Oct. 26, 2014: Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Shattered Dreams

Year A, Pentecost 20                                       

 

            In a sermon Martin Luther King said that “Life is a continual story of shattered dreams.”[1]  This was not the “I have a dream” speech that he gave on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963.  This line came from a sermon that he gave 5 years later, 15 years after he had taken a leadership role in the civil rights movement.   The Biblical text he was preaching on was about King David and his dream of building a great temple.  God did not want King David to build a temple and so it did not happen.  While King David had many accomplishments in his life, this was one thing that remained unfinished, a dream that was never realized, at least not in his lifetime.

            Our Old Testament reading for today is not about King David.  This story comes before David.   It is another great leader of the Jewish faith and the Christian faith as well, Moses.  We have been hearing about Moses for several weeks now in our lectionary readings but we have only touched briefly on his life.  We’ve had glimpses of it in our readings.  We heard about the time when Moses was first called by God with a blaze of fire…a burning bush.  From the bush God called to Moses and asked him to lead his people out of Egypt.  He promised that the people would be led to a land flowing with milk and honey, a land that had been promised to them for generations. 

            Moses was not particularly excited about this assignment, but God promised that he would be with him the whole way, that he would lead him.  So Moses did as he was asked…he led the people out of Egypt.  It was not an easy escape.  There were plagues. There were armies.  There was a wall of water that they had to pass through.  Yet even with all of that accomplished, there was no immediate entrance into land of milk and honey.  Instead, the Israelites found themselves wandering in the desert.  They faced starvation and insurrection.  Moses dealt with their complaints.  In the midst of the trials, he also had moments of joy and fulfillment.  He witnessed God’s glory and received the Ten Commandments.   But he was challenged again and again by very strong willed and frustrated people.  He complained to God and was bitter at times.  His sister died.  His brother died.  An entire generation passed as he led the people on a journey that felt more like a maze.  But finally the end was near.  They could see the Promised Land.  Yet for Moses, it would remain slightly out of reach. 

            God told him as he stood on the mountain top, “I will give it to your descendants; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.”  This was not the first time God has told Moses that he would not reach the Promised Land.  God had warned him and even gave him a reason. Yet the reason was murky…so murky that people have been debating it ever since. It was a small thing, perhaps an act of disobedience or even a brief moment where he lacked faith. 

It is strange that one small act would outweigh all of the wonderful things that Moses had done; the sacrifices he made, the close relationship that he had with God.  It has been a mystery for centuries why God would lead him to this place, show him this dream, but not even give him a moment in that land that he had been searching for—for over 40 years. 

“Life is a continual story of shattered dreams.”  There have been many people, great people---Godly people who have accomplished amazing things but died before they could see the fruits of their labor:  Abraham Lincoln, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John Kennedy,  Martin Luther King, Gandhi…just to name a few.  Their deaths are tragic and heart breaking.  But their lives are inspiring stories.  What makes these stories inspiring is that while their lives were cut short, their vision lived on. Those dreams that seemed shattered were resurrected by people who followed them…perhaps not completely resurrected, but new life was breathed into them.

Most of us might struggle to identify with these great saints.  Our dreams might be on a smaller scale.  Yet each person here has seen a dream that was shattered in some way.  And we could let those shattered hopes and dreams break us, leaving us battered and beaten.  Or we could take these pieces… pieces of our shattered dreams or even those dreams of people who came before and we can build something new. 

When Martin Luther King spoke of shattered dreams, he was talking about King David and his own experience as well.  While today’s reading is not the story of King David, Moses did pave the way for King David.  He brought the people to the Promised Land, the land that King David would one day rule.  Without his sacrifice and his obedience to God’s word, there would never have even been a dream of a temple.  It would not have even been in the realm of possibility.  One person’s shattered dream provided the pieces for another person’s temple…for God’s temple. 

During the celebration of communion, there is a point where the priest holds up the host and says, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”  Then the priest breaks the host.  That breaking of the host is meant to remind us of Christ broken on the cross.   It also reminds us of the way that we are broken.   After these words the priest breaks up the host even further so it is 24 pieces, pieces that are then distributed to you, the body of Christ.  We share in the brokenness of Christ and in some ways that makes Christ whole again because we have all shared in that as the body of Christ.  In those same ways, we can share the broken pieces of our lives with one another and with God.  That is one of the ways that we can find wholeness.

Moses might have never reached the Promised Land.  He did not feel the land under his feet, but he saw it with his own eyes, with God right beside him.  Not only that, but he knew that the people who he had led would experience that Promised Land.  Sometimes that is what faith is about.  It is about working with broken pieces---either our broken pieces or ones that other people have given up on.  It is about placing our hopes in things that we may never see.  But the important thing is that we never stop trying. Moses was told that he would never reach the Promised Land, but he never stopped walking and frankly, I don’t think he ever stopped hoping.   

When he died, God buried him.  The English just says that he was buried, but there was only one person (one being) with him on the mountain. God.  While it might seem as though God punished him, the truth is that he was with him to the very end…even at death.  Just try to picture that in your head, the Almighty God digging in the dirt and then with great care placing the body of Moses in the ground.   That is how God cares for each of us.  In turn he asks us to never give up…to take those broken pieces and build them into something new, something beautiful. 

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[1] http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/kingpapers/article/unfulfilled_dreams/

October 19, 2014: Matthew 22: 15-22

In God We Trust

 Year A, Pentecost 19                                                        

                                                  

            A couple of years ago there was a big rumor that circulated that indicated that the US Treasury was attempting to remove “In God we trust” from the newest dollar coins.  This phrase has been on American coins since the 1950’s and many people believed that this removal was just further proof of the secularization of America.  They showed pictures of the new dollar coins with no “In God we trust” on the coin.  It was true that this phrase did not appear on the face of the coin.  It was inscribed on the side of the coins.  

            It is interesting to me how riled up people get about things like what is on the face of a coin.  I am not sure changing what our coins say will make much of a difference for people’s faith, but there are some people who are very passionate about this issue.  Currency and what was on currency was a pretty big deal in Jesus’ day as well.  In many ways, it had much bigger ramifications than it does today.

            In the Gospel story, The Pharisees and Herodians (who were supporters  of Herod, the Roman ruler of the Jewish people) were coming together for the sole purpose of trapping Jesus.  Typically the Pharisees and the Herodians didn’t really hang out.  The Pharisees were the religious leaders, the experts on Jewish law.  The Herodians were a political party that supported the right of Herod the Great and his descendants to rule Israel.  They supported the Roman leadership while the Pharisees and the Jewish people resented the Roman occupation. The two of them coming together was like Fox News and MSNBC joining forces. 

            They had a plan that seemed foolproof.  They would ask Jesus about taxes.  There is rarely a good way to discuss taxes.  This particular tax they were asking about was a tax that supported the Roman occupation.  It was offensive to the Jewish people, many of whom supported Jesus.  If Jesus answered the question in a way that indicated that he supported the tax, he would alienate his Jewish followers.  If he did not, he could be accused of rebelling against Rome.  Instead of answering whether it was lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, he asked for the coin…the coin that would be used to pay this particular tax.  You see, he did not have the coin.  The people asking the question did.  They were people of means.  Jesus was not a man who carried money.

            They brought him a denarius.  We know what was on that coin because archaeologists have found them.  It had a picture of the emperor with the inscription: “Tiberius Caesar, Son of the Divine Augustus Pontifex Maximus.”  Augustus was a smart man and a very effective emperor.  When he took power, he made himself not only political leader, but a religious one as well.  He wanted to be a god.  When he died, he was a declared a god, making his son, the son of god.  It was his son’s picture on the coin.  Even possessing this coin was considered idolatry in the Jewish faith because it portrayed another god.  The Pharisees should not have even had the coin, but they did.  When Jesus asked for the coin he was proving that he was not the pawn of the Roman government.  They were…especially if they were allying themselves with the Herodians. 

            Jesus knew very well whose picture was on the coin and he knew what it meant.  He did not want any part of it.  Every emperor made their own coin when they came to power with their own picture.  We don’t do that. The people on our coins are great leaders from the history of our country.  But these coins changed with the leadership.  When Jesus said, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's…” he was essentially saying if this coin is marked with Tiberius’ face, then by all means, give it back to him.  It was both a practical answer and a theological one.  Then he said something that probably left people a little confused.  “Give….to God the things that are God’s.”  Well technically that would be everything.  Everything on earth is a creation of God…which means everything is God’s.  That would then mean that the coin with the blasphemous image belongs to God…or does it? 

This is the question that we have been struggling with for millennia and I am not sure that struggle has gotten us anywhere.  We say that everything belongs to God but then we argue about church property and who owns it…the diocese or the church?  We worry about pledges and pledges to the diocese.   We debate how much of our money we should give to the diocese and how much of our income we should give to the church.  We say everything belongs to God, but I am not sure we really understand it.  That is understandable because it is a really hard thing to wrap your mind around when we live in a culture that is all about ownership.  We own houses. We own clothing.  If it is ours, we own it. 

Perhaps we should consider it from a different perspective.  Perhaps ownership or even belonging isn’t the best word to describe it all.  Let’s consider where Jesus started this conversation.  He asked the people whose image was on the coin.  The image was a man, a powerful man but a sinful and mortal man.  He was a man who made himself into a god, but never served a god or humanity.  He was a man who determined his worth by the coins that were made in his image. 

Jesus Christ would never ask us to put his image on a coin.  God would not ask that.  God put his image somewhere else….somewhere far more valuable.  He put his image on us, on humans.  And what is amazing about that image is it looks different on all of us.  We are not coins stamped with the same image.  We don’t belong to God like property.  We are children of God designed in his image so that we might love him and love one another. 

Yet we depart from that image time and time again.  Like the newest dollar coin, we have relegated God to the periphery of our lives. God is on the side where no one can quite see him.  We can feel better about ourselves because it is still there, imprinted on the side like an obligation that we keep.  But that is not where God belongs.  God belongs front and center in our life.  And if God is truly front and center then we would not debate about percentages or ownership.  God would no longer be a priority in our life; God would be the priority.  Everything else would exist in the shadow of that one priority. We would not merely give a pledge to our church, we would pledge our lives to God.   We would not need our coins to affirm who we trust.  There would be no question. It is in God whom we trust.  It is in God’s image whom we are made.  The rest is just details…coins in our pocket.

Oct. 5, 2014: Matthew 11:25-30

Why St. Francis thought animals were better listeners

St. Francis Day                                                             

 

 I’m not sure what was done here previously with St. Francis Day.  I know you have had the blessing of the animals at the 10:30 service in honor of St. Francis but I am pretty sure the 8am service just moved on as it always does.  That’s one of the things I love about the 8’ oclockers….you are incredibly consistent.     But it seems that even at the 10:30 service, there is not very much said about the life and teachings of St. Francis.  This was true at my previous church as well.  Churches put most of the emphasis on the animal portion and then make the connection that Francis of Assisi really loved animals.  However, when you read about the life of St. Francis, you will find that his love of animals is one of the least interesting things about him and definitely not the most important.

                Francis lived in the 12^th century in Italy.  He was the son of a wealthy merchant and was in want of nothing.   In his early 20’s he had a number of experiences that altered his view of the world.  He was taken as prisoner of war for a year, he suffered a long illness, and then fought in a war.  This was all within a three year period.  When he returned from the war, he found that he had lost the taste for the finer things in life.  Fortune was no longer the goal.  He found the things that he once took pleasure in were no longer appealing to him. 

A vision drove him to Rome where he met beggars outside of St. Peter’s.  He was moved to exchange his clothes for theirs and spend the day begging.  When he returned to his home in Assisi he was a different man, living much more simply and devoting his life to repairing churches.  He also decided that he needed to serve the sick, which meant he had to overcome his fear of leprosy.  He did that by embracing a leper.  After that he was free to help the lepers and even live among them.   Four years after his experience in Rome, he had another vision where God instructed him to give up everything.  In that very moment, he took off his shoes and gave away his staff. He replaced his clothing with a long robe.

                From that point on he dedicated his life to the poor and the marginalized.  He lived among the poor and formed a community of disciples who lived by a rule of poverty.  He was known for a love of nature, which included animals.  He did not write very much, but we have one hymn that is attributed to him.  In his Canticle to Brother Sun, he writes:  “Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures, especially through my lord Brother Sun...” He went on to mention the moon, wind, water, fire, and earth.  He called on all of those things to praise the Lord through their very existence.   He believed that the same was true of animals—that their existence proved the glory of God.  There are many stories of him preaching to the animals and joking that perhaps they listened better than people. 

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants…”  I have always struggled with that comment.  I want to be a wise and intelligent person.  That’s why I spent four years in seminary, so I could learn all these important things about God.  But does that mean that God is going to hide things from me?  It seems a little counterproductive.  The Bible is full of affirming statements about the gift of wisdom.  In general wisdom is considered a good thing.  Why would Jesus want to hide things from the wise and intelligent? 

Well it’s not that he deliberately hid things; it’s that the wise were not able to see certain truths that Jesus and the prophets before him proclaimed.  People who were preoccupied with their own wisdom, who suffered from intellectual pride were not able to see God revealed in Jesus.   They heard the parables, but they could not accept this kind of wisdom. I’ve definitely experienced this kind of blindness.  Often times I will spend so much time trying to figure out the new and interesting twist that I can take in a sermon that I ignore the obvious and the simple truth of the text.  I think, well that sermon has been preached 100 times.  I can’t be trite!  My pride can occasionally block the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  Often the sermon should be about love or forgiveness.  Sure, that’s been done, but if that is what the text is saying, that is what the sermon should be about.

            Francis had the status and the money.  He could have been educated in the finest schools.  He could have preached to the powerful and the privileged.  He didn’t.  He gave it all up so he could preach to the people who no one else bothered to talk to. He preached to the birds and said they listened better.  They listened better because they did not have that pride that kept them from hearing certain things.  Perhaps that was true of some of the people who he preached to as well. Since they were so used to being ignored, treated as if they did not exist, they were hungry for words.  They were open to things that other people had already closed their minds to. 

I bet a lot of the learned and wise people ignored him because he seemed a little foolish and possibly too simple. Yet today, he is one of the most well known saints.  There is still a group in the Roman Catholic Church called the Franciscans who live by his example.  The current pope took his name. I read that St. Francis is one of the most popular and admired saints, but probably the least imitated.   What they meant by that is while people love his simplicity very few people are willing to live the way he did.

Yet I am not sure that is completely true.   I think what we admire is not just his simplicity or austerity but the authenticity with which he lived his life.  He refused to conform to what other people expected of him.  He was true to God’s call to him.  Most of us will never live a life like Francis, but that does not mean that we cannot live a life that is true to God’s call for us. We can let go of our pride, intellectual or otherwise.  We can forget other people’s expectations and focus on who God is calling us to be…who God wants us to be.   That is something that each and every one of us can emulate.  We can all be like St. Francis in that way.  And if some of you would like to take it a step further and preach to animals, I say go for it!