these things. Keep doing what you have learned from me, and may the peace of God be with you.”

          It sounds very much like he is not expecting to see them again and this is his final goodbye as he sums up many of the themes that dominate the letter.

          Paul also seems to give us a clue as to what prompted him to write to the church in Philippi in the first place. In verse two he names two women in particular. “I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.” Paul is echoing what he has already said in chapter two about “being of the same mind and having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind” – except this time, at the end of the letter, he calls out two specific individuals. Perhaps Paul had been tipped off that something was brewing between these two leaders in the church there at Philippi and he decided to write the church a letter about living together in Christian community. It seems that Paul was well aware that this drama with these two leaders had the potential to blow up into a Real Housewives of Philippi situation, complete with conflict and drama that could do significant harm to young church.

          As Rachel Held Evans once said about living in community: “The good news is you’re a beloved child of God; the bad news is you don’t get to choose your siblings.” (1)

          Paul goes on to point out that the church has a role in the peace-making process. He calls upon the church community to be a moderator of sorts for these two women to settle their disagreement, whatever it might have been.

          David Brooks, writing in the New York Times, has pointed out “Nine Nonobvious Ways to Have Deeper Conversations” when you are called upon to lead warring parties towards reconciliation:

1. Approach with awe.  CS Lewis once wrote that if you’d never met a human and suddenly encountered one, you’d be inclined to worship this creature. Every human being is a miracle in their own way.

2. Ask elevating questions. Some questions, startling as they seem at first, compel us to see ourselves from a higher vantage point. Questions like “What crossroads are you at? What commitments have you made that you no longer believe in? What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

3. Ask open-ended questions. Many of us have a tendency to ask questions that imply judgment, like “where did you go to school?” Or we ask yes/no questions like “did you have a good day?”, which basically shut down interesting answers. Better questions start with “What was it like…” or “Tell me about a time…”

4. Let people be authors, not witnesses. The important part of people’s lives is not what happened to them, but how they experienced what happened to them.

5. Treat attention as all or nothing. We all have divided attention, it’s a fact of life. But in conversation it’s best to act as if attention has an on/off switch instead of a dimmer. Total focus on the moment.

6. Don’t fear the Pause. Most of us stop listening to a comment about halfway through so we can be ready with a response.

7. Keep the gem statement front and center. In the midst of many difficult conversations, there is what mediator Adar Cohen calls the gem statement. This is the statement that keeps the relationship together, what you have in common, what holds you in relationship. For instance, if some siblings are having a disagreement about the health care needs of an aging parent, it might be wise to say, “Even though we can’t agree on Dad’s medical care, I’ve never doubted your good intentions. I know you what the best for him.” If you can seize that gem statement it’ll be easier to come to a solution.

8. Find the disagreement under the disagreement. I am reminded of an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, in which Ray and Debra have an argument over a new can opener. They both have their versions of what happened and their family members quickly take sides, noting that the whole disagreement is ridiculous because it’s all over a can opener. Then the older brother Robert, a police officer, says, “In all the domestic disputes that I’ve been involved in – I’ve learned one thing. It’s never about the can opener.” And finally Ray and Debra get down to the real reasons for their disagreement.

9. And finally, employ the midwife model. Sometimes people will solve their own problems, if you let them talk themselves through it. Rev. Margaret Guenther once wrote that a good conversationalist in these cases is like a midwife, helping the person give birth. That means spending a lot of time patiently listening to the other person teach themselves through their own narration. Many people come to a solution on their own that way. (2)

          You can see Paul using these techniques throughout his letter. For blogger Ann Malmberg, handling conflicts and reaching a resolution boil down to two things.

1. Acknowledging you’re on the same team.

2. Answering the question, “What outcome best serves our relationship.

          Focusing on who’s right and who’s wrong means you’re not putting much effort into understanding the other person better or thinking about how you can compromise. And that means you might be missing out on a really great opportunity to connect. (3)

          You can hear Paul using those concepts as he urges the Philippians to be of one mind and the same accord, and keep striving for the goal of the heavenly prize in Christ Jesus. In this way, Paul hopes the church in Philippi can find peace once more.

          In the aftermath of September 11th, Judyth Hill wrote a poem about peace – it’s called Wage Peace. In part she writes:

          “Wage peace with your breath.

          Breathe in firemen and rubble,

          Breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds.

          Breathe in terrorists

          And breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields.

          Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.

          Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.

          Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud…

          Wage peace.

          Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious:

          Have a cup of tea: and rejoice.

          Act as if armistice has already arrived.

          Celebrate today. (4)

          In these final words to his favorite church, Paul encourages them, and us, to wage peace, in his own way. I think he would agree with Judyth Hill’s advice to rejoice and celebrate – for he says it twice in verse 4 today – “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say Rejoice!”

          May God be praised. Amen.

1. homileticsonline, retrieved 10/2/23.

2. Ibid…

3. Ibid…

4. Ibid…

10-08-2023 Pressing On

“Pressing On”

Philippians 3: 4b-14

10/8/23

          In  J.R.R. Tolkien’s book, The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins and that twisted creature, Gollum, are engaged in a battle of wits. Gollum challenges Bilbo to answer this riddle:

          “It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,

          Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt,

          It lies behind stars and under hills,

          And empty holes it fills,

          It comes first and follows after,

          Ends life, kills laughter.”

          What is it?

“Unfortunately for Gollum, Bilbo had heard this sort of thing before; and the answer was all around him anyway. ‘Dark!’, he said without even scratching his head or putting on his thinking cap.” (1)

          True. Darkness can be a terrifying thing. But it can also be a comforting thing as well. If you’ve ever enjoyed laying on the grass looking up at a star filled sky – you know what I mean. It can be a very relaxing thing to do. The same thing can be said for looking out over bodies of water – studies have shown that simply staring at water can help relieve stress and anxiety. The same thing goes for star-gazing, I think. Maybe you remember how many people discovered the Japanese custom of “nature-bathing” during the pandemic – intentionally getting outside and spending time in nature became very popular when we had to live in isolation for so long.

 But darkness isn’t all it used to be. Some people are worried that we are in danger of losing our darkness.

          According to the International Dark-Sky Association, artificial light has become such a common thing in modern life that two-thirds of the world’s population lives in areas where light pollution obscures the night sky. These days we light up everything from parking lots to construction sites, from backyards to schoolyards, not to mention football and baseball stadiums. According to the IDA, most of that light is unnecessary and wastes more than 2 billion dollars a year, not to mention its impact on humans and the environment.

          In 2012, for example, the American Medical Association reported that widespread use of artificial light messes with the circadian rhythms of the human body, leading to many destructive diseases and disorders. Animals are affected as well because light pollution causes disruptions in patterns of sleep, migration and mating. In the interest of pushing back the darkness for reasons of commerce and security, we ‘re actually damaging our environment as well as our own health.

          The International Dark-Sky Association is looking to change all that, however, by encouraging cities to cut down on unnecessary lighting and be more efficient with lighting that is essential. IDA now offers certifications to cities and parks which designate them as Dark-Sky locations.

          Some of the best spots for truly dark skies, and especially good star-gazing opportunities, are Big Bend National Park in Texas, Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah, Glacier National Park in Montana and our own Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Park. (2)

          It’s a curious thing – as terrifying as darkness can be, we need darkness to see light.

          This is what Paul is getting at in this passage from Philippians for today. He starts out by apparently bragging a little about his achievements and qualifications before he started following the way of Jesus Christ. A rising star in the world of Pharisees, Paul brags about circumcised on the 8th day, a member of the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew among Hebrews, a defender of the law of Moses and a persecutor of heresies, righteous and blameless under the law. An impeccable resume.

          But then Paul turns his impressive list of accomplishments on its head and says he regards all that as rubbish. The only thing that matters to him now is his relationship with Christ.

          It’s as if Paul has turned off the light pollution of his past accomplishments, the glow of his resume – and instead focuses on the light of Christ. In the darkness of the world, Christ is the bright shining star that Paul gazes at. For Paul, the darkness is not something to be feared. The darkness is a time to see Christ more clearly. The philosopher Soren Kierkegaard is famous for saying, “faith sees best in the dark.” A more contemporary voice would agree, as Joan Chittister once wrote, “never fear periods of darkness in life. They are the atrium to new phases in life, the threshold to new experience, the invitation to move on from where you are to where there is more for you to learn.” (3)

Instead of standing on his record, Paul looks forward to the privilege of suffering in the name of Jesus. That’s not something people would normally brag about. That seems sort of unsavory, maybe a little masochistic – to look forward to suffering and death

          Most people would not think of bragging about the suffering and difficulty of life. That’s usually the sort of thing people try to hide and desperately try to ignore. It’s a bit like a certain woman who was trying to gain admittance to a very exclusive, upper-crusty organization that required a genealogical search and a clean family tree for at least four generations.

          The woman hired a genealogist to do the necessary research, and a few days later the genealogist reported back. “I’m afraid there is a problem. It seems your maternal grandfather died in the electric chair at Sing Sing.”

          “Oh no,” said the woman. “I can’t have that. Can’t you just forget about him.”

          “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

          After some further discussion, the genealogist agreed to put the best possible face on the story in the final report, which read:

          “Subject’s maternal grandfather worked in a state institution in upstate New York, until his sudden, untimely death.” (4)

          Most people would rather hide the fact of their ancestors unsavory lives, or that they were accused of trying to overthrow the government or sentenced to death. And yet, that is what happened to Jesus, or ancestor in faith. And Paul is quite happy to brag about it all.

          Here is Paul, an upright man, trying as hard as he can to become like Jesus. Here is Paul, by his words and by his example, urging us to do our best to become like Jesus as well. Paul knows he is not there yet, he knows that none of us are there yet. But he urges us to press on anyway.

          At one of the churches I served, I remember the day that I was approached by one of the long-time members of the church, a real pillar of our faith community, with a question. I had just given a sermon about the life of discipleship, and giving our time to the church and doing the work of Jesus. He found me at fellowship hour and said, “I heard what you said today. I’ve been doing those things my whole life. I have served on every committee, attended every Sunday, and given faithfully. But I’m just wondering, now that I’m in my seventies – when am I done?”

          At first I thought he was joking, and he was – kind of. But part of him meant it. When am I done? I answered him as truthfully as I could, “I don’t think we’re ever done.” And he was okay with that.

          That’s what Paul is getting at. We’re never really done. The life of discipleship doesn’t really have a finish line. All we can do is press on.

          Our following the way of Jesus involves more than merely following actions; it also involves following attitudes as well. Speaking of both our actions and our attitudes in following Christ, Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “Anyone who thinks his time is too valuable to spend keeping quiet will eventually have no time for God or other people, but only for themselves and their own follies.” (5)

          Today Paul urges us to join him in pressing on toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus; the heavenly call on us of following the example of Christ, or serving others, of working for the betterment of other people, of living for Christ. We are not there yet, and we are never really done. But, like Paul, we press on.

          May God be praised. Amen.

1. homileticsonline.com, retrieved 9/20/23.

2. Ibid…

3. Ibid…

4. Jeff Wedge, “Bragging Rights”, Sermons on the Second Readings, CSS Publishing Inc., 2004, p. 373.

5. Ibid…

10-01-2023 But Also

“But Also”

Philippians 2: 1-13

10/1/23, World communion

          When I was in Western Pennsylvania, I served for a number of years on our Presbytery’s Committee on Preparation for Ministry. Our charge was to shepherd those looking to go into the ordained ministry through the process of being an inquirer, then a candidate and finally certified ready to receive a call to serve a church. It’s usually at least a three year process, but it can take longer depending on the candidate.

          I remember meeting with this one candidate in particular. She had been in the process for two years, she was strong academically and theologically articulate. But the committee had concerns about her leadership style. Some members felt that she came across as too submissive and lacked a strong back bone. I won’t deny that there may have been some sexist overtones there, this was about 20 years ago, but the bottom line was that the committee felt that if we approved her ready to receive a call, she would get chewed up in the local church. We wanted to see this candidate show some self-confidence.

          So at our next meeting with her, we pressed her a bit on this, we asked her “What are some of your strengths? What are good at?” This was clearly a difficult and uncomfortable question for her. After some back and forth, she said that she didn’t think it would be appropriate to assert herself and point out what she was good at because it felt like bragging and the bible emphasizes the need for humility – and she cited this passage, along with others to make her argument. Showing confidence and asserting herself would be putting her interests above others – so she just couldn’t see herself doing that.

          I could understand her point, but I don’t think Paul was encouraging us to be doormats and let people walk all over us in the name of humility either. So there must be some middle ground here somewhere regarding humility.

          That’s clearly the topic of the day as Psalm 25 makes reference to the Lord leading the humble. And then Paul continues his counsel to the Church in Philippi, challenging his new church members to make his joy complete by:

-         Being of the same mind,

-         Having the same love,

-         And being in full accord and of one mind.

Now, if you think on those for a minute, they might start to sound a bit off-putting. A little too much like a cult, perhaps. It sounds like Paul wants us to agree with each other on everything and put on a happy face all the time. Like the Christian community should just parrot back the same rote responses to everything.

But isn’t really what Paul is doing here. Keep in mind that Paul is speaking about living together as a church. And as we know – that’s not always easy. Disagreements happen. We are not always of the same mind on every topic, in fact, we rarely are. We look at things differently. We don’t all love the same things or the same people.

Paul knew this. And he was writing to group of people he knew very well. He had taught them himself. He knew their strengths – and he knew their shortcomings. He knew they would have disagreements. Maybe he’d already gotten word of some problems brewing. Perhaps he knew there was some trouble being swept under the rug.

For instance, consider the experience of a small congregation that decided it was finally time to do something about the floor in their Fellowship Hall. Everyone agreed the floor needed to be fixed – but the sticking point was what would it look like afterward. The most expensive option was to replace the floor with high-quality wood and have it professionally finished. Some others wanted to use cheaper wood and put tile down instead. But someone pointed out that the cheapest option was to put down plywood and carpet the floor. Most were inclined to agree with the carpeting, until a long-time stood up and said, “If we put carpet down on this floor it will be over my dead body.”

That comment hung in the air for a bit until someone said, just above a whisper – “Well, that sure will leave a big bump.” (1)

Disagreements can get out of control pretty quickly, and it can leave to a bumpy ride for everybody.

So Paul tries to root what he sees as a potential problem, a bump in the carpet, right at the beginning of this young community’s life as a church.

He encourages them to “do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.”

These are the words that really tripped up our young candidate for ministry. Her reaction to Paul’s words was to think of herself as worthless. To her, worthless and humility were very closely related. That’s an easy mistake to make. But the truth is, we all have value, none of us are worthless – the real meaning in Paul’s words is to appreciate the value that others have as well. Being humble does not mean you are worthless. Being humble is to acknowledge that others have worth as well.

I like the story the well-known biblical scholar N.T. Wright tells about going to lunch with a friend of his. This friend had organized a luncheon for about 20 or 30 people – some of whom were quite well-known public figures. As his friend said grace at the start of the meal, he said, “Remember: the most interesting person in this room is the one you’re sitting next to.” Multiply that to the level of your congregation, and you’ll be pretty close to what Paul is talking about here. (2)

It’s interesting to note that many Greek texts of Philippians include a crucial word in verse 4 that doesn’t appear in some English translations – including the NRSV that we usually read from. It’s a small word, but it changes Paul’s meaning significantly. The word is most often translated “also.”

When you include the word “also” in verse 4, you get something close to: “Each of you not considering your own interests BUT ALSO the interests of each of the others.” That takes the possibility of mis-interpreting a bit more out-of-play. Paul’s words aren’t meant to put ourselves down, but to take into account others as well as ourselves.

The truth is, we live in a world where some of us – often those privileged by various power structures – have been socialized to look out too much for own interests at the expense of others. Most of the time we don’t even realize we’re doing it. But what Paul talks about is becoming a truly harmonious community – a community of comfort, encouragement, consolation and strength. And that calls for balance – each one looking to other’s needs while also not ignoring their own. (3)

Paul then goes on to use Jesus as an example of the kind of self-emptying attitude he’s talking about. Using the words to what many scholars think is an ancient Christian hymn, Paul encourages us to have “the same mind that was in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.”

Upon hearing that final phrase, I’m sure there were audible gasps from the first-century crowd. It would not have been shocking to Gentiles to hear that their God had chosen to take on human form. They had heard such stories before about Zeus and Hermes, among others. Usually the Gods would take human form because they were bored, they wanted to get out and have a little fun. And sometimes their reasons were a bit more lustful. But to be told that their God had chosen to become a slave among humans – that was a very different story, a shocking story because it deconstructed everything they thought was written in stone about the hierarchical nature of reality and relationships and about all their honor and shame codes. It was one thing to have a Saturnalia, when slaves became masters and vice-versa for a day. It was another matter entirely to suggest that one equal to God (and not just any god, but the one true God) came in person to earth and chose to become a slave and live his whole life that way, including the manner of his death. (4)

For Paul, this is what self-emptying looks like – not that we make ourselves nothing, as some English versions translate verse 7, but that we empty ourselves both of arrogance and of self-belittlement. That those of us tempted toward narcissism are met with loving accountability from our communities. And those of us tempted to think our own needs aren’t important find joy and fellowship with those who consider our concerns essential. It is a case of But Also.

For why did Jesus do this – take on human form? Was it for the glory, because he wanted to be exalted above every name? No, Jesus took on human form to show us God’s mercy, not God’s justice.

In 1988, a few days before Christmas, you probably remember the Pan Am flight that was blown up over the Scottish village of Lockerbie. 243 passengers were killed and 19 crew members, and another 11 people on the ground were killed.

It was determined that a bomb had been planted in the cargo hold and when it exploded it punched a 20-inch hole I the left side of the plane – the plane broke into three pieces and plummeted to the ground.

After a three-year investigation, two Libyans were charged with the bombing. But the Libyan dictator, Mummar Gaddafi, refused to extradite the two men. It was another 10 years before he bowed to international pressure and the two men stood trial in an international court.

One defendant was found innocent. The other, a Libyan intelligence office named Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, since the UK does not have the death penalty.

He began serving his time, and the world’s attention went elsewhere. That is, until 2009, when Scottish authorities unexpectedly released Megrahi from prison on “humanitarian grounds.” He was dying from prostate cancer and was said to have 6 months to live. But he actually lived three more years before succumbing to his disease.

As you might imagine, the decision of Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill was met with a furious reaction from all around the world. How dare the Scottish authorities pardon this mass murderer? This did not seem like justice at all.

But it wasn’t a pardon, MacAskill responded. He still considered Megrahi guilty – as guilty as he’d been the first day he walked into prison. The basis for his decision said MacAskill, was not justice – it was mercy. (5)

On this World Communion Sunday, Jesus invites us to the table once again, to receive not justice, but mercy. So let us come to the Table of grace with our own interests at heart, but also with the interests of others as well.

May God be praised. Amen.

1. Jeff Wedge, “Complete Joy”, Sermons on the Second Readings, CSS Publishing Inc., 2004, p 363.

2. Homileticsonline, retrieved 9/15/23.

3. Liz Cooledge Jenkins, The Christian Century, October 2023, p24.

4. Homileticsonline…Ibid.

5. Homileticsonline…Ibid.

09-24-2023 A Worthy Life

“A Worthy Life”

Philippians 1: 21-30

9/24/23

          The last couple of Sunday’s we have spent in the 18th chapter of Matthew, as Jesus has talked to his disciples about life in the Christian community. He talked about how far God is willing to go to reconcile with us, and how far we should go in our efforts to be reconciled to each other. We’ve listened to Jesus talk to us about how to handle conflict, and the need to show unlimited forgiveness.

          Today though, we dip our toes into Paul’s letter to the Church in Philippi. This letter is one of Paul’s most joyous writings. Paul is irrepressibly happy in this letter – which is amazing considering he’s is writing from prison. Paul doesn’t tell us we can be happy too, or even how to find happiness, but it’s clear that he IS happy, he is filled with joy – and he can’t wait to share that happiness and joy with friends at what is perhaps his favorite church.

          Eugene Peterson, in his “Introduction to Philippians” in his translation The Message, writes that “joy is life in excess, the overflow of what cannot be contained within any one person.” (1)

          That is what Paul writes about in Philippians – the joy and happiness he has found in the Christian life.

          Back in 1965, a man named Leo Rosten write a piece for The Rotarian magazine called “The Myths by Which We Live.”  He wrote, “There is a myth which gives me the greatest pain; the myth that the purpose of life is happiness, and that you ought to have fun, and that your children ought to have fun. Where was it written that life is so cheap? Where was it written that life is, or should be, or can ever be free of conflict and effort and deprivation and sacrifice?... the purpose of life is not to be happy at all. It is to be useful, to be honorable. It is to be compassionate. It is to matter, to have it make some difference that you lived.” (2)

          Paul would agree. He talks about living a life worthy of the gospel of Christ – or as The Good News translation puts it – “your way of life should be as the gospel requires..” or as Peterson puts it in The Message, “live in such a way that you are a credit to the Message of Christ.” No matter what translation you prefer, what Paul is talking about is a life that is not centered on your own happiness, but on serving others and sacrificing your self-interest.

          A worthy life – or as theologian Richard Rohr has put it – “Meaty Spirituality, must first of all teach us freedom from the self, from my own self as a reference point for everything or anything. This is the necessary Copernican Revolution wherein we change reference points. Copernicus discovered that Earth is not the center of the universe. Now we have to discover that we are not the center of any universe either. We are not finally a meaningful reference point. The big and full world does not circle around me or you.” (3)

          Or, as Rick Warren famously said – “it’s not about you.” A worthy life acknowledges it is not about us.

          Perhaps you’ve heard of a project called Effective Altruism. It’s a project that tries to find the best ways to help others and put them into practice. It’s not really an organization that you give money to. It doesn’t have a catchy name like Bread for the World, Habitat for Humanity or Doctors Without Borders.

          It’s more of a concept that tries to identify the world’s most critical problems and how BEST to rectify the issues, or how to BEST alleviate the suffering of the most people. It’s similar to the old question about how to feed a village. Do you give everyone some fish and repeat this every week? Or do you give each villager a pole so people can fish on their own? Or do you teach them how to fish?

          Effective Altruism recognizes that you can give two organizations $10 million, and one of them will do a better job of allocating resources in a way that does the most good for the greatest number of people.

          You can read about it for yourself at their website – effectivealtuism.org. The project began as a theoretical approach to global issues in the early 2000’s at Oxford University but has since spread around the world. The key difference between Effective Altruism and all the other non-profits out there is that Effective Altruism is a way of thinking. Effective Altruism tries “to find unusually good ways of helping, such that a given amount of effort goes an unusually long way. You can find their core values on their website:

1. Prioritization

2. Impartiality

3. Open truth- seeking, and

4. Collaboration (4)

          The Apostle Paul doesn’t have a modern website with his core values on display – but if he did, he might agree with Effective Altruism’s list.

          First – Prioritization. Paul definitely had this at the forefront of his mind. He wanted to reach the most people he could in the best way possible. That’s why he travelled to all the major cities of his day, and didn’t limit himself to Jewish audiences only, but preached to the Gentiles as well, which got him into trouble sometimes – but he did it anyway.

          We see some evidence of Paul’s priority in his opening comments today. He talks about the hard choice of going to be with Christ, or staying in the flesh, so he may be useful to the Philippian church instead. He is torn. He would prefer to go be with Christ, to shuffle off this mortal coil  – but he knows his priority should be here, “to remain in the flesh, which is more necessary for you.”

          Next up – Impartiality. This might be the toughest one for us to follow these days. We have a natural tendency to gravitate toward those who share similar interests and advocate on their behalf. We’re vulnerable to all sorts of biases we didn’t even know we had – confirmation bias (the tendency to seek out information that supports something we already believe), cultural bias, self-serving bias and many more.

          We might ask the question – Well why shouldn’t we have a special concern for own family, our group, our friends, our city, our nation. We’ve seen this idea take firm root over the last 10 years with the rise of nationalism and “America First” agendas.

          Well, here’s why we should resist that tempting position – Effective Altruism argues that “when trying to do as much good as possible… we should give everyone’s interests equal weight, no matter where or how they live. This means focusing on the groups who are most neglected, which usually means focusing on those who don’t have as much power to protect their own interests.” (5)

          For example, when we speak as First Presbyterian Church of our Core Values including outreach to people in need and embracing inclusion, that is what we mean – striving to give everyone’s interests equal weight and focusing on the ones who don’t have as much power to protect their own interests.

          Paul was great at this. He often spoke about the man he used to be. Once he was tribal, proud and boastful, rather parochial and tied to his position as a Pharisee. But then the Road to Damascus happened, and he was a different person. After his conversion, he was more globally minded, he was much more humble and self-effacing, and he became more mission-minded and visionary. Paul’s impartiality came shining through in his willingness to obey God and minister to those beyond his own culture, to those who were different.

          The third core value of Effective Altruism is Open Truth- Seeking, a good value to have in any organization. Open truth-seeking is an ongoing conversation that considers many ways to help and seeks to discover the best ones. “This means putting serious time into deliberation and reflection on one’s beliefs, being constantly open and curious for new evidence and arguments, and being ready to change one’s views quite radically.” (6)

          At the heart of this decision-making is cause neutrality, the idea that resources should be distributed “to causes on what will do the most good, irrespective of the identity of the beneficiary and the way in which they are helped.” (7)

          Perhaps that prompts an evaluation about how effective we are in sharing not only the Gospel, but the resources of our time and talents. Are we doing what we can in the best possible way? What local agencies are doing the best work to meet local needs? How might we better assist them in their work? How long has it been since we’ve re-evaluated our own level of giving?

          Giving What We Can is a philanthropic offshoot of the Effective Altruism movement. Its members all take the GWWC Pledge that affirms their intention to give at least 10% of their income to effective charities. More than 9,000 members of Giving What We Can have made public pledges to donate meaningful portions of their incomes. The Pledge to Give reads: “I recognize that I can use part of my income to do a significant amount of good. Since I can live well enough on a smaller income, I pledge that from now until the day I retire, I shall give 10% of what I earn to whichever organizations can most effectively use it to improve the lives of others, now and in the years to come. I make this pledge freely, openly and sincerely.”

          Another intriguing subset of the Effective Altruism movement is the “Earning to Give” approach, in which young people deliberately choose high-paying careers so they will have more financial resources at their disposal to make difference. Some donate up to 50% of their income and attempt to live as simply and frugally as they can so they can donate more money. (8)

          Paul was pretty close to this philosophy as his profession we are told was a tent-maker – hardly a high-paying career, but one that provided for his needs as he donated most all of his time to preaching and teaching and founding churches. He often described himself as a “servant of Christ.”

          And finally, there is the value of Collaboration. We can achieve more when we work together. Effective Altruism is most powerful when it involves people united in being good citizens and working toward a better world. Paul speaks about this in this passage when he writes about the need to “stand firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, in no way intimidated by your opponents – This is God’s doing.”

          As the saying goes: “No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.”

          We know from his letters that Paul was a big believer in collaboration. He partnered up with Barnabas and Silas and then worked with Priscilla and Aquila, Timothy, Apollos, Titus and Luke, among others.

          One of the wonderful things about being an active worshiper and church goer is the aspect of collaboration. We can accomplish so much more when we have other people working with us.

          For instance, one of our sister churches, First Presbyterian Church in Durham, North Carolina is one of many churches living a worthy life and practicing the principles of Effective Altruism. They are involved I raising money through the non-profit group RIP Medical Debt, which buys and forgives medical debts owed by people who can’t afford to pay them back. The church hopes to raise $50,000 as part of a capital campaign – enough to forgive $5 million in medical debt. (9)

          That’s just one example of Effective Altruism put into practice. This is the kind of project that demonstrates the kind of worthy life that Paul calls us to today.

          May God give us the vision and the courage to lead this kind of worthy life, giving credit to the message of Christ Jesus.

          May God be praised. Amen.

1. Eugene Peterson, The Message, NavPress, Colorado Springs, 2002, p.2135.

2. Homileticsonline, retrieved 9/2/23

3. Ibid…

4. Effectivealtruism.org.

5. Ibid…

6. Ibid…

7. Ibid…

8. Ibid…

9. Homileticsonline, retrieved 9/2/23

09-17-2023 Who's Keeping Score

“Who’s Keeping Score”

Matthew 18: 21-35

9/17/23

          Victor Hugo once wrote a short story titled “93.” In the midst of this tale, a ship at sea is caught in a terrible storm. Buffeted by the waves, the boat rocks to and fro, when suddenly the crew hears a thunderous crashing sound below deck. They instantly know what it is. A cannon they are transporting has broken loose and is smashing into the ship’s sides with every list of the ship. Two brave sailors, at the risk of their lives, manage to go below and fasten it again, for they know that the heavy cannon on the inside of their ship is more dangerous to them than the storm on the outside. (1)

          So it is with people. Problems within are often much more destructive to us than the problems we face from without. Today’s passage takes us “below deck,” in a way, to look inside ourselves concerning the whole matter of forgiveness.

          As we discussed last week, Matthew 18 is one long lesson for the disciples about living in community. We left off with Jesus’ practical advice about dealing with conflict in the Christian community. His advice – straight talk, due process and grace.

          At this point, Peter steps in with a question. He wants to know what exactly is required of him when someone has wronged him. So he asks, “How many times do I have to forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven times?”

          And Jesus responds “Hardly! Try seventy times seven.” Or in other words – there is no limit on forgiveness. Forgiving people has no end. There is no keeping score. Forgiveness is not like a line of credit where eventually we reach our limit – no, forgiveness is a way of life.

          That’s a nice thought – but that much forgiveness can be exhausting. Forgiving someone once is strenuous enough, but you have to do it over and over and over again – that sounds kind of pointless. At some point, don’t you have to say enough is enough?

          For instance, say you make a lunch date with a friend. You go to a lot of trouble to keep this date, moving things around in your schedule so you can be sure to make it. Your friend chooses a spot like Chester’s or Victoria’s, so place nice downtown – someplace where parking is always an issue.

          So you make sure to leave in plenty of time. Of course, there is no parking available on the street, so you pick one of the parking garages, and make your way up the ramps searching for a spot close to the Skyway – or the Subway depending on your preference. You park your car – take a quick picture of where you are, or put a pin down with your phone, so you can find your car again (I can’t be the only one that does that.) And you hurry off, trying to be on time.

          You arrive at the restaurant a few minutes early – whew- get a table in a quiet section, right by the window, and settle in to wait for your friend. The waitress comes by and you order a drink. Ten minutes go by – your friend has no shown up yet. So the waitress leaves a couple of menus and you look over what you might want to order. Another ten minutes go by – you have another appointment after lunch, so you decide to order and hope your friend shows up. Your food arrives – you are still alone, and after waiting for 40 minutes it begins to dawn on you that you have been stood up. So you get a to-go box, and head off to your appointment – seething at your friend.

          Later that afternoon, your friend texts and says, “I’m sorry, I completely forgot. My bad. I didn’t set up my calendar reminders and I blew. Please, let’s reschedule.”

          You put on your best manners and say, “sure, it happens to everyone. How about next week – same time, same place.”

          “Perfect, I’ll be there.”

          But the same thing happens again. You’re not as upset this time, because this is the second time in a row. Are you willing to make another lunch date with this particular forgetful friend – or maybe your calendar is a little too booked up the next time. (2)

          So how about seven X seventy times – or 490 times? Are you willing to be stood up that many times?

          Not likely. Human nature just doesn’t work that way. Even the most easy-going among us probably aren’t going to forgive and reschedule even one tenth that amount of times. No, we all keep score in our heads of these small interactions and offensives. We all have calculators in our heads that keep track of how much we are putting into our relationships versus how much we are getting out of it. Not many of us want to be on the giving only side of the equation – sometimes we want to receive as well. When someone lets you down again and again, we tend to turn our attention elsewhere. In the economics of forgiveness and relationship, that seems to make sense. Peter is actually being pretty generous in his estimate of seven times being enough to forgive somebody. After that – don’t we deserve a change.

          As is his way, Jesus answers Peter’s question with a story. There is this King who wishes to settle accounts with his servants, many of whom owe him money. It seems that he starts at the top of the list and summons a servant who owes him an enormous sum of money – 10,000 talents, a ridiculous amount of money. It’s difficult to know for sure what that translates to in modern money, but some estimates go up to 3.48 billion dollars.

          Clearly, this servant will never be able to repay this debt, so the King orders that he and his family be sold. The price they will fetch is only a drop in the bucket of what he owes, but the King wants to cut his losses, and selling the servant is less expensive than keeping him around. Realizing the spot he is in, the servant gets down on his knees and promises to pay everything he owes if the King will just be patient.

          The King realizes that there is no way this is going to happen, but he takes pity on the servant and releases him, forgiving him his debt.

          The servant breathes a sigh of relief, and as he is leaving the King’s presence, he spots a man who owes him 300 denarii. In Jesus’ day, a day’s worth of labor was worth 1 denarii. According to the Bureau of Labor Statics, the current value of a day’s labor is 137.00 dollars. So 100 denarii translates to about 13,700 dollars – still a hefty sum, but doable over time. He has a golden opportunity to pass along a bit of the forgiveness that he has just received – but apparently that never occurs to him. Instead, he grabs the man by the throat and demands his money like a mob boss. But when the man uses the exact same phrase to him that he just used on the King – “Have patience with me and I will pay you” – he has the man thrown into jail.

          The King hears about all this of course, and does the same thing to the servant he forgave, revoking the mercy he had shown before and sentencing his former servant to life in prison until he paid off his debt. “You wicked servant. I forgave you that huge sum of money just because you asked me. And you can’t find it in your heart to have mercy on your fellow servant.”

          Here’s where the story takes a dark turn. Jesus turns and looks the disciples in the eyes and slowly says – “That is how my Father in heaven will treat every one of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

          Wow – that sounds ominous. So, we should forgive our neighbors in order to save ourselves. Forgive – or else? Does that sound like Jesus? That doesn’t sound very much like the Jesus were used to hearing. So, there’s got to be something more here than that ominous, threatening takeaway. What went wrong? What made the servant so wicked, so evil, so vengeful and unforgiving?

          What we see in this passage is a contrast between a theology of grace and a theology of keeping score. Jesus is firmly preaching a theology of grace. Remember last week – in handling conflict, we use straight talk, due process, and most of all grace. But Peter is still pushing for a theology of keeping score. That’s much closer to what we all do, in some way. We may say, “Oh it’s fine, things happen,” because we want to avoid a scene or anything that might smell like confrontation. But deep down, we all keep score. We keep track of how many times someone has done us wrong.

          For instance, I’m sure many of you have experience with youth T-Ball games. Maybe it was your own kids, maybe it was your grandkids – but you know what I’m talking about. In T-Ball, everyone stays at bat till they hit the ball. Everyone gets on base and everybody crosses home plate. And at the end of the season, everyone gets a trophy. The score is never recorded. Strikes don’t exist. Outs don’t exist. It’s all very sweet.

          But I am willing to bet that most parents know exactly what the score is. Oh, it’s not on the scoreboard – no one is winning or losing, officially. But every parent is keeping score. Every parent knows exactly how may outs there have been, how many swings each kid took to hit the ball and how many runs would have been scored. They are keeping track of all the errors in their heads. They’re all keeping score. It’s not that they are bad people. It’s just human nature. We like to keep score. Whether it’s children’s T-Ball, or our relationships with friends and family – we tend to follow the theology of keeping score. We can’t help it. We’re human.

          But what Jesus calls to us to do is shift our focus from keeping score to a theology of grace. Simply put – live in the realization that you have already been forgiven. Your debt has already been cancelled. You can live without the weight of guilt, or sorrow or shame. You have been forgiven.

          So it costs you nothing to offer that grace to someone else. Once we realize that God is not keeping score on us, we can stop keeping score on those around us. We are called to pass the grace along to those we come into contact with. The Golden Rule of – “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you,” – shifts slightly to “Do unto others as God has already done unto you.”

          So don’t worry about keeping score. God isn’t. And focus on passing on the grace of God to everyone you meet.

          May God be praised. Amen.

1. Stephen M. Crotts, “A Severe Mercy”, Sermons on the Gospel Readings, CSS Publishing Company Inc. 2004, p 325.

2. Inspired by a story by Barbara Brown Taylor, “Once More From the Heart”, The Seeds of Heaven, Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p 92-93.

09-10-2023 The Path of Reconciliation

Thomas J Parlette

“Paul’s Covenant”

Romans 12: 9-21

9/3/23

          Once upon a time, a group of sixty teenagers from a variety of churches gathered for a confirmation retreat at a local conference center. After some food and the obligatory ice-breaker games, the leaders assembled to group to create a “covenant” that would govern their weekend together.

          “Ok – let’s make some rules,” said the leader as a white board was rolled out in front of the room. “What do you want to happen… What don’t you want to happen, just shout out your suggestions?” And of course the room erupted in laughter as one teen in the back shouted out, “No Drama!”

          Other suggestions came out fast and furious. Don’t talk when others are talking. Respect the leaders. Participate fully in all the activities. Soon the board was filled, and at the end, the leaders invited each teen to come forward and sign their name to the covenant. The white board would stay in place all week long.

          Over the course of the next few days both leaders and participants had occasion to remind the group of the covenant they had signed to govern their behavior toward each other. (1)

          I would venture to guess that everyone here as had an experience similar to this. Maybe at a retreat for work, maybe at a church event, maybe at a camp or conference center. We’ve all got some experience with covenant – making exercises like this.

          When I read this passage from Romans, it sounds a lot like one of those kind of exercises. I can almost hear the members of the church in Rome calling out their suggestions for what their community should like as Paul scribbles furiously on his first-century white board.

          “Let love be genuine…”

          “Hate what is evil…”

          “Hold onto the good…”

          “Be ardent in spirit…”

          “Serve the Lord…”

          “Rejoice in hope…”

          “Be patient…,”

          “Keep praying…”

          “Be hospitable…”

          Up to this point of Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, he has spent his time exploring God’s reconciling work with humanity. Reconciliation for Jews and Gentiles comes about, not by following laws, but by the radical, self-giving grace of God, demonstrated in the life of Jesus Christ.

          As Protestants, we sum that up neatly in our phrase “saved by grace, not by works.”

          In Chapter 12, Paul begins to sketch out what this self-giving grace might look like in the Christian community. For Paul, all of life should be anchored in love. That’s where he starts in verse 9 – “Let love be genuine…”

          He then goes on to list lots of other hallmarks of a gathering of Christians – hating evil, holding on to what is good, loving and honoring one another. Rejoicing in hope, being patient in suffering and persevering in prayer.

          The real challenge in Paul’s covenant comes in the second part of  his comments, when he focuses on how to deal with people outside the Christian community, people who could be considered an enemy.

          Directives such as bless those who persecute you, do not repay anyone evil for evil, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” – those are a little harder to hear, and even harder to follow.

          In fact, passages like this and many more from the Old Testament, are what turn a lot of people away from Christianity. I’ve heard countless people say, “I just don’t like the idea of a vengeful God, I don’t like a God who is out to get me.”

          But Paul doesn’t really paint a portrait of a vengeful God who is out to get us. On the contrary, what Paul is saying is that we should not view revenge as something that is up to us. Payback, no matter how good it might feel or how justified it may be, is not up to us. It’s up to God. We must trust that God will work in God’s own way.

          Paul closes this section about how to deal with enemies with the interesting bit of advice- “If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.”

          That bit of advice sounds off – Paul just finished saying never avenge yourselves, and a couple of verses later he seems to change his tune, encouraging us to heap coals on our enemy’s head. But what Paul was getting at is that the burning coals will be like a burning sense of remorse and shame that your enemies will feel when you treat them so well after they were so rotten to you. In that light, Paul’s advice makes more sense.

          Paul invites us to live by the covenant he sets before us today, both as we live in community with each other, and as we deal with the world around us. Paul encourages us to consider love and good to be the constant partners accompanying the Christian and providing context for both attitudes and actions. (2)

          Paul’s core values expressed in this covenant might be summed up in a phrase used by Dr. Paul Farmer as profiled in Tracy Kidder’s book Mountains Beyond Mountains. Paul Farmer travels the world establishing clinics to treat chronic diseases like tuberculosis in areas of severe poverty and inadequate health care. In doing so, he deals with the medical establishment, various bureaucracies, and local traditions. Kidder explains that Farmer approaches all people with a “hermeneutic of generosity.” (3)

          What that means is Dr. Farmer evaluates people’s actions from an assumption that their motives are good, even if, at first glance, one might suspect the opposite.

          To honor people as Paul suggests, which includes attitudes and actions such as not being haughty, being hospitable to strangers, and taking thought for what is noble, reflects an underlying hermeneutic of generosity toward those to whom one relates – both inside and outside the church.

          When that group of teenagers made that covenant at the start of their confirmation weekend, they discovered that treating each other in a self-giving and generous manner actually worked. They all had a great weekend, and learned about the power of a covenantal community.

          While living according to Paul’s core values is often hard enough in the context of a church community, to do so throughout daily life presents even more challenges. But Paul makes it clear that Christians are called to live by a different standard in all parts of life. A hermeneutic of generosity is meant to extend to everyone – to the person driving too slowly in front of you on the highway, to the cashier taking their sweet time in ringing up your order ay HyVee, to your co-workers, classmates and your extended family.

          John Austin Baker has written “Love begins as love for one, or for a few. But once we have caught it, once it has taken possession of us, and has set up its values in the heart of the self – there are no limits to those it can touch, to the relationships which it can transform.” (4)

          As we come to the table this morning as a covenant community of Christians, let us be reminded to make love genuine and live with generosity to all we meet – here in this fellowship and out there in our community.

          May God be praised. Amen.

1. Rochelle A. Stackhouse, Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol. 4, Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p14.

2. Ibid… p14.

3. Ibid… p16

4. Resources for Preaching and Worship, Year A, Ed. By Hannah Ward and Jennifer Wild, Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p232

09-03-2023 Paul's Covenant

Thomas J Parlette

“Paul’s Covenant”

Romans 12: 9-21

9/3/23

          Once upon a time, a group of sixty teenagers from a variety of churches gathered for a confirmation retreat at a local conference center. After some food and the obligatory ice-breaker games, the leaders assembled to group to create a “covenant” that would govern their weekend together.

          “Ok – let’s make some rules,” said the leader as a white board was rolled out in front of the room. “What do you want to happen… What don’t you want to happen, just shout out your suggestions?” And of course the room erupted in laughter as one teen in the back shouted out, “No Drama!”

          Other suggestions came out fast and furious. Don’t talk when others are talking. Respect the leaders. Participate fully in all the activities. Soon the board was filled, and at the end, the leaders invited each teen to come forward and sign their name to the covenant. The white board would stay in place all week long.

          Over the course of the next few days both leaders and participants had occasion to remind the group of the covenant they had signed to govern their behavior toward each other. (1)

          I would venture to guess that everyone here as had an experience similar to this. Maybe at a retreat for work, maybe at a church event, maybe at a camp or conference center. We’ve all got some experience with covenant – making exercises like this.

          When I read this passage from Romans, it sounds a lot like one of those kind of exercises. I can almost hear the members of the church in Rome calling out their suggestions for what their community should like as Paul scribbles furiously on his first-century white board.

          “Let love be genuine…”

          “Hate what is evil…”

          “Hold onto the good…”

          “Be ardent in spirit…”

          “Serve the Lord…”

          “Rejoice in hope…”

          “Be patient…,”

          “Keep praying…”

          “Be hospitable…”

          Up to this point of Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, he has spent his time exploring God’s reconciling work with humanity. Reconciliation for Jews and Gentiles comes about, not by following laws, but by the radical, self-giving grace of God, demonstrated in the life of Jesus Christ.

          As Protestants, we sum that up neatly in our phrase “saved by grace, not by works.”

          In Chapter 12, Paul begins to sketch out what this self-giving grace might look like in the Christian community. For Paul, all of life should be anchored in love. That’s where he starts in verse 9 – “Let love be genuine…”

          He then goes on to list lots of other hallmarks of a gathering of Christians – hating evil, holding on to what is good, loving and honoring one another. Rejoicing in hope, being patient in suffering and persevering in prayer.

          The real challenge in Paul’s covenant comes in the second part of  his comments, when he focuses on how to deal with people outside the Christian community, people who could be considered an enemy.

          Directives such as bless those who persecute you, do not repay anyone evil for evil, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” – those are a little harder to hear, and even harder to follow.

          In fact, passages like this and many more from the Old Testament, are what turn a lot of people away from Christianity. I’ve heard countless people say, “I just don’t like the idea of a vengeful God, I don’t like a God who is out to get me.”

          But Paul doesn’t really paint a portrait of a vengeful God who is out to get us. On the contrary, what Paul is saying is that we should not view revenge as something that is up to us. Payback, no matter how good it might feel or how justified it may be, is not up to us. It’s up to God. We must trust that God will work in God’s own way.

          Paul closes this section about how to deal with enemies with the interesting bit of advice- “If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.”

          That bit of advice sounds off – Paul just finished saying never avenge yourselves, and a couple of verses later he seems to change his tune, encouraging us to heap coals on our enemy’s head. But what Paul was getting at is that the burning coals will be like a burning sense of remorse and shame that your enemies will feel when you treat them so well after they were so rotten to you. In that light, Paul’s advice makes more sense.

          Paul invites us to live by the covenant he sets before us today, both as we live in community with each other, and as we deal with the world around us. Paul encourages us to consider love and good to be the constant partners accompanying the Christian and providing context for both attitudes and actions. (2)

          Paul’s core values expressed in this covenant might be summed up in a phrase used by Dr. Paul Farmer as profiled in Tracy Kidder’s book Mountains Beyond Mountains. Paul Farmer travels the world establishing clinics to treat chronic diseases like tuberculosis in areas of severe poverty and inadequate health care. In doing so, he deals with the medical establishment, various bureaucracies, and local traditions. Kidder explains that Farmer approaches all people with a “hermeneutic of generosity.” (3)

          What that means is Dr. Farmer evaluates people’s actions from an assumption that their motives are good, even if, at first glance, one might suspect the opposite.

          To honor people as Paul suggests, which includes attitudes and actions such as not being haughty, being hospitable to strangers, and taking thought for what is noble, reflects an underlying hermeneutic of generosity toward those to whom one relates – both inside and outside the church.

          When that group of teenagers made that covenant at the start of their confirmation weekend, they discovered that treating each other in a self-giving and generous manner actually worked. They all had a great weekend, and learned about the power of a covenantal community.

          While living according to Paul’s core values is often hard enough in the context of a church community, to do so throughout daily life presents even more challenges. But Paul makes it clear that Christians are called to live by a different standard in all parts of life. A hermeneutic of generosity is meant to extend to everyone – to the person driving too slowly in front of you on the highway, to the cashier taking their sweet time in ringing up your order ay HyVee, to your co-workers, classmates and your extended family.

          John Austin Baker has written “Love begins as love for one, or for a few. But once we have caught it, once it has taken possession of us, and has set up its values in the heart of the self – there are no limits to those it can touch, to the relationships which it can transform.” (4)

          As we come to the table this morning as a covenant community of Christians, let us be reminded to make love genuine and live with generosity to all we meet – here in this fellowship and out there in our community.

          May God be praised. Amen.

1. Rochelle A. Stackhouse, Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol. 4, Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p14.

2. Ibid… p14.

3. Ibid… p16

4. Resources for Preaching and Worship, Year A, Ed. By Hannah Ward and Jennifer Wild, Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p232

08-27-2023 Tools in the Hands of God

Thomas J Parlette
“Tools in the Hands of God”
Exodus 1:8-2:10
8/27/23 

          You’ve probably never met an undercover operative (that you know of), but they are everywhere if you believe all the movies and TV shows about them.

          One of the favorite shows in the Parlette household is the long running series “NCIS.” NCIS featured a character named Ziva David, a Mossad operative and daughter of the Israeli spy agency’s director. In an arrangement between the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and Mossad, Ziva joins the NCIS team as a liason officer, replacing the agent who died at the hands of her half-brother Ari. Ziva has a background in the military, as do all Israeli women, and she trained in the special-ops unit known as Kidon – transforming herself into an expert in sabotage, assassinations and psychological; warfare. In her own way, and for her own reasons, Ziva sees herself as a player in the national struggle to save and protect the nation of Israel.

          In today’s passage from Exodus, we meet some more female undercover operatives as they struggle behind the scenes to save and protect God’s covenant people.

          Their story is an account of how God saved a nation through their daring and defiant actions. These two women rank right up there with the other biblical female operatives such as Deborah, Rahab, Esther and Jael. All these accounts are stories of incredible courage and daring – tales of how the nation of Israel was saved from certain destruction.

          These women of biblical history are every bit as interesting as some of the female operatives of more modern times – especially those that came out of World War II. For example, there was:

          Virginia Hall, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by OSS chief William Donovan in 1945. And her exploits did not end with World War II, Hall spent another 16 years with the CIA.

          Or, there was Yolande Beekman, also a spy in World War II. She was first derided by the Nazi’s as a “nice girl who darned socks.” But she became a wireless operator for a resistance cell, and her unit was dedicated to blowing up canals and railway infrastructure in the area. Codenamed “Mariette,” she was so successful that the Gestapo brought in teams of radio detector vans to track her down. She was finally arrested in a canal-side café and transported to Dachau concentration camp, she was executed in 1944 at the age of 32.        

          And there was the gun-toting Nancy Wake, known as the “White Mouse of the French Resistance”, perhaps best known for planning and leading a raid on a Gestapo headquarters that left almost 30 Germans dead or wounded. (1)

          Without their exploits, history may have turned out quite differently.

          Our passage from exodus begins with the words, “a new king arose in Egypt, who did not know Joseph.” There was a very good reason the new Pharaoh, probably Rameses II, did not know Joseph – whose story we visited last week, with its own elements of palace intrigue and shenanigans. By this time – Joseph is history, ancient history. It has been several hundred years since Joseph’s administration of Egypt’s granaries saved the nation from starvation.

          In the intervening years, the Hebrew descendants of Joseph and his brothers had been fruitful and multiplied, and the Pharaoh, fearing that they might rise up against them, turned the erstwhile guests of the kingdom into slaves – a condition in which they labored for more than 400 years. Hose alive at the time of our story had no memory of anything but captivity. Their fathers and their father’s fathers were slaves. That’s just the way life was.

          The conditions were bad. The Egyptians “set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor… But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.”

          The crowning blow was the edict that all male Hebrew babies were to be killed at birth. Girls could live – they were not seen as a threat; but the boys received a sentence of death. “Pharaoh commanded all his people, ‘Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live,” the story says.

          This is of course how we learn about one particular little boy who was spared – a child who would grow to become the greatest and foremost leader of the Hebrew people, the boy in a basket – Moses. And had it not been for a group of female operatives working behind the scenes, Moses would never have survived.

          There are 4 major players, or groups of players in this story. Two are individuals who know each other and act in concert with each other. And two are teams of players who coordinate a strategy to achieve their aims.

          First, there is Jochebed, the mother of Moses. She defied Pharaoh’s cruel order by keeping her baby boy hidden for at least three months. Then, when she couldn’t hide him anymore, she got a papyrus basket for him and plastered it with bitumen and pitch – interesting, the same stuff that Noah used to make the Ark back in Genesis. Jochebed put her child in the basket and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river.

          Then, we have Miriam, Moses’ older sister. Miriam’s job was to linger around the riverside, keeping an eye out for her baby brother and report back to her mother. She was the lookout, the guardian, the sentry. She kept watch to make sure the basket wasn’t attacked by animals, or float away downstream.

          Next up, we have the midwives. They were told by the Pharaoh that male babies were to be killed. But this group of women – two of whom are mentioned by name, Shiphrah and Puah, “feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them.” They were deliberately disobeying orderings from the very top. And when they were called before the king to explain their disobedience, their excuse was a bit flimsy – “The Hebrew women are strong,” they said, “not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.”

          And finally, we have the princess and her attendants. A royal princess of the court of Rameses II discovers the baby, and finding him adorable beyond belief, disobeys her father’s command.  “The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews children,” she said.

          Now, Miriam, who is watching all this unfold, comes up with an ingenious plan. Risking her life, she intervenes and interrupts the Pharaoh’s daughter and her entourage. “I think I know of a woman who could nurse the baby. Would your highness want me to fetch this woman?”

          Well, the princess thinks this is a wonderful idea, and Miriam runs off to fetch the nurse who, of course, is Moses’ mother, Jochebed.

          It was the princess who gave the baby his name. When the lad grew up, Jochebed took him to the Pharaoh’s daughter, and “she took him as her son. She named him Moses, because, she said, “I drew him up out of the water.” And so Moses was raised by his Egyptian mother, received an education in the court of the Pharaoh and lived the life of a royal. Moses’ mother and her attendants were able to deceive the Pharaoh for years.

          And that is the story of how some female operatives changed the course of history.

          The astute reader might wonder – Where is God in this story. Aside from a brief mention in verses 20-21, God is scarcely mentioned in this passage. So where is God?

          Well, God is present, but God is working quietly, behind the scenes. God is found in the relationships of Hebrew men and women and the children those unions produce. God is sitting in a stool beside Shiphrah and Puah as they grasp the shoulders of newborn Israelites babies and bring yet another life into God’s covenant people. God can also be seen in the brave resolve of those two midwives who refused to carry out Pharaoh’s “final solution.”

          It is striking that the names of these women have been preserved for us in scripture. In the broad sweep of the Old Testament, it is mostly the names of the very famous that are recorded (and almost all of those names are men, not women.) Yet the author of Exodus was savvy in realizing that Shiphrah and Puah deserved recognition in the course of salvation history because it was indeed no one less than God who was fulfilling the covenant with Abraham through them. (2)

          Each of these women had different roles in the drama surrounding the birth of Moses, and each role was vital. Each of them were tools in the hands of God. They all shared some common characteristics, they all were defiant in the face of an unjust order. But maybe we can look at that from a different angle and say that they were all highly defiant – in defense of their objective. Or perhaps courageous in their conviction to do what was right and resist their authoritarian ruler. Although defying the political regime, the head of state and countless officials lower on the food chain, they were united by their belief in the rightness of their actions.

          Is this story encouraging us to resist oppressors and persecutors? Yes, I would say it is.

          Now, none of us want to do serious jail time. But what would have happened to the Civil Rights movement of Rosa Parks had given up her seat on the bus to the white man who asked for it? What would have happened if women like Dorthy Height, Fannie Lou Hamer, Daisy Bates and Septima Poinsette Clark had been afraid to resist and speak out.

          Think about how the absence of defiant women would have altered the abolitionist movement or the quest to secure voting rights for women – women like Jane Addams, Susan B Anthony, and Sojourner Truth. These women were successful because they didn’t believe or behave in the manner expected of them.

          I realize that most of us aren’t called to the vocation of full-time defiance.

          So how can we have a part in saving the world?

          Perhaps we have overlooked another form of defiance that doesn’t involve protest marches, shouting chants or carrying banners.

          The defiance of love and kindness would appear to be counterintuitive. Yet each act of love and kindness is a rebellion against tyranny, bitterness and unkindness. It is a way of saying, “We do not agree with the aggressive, evil, back-stabbing, back-talking, hostile and oppressive behavior we see in play in our culture today. We stand against these. We will openly and subversively sow love and kindness regardless of any perceived outcome. We are united in pursuit of a  common objective.”

          Each act of kindness rebuffs the haters among us.

          Each unexpected demonstration of love helps to restore faith in humanity and perhaps in God.

          The first thing is not to have any expectations. Surely the mother of Moses did not know whether her defiance would have a good outcome. Moses sister, likewise, could only do her job and watch the baby in the river. The midwives could only fear God and do what was right. The Pharaoh’s daughter could only obey her maternal instinct and defy her father to save the child. The actions were grounded in hope, not expectations. Ultimately they depended on an act of God.

          In 1984, Linda Down ran the New York City marathon. She was the last person to complete the race – it took her 11 hours. Even though she suffers from cerebral palsy and ran with the help of crutches – she still finished. When asked by a reporter why she ran the marathon, Linda replied, “We are living in negative times. Things feel impossible today. I thought that if I could try to do this, it might be an inspiration to others, and maybe they would try some big things too.”

          Then she added, “But those last 11 miles were an act of God.”

          The reporter asked, “What do you mean, ‘an act of God?’

          With 11 miles to go, I ran out of my own strength. I didn’t have any more. I finished the race on borrowed power.” (3)

          As the midwives learned, everyone who trusts in God, and takes those defiant steps for what is right, can depend on borrowed power – the power of God.

          As Paul wrote to the church in Corinth – “Therefore my brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” For we are tools in the hands of God.

          May God be praised. Amen.

 1. Homileticsonline, retrieved August 2nd, 2023.
2. Ibid…
3. Ibid…   

08-20-2023 To Preserve Life

Thomas J Parlette
“To Preserve Life”
Genesis 45: 1-15
8/20/23 

          Lately my family has been taking cruise vacations. I’ve never been on one myself, but I hear the stories and share the pictures from cruises my mom and dad and my two sisters have taken. If you’ve ever been on a cruise, you’ve certainly experienced the mandatory exercise known as the “lifeboat drill.”

          It usually happens on the first day, before you even leave port. Everyone is instructed to go to a certain part of the ship and there you join a select group of a dozen or more passengers, along with several crew members. Those crew members may be waiters, cleaners, clerks, even casino dealers, but for a few brief moments, they’re all sailors.

          In the event of an emergency, they’ve been trained to escort your little group over the rail and into a lifeboat, which for the moment, is hanging ominously overhead.

          It all seems kinda weird. There you are, all ready to begin your vacation at sea, when you’re solemnly reminded that – in certain highly unlikely circumstances – the ship you’re standing on might go down.

          There’s something else they teach you to do during the lifeboat drill: put on a life preserver. There you stand with your fellow vacationers with this puffy vest around your neck. Your friendly crew members teach you to cinch it tight across your chest. They point out that it has a whistle and a battery-powered light – then they sound the ship’s horn to signal the end of the drill. You happily hand over your life preserver and head to the lounge to get that image of the boat sinking out of your head. But it is nice to know that a life preserver is waiting for you at your designated muster zone if need be.

          Today’s story from the Hebrew scriptures is about a life preserver of a different sort, Joseph, of Technicolor Dreamcoat fame, declares, “God sent me before you to preserve life.”

          These words that Joseph speaks are among the most extraordinary in all of Scripture – because they are terribly difficult for Joseph to say. In a single day, he travels from death to life, and becomes a life preserver for his brothers.

          There are a number of Joseph’s in the Bible, but only two of them can be called leading characters. First, there is Joseph the earthly father of Jesus – he’s the strong, silent type. And then there is this Joseph, the son of Jacob. This Joseph is one of 12 sons Jacob had by four different women. Jacob was married to Leah and Rachel at the same time, and also had children by Zilpah and Bilhah.

          This was not unusual in that time, tribal chieftains like Jacob often had multiple wives and concubines. As you might imagine, this often led to hard feelings and a lot of family drama.

          Among all the women in his life, Jacob had a favorite – his wife Rachel. Among his 12 sons and an unspecified amount of daughters, Jacob also had a favorite – Joseph, who just happens to be the son he shares with Rachel.

          Thanks to Andrew Lloyd Webber, most of us can recount the basics about Joseph and coat of many colors, and how his brothers got sick and tired of their father’s favoritism. When Jacob sends Joseph out one day to check up on his brothers, their resentment boils over. They decide to beat some humility into Joseph. Things quickly get out of hand, and before they realize what they’re doing, they’ve thrown Joseph into a pit and sold him to some passing slave traders. As a cover-up, the 11 brothers smear some animal blood on Joseph’s coat and take it back to their heartbroken father as proof that wild beasts have killed his favorite son.

          Fast-forward a decade or two and Joseph is by now, only a memory to the family he unwillingly left behind. Everyone assumes he died long ago, including his brothers, who knew the truth.

          A terrible famine has come upon the land. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so Jacob send his sons packing off to Egypt in a last-ditch attempt to broker a grain deal with the Pharoah’s chief of staff.

          Little do they know – this high and mighty Egyptian official, Pharoah’s number-one-advisor, is none other than their brother Joseph. Against all odds – he has survived, and actually thrived!

          Through an unlikely series of events, he has gone from slave to dream-interpreter, to butler to prime minister. Joseph had plenty of time over those long years to brood over what he might do to his lousy, back-stabbing brothers if he ever got the chance. And now – quite unexpectedly – that day has come. Joseph finds himself face-to-face with all 11 of them once more. But this time, they’re on their knees, bowing to him – and Joseph holds all the cards.

          “Revenge is a dish best served cold,” says the old proverb. If that’s true, the emotional atmosphere in that Egyptian royal hall was well below freezing. All Joseph had to do was call for the palace guards, and his brothers would be hauled off to jail, or the slave market or even killed outright.

          But before he says anything, Joseph examines his brother’s faces. They still don’t recognize him in his customary black headdress and Egyptian robes. Their faces are so much older and ragged looking than when he had seen them last. Reuben was losing his hair. Simon’s brow was deeply creased with wrinkles. Issachar walked with a limp. Joseph realizes how much time has passed. These are not the same angry, jealous faces that he stared up at from the bottom of that pit so many years ago. And Joseph is overwhelmed thinking of the ties that bind them all together.

          Suddenly Joseph realizes that if he doesn’t break the grim cycle of anger and revenge – if he doesn’t do it right now, today – no one ever will.

          Finally, Joseph speaks. “Send everyone away.” His guards and scribes can’t believe it. Someone asks, “But my Lord, have I heard you rightly? These are foreigners, and palace security guidelines dictate…”

          “Send them away,” says Joseph, a little more forcefully.

          The 11 sons of Jacob wonder – “What is this all about.” This Egyptian lord, on his golden throne, clad in elegant linen garments with his jet black hairpiece, is looking back at them with the strangest expression on his face. Now he’s standing up and coming down the steps. Are those tears in his eyes – is he weeping?

          The Egyptian lord sits down on the bottom step, his head in his hands. He looks over at his brothers and gestures for them to come closer. His voice is barely a whisper. “I am Joseph,” he says. “Is my father still alive?”

          His brothers are speechless - can you blame them. The next words Joseph speaks are gentle and full of compassion. And that’s what brings him to the remarkable words, “God sent me before you to preserve life.”

          After all those years of licking emotional wounds and dreaming of revenge, Joseph has caught a higher vision – the preservation of life. He now sees the big picture of preserving not just his life, but the life of God’s chosen people. Joseph now realizes that his life’s vocation – aside from all he has done for Pharoah and Egypt – is to preserve God’s covenant, to be the living instrument, the life preserver, by which God’s promise will be passed on to the next generation.

          So standing there in the Egyptian royal palace, Joseph pronounces absolution. He all but commands his brothers to lay aside their guilt, and to cherish instead their precious family tie. His carefully nurtured anger has suddenly left him.

          It may have occurred to you that there is a troubling aspect to this story of Joseph’s reconciliation with his brothers. It doesn’t seem very fair. Joseph’s brothers were terrible to him. Don’t they deserve some sort of punishment? The bible has told how this remarkable man Joseph, triumphs over every adversity – story after story shows his guts and determination, cleverness and faith. And we expect that this story should end with some deserved revenge and ultimate, justice.

          That may be the way of the world, but Joseph demonstrates a higher way – the way of forgiveness. Forgiving others – especially when the wound is deep – is one of the most difficult things any of us will ever be called upon to do. Yet few tasks are more important, not only for the person being forgiven, but also for the person doing the forgiving.

          A wise person has said, “Forgiveness is when you set a prisoner free – and then you realize the prisoner is yourself.”(1)

          There’s a story from the Native American tradition that makes a similar point. A boy comes to his grandfather, filled with anger at another child who has done him an injustice. “Let me tell you a story,” says the grandfather.

          “I too, at times, have felt great hatred for those who have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do. But hatred wears you down and does nothing to hurt your enemy. It’s like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times. It’s as if there are two wolves inside me; one is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him and takes no offense when no offense is intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way.”

          “But the other wolf – that is a different matter! That one is full of anger. The smallest irritation will set him into a fit of rage. He fights everyone, all the time, for no good reason. He cannot think clearly because his anger and hatred are so overwhelming. It is hard to live with these two wolves inside me – for both of them wish to dominate my spirit?”

          The boys eyes have grown wide with the thought of two wolves inside him. “Which one wins, Grandfather?”

          And the grandfather replies – “The one I feed.” (2)

          Joseph, too, has been living with two wolves inside him. When, at last, he looks into the faces of his brothers, the choice he has to make is clear. He must stop feeding the wolf of revenge. To release that wolf into the wild is not easy – it never is. Over the years, in a strange way, Joseph had come to love that voracious wolf – but he had to disown it, for the sake of the survival of God’s chosen people.

          Back in 1999, CBS’s 60 Minutes aired a story about Amy Biehl, a young woman raised in the First Presbyterian Church of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Amy was an active church member, a smart and accomplished young woman. One of the biggest passions in her life was South Africa. She was very active in the anti-apartheid movement in the early 1990’s.

          When Amy won a Fulbright Scholarship, no one was surprised when she used it to travel to South Africa, where she immersed herself in that troubled country’s culture and politics.

          But Amy’s life ended tragically in 1994, when she was stoned and stabbed to death by a mob of angry militants. To them, she was just a  white person, one of the oppressors – they had no idea they were killing a friend of their own cause.

          It was a terrible, senseless tragedy. Amy’s parents were devastated by the news. But instead of lashing out in anger, they decided to try and do what their daughter would have wanted. They set out to understand their daughter’s sense commitment to these people of a distant land.

          So Amy’s parents immersed themselves in the study of South Africa. Soon, they traveled there. Amy’s mother Linda attended the trial of her attackers. She visited the township where they lived. Linda even visited one of the attackers mothers. She sat with her for a long time. Linda told her she forgave the woman’s son for what he had done. Later she told a reporter from 60 Minutes that, after hugging the woman: “I walked out of that home, there was rainbow in the sky. My heart was very light. I felt I had come to terms. And if that is forgiveness – I felt it. I felt at peace with myself. So to me, that’s forgiveness.”

          When they returned to the United States, the Biehl family established the Amy Biehl Foundation, which soon sponsored 15 different programs in South Africa that include job-training and after school programs for thousands of young people.

          Among the children who first enrolled in the after-school program was the 12 year old sister of one of the murderers. When her brother and the other two murderers applied for amnesty after serving four years in jail, the authorities told Amy’s parents that they could block the men’s release if they wished. But the Biehl’s decided not to exercise their right to object. The men were freed. (3)

          Forgiveness is never easy. It goes against the “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” ethic that is so prevalent in this world. Forgiveness like we see in Amy Biehl’s or Joseph’s story seem, to some pitifully weak and lacking in justice, soft on crime – but in reality, nothing could be stronger nor more determined. True forgiveness does condone the wrong that has been done – nor does it forget. Forgiveness freely and openly acknowledges past offenses, but then it moves on, seeking ways to preserve and enhance life.

          Only the brave know how to forgive,” writes the 18th-century preacher and novelist Laurence Sterne. “A coward never forgave; it is not in their nature.”(4)

          Probably all of us here today carry some sense of anger or resentment with us. How long have you fed it, how long have you nurtured it? Maybe it’s time to follow Joseph’s example – and let it go.

          The last line of the famous prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi says it well – “For it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”(5)

          May God be praised. Amen. 

1.    Homileticsonline, retrieved July 24th, 2023.
2.    Ibid…
3.    Ibid…
4.    Ibid…
5.    Ibid…

08-06-2023 An Odd Time for a Picnic

Thomas J Parlette
“An Odd Time for a Picnic”
Matthew 14: 13-21
8/6/23 

          In the early 1980’s, a quick-serve Chinese restaurant opened at the Glendale Galleria mall in Glendale, California. The owners, Andrew and Peggy Cherng, called it Panda Express. A few years later, Chef Andy Kao developed their signature dish, Orange Chicken.

          The business began to grow. The 100th store was opened in 1993. The 1,000th in 2007. Today they have more than 2,000 restaurants in 9 countries. With more than 3 billion in sales, they serve more than 90 million pounds of Orange Chicken every year.

          At Panda Express, you are going to get “American Chinese food quickly and cheaply,” writes reviewer Kevin Alexander. Plus, “if you choose these winning dishes, you’re going to have a very enjoyable meal.”

          Surprisingly, Alexander’s top dish is Teriyaki Chicken, which isn’t even Chinese. Alexander ranks the top dishes at Panda Express as teriyaki Chicken, Beijing Beef, and Kung Pao Chicken. The famous Orange Chicken comes in fourth.

          Now, nearly 40 years after its founding, Panda Express continues to evolve. The restaurant recently introduced a plant-based version of its signature dish – Orange Chicken without the chicken. They call it “Beyond the Original Orange Chicken.”

          Panda Express is also expanding its philanthropic work. Fast Company magazine reports that a division called “Panda Cares” was established in 1999, and it has raised more than 305 million to help children in need. In recent years, conversations around race have inspired the company to create the “Panda CommUnity Fund”. Since being launched in 2021, more than 2.3 million has been contributed to organizations that support people of color and other marginalized communities.

          Andrea Cherng, the chief brand officer, says, “We are a company founded by immigrants. We continue to look outward.”

          They are trying to answer the question: “How do we best serve our people and the broader community?” (1)

          Speaking of feeding large amounts of people and serving the needs of others, that’s just what Jesus is doing today – although it seems like an odd time for a picnic.

          In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus and his disciples are shocked by the news that Herod has killed their friend John the Baptist. Needing to grieve and pray, Jesus climbs into a boat and retreats to a deserted, lonely spot across the Sea of Galilee.

          But the desperately needy people of the region won’t let him just slip away. They follow Jesus on foot. Even though he himself is suffering, Jesus isn’t irritated or annoyed that his retreat has been interrupted. On the contrary, Jesus cares deeply for these people who are in need and unable to help themselves.

          Matthew tells us that Jesus has compassion for the people in the crowd – which means, literally, that he “suffers with” them. Jesus is moved with pity from the depth of his heart, feeling a sympathetic awareness of their distress, combined with a strong desire to provide some relief. In Mark’s version of this story, Jesus has compassion because they are “like sheep without a shepherd; and he begins to teach them many things.” Jesus becomes their Good Shepherd, one who orders the people “to sit down on the grass”, just like the Lord of Psalm 23 makes his sheep “lie down in green pastures.”

          Jesus has compassion for every one of his people, regardless of their background or circumstances. Jesus is the Good Shepherd promised by the prophets, the one who teaches his people, heals their sick and injured, and provides them with food. “He will feed his flock like a shepherd,” promises Isaiah; “He will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.” Ezekiel; picks up on this image as well, when he writes, “I will set up over them one shepherd, and he shall feed them.”

          The feeding of the 5,000 story must be important, because it’s the only miracle of Jesus recorded in all four Gospels. The story harkens back to God’s gift of manna while the Israelites wandered in the desert. It is also reminiscient of the Last Supper, especially in the blessing and breaking of the bread. The disciples only had 5 fish loaves and 2 fish, so Jesus introduced his own version of a signature dish – loaves and fish – and everyone ate and everyone was filled.

          When we receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper in worship, we share bread, just as Jesus and the people did, gathered on the grass by the Sea of Galilee. We feel the compassion of Jesus in the meal, and we discover that our hearts are filled.

          The feeding of the 5,000 also reminds us that the Lord does provide. Not millions of dollars, but rather for the physical and spiritual nourishment we need. We find ourselves in a lonely and deserted place, Jesus meets us there and has compassion for us. When we feel spiritually empty, Christ breaks his bread and feeds us. When we are worn out at the end of a long day, Jesus does not send us away to fend for ourselves. He invites us to lie down in green pastures, and he gives us what we need for life.

          Jesus also encourages us to extend his compassion and nourishment to others. He wants us to continue to look outward, and to answer that question raised by Panda Express: “How do we best serve our people and the broader community?”

          Notice that the disciples seem a bit resistant at first, or at the very least a little skeptical. They want to send the hungry crowd away so that they can buy some food in a neighboring village. But Jesus says, “They don’t need to go anywhere; you give them something to eat.” The disciples are mystified by this, since they only have 5 loaves and 2 fish – clearly not enough to feed all these people. But after Jesus blesses the food, there is enough for everyone. And Jesus doesn’t feed the crowd himself – no, he gives the bread and fish to the disciples, and they feed the people.

          That’s the challenge in this story. To take what Jesus gives us and share it with others. “You give them something to eat,” says Jesus – and then he gives us what we need to feed the world around us. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, about 10% of US households were food insecure at some time during 2021.  (2) That means that 1 in 10 households across the country are forced to eat a less varied diet, participate in federal food assistance programs, or get food from a community food pantry. I would venture a guess that that statistic has remained unchanged for 2023, and might have even gone up.

          We respond to the challenge of Jesus when we do something to address this need. Concrete actions could include volunteering or contributing to Channel One community food pantry, gathering a group of people to provide a meal at Jeremiah Program or rescuing food that would otherwise go to waste, like what Community Food Response does. Answering Jesus’ challenge might also mean creating space for people to grow their own food, supporting the farmer’s market or even advocating for the expansion of public transportation to include access to grocery stores.

          You give them something to eat. Such feeding and sharing can go beyond putting food in hungry mouths. Giving might include regular offerings to support work that the church is already doing. Giving could include welcoming visitors to worship and sharing communion with them. Giving might include working creatively on issues like affordable housing and homelessness.

          Remember that Jesus was famous for eating with people he didn’t know, and he was criticized for sitting down at the table with people no wanted to be around – like tax collectors and known sinners. He didn’t consider people to be strangers when it came to sharing food and fellowship. When he reached out to the people around him, he always showed generosity and compassion. Since Jesus has given us what we need for a good life, he wants us to share that goodness with others.

          Sometimes we might worry that all this giving and sharing might mean that we don’t have enough for ourselves – that we will be left wanting. But notice in this story that when everyone in the crowd eats and is filled, there are 12 baskets of food left over – interestingly, that is one basket for each disciple. Sharing with others never depletes us, it never hurts us, never robs us of what we need for a good life. In the wonderful abundance of God’s generous gifts, there is always enough for all.

          In the story of the feeding of the 5,000 we discover that Jesus meets us in our deserted, lonely spots, in our times of grief – and offers us compassion, literally suffering alongside us. Like a good shepherd, he gives us what we need for life – abundant food, drink and protection. And then, because he wants us to be his disciples, he asks us to feed others with the resources he has given us. We join Jesus in compassion and in innovation, looking outward and caring for a world in need.

          We live in the assurance that there is always going to be enough. The Lord does, in fact, provide – for us and for the people around us.

          May God be praised. Amen. 

1.    Homileticsonline, retrieved 6/20/23.
2.    Ibid…

07-30-2023 The Kingdom of Heaven in 5 Parables

Thomas J Parlette
“The Kingdom of Heaven in 5 Parables”
Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52
7/30/23
 

          Many of you probably remember the game show “Name That Tune.” When I was growing up I remember watching the original show with my parents and marveling about how much they knew about music. I, of course, hadn’t been exposed to much popular music in my youth – but they seemed to get most of the tunes right.

          I think you remember how the play. The contestants would bid on how many notes they needed to hear in order to identify a song – “I can name that tune in 6 notes.” Sometimes people would boldly get down to 2 or even 1 note to name that tune. I think they just re-launched an updated version of the show somewhere in the streaming universe. I’d like to think I would do better now than I did as a kid.

          Well, this morning, Jesus is doing something similar as he sets out to “Name the Kingdom of Heaven… in 5 parables.

          Everybody has probably wondered what heaven is like. Maybe you think it’s people in white robes lounging on cottony clouds while pluck on a harp. That’s the iconic image of the newspaper cartoons – based in part, on glimpses snatched from the dreamlike visions of the book of Revelation.

          Or maybe the image in your head is a gleaming celestial city, where the streets are paved with gold. That comes from Revelation as well.

          The prophet Isaiah seems to think heaven is a great banqueting table, groaning with food and wine – a sumptuous feast spread out on a mountaintop. The Vikings would have liked that one – their image of heaven was a vast, smoky mead hall, with joints of mutton forever turning on spits over the fire and drinking horns that never run dry.

          Theologian Robert Farrar Capon once wrote that with regard to life after death, we are like oysters dwelling on the ocean floor, looking up at a ballerina on the shore and wondering how she moves. (1)

          Human beings have always speculated about this place called heaven. The Bible speaks of heaven on numerous occasions, but rarely provides much detail. And any specifics we do get resemble more free-flowing poetic imagery that actual description.

          The only honest answer is that heaven is a mystery. It’s a well-attested mystery in the Bible – but a mystery nonetheless. Sad to say, our view of heaven in this life is rather like the view from a ship at sea, sailing through a dense fog. The lookout stands at the rail, peering into the glow. From time to time, shapes seem to loom up, then they vanish as quickly as they came. The chart says that somewhere out there is land, and the instrument readings confirm it. But even the sharpest-eyed lookout cannot see land.

          Patricia Bulkley is a hospice chaplain with many years of experience. She’s heard many hospice patients over the years report vivid dreams they experience in the last days of their lives. Patricia collected some of the dream stories she has heard over the years, and teamed up with her son, Kelly – a psychologist – to analyze them. The result is their book called Dreaming Beyond Death.

          Charles Rasmussen was a retired sea captain, who was dying of cancer. He was filled with fears about dying, until one night he dreamed of sailing on the high seas. He felt the same thrill he’d often known as a merchant-marine captain, sailing his ship at night through a black and empty sea, knowing he was on course. Captain Rasmussen told the hospice chaplain, “Strangely enough, I’m not afraid to die anymore.”

          Or, there was a woman who told of how she dreamed of a candle, burning on the windowsill of her hospital room. Suddenly, the candle was snuffed out, engulfing her in darkness. For a moment she was filled with terror – until, in her dream, she saw the candle spontaneously re-light, but this time outside her window.

          Then there’s the story of the great psychologist, Carl Jung. Jung has spent his life helping patients to analyze their dreams, and he had recorded quite a few of his own. The very last dream he communicated to his followers was of a great round stone. It had these words chiseled into it – “And this shall be a sign unto you of Wholeness and Oneness.” Jung took this to mean that his life’s work had been completed.

          The Bulkleys make the point in their book that these dreams don’t prove that heaven exists. They’re dreams, after all – they originate in the human mind. But they do speak powerfully of our hopes and aspirations as human beings. And for those family members and friends who are left behind, they are powerfully suggestive signs of what life beyond this life may be like. (1)

          In Matthew, chapter 13, Jesus speaks not of dreams, but of visions that are parables. Most of Jesus’ best-known parables are stories – the prodigal son, the good Samaritan, the laborers in the vineyard. But this collect is now as well known. These parables at the end of Matthew 13 are brief, evocative snapshots, presented in rapid-fire fashion.

          Each of them, in its own way, provides an answer to the question, “What is the kingdom of Heaven?” But these parables don’t directly answer the question, “What is heaven?” Jesus is speaking here about the Kingdom of Heaven, the heavenly rule over all things. There’s a difference, but I admit, it’s a huge difference.

          The kingdom of heaven is not so much a spiritual reality beyond this world, as it is a spiritual reality breaking into this world. For Jesus – as for many wise, spiritual teachers – the boundary line between earth and heaven is thin. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus begins his preaching ministry by proclaiming “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Mark and Luke usually say “The kingdom of God is at hand,” but not Matthew. Matthew prefers to say “the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus sees his mission as waking people up and making them aware of this dazzling new reality and the nearness of God in daily life.

          Such is the message of these mini-parables in Matthew 13. Here’s the first one:

          The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.

          A mustard seed is a tiny seed, but it grows rapidly, maturing into a very large plant. Some biblical scholars think Jesus’ mustard plant is what botanists call “black mustard” – more of a shrub, really than a plant. Occasionally, it grows as large as 6 feet tall. Black mustard is essentially a weed. No self-respecting farmer would let it grow in their field. Once established it’s very difficult to get rid of.

          But here’s what’s different in Jesus’ parable. In his rendition, the farmer intentionally sows the mustard seeds. It’s like Jesus saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a bunch of dandelion seeds that someone sowed on the front lawn.

          Why would any do that? We have enough dandelions naturally – why would anyone plant seeds. And they’re so hard to get rid of. But maybe that’s exactly what Jesus is trying to tell us about God’s heavenly realm. The seeds of heaven may seem tiny and insignificant, but once they take root in the ground, there’s no stopping them.

          The next parable is similar. “The kingdom of God is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures until all of it was leavened.”

          Anyone who has ever baked bread knows what yeast can do. Sprinkle the tiniest bit of the stuff into your wet dough, knead it thoroughly, and let it sit for an hour or so in a warm place. Then place your loaf in the oven – and before you know it, it has doubled in size. That wet, unappetizing lump of goo has been miraculously transformed into a warm, crusty loaf of bread. Break it open while it’s still warm, and you’ll see that Jesus is right. The steamy fragrance is like a little bit of heaven.

          So, the influence of heaven is slowly growing in our world, just as a yeasty loaf expands in the oven. But Jesus is saying even more than that. The woman in his parable mixes the yeast with three measures of flour. That’s an enormous quantity – about 50 pounds. This baker is running a commercial operation. The bread baked from that amount of dough would feed 100 people. (2) It starts with a tiny, insignificant pinch of leaven: and look at the result! In just such a way, the in-breaking reality of heaven has the power to transform the world.

          Our passage skips ahead then to this next one:

          “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

          Imagine a farm worker guiding a plow behind a pair of oxen. The sun is high overhead, the day is hot and he’s growing weary. Suddenly, he hears the sound of metal on metal, looks down, and sees something gold glinting back at him. His plow has broken into a clay jar buried in the ground. The jar is filled with gold coins, hundreds of years old – way too many for him to pick up and take home.

          So what does the farm worker do? He covers the treasure with dirt – then he runs home and scrapes together all the money he can find. He goes to all his friends and relatives, cajoling them into loaning him everything they can for this sure-fire investment. Then he goes to the farmer who owns the field and makes him an offer for the property.

          The farm hand holds his breath while the man considers the offer – and when the farmer finally agrees to sell, the farmhand hands over the purchase price. Inside, he’s bursting with happiness. His heart is racing, for he knows the treasure in the field is his at last.

          The next parable also has a commercial setting:

          “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

          Think of it, though as a modern tale. An antiques dealer is making the rounds of the Saturday garage sales, looking for merchandise. She’s hoping to find some costume jewelry that she can a make a few bucks on – maybe buy a whole box of assorted pieces. It’s almost noon – well past the time for turning up spectacular bargains, everything has been pretty picked over. She’s about to call it a day when she spies on last sale, just a couple of folding tables set up on a lawn. On impulse, she pulls the car to the curb and walks over to take a look.

          And immediately, she sees it. A huge pearl necklace, gleaming with a translucent sheen – the largest pearl she has ever seen. She picks it up and takes a close look with her practiced eye – it is unquestionably genuine, and probably worth $10,000-20,000 dollars. Casually she asks, “How much do you want for it?”

          The owner knows it’s a nice piece and answers, “How ‘bout $100.00 dollars.”

          The dealer looks in her purse, but all she’s got is 20 bucks. She thanks the owner, walks casually to her car, pulls away calmly and when she turns a corner, she floors it to the next ATM machine. Her stomach is in knots as she withdraws another $80.00. She prays under her breath as she drives back – “please let that pearl still be there.” And it is there. She buys it, and returns home rejoicing.

          A treasure buried in a field. An undervalued pearl, just waiting for a knowledgeable buyer. The Kingdom, says Jesus, is already present in our world, hiding in plain sight, but in such a way that not everyone can see it. Having glimpsed its presence, we have only to reach out and claim it for our own.

          For the fifth and final parable, we turn to the world of fishing:

          “Again the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad.”

          Here, too, the gifts of God, the signs of the in-breaking kingdom of heaven, are present among us in great abundance. Anyone who has ever taken a fishing pole in hand knows the feeling of casting a line into the water and hoping something tugs at the other end. In Jesus’ parable, it’s a net rather than a line, and it comes back bulging with silvery treasure. In fishing, every cast is an act of faith, an act of hope. The vast majority of times, nothing happens. But it only takes one fish to make a day worthwhile.

          Jesus then surprises us, by changing the explanation of this parable. We began by looking at it from the standpoint of those who are casting the net; but Jesus informs us that, in this story, we are not the fishers, we are the fish. The keepers must be separated from those that have to be thrown back.

          So, what is the kingdom of heaven like? A mustard seed. Leaven in a batch of dough. Treasure hidden in a field. A pearl of great value. A net bulging with fish. Yes- it’s like all those things. This isn’t really a theological treatise that Jesus gives us today – this collection of short parable is more like a pile of snapshots. Far from providing a street map of heaven, these parables are hints, suggestions, intimations of what lies beyond. These hints are the best Jesus, or anyone else can offer, for the fault lies not in the explanation, but in the feeble understanding of the listeners.

          The Buddhist philosopher Alan Watts has written in a way that speaks to every religious tradition. He says:

          “You cannot understand life and its mysteries as long as you try to grasp it, just as you cannot walk with a river in a bucket… To have running water, you must let go of it and let it run. The same is true of life and of God.” (3)

          Heaven, we must admit, is a mystery. Yet, as the hospice chaplain discovered in listening to the secrets of the dying, it is in dreams, visions and parables that we discern the deepest and most profound truths pertaining to this life and the life that is to come.

          May God be praised for the glimpses of heaven we have all around us. Amen.

1.    Homileticsonline, retrieved June 10th, 2023.
2.    Ibid…
3.    Ibid…

07-23-2023 Jacob's Ladder

Thomas J Parlette
“Jacob’s Ladder”
Genesis 28: 10-19a
7/23/23
 

          You’ve heard of Truth, Justice and the American Way. It’s Superman’s catchphrase.

          But how about Truth, Justice and Bridge between earth and space?

          That’s the catchphrase of Captain Marvel.

          According to Brie Larson, who plays Captain Marvel, “She’s a believer in truth and justice and she is a bridge between two worlds, a bridge between earth and space. She’s fighting between the flaws that are within her and all this good she wants to do.”

          If you’re a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, like we are in the Parlette household, then you know Captain Marvel’s story. Carol Danvers was an Air Force pilot whose DNA was fused with that of an alien. The result was superhuman strength and the ability to fly. She became Captain Marvel: a bridge between earth and the rest of the civilizations out in space.

          “She can also shoot things out of her hands, and she’s really funny,” as Brie Larson says.

          After seeing the first “Captain Marvel” movie, one fan said, “It was totally awesome. I’ve never related to a Marvel character like Carol Danvers before.”

          A Captain Marvel sequel, “The Marvels,” scheduled to be released Nov. 10th of this year, contains some additional super-powerful women: A teenager named Ms. Marvel and Captain Monica Rambeau. In the movie, Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel and Captain Rambeau will begin swapping places with each other every time they use their powers, and they will have to team up to figure out why. (1)

          The Marvel Cinematic Universe – the MCU for the insiders – has been quite prolific over the last 15 years providing great adventure stories around the idea of a bridge between Earth and other worlds in space and time.

          One of the great adventures of the Bible is found in the book of Genesis, revolving around a man named Jacob. Genesis tells us that Jacob and his older twin brother Esau struggled together in the womb, and their rivalry continued as they grew. As in every good superhero movie, there was some intense conflict.

          First, Esau sold his birthright to his younger brother to satisfy his hunger. Then, Jacob tricked his father Isaac into giving him the blessing that belonged to Esau. Incidentally, the name Jacob means- “supplant,” as in “replaces.”

          Truth and justice were not big concerns to Jacob, at least not at the beginning, and he was certainly not acting like a superhero.

          Esau hated his brother Jacob for stealing his blessing and declared his intent to kill him. Jacob escaped Esau’s fury and went on a journey in search of a wife. Alone and powerless, he stopped and slept at a spot on the road to Haran. Picking up one of the stones along the road, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.

          Then Jacob “had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” So, Jacob saw a stairway, which could also be understood as a ladder or a ramp. The angels were messengers from God, going up and down between earth and heaven, but in this case, they were not carrying messages, at least not to Jacob.

          Instead, God stood above the stairway and offered a direct message to Jacob: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.” In these words, God makes clear that the bridge between earth and heaven is strong. The two are not disconnected places. “Earth is not left to its own resources,” says biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann. “Heaven is not a remote self-contained realm for the Gods. Heaven has to do with Earth.” (2)

          Jacob discovers a bridge between earth and heaven, similar to ones we might see in the MCU movies.

          On this bridge, God makes the promise that Jacob and his descendants will have the land on which he is sleeping. These descendants “will be like the dust of the earth,” says God, “and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

          That’s quite an amazing set of promises. Land, multiple descendants, the opportunity to be a blessing to others, and God’s eternal presence and protection. Talk about superpowers – if you wanted to change the world for the better, those promises are not a bad place to start.

          Jacob woke up from his sleep and realized, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” In the middle of his escape from Esau, felling powerless and alone, Jacob discovered that God was present with him. This gift was not a reward for good behavior, but it came to him as a gracious gift from God. “How awesome is this place!” he said. “This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

          At this point, Jacob discovered his superpower – his ability to sense the presence of God. This power did not come from alien DNA, or a radioactive spider or a lab accident with Gamma rays like in superhero movies, but from a willingness to accept what God was doing in his life. He did not wake up and say to himself, “What a crazy dream!”. No, he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place.”

          Then Jacob responded to God’s message by picking up the stone he had used as a pillow and setting it up as a pillar. He poured oil on top of it- which was what the people of Israel did when they anointed a king, a prophet, or a priest. Then he called the place Bethel, which means “house of God.”

          In this passage, Jacob discovers a bridge between two worlds. He senses the presence of God on earth. He believes the promises God makes to him. And he builds something – he stands a pillar on the ground – to create a lasting sign that the place is Bethel – the house of God.

          We too can have Jacob’s superpower of sensing the presence of God, even in times of difficulty, illness or stress. A woman named Anne DeSantis tells the story of being diagnosed with a serious heart ailment at the age of 34. “With a 2-year-old and a brand-new baby,” she says, “I was overwhelmed hearing from my doctor that I had a rare disease.”

          Her doctor made some suggestions for treatment, including the advice that she slow down and rest. She says, “I recall sitting outside on the porch holding my daughter and looking up at the sky… I remember receiving the gift of solitude as my eyes gazed at the beauty of the blue sky in early spring. This memory, and as hard as that time was for me, was a gift.”

          She realized that God was with her, and in time, her condition was cured.

          Like Jacob, we can also believe in the promises that God has made to us. As Christians, we can embrace the promise that “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons… nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

          Jesus is the clearest sign that God is present and active in human life. He is the strongest possible bridge between heaven and earth. And because he has come to save us, we can believe that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God that comes to us through him. Remember, one of the names for Jesus is “Immanuel” – which means “God with us.” And the last words Jesus says in the gospel of Matthew are, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

          Finally, like Jacob, we can build something on earth to show that God is alive and at work in human life. For instance, in the Bay Area of California, there is a desperate need for affordable housing. People living on Social Security constantly struggle to find decent places to live.

          But a few years ago, All Souls Episcopal Church began to transform an unused apartment building into new low-income housing. Phil Brochard, the pastor, says that they faced some pushback from neighbors, but they persevered because they wanted to serve their community. “We had a number of people who gave up thousands of hours to this project,” says Brouchard: “a journalist, an attorney and a couple of architects did work for us pro-bono.”

          Now, the housing project called Jordan Court is being filled with new residents. The facility includes a shared garden, where residents can pick fresh vegetables for their meals. Says one resident, “We got mint, we got cucumbers and my neighbors are great.” With the help of God,  All Souls Episcopal Church has built low-income housing, and through their efforts many neighbors will be blessed. (3)

          Marvelous things happen when people find bridges between earth and heaven. This was true for Jacob, and it is true for us. When we sense God’s presence and trust God’s promises, our homes and our churches can become Bethels – true houses of God.

          May that be so – for you, for me, and for First Presbyterian Church.

          May God be praised. Amen.

1.    Homileticsonline, retrieved June 5th, 2023.
2.    Ibid…
3.    Ibid…

07-02-2023 Prison Life

Thomas J Parlette
“Prison Life”
Romans 6: 12-32
7/2/23
 

          Most people are law-abiding citizens who have no desire to spend any time whatsoever inside a jail. Even ex-cons don’t want to go back to prison. Prison is not an attractive option for anyone. And those who are in prison are usually desperate to get out.

          Prison escapes have long been the subject of novels and movies. Even the Bible has stories of prison breaks and escapes from authorities. For example, In Acts 12, the apostle Peter is in prison under tight security: “Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while guards in front of the door were keeping watch over the prison.” Do you think Peter wanted to be in prison? I don’t think so. And when “the chains fell off”, he went immediately to the house of some friends who were praying for his release and they were astonished to see the object of their prayers standing right there before their eyes!

          A small number of people, however, want to go to prison, and there are some residents of correctional institutions who prefer to remain where they are rather than be released to the civilian population.

          A number of years ago, The Buffalo News ran a feature about an ex-con who said he stole shoelaces, a pair of sandals and some other items so he could get “prison health care that is very good.” Then there is the North Carolina man who robbed a back for $1 for the same reason.

          Consider the case of a man suffering from a life-threatening liver problem who decided his best bet to save himself was to go to prison. Dr. Joshua Mezrich, an assistant professor of surgery in the division of multi-organ transplantation at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, tells the story of a 41-year-old man who turned to crime to get medical care.

          The felon was in prison when he got a scan that revealed two aneurysms in his liver. Later, a follow-up scan showed the aneurysms had grown and the prisoner needed surgery soon, but he was released before the surgery could be scheduled. He realized that a trip back to prison was his best choice since he knew he could get the surgery paid for if he was behind bars.(1)

          But these stories are outliers – most folks going through life, working their jobs, paying their bills and eating too much junk food don’t want to go to prison for even a day. Although most people wouldn’t dream of crossing the ethical and moral lines that could send them to jail, the very presence of the law and the threat of prison helps motivate at least some of the population to walk the straight and narrow and be accountable for their actions.

          Bob Dylan makes the point in his hit song, “Gotta Serve Somebody,” that there’s a real sense in which we all have a boss to whom we’re accountable. No one gets through life without answering to a higher authority. We are all accountable to something are somebody – whether that’s the law, or our boss at work. As Dylan says, “It may be the Devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”

          John Lennon didn’t care much for Bob Dylan’s song, so he wrote a parody called “Serve yourself.” (2) You can do that, I suppose, serve yourself. Lots of people do just that. But Paul makes it clear that he thinks that’s a bad choice.

          “Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey your passions.” Notice the words “dominion” and “obey.” Sin – the principle of sin, our fallen nature as it’s called in other places in the Bible, or our human propensity to make bad choices and fall into bad habits – uses our actual human bodies as a means of getting us to do what sin wants us to do. Sin dominates us; sin is a bully; sin coerces us to obey our basest impulses. And when that happens, we don’t look so pretty. And we’re not happy.

          The jail of the body is a horrible place. Paul refers to us as “slaves to sin.” Sounds terrible.

          But Paul also mentions being “set free,” which implies we were once captured, imprisoned and forced to toil away under the scourge of jailhouse master – but no longer.

          The good news is that we don’t need to stay in the prison of serving ourselves when we could be serving God instead. Why serve Sin, when we could be walking free in the Spirit?

          The bad news is that our mortal bodies, very human bodies seem to provide constant opportunities for us to be tempted every which way.

          We’re tempted by what we see. And what we see always ignites an appetite. Sometimes, that is quite literally true. You see a bag of potato chips or a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream – and we want it. We gotta have it. That’s why we so many fast food commercials on TV between 4:00 and 8:00.

          And it’s not just food. We see wonderful, cool, new gadgets and we can’t live without them.

          We see commercials for vacations at Disneyworld or Viking river cruises – and we want to go.

          We see new clothes and shoes that are coming out – and we want that too.

          And if temptation doesn’t assault us with our eyes, it does so with our other senses. We can smell the aroma of French fries boiling in the deep fryer, a burger sizzling on a neighbor’s grill or the wonderful aroma of garlic and olive oil when we walk into the house for dinner. I know I am tempted almost every day when I drive home up North Broadway when I pass the Burger King in Siler Lake Plaza – you can smell the burgers cooking even when the windows are closed.

          Yes, our bodies and our senses are vulnerable to all sorts of temptations every day.

          But, we do hold a few keys to this jailhouse battle of temptation. We can unlock the cell door and walk out of the prison life – free.

          Paul reminds us in this passage that self-discipline is one of those keys. As he says: “Do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey your passions.” Sometimes we forget who’s in charge of the jail. We might feel like we’re a prisoner to temptations, but we are actually wardens of the prison. We are in control of what goes on within us. To rephrase the Nike expression from years ago – “Just DON’T do it!”

          Remembering our identity is also a key. Remember what we heard from Paul last week – “Consider yourselves dead to sin, and alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Dead and Alive. We are children of God! Serving ourselves, serving sin, and yielding to temptation is not how we roll. It’s not who we are. We have been blessed through Christ’s redeeming sacrifice with a new nature. We are new creations in Christ: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new.”

          Remembering our vulnerability, that’s a key as well. Our bodies make us vulnerable to excessive living. The fact that we are baptized Christians doesn’t mean that we will always do the right thing. Christianity is not a vaccine that ensures our spiritual health. That’s not how it works. Remembering that we are vulnerable to temptation and bad behavior is a key to releasing ourselves from sin’s control.

          Staying alert – that’s a key. The Bible say: “Discipline yourselves; keep alert. Like a roaring lion, your adversary, the devil, prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, stand fast in your faith.” Sin is a slippery slope. Without vigilance, we may not be aware of the traps that line whatever path we might be following.

          And finally – remember to take your keys with you! Have you ever walked out of the house and forgotten your keys, only to remember that you left them inside. Every once in awhile I do that with my car keys and I leave them on my desk. I don’t get far before I sheepishly come back to get them. As Christians, we have scripture, prayer, worship and Bible study on our key chains. Sometimes it’s easy to forget our keys, but without them, we don’t get far.

          The great thing about the Christian life is that we get to choose who we want to serve.

          This was not a choice for Brooks Hatlen in the classic 1994 movie The Shawshank Redemption. Brooks, played by James Whitmore, had been in prison for most of his life. When Brooks was finally released on parole as an elderly man, he didn’t really know what to do. Prison was all he knew.

          Perhaps we all have a bit of Brooks in us. Forgetting that we are children of the light, we become accustomed to behaving as though we are children of darkness. Yielding to temptation has become so normal that temptations have ceased to be temptations. Instead, they have become our rule of life.

          Upon learning of his own pending release, Brooks attacks fellow inmate Heywood, played by William Sadler, holding a knife to his throat and threatening to kill him so he can stay in prison.

          Red Redding, and inmate played by Morgan Freeman, explains the attack to Heywood and Andy Dufresne, played by Tim Robbins, saying: “Brooks ain’t no bug. He’s just… institutionalized. The man’s been in here 50 years! This is all he knows. In here, he’s an important man. He’s an educated man. Outside, he’s nothing! Just a used-up with arthritis in both hands.”

          And maybe that’s all we are – used-up cons with arthritis in our hands. We can’t get out, perhaps we don’t even want to. We’re used to prison life, and by now our arthritic hands can hardly hold the keys God has given us to release ourselves.

          Unable to adjust to freedom – Brooks commits suicide after his release.

          But we are not doomed to that same fate.

          The Bible says: “The wages of sin is death – but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”

          Know this, my friends – we are free.

          We don’t need to die in the prison of sin and temptation.

          Jesus has blown the doors of the cell off their hinges.

Andy and Red both made it out of prison. Red crosses into Mexico where he reunites with Andy, and they enjoy their freedom by the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Their freedom is a symbol or ours.

In Jesus Christ, we can leave prison life behind, for good.

And for that… May God be praised. Amen.

1.    Homileticsonline, retrieved June 5th, 2023.

2.    Ibid…

06-25-2023 Wanted: Dead and Alive

Thomas J Parlette
“Wanted: Dead and Alive”
Romans 6: 1b-11
6/25/23
 

          If you caught what you think is a typo in the sermon title today, please don’t leave any notes on Cindy’s desk. Wanted: Dead and Alive is indeed the title, no mistakes there.

          Of course, our first thought is Wanted: Dead or Alive – that’s the phrase we’re used to, especially if you grew up watching old westerns on TV, like Gunsmoke and Bonanza. In fact, from 1958-1961, Steve McQueen starred in a TV show called “Wanted: Dead or Alive” before he got his big break in the movies. McQueen played the role of Josh Randall, a Confederate veteran and bounty hunter. He carried a shortened Winchester Model 1892 rifle called “Mare’s Leg,” and while galloping on his horse, Ringo, he could draw and fire his rifle with blazing speed. But he had a soft spot. He not only caught bad guys dead or alive, but he often turned over his earnings to the needy and advocated for his prisoners – if he believed they had been falsely accused.(1)

          Or, maybe the first thing that pops into your head when you hear “Wanted: Dead or Alive” is that Bon Jovi song from the 80’s.

          Today, those post-Civil War posters featuring a rough-looking character, and the words “Wanted: Dead or Alive” have been replaced by the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Time was, you could stop by the post office and see if the list had changed – I’m not sure that’s still true, it’s been so long since I’ve actually gone to the Post Office.

          In a way, Paul has a similar poster on display here in Romans 6. We are wanted people!

          For the early church, that was often true in a literal sense. Earl believers were followed, harassed, imprisoned and even executed. Some of their adventures are recorded in the Book of Acts and in occasional references made by Paul in his letters. If you were a “follower of the Way” in those days, you become a wanted man or woman. It was risky business.

          But Paul also wants to say that we’re wanted in another sense. God wants us to walk in the Spirit, to be unceasing in our prayer life, to be holy and to enshrine in our daily lives all of the fruit of the Spirit.

          Paul, however, focuses on one aspect of the “wanted” nature of our lives as followers of Jesus. He explains that we’re wanted – dead AND alive. Then he explains what he means.

          He doesn’t say we’re wanted dead OR alive. The root of this distinction is embedded in the great Pauline metaphor articulated here in Chapters 5-8, that begins with the crucifixion of Jesus and ends with his resurrection – and a burial in between. Paul says that when Jesus was crucified, it’s like we were crucified with him. Thus – we are dead.

          But when Jesus was raised from the dead, we were raised with him. So, we’re also alive. Dead – to sin and our fallen, human nature, and alive to new life in Christ. Dead AND Alive. In between, there’s a burial, the symbol of which is baptism. We go down into the waters, symbolizing death, and come back up again revived in new resurrection life.

          So why is this so important? Paul gives his answer in verse 11: “So you must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” In the ebb and flow of our daily lives, we must consider ourselves to be dead AND alive.

          This is a truth we must reaffirm every day. In 1st Corithians, Paul says, “I die every day! That is certain my brothers and sisters.” He meant it – and we must never forget it. It is the heart of how to walk in the Spirit and be a follower of Jesus. Who is Jesus looking for? He is looking for disciples who are dead AND alive.

          I realize that all this talk about being dead might be a little hard to listen to. We don’t like to talk about death, especially our own. We often have warped or conflicting emotions about death. Margaret Stohl, the author of Beautiful Creatures says, “When you’re alive, you don’t dwell on how you are going to spend your time once you’re dead. You just figure you’re gone, and the rest will pretty much take care of itself. Or, you think you’re not really going to die. You’re going to be the first person in history who doesn’t have to. Maybe that’s some kind of lie our brains tell us to keep us from going crazy while we’re alive.”(2)

          Maybe so. But Paul says we’re already dead – to sin, to self and to death itself. We just need to act like it.

          To be clear, the death Paul talks about is a vicarious death. We are dead because we have died in Christ. When Christ died, he conquered sin, self, and the forces of evil. Even our most feared enemy, death, was vanquished.

          So, Paul argues, we should start acting like we are dead to sin, and not alive to it. We should remember that sinful practices and habits no longer have a hold over us. We should not forget that Christ has broken the chains that bound us to our former life. We are dead to the past. It is gone.

          And in Christ, we are also dead to self. We are dead to that fallen part of our human nature. We no longer need to act like the old version of ourselves. We have evolved; we have grown; we have matured. We are in other words, a new creation in Christ.

          But, the title of this sermon is dead AND alive. God wants both, at the same time. In Ephesians, Paul writes, “God, who is rich in mercy… even when we were dead through our trespasses… God made you alive together with him. Clearly this dead AND alive idea is very important to Paul.

          But there is a problem. If we are alive to God, we may be dead to sin, but we might be dead in another way too. We might find ourselves spiritually dead if we are not alive to God.

          Christians who are not alive to God are often the walking embodiment of negativity. They seem to be against change and opposed to many positive things. To adapt a biblical saying – it’s easier for a camel to slip through the eye of a needle than for negative people to slip a positive thought past the teeth and gums of their mouths.

          Christians who are not alive to God have zero interest in helping others. In that sense, they’re narcissistic, and in the ancient mythology of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Narcissus dies slowly of malnutrition, after he realizes that the one person in the world he loves cannot love him back.

          Spiritually dead Christians don’t react to external stimuli. They just don’t seem responsive to the spiritual side of their nature. They just seem to go through the motions. They live their lives by checking off the boxes, doing just what is required and nothing more. They embody what Henry David Thoreau described as “lives of quiet desperation.”

          Finally, spiritually dead people seem to resent the obligations of the spiritual life. Theirs is a childish and immature approach to the Christian life. For instance, when you ask the kids to do chores around the house, how often do they respond, “Do I have to?”, with a high pitched whining quality to their voice. Spiritually dead people have that same kind of whine. They have little appreciation for the joy and privilege of serving the Lord.

          But thankfully, they are ways to flip or reverse the symptoms of being spiritually dead and become alive in Christ.

          Those who are alive in Christ are generally positive, and unafraid of change. In that sense, many would say they’re progressive and dynamic, not static.

          Rather than just loving themselves, they love others.

          Rather than promoting their self-interest, they lift up the concerns of others.

          Alive-in-Christ people are highly sensitive to their spiritual nature and are intentional about study and prayer time. They talk to God and spend time listening.

          Alive-in-Christ people don’t hold grudges and are hard to offend.

          Alive –in-Christ people are filled with hope, faith and love.

          Alive-in-Christ people are dead to anything that is not life giving.

          The writer and theologian Robert Farrar Capon once wrote “The only qualification for the gift of the Gospel is to be dead. You don’t have to be smart… You don’t have to be good. You don’t have to be wise. You don’t have to be wonderful. You don’t have to be anything. You just have to be dead. That’s it. You see the whole problem with the church is that the church does not want to die. None of us want to die. But that is the one qualification and that is what is outrageous. There can be only one requirement and it’s got to be low enough to include all of us. And it is. All you have to do is die.”(3)

          And as Paul assures us today, Jesus has already done that for us.

          The Good News is that God wants us: Dead AND Alive.

          May God be praised. Amen.

1.    Homileticsonline, retrieved 6/5/23.

2.    Ibid…

3.    Ibid…

06-04-2023 Look to the Ant

Thomas J Parlette
“Look to the Ant”
Genesis 1:1-2:4
6/4/23, Trinity Sunday
 

 “It’s the ants’ world, and we’re just visiting.”

 So says a man named Dino Grandoni in the Washington Post.

We tend to think of ourselves as the most important of God’s creatures, since Genesis tells us that we are made in the image and likeness of God. So, why would Grandoni say such a thing? Well, an estimate has been made of the number of ants on Earth, and the total is probably going to surprise you. 20 quadrillion.

That is a staggering sum. To help get your mind around that number – 20 quadrillion is 20, followed by 15 zeros. Five sets of three. Quite a number. Or, how about this – for every person on earth, there are 2.5 million ants! We are outnumbered 2.5 million to 1. I don’t like those odds as we enter the summer picnic season!

Yes, it is the ants’ world. Boy, God must really love ants because God made so many of them.

A group of scientists from the University of Hong Kong concluded that the total mass of ants on earth is about 12 megatons of dry carbon. “Put another way,” Grandoni, “if all the ants were plucked from the ground and put on a scale, they would outweigh all the wild birds and mammals put together.” (1)

Ants may be tiny, but they outweigh us all. Literally.

Now, the ant is not mentioned frequently in the Bible, although the book of Proverbs in chapter 6, does say, “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.” Ants are praised in Proverbs for their efforts and productivity, even though they have no bosses breathing down their necks. In addition, ants are known for their strength – they can lift 20 times their bodyweight. They are also very compassionate. Did you know that ants have two stomachs, so they can store extra food in case they need to share. And if an ant is injured on the job, other ants will carry him back to the anthill to recover. Ants can be a little creepy – but they are very impressive.

Our scripture passage for today – the creation story from Genesis – doesn’t specifically refer to ants by name, but I think they fit into that category of creatures created right before humans on Day 6, when God created “everything that creeps upon the ground.”

And when God stood back and looked at everything that had been created, God called it all “good.”

And even though they are kind of an annoyance, ants really are good. An author named Diane Brady points out that “God made so many ants because ants are important housekeepers for the earth. Ants, not earthworms, turn most of the world’s soil, drain it and enrich it. Ants dispose of 90% of small dead animals. As gardeners, ants spread and plant more seeds than any other creature.” (2)

Acting as the world’s gardeners – spreading seeds, turning and the soil – that’s some very good work.

The book of Genesis reminds us of our place in God’s creation, and how important it is for us to preserve and care for what God has made. One of the reasons that the scientists from the University of Hong Kong are counting ants is that they are worried about insect numbers. Scientists are seeing declines in some insect populations in Germany and Puerto Rico. We could be facing a “bugpocalypse,” says Dino Grandoni – one driven by habitat destruction, pesticides and climate change. “Over 40 % of insect species may go extinct,” he reports, “with butterflies and beetles facing the greatest threat.” (3)

Whether the number of ants remains at 20 quadrillion or not, we humans have some work to do. And it begins with seeing ourselves as stewards of God’s creation. Our challenge is to care for creation as we follow the command of God to “rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Jonathan Merritt, author of the book “Green Like God: Unlocking the Divine Plan for Our Planet,” was sitting in a theology class with one of his favorite seminary professors. The professor was talking about the revelations of God, and he said, “When we destroy God’s creation, it’s similar to tearing a page out of the Bible.”

Merritt was stunned. He was a staunch conservative who thought that environmentalism was incompatible with his Christian faith. At that moment he thought to himself, “I would never tear a page out of Scripture.” He left the class that day as a different person, knowing that he could not continue to live the way he did. (4)

When we destroy God’s creation – even something as small as an ant – we tear a page out of the Bible. We should not harm God’s world or God’s book. Neither belongs to us. They are simply entrusted to our care.

Now active in caring for creation, Merritt encourages people to approach the environment by confessing that we have sinned. He encourages us to deal with our wrongdoing by admitting that we have allowed our air, water and land to be polluted.

In the first chapter of Genesis, God says that men and women should “rule over” or “have dominion over” the creatures of the earth. Unfortunately, that has led some to interpret that to mean that human beings can do whatever they want with creation – after all, God put us in charge, it’s ours. Dominion has been understood as domination. Dominion is actually closer to stewardship and caretaking. Think of your family pet. We have dominion over our cats and dogs, but we take actions that are in their best interest. We don’t abuse or dominate them – we take care of them, because we love them. Merritt prefers to focus on the tilling and keeping that we find in the second chapter of Genesis, in which God put humans in the garden of Eden “to work it and take care of it.”

Other translations say “till it and keep it” or

“tend it and watch over”,

 “take care of it and look after it.”

Or as The Message puts it, “work the ground and keep it in order.”

However this passage is translated, it is clear that humans are commanded to practice good stewardship of the Earth. We are to be like the prudent manager described by Jesus in the parable of the faithful and unfaithful servant, or the good and faithful servant who invests what his master puts him in charge of, so on his return he is still in good shape.

God has given us just one Earth, with precious limited resources, so the challenge for us is rule over creation with care, to be faithful and wise servants, making decisions in the best interest of God’s world. We need to realize that those of us living in the United States are leaving an especially large ecological footprint. If everyone consumed energy the way a middle-class American does, the world would need the resources of 4-10 Earths.

Caring for creation through energy conservation and employing alternative energy sources is an important way for us to take care of our world – as we learned at the Forums@First this past Tuesday. Even simple things like turning off lights and electronics that are not in use, and installing more energy efficient appliances and light bulbs can go a long way. We can look for opportunities to walk, bike or take public transportation instead of driving our car. All of these things help us practice good stewardship of God’s creation.

I know many people have shifted their grocery shopping so that they focus on more organic foods or food that is local and in season. That helps in cutting down the pesticides used to grow what we eat and the cost of shipping food all around the country. Did you know that on average, your food travels more than 1500 miles to get to your table? That’s of energy expended when you could just go to the farmers market, which thankfully we can start doing again now.

As we think about ways to care for Earth, we would be wise to look to the ant.

There is a man named Ndubuisi Ekekwe who recently wrote a piece in the Harvard Business Review about what he learned ants.

He says, “I once stopped at a rest area in Connecticut. A project I was working on was on my mind. As I took a break to stretch my legs, I sat down at a picnic table and I started watching a group of ants in action. I observed that when finds food, others immediately gathered to help pull the food to their storage. I decided to disturb their pattern, just to see what they would do – which unfortunately ended up in wounding one of the ants. Quickly, other ants came together and evacuated it. Then they re-organized and continued on the line they had created. I saw no form of supervision, yet they were accomplishing tremendous tasks, such as moving pieces of food that were about 30 times their individual sizes.”

“As I watched, my project flashed in my mind. Wouldn’t it be good to work like these ants?

They worked as a team. When one of them found food, they called other to help.

They trusted one another. When one was hurt they trusted that the others would get them to safety.

The ants were diligent and focused. They always kept moving. I never saw an ant standing still.

The ants regrouped when necessary – when something wasn’t working, they tried something else.” (5)

So as we come to the table this morning, let us give thanks for God’s good creation – and let us strive to be efficient stewards of the earth’s resources. And for helpful advice on how to do this, and all the other things we are called to do as the church – let us look to the ant. Let us work as a team, trust one another, be diligent and focused on the task at hand and be ready to regroup when necessary.

May God be praised. Amen.

 1.    Homileticsonline, retrieved 5/10/23
2.    Ibid…
3.    Ibid…
4.    Ibid…
5.    Ibid…

05-28-2023 Catching the Wind

Thomas J Parlette
“Catching the Wind”
Acts 2: 1-21
5/28/23

          It’s called The Windcatcher. When it’s finished it will be as tall as the Eiffel Tower. It will be as wide as the world’s largest cruise ships.

          Built as an enormous metal grid, it will contain 126 wind turbines. It will float on a platform, anchored to the ocean floor using the same technology employed by the oil and gas industry.

          A Norwegian company has been developing this new system to generate electricity from wind power. Fast Company magazine reports that when it becomes operational next year, “it could deliver five times the annual energy of the world’s largest single turbine. That’s because the system is three time taller than the average turbine, exposing the blades to higher wind speeds.” (1)

          Imagine 126 turbines spinning in an enormous grid. The Windcatcher’s blades will be smaller than those on a typical windmill, which will enable them to spin faster. And the position of the grid in deep water will enable it to catch the strongest of winds.

          Numbers. Size. Location. Put these elements together, and you have a single structure that will generate enough electricity to run 80,000 European homes.

          That’s a lot of power.

          The Windcatcher is still in development, so its performance is still uncertain. There are certainly questions yet to be answered. “What happens when a big storm or a hurricane hits it?” Could it tip over in high winds? Would about rough seas? Or the blades – will they chop up all kinds of sea gulls? Just some of the questions that need to be answered.

          The subject of wind and power is certainly on our radar today as we celebrate the Day of Pentecost. This is the day that the 12 apostles were gathered in Jerusalem far a harvest festival called Pentecost, meaning “50th day” – the 50th day after the celebration of Passover. Jews from around the Mediterranean region were gathered to celebrate this festival in Jerusalem, including “Parthians, Medes and Elamites,” along with residents of a dozen other regions mentioned in the book of Acts.

          The 12 apostles were sitting in a house in Jerusalem, probably feeling uncertain and a bit powerless. Yes, they had been inspired and energized when Jesus was raised to new life on Easter. But his time among them had come to an end just a few days earlier, on the Day of Ascension, when Jesus “was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.”

          So, I think they took a long look at each other and thought “Ok, Now what? What are we supposed to do now?”

          That’s when a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. This wind was as fast as the air that rushes at high altitudes, and as strong as the breeze that blows over deep waters. But this wind was no hurricane or freak storm.

          No – this wind, this power, came from God. “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”

          The Apostles became like the proposed Windcatchers, powered by the Holy Spirit. They were effective because of their number. There were 12 of them, not just one. God had been working through individuals, like John the Baptist, Mary and Jesus. And they were certainly big turbines. But now God was going to work through a community, just like the Windcatcher employs an array of turbines.

          The apostles were also the right size – small. They were not the big shots of religion or politics, people who made an impression on others with their insights or influence. In fact, when they began to speak in other languages, the God-fearing Jews from other nations were utterly amazed. They asked, “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?”

          No one expected a group from Galilee to master all these diverse languages. They were from the boondocks – they weren’t supposed to be multi-lingual – until the Day of Pentecost arrived.

          The Apostles were also in right place – Jerusalem. They were gathered for a religious festival, which was a good place to be as they showed their devotion to God. But their position in Jerusalem also gave them access to God-fearing people from every nation from all around the region. They did not hesitate to declare the wonders of God in a variety of languages. And Peter was not reluctant to raise his voice and address the crowd, saying, “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.”

          On Pentecost, the apostles discovered the secret to spiritual power – right numbers, right size, right place. And we can employ that power even today.

          We benefit from numbers, just as the first apostles did. But notice, that doesn’t mean it has to be a big number – they only had twelve. But they were in community, they were 12 apostles, together. We need to be in community with one another if our faith and Christian commitment is going to grow. This means we put a focus on gathering for worship and Bible study, and fellowship, as well as working together in ministry and mission.

          The first mention of the Greek word “ekklesia” in the Bible is found in the gospel of Matthew, and it’s translated as “church.” What the word literally means is “gathering,” and it comes from the ancient Greek assembly of citizens in a city-state. The word appears again in Acts, when “Barnabas and Saul met with the church” – the ekklesia – in Antioch. It was in this city that the disciples were first called “Christians.”

          We need to gather in numbers to be the church. Jesus is with us when we are together in community, just as he promised in Matthew, saying, “For when two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” Assembling for community worship and Bible study and Fellowship gives us the most inspiration, insight and guidance. When we stop taking part. Our faith tends to cool off. If the isolation of the pandemic taught us anything, it is that gathering is a critical factor in the vitality of the church.

          Assemblies are also needed for effective ministry and mission. Individuals can have brilliant and creative ideas, but implementation and follow-through requires a team. Far too often, individuals pursue great ideas on their own, only to become frustrated when they can’t achieve their goal. For any effort to be successful, it takes at least a group of people to support and encourage each other. I have no hard proof – but five feels like a good number to me. You don’t need a huge group to get started – but a group of five, committed, enthusiastic people can get a lot done. Ministry and mission require some numbers.

          There was once a member of a certain church, who had always been an active member, attending services regularly, but then he just stopped going. After a few weeks, the pastor decided to visit him. It was a chilly evening. The pastor found the man at home, alone, sitting by a roaring fire.

          Guessing the reason for his pastor’s visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a big chair near the fireplace and waited. The pastor made himself comfortable, but said nothing. In the silence both men contemplated the play of the flames around the burning logs.

          After more than a few minutes, the pastor took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone. Then he sat back in his chair, still silent. The host watched all this in quiet fascination.

          As the one lone ember’s flame diminished, there was a momentary glow and then it’s fire was no more. Soon it was cold and dead as a doornail.

          Not a word had been spoken since the pastor first arrived.

          Just before the pastor was ready to leave, he picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it.

          As the pastor reached the door to leave, his host said, “Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery sermon. I will be back in church next Sunday.” (2)

          We need to be in community or our faith will cool off and end up dead as a doornail.

          As Christians, we also need to be the right size. Now this has nothing to do with height or weight or the number of people in a congregation. Instead, Christians need to be small enough to catch the wind of the Holy Spirit and then act boldly in the world. This is similar to the Windcatcher system, in which small turbines spin quickly in high wind.

          Look at the Apostle Peter in the book of Acts. He did not see himself as a bigshot or a spiritual superstar. In fact, he had denied Jesus three times just a few months earlier. Peter had no special status in the religious, political or financial communities of Jerusalem. But he was exactly the right size to be a disciple of Jesus.

          Although he was small in the eyes of the world, he was big enough to speak the truth. “These men are not drunk, as you suppose,” he said to the crowd. They had assumed that the words of the Apostles in all these languages were the babblings of people feeling tipsy from too much wine. “No”, said Peter, “this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.” Peter was just the right size to do what God wanted him to do; Connect the gift of the Holy Spirit to the prophecy of Joel, and to share this news with the people of Jerusalem. He concluded by assuring them that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

          Our challenge is to make sure that we are the right size for ministry and mission. You may be a powerful executive at a top company, but you can be the right size for serving a meal to the homeless. You may be an influential attorney, but you can be the right size for teaching a Bible study. You may be a sixth grade student, but you can be the right size for singing in the choir. All that matters is that you can be right-sized for discipleship.

          The final secret to spiritual power is place. This means being in the right place at the right time, just as the apostles were in the right place – Jerusalem – at the right time – Pentecost. For many of us, there will be places that are the right spot for us: Home, school, work, the gym, church. But like the Windcatcher, we need to position ourselves correctly to catch the wind. Sometimes we need to leave the comfort of familiar places and familiar ways of doing things to accomplish our purposes.

          Today, on Pentecost, we are in the right place, we are just the right size for discipleship and we have the right numbers gathered here today. God is only too pleased to bless us with the power of the Holy Spirit Wind.

          David McKirachan tells the story about when he took his four-year-old son sailing for the first time:

          “At that age, my son was just big enough to enforce “No” and “Mine” with more developed language. Her fought with anything that looked like authority. He was “establishing identity” according to the counselor with whom I shared my angst. He was grabbing for power. Dinner time, bed time, play time, school time, any time was another battle. I was exhausted.”

          “One day, I took him on a jaunt to a park where we could rent a little sailboat for the afternoon. I told him that the rope I was going to give him was like the gas pedal in a car. If you pulled the rope, we go faster. If you let it out, we go slower. Then I handed him the rope. His eyes got big. I put the rudder and we drifted off the luff. I said, “Ok, pull.”

          “Sailing is one of the most spiritual activities I know. It requires a finely developed sense of humility and patience, because you don’t go anywhere without the cooperation of the wind. And keeping the sail full of wind requires attention and a constant adjustment of rudder and sheets (the lines that come from the bottom corners of the sails). When the wind fills the sail, you feel more than a tug on the rope. It is the wind, “Ruach” in Hebrew. It’s the same word they use for Spirit. It’s what moved across the deep at creation. It’s not an atmospheric disturbance, it’s power, raw, elemental power in your hand.”

          “That day, on that big pond, in that little boat, the storms of our relationship were stilled. He gave up his search for power and I relaxed, only focused on keeping the breeze in the sail. Teaching him to duck when we came about was fun, but even that became part of the dance that day out there on the water. The spirit of creation blew into our small lives and left us with a peace that passes understanding.”

          “He still struggles for power. Life isn’t easy for him. But as a grown man, with bigger issues than bedtime, he remembers that day on the pond. And he remembers that I trusted him with the power of the wind.” (3)

          Today, on Pentecost, we are called to be windcatchers. God trusts us with the power of Ruach, the power of the Holy Spirit, moving like the wind, to bring God’s Kingdom into existence.

          So let us receive that trust, and strive to catch the wind!

          May God be praised. Amen.

1.    Homileticsonline, retrieved 5/5/23.
2.    Ibid…
3.    Ibid…

04-30-2023 Everything Happens So Much

Thomas J Parlette
“Everything Happens So Much”
Psalm 23
4/30/23
 

          “May your coffee be strong and your Monday be short.”

          “Make today look so good that yesterday is jealous.”

          “Train your mind to be calm in every storm.”

           Believe it or not, these phrases do not come from the Bible. They don’t originate in an ancient book of wisdom, or even in a modern self-help book.          No – they actually come from Twitter, a social networking service with hundreds of millions of users. Twitter is where people go to write down quick thoughts, complain about something, share their opinion or a humorous insight or maybe even a word of wisdom.         
           Twitter is controversial for sure, and many people complain about it – including me, I don’t follow anyone on Twitter. But author Kaitlyn Tiffany, writing in The Atlantic, says “no one can deny that it has brought some amazing phrases into our lives – things we can’t imagine reading in any other place, or at any other time in history.” 

          For example:

“I cried, I screamed, I cursed, I jumped up and down, I thought about trying.”“Everyone says to follow your dreams, so I went back to bed.” 

          Unexpected, funny, sometimes absurd phrases. But there is one treasured sentence fragment that Tiffany says is “astounding in its clarity and salience. It described both the internet and our entire human world, in just four words:

          “Everything happens so much”

           That’s true isn’t it? According to Tiffany, the tweet acknowledges “what feels like ancient wisdom: The absolute best we can say about this moment in time is that everything is happening. As it always has and always will, so much.”

          Twitter users have called it the “general tweet of the decade” and “the defining text of our age.” (1)

          Life just keeps happening… so very much.

          Stress is all around us these days. We stress out sitting in traffic, honking at the car in front of us. We work longer and longer hours in a  sputtering economy, as we contend with the stress of school, relationships, financial challenges, interacting with hurt and angry people, searching for fulfillment in retirement and even coming to grips with death itself.
          In a world in which “everything happens so much” and we are quickly overwhelmed, we need a God who calms us, restores our souls and leads us in the right paths. Fortunately, we have Psalm 23 that promises us that the Lord is “my shepherd, I shall not want.” God gives us green pastures, quiet waters, a table of food and an overflowing cup. The promise of Psalm 23 is rest, refreshment, guidance and protection in a chaotic, stressful, threatening world.
          Yes, that tweet was right – everything happens so much. But since the Lord is our shepherd, we have everything we need. That’s even more true.
          Psalm 23 begins with the assurance that God leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul.” There are actually a few different ways this could be translated. It could be rendered “God leads me beside waters of rest, he restores my life.” Or possibly, “God leads me to the waters of refreshment.” Or even “God causes me to be refreshed upon the waters of rest.”
          All of these translations underscore the practical work of the shepherd who cares for the sheep and provides for their need.
          In our hyperactive and exhausting world, we need this kind of rest and relaxation that restores our soul. Psalm 23 tells us that God gives us four gifts to counteract the effect of chaos, stress and confusion – water, food, protection and hospitality.
          First, let’s consider water. Geraldine Perriam is a researcher at the University of Glasgow, and she knows that water does more than keep us hydrated. Water evokes “responses in people that are calming, energizing, and can lead to better health outcomes. Just being beside water has a de-stressing effect,” she says. We need quiet waters, still waters, waters of rest. (2)
          Water has essential qualities says geography professor Ronan Foley, such as keeping us alive and cleansing our bodies. (3) In our sacrament of baptism, water is a sign of our cleansing from sin, but also a sign of the new life that comes from following Jesus.
          Everything was happening so much for Martin Luther at the start of the Protestant Reformation. Pastor Grace Pritchard Burson recalls that Luther “lived a turbulent life, constantly debating his opponents and in danger from the authorities. He translated the whole Bible into German while holed up in an ally’s castle to avoid being captured or killed. Not surprisingly, he was often plagued with fear and anxiety, with doubt and discouragement.
          Luther had a unique strategy to deal with all this stress – “he would stand up, face down the devil that he believed to be tormenting him, and yell, ‘I am baptized!” He may also have written the same phrase in chalk on his desk, “to remind himself, as he worked, of his unbreakable connection to Christ and to the communion of saints.” (4)
          “I am baptized!” When everything happens so much, we need to remember that important truth.
          God provides for us not only through water, but also through food. Think about a hot bowl of soup, fresh baked bread, your favorite hot dish in the winter. There’s a reason these foods are nicknamed comfort foods. They make us feel better. Whether we’ve had a bad day, or the weather outside is frightful – these foods bring us comfort.
          I think of the Harry Potter movies, when Professor Lupin arrives as a teacher at Hogwarts. Lupin is cursed with being a werewolf. Whenever he has one of his transformations, he’s always got a chocolate bar in his pocket to restore his strength.
          Whenever Harry has an encounter with the evil Dementors, Lupin is right there, offering some chocolate, saying – “eat this, you’ll feel better.” That’s comfort food for sure.
          Psalm 23 also assures us that that “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for you are with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me” – that’s protection.
          The Psalm goes on to say, “You prepare a table before me… You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows” – that’s hospitality.
          Water, food, protection and hospitality. They are everything we need – and they all come from God. The psalm ends with the promise that “goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
          That’s the place to be – especially when everything happens so much. Each of us is given a place in which God offers us goodness, and mercy, and love, along with eternal shelter.
          And because God gives us everything we need, we are invited to put our trust in God, rely on God and have faith in God. The biblical scholar J. Clinton McCann once wrote that, “The proper response to the good news of Psalm 23 and the good news of Jesus Christ is trust.” When we trust, we discover that “life is not a reward to be earned; it is a gift to be accepted.” (5)
          Think about this. There’s nothing wrong with showing up for work, doing a good job, earning money, and providing for ourselves and our families.
          But think about what happens when you look at life as a reward, instead of as a gift. You become worn out and discouraged, like the disciples who followed Jesus through Galilee. At one point, they wondered where in the world they were going to find enough food to feed the people coming to hear Jesus teach.
          One of the small, but notable pieces of the well-known story of the feeding of the 5,000 record Jesus telling the people to sit down on the grass so they could eat and be filled. It’s no accident that Jesus resembles the good shepherd of Psalm 23 who made his sheep “lie down in pastures.”
          In that same story, Jesus challenges his disciples to show compassion to the crowd. The disciples are feeling overwhelmed, everything is happening so much – and Jesus instructs them, “you give them something to eat.”
          Of course, the disciples are baffled by this – but they do it – and everything works out.
          That’s what we are challenged to do – to take what Jesus gives us and share it with others. Take the water, food, protection and hospitality offered in Psalm 23 and share it with the world around us.
          Tom Boogart once wrote about walking through Kollen Park in Holland Michigan along the shore of Lake Macatawa:
           “I overtook a young mother and her daughters. The younger daughter, maybe 4 years old, was forging ahead and the older daughter, maybe 10 years old, was in a conversation with her mother.
           As I passed I heard the mother say “Would you rather have 1 flower or 20 flowers?” I had no idea how the conversation had led to that question, but the older daughter said, “I’d rather 20 flowers,” and she glanced in my direction.
           I wondered, would this young girl ever hear a counter truth, someone who would tell her that one thing in life could be more than enough?...
           I started to ruminate on the theme of “one thing” in scripture. I thought about Jesus’ encounter with the rich young ruler. The ruler had everything, but Jesus said he still lacked one thing. If you want to be my disciple, sell everything, give it to the poor, then come follow me. Possessing many things was the enemy of the one thing.
           I thought about Mary and Martha – how Martha complained about her sister Mary not helping her the meal. And Jesus said, “Martha, you are distracted by many things, there is need of only one thing. Mary has made the right choice.
           So I want to say to that little girl walking with her mother and sister along the shore of Lake Macatawa – “Do not listen to the peddlers of our materialistic culture; let not your heart be distracted by many things. There is a fullness that is emptiness, and an emptiness that is fullness. An empty heart has more space for God and. filled with the love of God, has more awareness of the world so loved by God and more courage to engage the forces that threaten to undo it.
           I want to say to that little girl that there is one flower more beautiful than 20 other flowers, one worthy of your full attention, a lily crowned with thorns.” (6)
           With the Lord as our Shepherd – we have everything we need.
           May God be praised. Amen.

 1.    Homileticsonline, retrieved 4/4/23.
2.    Ibid…
3.    Ibid…
4.    Ibid…
5.    Ibid…
6.    Ibid…