Here's this week's sermon, the last of the Lord of the Rings series. I ended up changing a good bit at the end, since I got kind of nervous and I tend to resort to a long series of challenges when I do that. So, anyway, this is what I was intending to say this week in the sermon.
Mark 10:46-52
Knowing and being known
One of the first lessons that we take from hearing this story is how persistent and passionate Bartimaeus is in calling out for Jesus. Anyone who is willing to reach out to Jesus over the objections and the ridicule of the crowd deserves our respect. Clearly, that sort of determination is something that pretty much all of us could use a little more of in our faith.
But there’s more going on here than a simple lesson about persistence. There’s also a question of identity that cuts to the heart of this passage and the interaction between Jesus and Bartimaeus. You see, Bartimaeus is passionate in calling out to Jesus, but he only knows a part of Jesus’ identity. It’s understandable, since Bartimaeus’ name actually means “son of Timaeus,” so it’s not overly surprising that Bartimaeus identifies with Jesus as “Son of David,” the first time anyone has called Jesus that in Mark.
So what does it mean that Bartimaeus called Jesus the “Son of David.” The “Son of David” was the one who will bring justice and rule over Israel, fulfilling God’s promise to David that his descendents would be enthroned over Israel. Jesus took on that particular part of his heritage, but Jesus also takes on the role of the suffering servant, which went beyond the expectations of the “Son of David.” That Bartimaeus referred to Jesus as the Son of David shows his rootedness in cultural expectations, using a title that Jesus had not used that also held some expectations (such as political rule) that Jesus had no intention of fulfilling.
So Jesus heard Bartimaeus calling him, but knew that Bartimaeus only knew him partially. Jesus was likely reminded of that fact in the crowd’s rebuke of Bartimaeus, since there’s some speculation that one of the motivations for their rebuke was an interpretation that David hated the blind. Thus, not only was Bartimaeus’ knowledge of Jesus incomplete, it seemed as though even what he knew of Jesus wasn’t completely developed. Yet Jesus, being addressed passionately for only a part of who he was, didn’t turn away or hate Bartimaeus – he called Bartimaeus closer. Jesus did not expect Bartimaeus, nor does he expect us, to know everything about him before he calls us nearer; what Jesus wants is honest responses of faith, an honest cry for mercy.
What makes Bartimaeus’s partial knowledge of Jesus even more striking is the complete knowledge that Jesus has of Bartimaeus. This is embodied drastically in that little phrase “throwing off his cloak.” In effect, Bartimaeus strips down to his underwear as he’s running up to Jesus. Despite the fact that the cloak was one of the last things that beggars could use as collateral to get a loan, and despite the fact that he’d be running around in his underwear, Bartimaeus throws off his cloak and anything else that might hold him back as he runs to Jesus.
So we have Bartimaeus, who knows Jesus only partially, standing before Jesus in his underwear, exposed in every imaginable way. And Jesus, rather than pointing out what he can clearly see, pushed Bartimaeus to understand himself, asking Bartimaeus what he wants Jesus to do. Bartimaeus understands the part of Jesus that’s about power and influence, but doesn’t realize that another aspect of Jesus’ identity is Jesus’ service, that “the son of Man came not to be served but to serve” bit we talked about last week. Yet despite that partial knowledge, Jesus meets Bartimaeus’ need, allowing Bartimaeus to follow Jesus and learn the rest of the story.
Bartimaeus was able to regain his sight and to follow Jesus because he trusted that Jesus knew him. Bartimaeus was able to stand before Jesus, exposed and vulnerable, and ask for mercy. So what does it mean for us to be fully known and still ask for love and mercy, as Bartimaeus was fully known by Jesus? It makes me think of a successful marriage in a lot of ways. What makes a successful marriage isn’t that each person sees through rose-colored glasses, only seeing the good things about the other. What makes a successful marriage is that each person knows the other, warts and all, and still loves them. Just like that journey of becoming fully known to another, Bartimaeus standing in front of Jesus in his skivvies begging for mercy becomes a symbol of our relationship to a God who already knows everything about us, yet whom we pray to and ask for mercy.
This idea of being known and the power that it has to transform our lives brought to mind a scene from the Lord of the Rings movies where Elrond delivers the sword Anduril to Aragorn. Aragorn has struggled throughout his life with his identity as the heir of the deposed king of Gondor, as you can see in his scraggly appearance. Aragorn knows some of who he is, yet he is unsure about how his identity as King of Gondor will be played out. He sees the potential for both good and evil in his past and in his identity, so he has hesitated to claim that identity for himself.
It takes Elrond, the king of the elves who has helped raise Aragorn and knows who Aragorn is and what Aragorn can be, to help Aragorn “become who he was born to be.” Aragorn is hesitant to claim all of his identity, yet Elrond calls him to take on the duties that only the king of Gondor can fulfill by taking a sword forged from Aragorn’s ancestors’ broken sword, a sword broken in battle against the same enemy Aragorn fights. Elrond knows that it is only by taking on his true identity that Aragorn can gather enough troops for battle and fulfill his role in the mission. Let’s watch their interaction:
THE RETURN OF THE KING DISC 1 SCENE 30 1:40:10 to 1:42:42
Aragorn is only able to take on his identity because he is already known by Elrond, because Elrond sees Aragorn as he truly is and forces Aragorn to acknowledge his true identity. Being completely known has a powerfully freeing impact on us when we accept and embrace the fact that someone else has seen us at our very worst and loves us anyway. In the midst of his blindness and his brashness, as he’s standing there in his underwear in front of a huge crowd of people and Jesus, Bartimaeus was nothing if not exposed and vulnerable. Yet he made himself vulnerable as an act of faith based on his incomplete knowledge of Jesus’ identity.
You can see at the end of this clip that Aragorn remains unsure, that he “keeps no hope for himself.” Yet he is able to trust that he is known, to trust that Elrond does in fact know him and earnestly desires his success and welfare, even though Aragorn doesn’t know fully what will come to pass. Because of that trust and because of that faith in the one who called Aragorn by name, he is able to face those fears and accomplish his role in the mission. It is by being known and by submitting his own desires to the needs of the mission that Aragorn is able to find life and to fight for that which matters most.
Bartimaeus was able to trust when Jesus called him, a trust so complete that Bartimaeus lost all concept of decency and ran forward in his underwear, tossing aside what was his only potential source of money for the chance to meet Jesus. He was able to stand with Jesus and to follow Jesus because he had discovered his true identity as someone valued by the Son of David. Yet it is only in the process of discipleship and in following Jesus that Jesus would be able to correct Bartimaeus’ limited understanding of who Jesus was and what Jesus was doing, thus we can’t forget the next step: and he followed Jesus down the road.
That was are known yet do not know fully is one of the reasons that we’re mistaken if we assume that you have to get to a certain level of holiness or knowledge before you can become active in the church. One of the emphases throughout Methodism has been on a process called sanctification. We uphold a three-pronged understanding of grace – prevenient grace that constantly “woos” us to Christ, justifying grace that puts us in right relationship with God through Christ, and sanctifying grace whereby we are made more and more into the image of Christ and become more Christlike. That can be summarized as first being known by God, then our coming to know God, then learning to become more and more about God. We know that God loves us before we are even aware of it, and loves us as we are coming to know God, not just when we’ve proven ourselves “worthy.” We can never know everything about God, but we can know some things and be passionate about those things.
This movement toward trust and towards intimate knowledge of God is always a process, and is a process that will only be complete upon death. We strive to know God as we are already known not because we will ever completely understand God, but because we have experienced God’s love and want to embrace that identity that Christ shows us in ourselves. As we discover more about who God is, we discover more about who we are, so that as we come closer to Christ in asking for healing we begin to come closer to seeing ourselves rightly.
Today, Christ is calling not only Bartimaeus but you to come to him. He’s also calling us as members of the crowd to be his messengers, to help other people to know who it is that is calling them and to know the love with which they are being called. Then, he calls us to join his followers, to be a part of Christ’s community so that we can know Christ and follow Christ along the way. I invite you to think about where you find yourself in this story – are you part of the crowd, trying to figure out what Jesus wants? Or are you Bartimaeus, hearing your name called and passionately pursuing Christ, believing that while you don’t know everything, you do know something. Can you say that this, this cross and the love that it shows, is the one thing that I know and the one thing that I believe in? If so, will you chose today to follow him and come when he calls?
Monday, October 30, 2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
October 22nd sermon
I decided that I would post the last few sermons on "The Lord of the Rings" on the internet for discussion for anyone who cares to read them and ask questions about them. I'll be delivering the finale this Sunday, October 29th, and will post my script for that when I actually do it.
This is the third of the Lord of the Rings series. I decided to start off with the clip rather than the scripture, trying to work some more with the balance between preaching the text and matching the image to it and using the image as a way to view the text.
Today we continue our series on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, using its images, its characters, and its plot to help us understand Jesus’ message about community and how to relate to others. The first week we talked about the Palantir and the law, discussing how we must never let tools become more important than their purpose. Last week we talked about Gimli and the rich young man, and how each was challenged to set aside something important to them so they could serve in a life-giving mission.
This week, we’ll look at the tree-like Ents and the disciples James and John, as each are challenged to look beyond their own interests to create a better world. Let’s see what they each want and why, and how their looking inward is redirected to looking outward. First, let’s hear Treebeard, the leader of the Ents, talk about whether they will get involved in the war.
Two Towers Disc 2 – Scene 52 1:11:23 to 1:12:14 “Go back to your home.”
We see in this clip a couple of excuses that the Ents use to disengage from the problems surrounding them. For one thing, they convince themselves that they are powerless to have any effect. Whenever we’re involved in a project as massive as the church undertakes, it’s easy to get discouraged and see our role as insignificant. Some of us just give up and ignore the problem, while some of us simply try to hold down our own fort while ignoring the problems around us. Whether we say “we cannot win this” or pretend “we can just avoid the issue,” we are turning our back on the issues at stake and the problems that are being exposed, as well as on the people who are wrapped up in those problems.
This problem of moving from an inward focus to an outward focus is not unique to modern cinema – it’s a concern that Jesus had. This is particularly evident in today’s lectionary text from Mark 10:35-45, where James and John show that despite being around Jesus for all this time, they still are simply unable to grasp where the focus should be. Let’s hear that encounter now, from Mark, Chapter 10, verses 35-45.
35 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ 36And he said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ 37And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’ 38But Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ 39They replied, ‘We are able.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; 40but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.’
41 When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. 42So Jesus called them and said to them, ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 43But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, 44and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. 45For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’
“The son of man came not to be served, but to serve.” All too often we look at our talents, our gifts, our status as God’s beloved as a reason to lord it over others. Jesus, who had more status, more talents, and more gifts than anything we can imagine, showed us a different way of looking at things. Jesus challenged us to ignore our status and make ourselves servants, to use our talents and our gifts not for the furthering of our kingdom, but rather for the furthering of God’s kingdom. The son of Man came not to be served, but to serve. Or, to put it in a little more blunt fashion, I’d like to quote my friend Will, who once said to someone upset over a change at the Wesley Foundation, “I’m sorry, I must have misread the sign. I could have sworn this said “Wesley Foundation” and not “Jennifer Foundation,” that we worship Jesus and not Jennifer.
We look for excuses, we look for ways out of our responsibility as Christians to look at others more than ourselves, but eventually Jesus always catches us with the question of focus– are you here to serve, or to be served? Are you going to make it your business to improve the world you live in, or will you just wait for the world to fit your needs? Or, as Merry challenged Treebeard, “you’re part of this world. Aren’t you?” We are told to be in the world but not of the world, but we are nonetheless put in the world for a reason.
We as a church are like the Ents in so many ways. We make ourselves believe that “this storm will pass” and claim, “we must weather such things as we have always done.” We become obsessed with the way that we have done things and the stability of our organization, so that we disengage from the problems of our world rather than engaging them, saying “this is not our war.” Whether that’s environmental issues or it’s political corruption or it’s bad business practices or it’s straightforward unkindness, we all too often turn our backs on those who are hurting and those who truly need the church because we’re too scared of upsetting our balance. Sounding at all familiar to any of you?
What can finally wake us up, what can finally force us to realize that we are in fact part of this world and that we are in fact empowered and equipped to improve this world? For many of us, it’s having a connection with the pain of others. What finally makes us take faith and our relationship to Christ seriously is a tragic event, some sort of death or painful experience that causes us to realize our need for connection to Christ and to help others be connected to Christ. Sometimes, it’s our own pain that causes that reflection, but sometimes it is seeing and experiencing the pain of our friends. Let’s see how Pippin helped Treebeard to see that connection, and how Treebeard responds.
TT Disc 2 –Scene 56 – 1:21:09 to 1:23:38
Treebeard is drawn into action by seeing the damage that’s been done, by seeing some of his friends who have died because of the spread of evil that he thought couldn’t reach him. Empathy is one of the most enlivening of emotions for a Christian because we can all hear Jesus saying “just as you did it for one of the least of these, you did it for me.” What Treebeard lacked wasn’t the knowledge that what was going on was wrong, or the sensitivity to be pained by what happens. What Treebeard lacked was the courage to risk, the courage to make what might be “the last march of the ents,” to risk his own self in service to others and in service of preserving what is great and good in this world. Treebeard was more concerned with his survival and with his own needs than he was concerned for the needs of those around him, even his friends. It wasn’t until he walked across that threshold, when he saw the pain and desolation that was left by those who were only looking out for themselves and their own power.
James and John missed Jesus’ point because they were so focused on what they could get out of following Jesus, on what position they would end up in. As we hear their question, and as we ponder where we are called to engage the world, we’re challenged to ask again the question we heard a lawyer ask Jesus a few weeks ago – who is my neighbor? Is it only those in my inner circle of friends? Is it only those who chose to come into this church, only those who are members of your Sunday School class? What about the people who we’ve lost touch with, who had been friends of ours but for whatever reason went a different direction than we went? Are they also our neighbors?
Jesus pushed James and John to become other-centered, to look at what they could do for those outside the circle of Christ’s community, rather than what Jesus would do for those inside the circle. The harvest is truly plentiful, but the workers are few. We are not going to run out of people who are hurting, people who need to be loved. We’ve just got to remind ourselves that we are part of the same family, that even when we look as far away as Africa, we see our brothers and sisters.
This is the third of the Lord of the Rings series. I decided to start off with the clip rather than the scripture, trying to work some more with the balance between preaching the text and matching the image to it and using the image as a way to view the text.
Today we continue our series on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, using its images, its characters, and its plot to help us understand Jesus’ message about community and how to relate to others. The first week we talked about the Palantir and the law, discussing how we must never let tools become more important than their purpose. Last week we talked about Gimli and the rich young man, and how each was challenged to set aside something important to them so they could serve in a life-giving mission.
This week, we’ll look at the tree-like Ents and the disciples James and John, as each are challenged to look beyond their own interests to create a better world. Let’s see what they each want and why, and how their looking inward is redirected to looking outward. First, let’s hear Treebeard, the leader of the Ents, talk about whether they will get involved in the war.
Two Towers Disc 2 – Scene 52 1:11:23 to 1:12:14 “Go back to your home.”
We see in this clip a couple of excuses that the Ents use to disengage from the problems surrounding them. For one thing, they convince themselves that they are powerless to have any effect. Whenever we’re involved in a project as massive as the church undertakes, it’s easy to get discouraged and see our role as insignificant. Some of us just give up and ignore the problem, while some of us simply try to hold down our own fort while ignoring the problems around us. Whether we say “we cannot win this” or pretend “we can just avoid the issue,” we are turning our back on the issues at stake and the problems that are being exposed, as well as on the people who are wrapped up in those problems.
This problem of moving from an inward focus to an outward focus is not unique to modern cinema – it’s a concern that Jesus had. This is particularly evident in today’s lectionary text from Mark 10:35-45, where James and John show that despite being around Jesus for all this time, they still are simply unable to grasp where the focus should be. Let’s hear that encounter now, from Mark, Chapter 10, verses 35-45.
35 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ 36And he said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ 37And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’ 38But Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ 39They replied, ‘We are able.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; 40but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.’
41 When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. 42So Jesus called them and said to them, ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 43But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, 44and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. 45For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’
“The son of man came not to be served, but to serve.” All too often we look at our talents, our gifts, our status as God’s beloved as a reason to lord it over others. Jesus, who had more status, more talents, and more gifts than anything we can imagine, showed us a different way of looking at things. Jesus challenged us to ignore our status and make ourselves servants, to use our talents and our gifts not for the furthering of our kingdom, but rather for the furthering of God’s kingdom. The son of Man came not to be served, but to serve. Or, to put it in a little more blunt fashion, I’d like to quote my friend Will, who once said to someone upset over a change at the Wesley Foundation, “I’m sorry, I must have misread the sign. I could have sworn this said “Wesley Foundation” and not “Jennifer Foundation,” that we worship Jesus and not Jennifer.
We look for excuses, we look for ways out of our responsibility as Christians to look at others more than ourselves, but eventually Jesus always catches us with the question of focus– are you here to serve, or to be served? Are you going to make it your business to improve the world you live in, or will you just wait for the world to fit your needs? Or, as Merry challenged Treebeard, “you’re part of this world. Aren’t you?” We are told to be in the world but not of the world, but we are nonetheless put in the world for a reason.
We as a church are like the Ents in so many ways. We make ourselves believe that “this storm will pass” and claim, “we must weather such things as we have always done.” We become obsessed with the way that we have done things and the stability of our organization, so that we disengage from the problems of our world rather than engaging them, saying “this is not our war.” Whether that’s environmental issues or it’s political corruption or it’s bad business practices or it’s straightforward unkindness, we all too often turn our backs on those who are hurting and those who truly need the church because we’re too scared of upsetting our balance. Sounding at all familiar to any of you?
What can finally wake us up, what can finally force us to realize that we are in fact part of this world and that we are in fact empowered and equipped to improve this world? For many of us, it’s having a connection with the pain of others. What finally makes us take faith and our relationship to Christ seriously is a tragic event, some sort of death or painful experience that causes us to realize our need for connection to Christ and to help others be connected to Christ. Sometimes, it’s our own pain that causes that reflection, but sometimes it is seeing and experiencing the pain of our friends. Let’s see how Pippin helped Treebeard to see that connection, and how Treebeard responds.
TT Disc 2 –Scene 56 – 1:21:09 to 1:23:38
Treebeard is drawn into action by seeing the damage that’s been done, by seeing some of his friends who have died because of the spread of evil that he thought couldn’t reach him. Empathy is one of the most enlivening of emotions for a Christian because we can all hear Jesus saying “just as you did it for one of the least of these, you did it for me.” What Treebeard lacked wasn’t the knowledge that what was going on was wrong, or the sensitivity to be pained by what happens. What Treebeard lacked was the courage to risk, the courage to make what might be “the last march of the ents,” to risk his own self in service to others and in service of preserving what is great and good in this world. Treebeard was more concerned with his survival and with his own needs than he was concerned for the needs of those around him, even his friends. It wasn’t until he walked across that threshold, when he saw the pain and desolation that was left by those who were only looking out for themselves and their own power.
James and John missed Jesus’ point because they were so focused on what they could get out of following Jesus, on what position they would end up in. As we hear their question, and as we ponder where we are called to engage the world, we’re challenged to ask again the question we heard a lawyer ask Jesus a few weeks ago – who is my neighbor? Is it only those in my inner circle of friends? Is it only those who chose to come into this church, only those who are members of your Sunday School class? What about the people who we’ve lost touch with, who had been friends of ours but for whatever reason went a different direction than we went? Are they also our neighbors?
Jesus pushed James and John to become other-centered, to look at what they could do for those outside the circle of Christ’s community, rather than what Jesus would do for those inside the circle. The harvest is truly plentiful, but the workers are few. We are not going to run out of people who are hurting, people who need to be loved. We’ve just got to remind ourselves that we are part of the same family, that even when we look as far away as Africa, we see our brothers and sisters.
October 15th sermon
Here is the second part of the Lord of the Rings series. The sermon began with me reading Mark 10:17-22.
Today we continue our journey through Middle Earth and Mark Chapter 10. We just heard Jesus exposing the obstacles that the rich man held that would keep that man from joining Christ’s mission. Many times our obstacles are material things like possessions, but sometimes they’re more subtle things like distrust of others or suspicion that keep us from joining this mission we’ve been called to. Let’s look again at the Lord of the Rings movies, focusing today on the relationship between Gimli the dwarf and Legolas the elf. In the following clip, pay attention to the differences between them and the obstacles that would make them working together difficult. FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING COUNCIL OF ELROND – Elrond saying “the ring must be destroyed” until Merry says “well that counts you out, Pip.”
There are clearly a few differences between Gimli and Legolas. For one thing, we’ve got their appearance. Legolas is tall and thin, tactful and graceful, and, how can I say this, he’s Orlando Bloom. Gimli, on the other hand, is short and stocky, blunt and intentional. Legolas is thoughtful and considerate, while Gimli is impulsive. And then we also have that whole suspicion thing. Then there are those things that Gimli was yelling, that “I will be dead before I see the ring in the hands of an elf” and “never trust an elf,” which make it difficult to imagine that Gimli could work, serve, and fight side by side with an elf.
Gimli reacts this way because Dwarves just don’t trust elves. Dwarves lived underground, mining and searching for treasures, preferring the dark and enclosed to the bright and open. Elves had magic that the dwarves likened to witchcraft, believing that the elves were only pretending to use their magic to heal and were really plotting to gain more power for themselves. When you add to that a few historical incidents where elves and dwarves had worked together and the elves had come out better and you have a recipe for distrust.
So, is the lesson for today “just smile and trust and everything will be okay?” Not exactly. One of Gimli’s best traits is his honesty, his willingness to say what he believes and live with the consequences, yet even more important than that is his willingness to lay aside his suspicions for a common mission. For someone who is convinced that elves are out to destroy him, Gimli shows tremendous courage to still work beside and with an elf in a dangerous and important mission. Gimli had every opportunity to disengage and to work to fight evil in other ways, but he knows that this is the most important and significant mission he will ever be involved in, so he sets his prejudices aside for the sake of the mission, just as Jesus had asked the rich man to do.
The question that Gimli had to ask himself, and the question that we all have to ask ourselves, is whether what we’ve got already is more important than what we hope to get. The rich man who asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life was looking for something beyond what following the letter of the law had given him. This man had money, he was religiously upright, yet he still lacked something that he knew Jesus had. So he asked what he needed to do to have the kind of life Jesus lived.
And Jesus looked at him and loved him. Jesus could tell what was the most important thing in this man’s life, and that Reaching Up to God and Reaching Out to others was not the most important thing for this man. So Jesus directed the man to give up that most important thing in service to the gospel and to follow Him, and at that point the man would have treasure in heaven. The way for this man to change his priorities was to give his wealth, that which he saw as a blessing from God for his faithfulness, to those who were poor, who he likely believed were being cursed by God for their lack of faithfulness. Sadly, this was more than he could handle.
What is it that we hold most strongly to? Is it our possessions like the rich young man? Is it our prejudices like Gimli? Are we willing to give our money to the poor, to work side by side with our enemy, to put aside that which we have made most important so that we can embrace the gospel and the mission of reaching up to God and reaching out to others in love?
This is the second time in my life that I’ve preached on this text, and neither time I’ve wanted to focus on what Jesus literally says to do – sell everything you own, give it to the poor, and follow me. I’ve heard so many bad attempts to manipulate people into giving money to the church (or to the preacher) that I get really uncomfortable even thinking about preaching stewardship sermons, fearing that I’ll just be heard as another greedy televangelist. Yet that fear, that discomfort, and that doubt about how I’ll be received is the very thing that Jesus calls me to give up in service to the gospel.
Money is something that Jesus talks about extensively and repeatedly. “You cannot serve both God and money,” “sell all that you have and follow me,” and “it is harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” It’s almost as if, with all these references to money, God’s trying to tell me that I can’t avoid talking about how that’s one of the things that God wants us to offer in service to the mission.
Just like God calls me to give up my apprehensions about certain types of sermons and being a certain type of preacher, Gimli had to give up his suspicions and prejudices about elves and be willing to work together with Legolas in this most important mission. Are we willing to work with people we don’t get along with, people we’ve been taught to distrust, and people we think are in it for the wrong reasons? Or, like the rich man, will we hold on tighter to our prejudices and our possessions and refuse to express our unity with those who are different. Let’s see what Gimli and Legolas chose to do: Return of the King, disc 2, chapter 29 last 30 seconds
As Gimli and Legolas fight and serve together throughout these three movies, they develop the most unlikely of friendships. They stop seeing each other as elves and dwarves and start seeing each other as coworkers. Likewise, we’re challenged not to see ourselves as rich and poor, as thoughtful and impulsive, or as optimistic or pessimistic, but rather to see each person in this room as a unique part of the body of Christ and as someone made in the image of God.
What is it that you’re holding so tight to that you can’t look around and see your brothers and sisters here in this room? What is keeping you from saying “how about side by side with a friend?” Is it money? Is it prejudice? Is it fear of losing face and looking bad? Is it a grudge that you’ve been holding for years? Jesus is calling us here and now to lay those things down, to lay that down at the foot of the cross and proclaim to the world that our identity as Christians and following Jesus is more important than our identity as Americans, as rich people, as wise people, or as popular people. And then together let us follow Jesus, to reach up to God in love and to reach out toward others in love. Let us offer our knowledge, or like Legolas and Gimli offer our bow and our axe, to the service of the living God who brought us here and sends us now to show God’s love to the world. In the name of the father, and the son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Today we continue our journey through Middle Earth and Mark Chapter 10. We just heard Jesus exposing the obstacles that the rich man held that would keep that man from joining Christ’s mission. Many times our obstacles are material things like possessions, but sometimes they’re more subtle things like distrust of others or suspicion that keep us from joining this mission we’ve been called to. Let’s look again at the Lord of the Rings movies, focusing today on the relationship between Gimli the dwarf and Legolas the elf. In the following clip, pay attention to the differences between them and the obstacles that would make them working together difficult. FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING COUNCIL OF ELROND – Elrond saying “the ring must be destroyed” until Merry says “well that counts you out, Pip.”
There are clearly a few differences between Gimli and Legolas. For one thing, we’ve got their appearance. Legolas is tall and thin, tactful and graceful, and, how can I say this, he’s Orlando Bloom. Gimli, on the other hand, is short and stocky, blunt and intentional. Legolas is thoughtful and considerate, while Gimli is impulsive. And then we also have that whole suspicion thing. Then there are those things that Gimli was yelling, that “I will be dead before I see the ring in the hands of an elf” and “never trust an elf,” which make it difficult to imagine that Gimli could work, serve, and fight side by side with an elf.
Gimli reacts this way because Dwarves just don’t trust elves. Dwarves lived underground, mining and searching for treasures, preferring the dark and enclosed to the bright and open. Elves had magic that the dwarves likened to witchcraft, believing that the elves were only pretending to use their magic to heal and were really plotting to gain more power for themselves. When you add to that a few historical incidents where elves and dwarves had worked together and the elves had come out better and you have a recipe for distrust.
So, is the lesson for today “just smile and trust and everything will be okay?” Not exactly. One of Gimli’s best traits is his honesty, his willingness to say what he believes and live with the consequences, yet even more important than that is his willingness to lay aside his suspicions for a common mission. For someone who is convinced that elves are out to destroy him, Gimli shows tremendous courage to still work beside and with an elf in a dangerous and important mission. Gimli had every opportunity to disengage and to work to fight evil in other ways, but he knows that this is the most important and significant mission he will ever be involved in, so he sets his prejudices aside for the sake of the mission, just as Jesus had asked the rich man to do.
The question that Gimli had to ask himself, and the question that we all have to ask ourselves, is whether what we’ve got already is more important than what we hope to get. The rich man who asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life was looking for something beyond what following the letter of the law had given him. This man had money, he was religiously upright, yet he still lacked something that he knew Jesus had. So he asked what he needed to do to have the kind of life Jesus lived.
And Jesus looked at him and loved him. Jesus could tell what was the most important thing in this man’s life, and that Reaching Up to God and Reaching Out to others was not the most important thing for this man. So Jesus directed the man to give up that most important thing in service to the gospel and to follow Him, and at that point the man would have treasure in heaven. The way for this man to change his priorities was to give his wealth, that which he saw as a blessing from God for his faithfulness, to those who were poor, who he likely believed were being cursed by God for their lack of faithfulness. Sadly, this was more than he could handle.
What is it that we hold most strongly to? Is it our possessions like the rich young man? Is it our prejudices like Gimli? Are we willing to give our money to the poor, to work side by side with our enemy, to put aside that which we have made most important so that we can embrace the gospel and the mission of reaching up to God and reaching out to others in love?
This is the second time in my life that I’ve preached on this text, and neither time I’ve wanted to focus on what Jesus literally says to do – sell everything you own, give it to the poor, and follow me. I’ve heard so many bad attempts to manipulate people into giving money to the church (or to the preacher) that I get really uncomfortable even thinking about preaching stewardship sermons, fearing that I’ll just be heard as another greedy televangelist. Yet that fear, that discomfort, and that doubt about how I’ll be received is the very thing that Jesus calls me to give up in service to the gospel.
Money is something that Jesus talks about extensively and repeatedly. “You cannot serve both God and money,” “sell all that you have and follow me,” and “it is harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” It’s almost as if, with all these references to money, God’s trying to tell me that I can’t avoid talking about how that’s one of the things that God wants us to offer in service to the mission.
Just like God calls me to give up my apprehensions about certain types of sermons and being a certain type of preacher, Gimli had to give up his suspicions and prejudices about elves and be willing to work together with Legolas in this most important mission. Are we willing to work with people we don’t get along with, people we’ve been taught to distrust, and people we think are in it for the wrong reasons? Or, like the rich man, will we hold on tighter to our prejudices and our possessions and refuse to express our unity with those who are different. Let’s see what Gimli and Legolas chose to do: Return of the King, disc 2, chapter 29 last 30 seconds
As Gimli and Legolas fight and serve together throughout these three movies, they develop the most unlikely of friendships. They stop seeing each other as elves and dwarves and start seeing each other as coworkers. Likewise, we’re challenged not to see ourselves as rich and poor, as thoughtful and impulsive, or as optimistic or pessimistic, but rather to see each person in this room as a unique part of the body of Christ and as someone made in the image of God.
What is it that you’re holding so tight to that you can’t look around and see your brothers and sisters here in this room? What is keeping you from saying “how about side by side with a friend?” Is it money? Is it prejudice? Is it fear of losing face and looking bad? Is it a grudge that you’ve been holding for years? Jesus is calling us here and now to lay those things down, to lay that down at the foot of the cross and proclaim to the world that our identity as Christians and following Jesus is more important than our identity as Americans, as rich people, as wise people, or as popular people. And then together let us follow Jesus, to reach up to God in love and to reach out toward others in love. Let us offer our knowledge, or like Legolas and Gimli offer our bow and our axe, to the service of the living God who brought us here and sends us now to show God’s love to the world. In the name of the father, and the son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
sermon October 8th
Here's the text of the first of my LOTR sermon series. The sermon began by reading the lectionary passage for the day, Mark 10:2-9.
As we begin reading Mark chapter 10, we see something that has happened countless times in Jesus’ ministry. We see here the religious elite of the day questioning Jesus about his teaching, trying to get him to admit that he’s teaching about a different God than they one they believe in. These are people who are educated, who are upstanding citizens, yet they fail to see Jesus for who he is because of one tragic flaw: they are more focused on the rules of their religion than the features of their faith.
Even the question that the Pharisees ask is more focused on what is permissible than what is right. “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” There’s no focus on what’s right, there’s no focus on whether it’s favorable for a man to divorce his wife. All they want to know is “can I get away with it?”
But Jesus, like he does so often, shakes his head and tells his questioners that they’re simply asking the wrong question. Jesus admits that legally there are conditions in which divorce can happen, although those conditions are concessions to human failures. But should divorce happen? Jesus focuses our attention away from the law and what is permissible and back to the purpose and intent of the law.
This is even more evident as Jesus goes back with the disciples, and they ask him to clarify his statement. Jesus speaks even more bluntly, yet he does so by referring to not only the man’s legal right to terminate the marriage covenant, but also the female’s right. There are a couple of reasons why that’s important: first of all, the female wasn’t allowed to initiate divorce in Palestine during that time period, yet Jesus talks about the “woman leaving her husband.” Jesus observes how both the man and the woman join to begin marriage, thus logically either can break the bonds of marriage. Breaking those bonds, however, is fundamentally opposed to the direction God’s kingdom is leading people toward. Jesus thereby challenges those who worship the law by pointing out its internal contradictions and by pointing to, as Paul later says of love, “a more excellent way.”
All too often we see the law as a rulebook used to oppress us. Our culture constantly tells us that the way to happiness is to eliminate rules, to “live life by your own rules” and forget about any rule or guideline that doesn’t fit with what we want. The only purpose of rules, we’re told, is for the powerful to enslave the powerless. When that’s the case, we start to look for ways around the rules, ways to get what we want without technically breaking any rules. One of the hardest lessons many college students have to learn is that just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Can you skip all of your classes without anyone yelling at you? Absolutely. Can you pass if you do that? Probably not.
God’s laws, just like class times, are not intended for your torture. There might be other things that seem like they’d be more fun, more entertaining, or more profitable. But before you skip all your classes, and before you break all of the Bible’s advice for living just because you can, ask yourself – why are they there? Why are these class times being offered, and why do we have these rules for how to live life? Both are tools, intended to help us grow, to help us become engaged in the world in new ways and to live more fulfilled lives.
Jesus points us today to consider the purposes of what we’re doing. As we read the Bible and learn the story of God’s people, God’s purpose is constantly that people might live in right relationship with God and with each other. The Bible tells the story of how God chose to be in relationship with humanity in creation, how God worked to maintain that relationship despite our human insistence on running away from God, and how God finally sent Jesus to once again express how deeply God loves us. We as a church gather to proclaim who Jesus was and is in our midst, to live a life transformed by God’s love revealed in Jesus, and to expand the circle of God’s loving community until it reaches every part of God’s creation.
We have various tools at our disposal in this mission. One tool we’ve got is the best-selling, most translated, most historically documented book in history – the Bible. Like the Jews of Jesus’ day, we have a document that outlines how to live embody and expand God’s community. But like the Pharisees, Jesus challenges us to look beyond the letter of the law to the Spirit, the divine love behind that law and behind that tool.
There’s an old Buddhist proverb about scripture that is helpful for focusing us on this reality that we should gather around a mission, rather than gathering around our tools to perform that mission. Scripture is like a hand pointing toward the moon. Scripture is not God, but it points us toward God. If we waste our time focusing only on the hand, we miss the opportunity to see the awesome, mighty God that this hand points us to.
Whenever we disconnect a tool from its purpose, the tool has the potential to be used for good or for evil. When separated from a loving God who wants our fulfillment, laws are simply hoops we have to jump through or obstacles to avoid. The Bible that is meant as the story of God’s love for humanity becomes the weapon of people’s judgment of each other. When we forget the purpose of Christ’s coming, we shout John 3:16 at people without moving on to John 3:17, “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” When we start using any tool, even the most Godly, for our own gain rather than to further God’s kingdom, we start to be used by the tool rather than users of the tool.
We see this vividly in the clip we’ll look at in a moment. In the clip, we see the wizard Gandalf coming to his old friend Saruman for advice about how to deal with the ring of power, one of the most powerful tools ever created by the enemy Sauron that remains tied by its design to the enemy’s will. Gandalf comes to his friend still focused on the goal of defeating Sauron and destroying the ring. He finds there that Saruman has become consumed by a tool called the palantir, through which he can see across Middle Earth. This tool, originally designed to aid in the fight against the enemy, has been corrupted by the enemy, who uses the palantir to create fear, distrust, and suspicion in Saruman. See how convinced Saruman is that what he sees in the palantir is reality, and how focused he is on his own strength and influence rather than the common goal of a better world. Because Saruman has started to worship the tool rather than using it for its purpose, he becomes a slave to his own desires and is manipulated. Saruman turns on his friend Gandalf because of his obsession with what he can see and what he knows, thereby “trading reason for madness.” FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING Disc 1 46:40 to 50:16
We see in the Lord of the Rings story two fundamentally different ways to look at tools. The ring must be destroyed, yet the Palantir can still be redeemed and used for good. The ring must be destroyed because no one can use it, because it is more powerful and corroding than any user can withstand. The Palantir, however, can be used, since it can more easily be placed in perspective. Neither, however, can be used lightly or for personal gain without them corrupting the user, as we see with Saruman.
In Return of the King, Aragorn, the king of Gondor and the leader of the Fellowship, takes the Palantir in order to provoke Sauron into battle, thereby protecting Frodo and Sam and the ultimate goal of the mission. Aragorn knows that the only way for their ultimate mission of destroying the ring to succeed, he has to convince the enemy that he intends to fight at the gate. Watch this clip from the extended edition of the movie and see Aragorn’s decision to use the palantir for good. RETURN OF THE KING Disc 2 58:30 to 59:37
Will there be fear involved in serving? Absolutely. You can see Aragorn’s fear in that clip, and you can see the fear in the disciples throughout the gospel as they saw more and more clearly how hard was the path that Jesus lead them toward. “Fear not, for I am with you always” Jesus said. Or, as John said, “perfect love casts out fear.” Not being sure of what the results will be makes it far easier to focus on the tangible things we think we can control. We start to focus and become fixated on how we do things rather than why we do things.
But in the midst of fear, in the midst of uncertainty, and in the midst of a world where we’re constantly challenged as to whether we are serious about living faithfully, we have this common calling around which we can gather. God formed humans to be in community with God and in community with each other. Jesus came to expand that community, to remind those inside the community of their purpose and to invite those outside the community to come in. Will we do likewise?
As we begin reading Mark chapter 10, we see something that has happened countless times in Jesus’ ministry. We see here the religious elite of the day questioning Jesus about his teaching, trying to get him to admit that he’s teaching about a different God than they one they believe in. These are people who are educated, who are upstanding citizens, yet they fail to see Jesus for who he is because of one tragic flaw: they are more focused on the rules of their religion than the features of their faith.
Even the question that the Pharisees ask is more focused on what is permissible than what is right. “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” There’s no focus on what’s right, there’s no focus on whether it’s favorable for a man to divorce his wife. All they want to know is “can I get away with it?”
But Jesus, like he does so often, shakes his head and tells his questioners that they’re simply asking the wrong question. Jesus admits that legally there are conditions in which divorce can happen, although those conditions are concessions to human failures. But should divorce happen? Jesus focuses our attention away from the law and what is permissible and back to the purpose and intent of the law.
This is even more evident as Jesus goes back with the disciples, and they ask him to clarify his statement. Jesus speaks even more bluntly, yet he does so by referring to not only the man’s legal right to terminate the marriage covenant, but also the female’s right. There are a couple of reasons why that’s important: first of all, the female wasn’t allowed to initiate divorce in Palestine during that time period, yet Jesus talks about the “woman leaving her husband.” Jesus observes how both the man and the woman join to begin marriage, thus logically either can break the bonds of marriage. Breaking those bonds, however, is fundamentally opposed to the direction God’s kingdom is leading people toward. Jesus thereby challenges those who worship the law by pointing out its internal contradictions and by pointing to, as Paul later says of love, “a more excellent way.”
All too often we see the law as a rulebook used to oppress us. Our culture constantly tells us that the way to happiness is to eliminate rules, to “live life by your own rules” and forget about any rule or guideline that doesn’t fit with what we want. The only purpose of rules, we’re told, is for the powerful to enslave the powerless. When that’s the case, we start to look for ways around the rules, ways to get what we want without technically breaking any rules. One of the hardest lessons many college students have to learn is that just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Can you skip all of your classes without anyone yelling at you? Absolutely. Can you pass if you do that? Probably not.
God’s laws, just like class times, are not intended for your torture. There might be other things that seem like they’d be more fun, more entertaining, or more profitable. But before you skip all your classes, and before you break all of the Bible’s advice for living just because you can, ask yourself – why are they there? Why are these class times being offered, and why do we have these rules for how to live life? Both are tools, intended to help us grow, to help us become engaged in the world in new ways and to live more fulfilled lives.
Jesus points us today to consider the purposes of what we’re doing. As we read the Bible and learn the story of God’s people, God’s purpose is constantly that people might live in right relationship with God and with each other. The Bible tells the story of how God chose to be in relationship with humanity in creation, how God worked to maintain that relationship despite our human insistence on running away from God, and how God finally sent Jesus to once again express how deeply God loves us. We as a church gather to proclaim who Jesus was and is in our midst, to live a life transformed by God’s love revealed in Jesus, and to expand the circle of God’s loving community until it reaches every part of God’s creation.
We have various tools at our disposal in this mission. One tool we’ve got is the best-selling, most translated, most historically documented book in history – the Bible. Like the Jews of Jesus’ day, we have a document that outlines how to live embody and expand God’s community. But like the Pharisees, Jesus challenges us to look beyond the letter of the law to the Spirit, the divine love behind that law and behind that tool.
There’s an old Buddhist proverb about scripture that is helpful for focusing us on this reality that we should gather around a mission, rather than gathering around our tools to perform that mission. Scripture is like a hand pointing toward the moon. Scripture is not God, but it points us toward God. If we waste our time focusing only on the hand, we miss the opportunity to see the awesome, mighty God that this hand points us to.
Whenever we disconnect a tool from its purpose, the tool has the potential to be used for good or for evil. When separated from a loving God who wants our fulfillment, laws are simply hoops we have to jump through or obstacles to avoid. The Bible that is meant as the story of God’s love for humanity becomes the weapon of people’s judgment of each other. When we forget the purpose of Christ’s coming, we shout John 3:16 at people without moving on to John 3:17, “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” When we start using any tool, even the most Godly, for our own gain rather than to further God’s kingdom, we start to be used by the tool rather than users of the tool.
We see this vividly in the clip we’ll look at in a moment. In the clip, we see the wizard Gandalf coming to his old friend Saruman for advice about how to deal with the ring of power, one of the most powerful tools ever created by the enemy Sauron that remains tied by its design to the enemy’s will. Gandalf comes to his friend still focused on the goal of defeating Sauron and destroying the ring. He finds there that Saruman has become consumed by a tool called the palantir, through which he can see across Middle Earth. This tool, originally designed to aid in the fight against the enemy, has been corrupted by the enemy, who uses the palantir to create fear, distrust, and suspicion in Saruman. See how convinced Saruman is that what he sees in the palantir is reality, and how focused he is on his own strength and influence rather than the common goal of a better world. Because Saruman has started to worship the tool rather than using it for its purpose, he becomes a slave to his own desires and is manipulated. Saruman turns on his friend Gandalf because of his obsession with what he can see and what he knows, thereby “trading reason for madness.” FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING Disc 1 46:40 to 50:16
We see in the Lord of the Rings story two fundamentally different ways to look at tools. The ring must be destroyed, yet the Palantir can still be redeemed and used for good. The ring must be destroyed because no one can use it, because it is more powerful and corroding than any user can withstand. The Palantir, however, can be used, since it can more easily be placed in perspective. Neither, however, can be used lightly or for personal gain without them corrupting the user, as we see with Saruman.
In Return of the King, Aragorn, the king of Gondor and the leader of the Fellowship, takes the Palantir in order to provoke Sauron into battle, thereby protecting Frodo and Sam and the ultimate goal of the mission. Aragorn knows that the only way for their ultimate mission of destroying the ring to succeed, he has to convince the enemy that he intends to fight at the gate. Watch this clip from the extended edition of the movie and see Aragorn’s decision to use the palantir for good. RETURN OF THE KING Disc 2 58:30 to 59:37
Will there be fear involved in serving? Absolutely. You can see Aragorn’s fear in that clip, and you can see the fear in the disciples throughout the gospel as they saw more and more clearly how hard was the path that Jesus lead them toward. “Fear not, for I am with you always” Jesus said. Or, as John said, “perfect love casts out fear.” Not being sure of what the results will be makes it far easier to focus on the tangible things we think we can control. We start to focus and become fixated on how we do things rather than why we do things.
But in the midst of fear, in the midst of uncertainty, and in the midst of a world where we’re constantly challenged as to whether we are serious about living faithfully, we have this common calling around which we can gather. God formed humans to be in community with God and in community with each other. Jesus came to expand that community, to remind those inside the community of their purpose and to invite those outside the community to come in. Will we do likewise?
Thursday, October 12, 2006
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