Unwrapping gifts

            I have always said that I didn’t want to be a pastor because you never want to do what your Dad did. My Dad was my pastor and at times I didn’t want a pastor, I wanted a dad. I grew up my own person, mapping out my own path. I was never a great athlete. I played sports for fun but even if I experienced success at a particular activity I usually quit in favor of trying something new. I was never a successful student until college. I didn’t have any desire to study if the subject didn’t seem to have a particular use in life or my own personal interests. I never worked for the praise of others or my family. It was often a source of concern for my parents.

            I enlisted in the Marine Corps and I worked as a Police officer. I was deployed to Iraq and took part in combat operations. I worked in a violent economically depressed city as a Police officer. I was surrounded by death and destruction in both of the vocations I felt I had been called to. Regardless of my vocational callings I remained a consistent participant in weekly worship throughout my life. My faith was an integral part of my life and I found it was part of my identity.

            While I may not have always appreciated my dad because of his strict manner of discipline, I don’t think I could have asked for a better pastor. I grew up with a man that told me what it meant to be a Christian from the lens of a Lutheran pastor. I grew up listening to confessional Lutheran theology daily. When I grew up and left home I had not grown into a student, a cop, a Marine, a husband, or a father. I had grown into a seeker; a young man that sought God around every bend. I sought God in the war in Iraq, the streets of the city that were blighted by crime, I sought God in my marriage, my children, and later I searched for God in every theological topic I explored and studied. I spent hours weekly outside of the classroom reading Kierkegaard, Tillich, Bultmann, and many others, just to seek out a deeper understanding of God. I didn’t do it because I wanted the answers but because I wanted a deeper understanding in how God found a way into every facet of my life, regardless of how joyous or horrible. I just had the confidence that God was, without question, there. 

            As Lutherans we talk at length about faith as a gift from God. I do not deny that faith is a gift from God but my understanding of that gift isn’t much different from the gift you get at Christmas as a child. Even the gifts you want seem that much better when a parent is carefully watching as you unwrap it. Now as a father I get to experience this same joy. I remember, my father, expressing his own delight and joy when I unwrapped my gifts as a child. Christmas was my father’s favorite holiday and it still is today. I recall his assistance, unwrapping my gifts and his delight in watching me play with new toys, sometimes playing with me.

            I guess this is the connection I have finally made; my father was the best pastor I could have had regardless of how we interacted as father and son. He was the greatest pastor I could have had growing up because of his care for that gift that was delicately poured onto my head by his dearest friend, classmate, and colleague on the day I was baptized. I recall his unwrapping of the gift as he quizzed my Lutheran understanding of the sacrament of Holy Communion while I was preparing for my first meal at the communion table. I remember his careful precision in assembling that gift (using the confusing instructions that came with it) for many hours and years while preparing me personally for confirmation. I tried to downplay his pride as I took that gift for a spin when I left home, attending worship on my own and finding my own places of worship.

            Today I went to his office to look through his books and vestments. He showed me the box of chasubles, stoles, albs (fancy clergy clothes for worship), commentaries, and various other books he was entrusting to me. He then pulled out a folder with various newspaper clippings over the years that he had collected. As he looked through those clippings he came across an article he had written but never sent anywhere. He read it to me. It was written weeks before my return from Iraq. My battalion had lost 48 Marines and Corpsman who were killed in action during my deployment. The war had taken a very personal toll on him. I’m not sure what it had done to him in his faith but in the article he spoke of me, less as the little boy riding the Christmas bike around the parking lot on training wheels and more as the Olympic cyclist he couldn’t keep up with anymore. This article was written in the days before I had contemplated seminary, before I had begun to deeply explore scholarly theological texts. In the article he proclaimed that I had changed the very nature of the sacraments for him because of the reverence and longing with which reached for them. He claimed that I had changed his view of worship because of the longing and passion with which I approached the chance to attend a worship service in a makeshift chapel in the middle of run down military base. He was choked up as he read and I sat awkwardly listening, fiddling with random items sitting around the room.

            The article was grossly inaccurate. My father’s perception, my pastor’s perception, was biased because he wanted to believe that his son had taken that gift and far surpassed the abilities of the father. He was inaccurate because it was he who helped to unwrap, assemble, and teach me to use this gift. I’m not certain where I would be today if he had not taken such a personal role in sharing this gift. I often resented him for it but when the day came I had to tell a parent that their child had been killed, watch a friend die, or face the possibility of my own death, I knew that of all the gifts I had been given, this was the greatest.

            I have tried to explain this to my father, my pastor. I have tried to continue and sanctify this gift, given by God and tenderly cared for under the guidance of my father. I still try, but one thing I cannot make clear and that is the role my pastor/father had in all this. Tomorrow he will retire after 40 years in ministry. 40 years, helping to unwrap, watching with delight as that gift is first made identifiable by that one precise rip of the paper, tediously spending hours assembling that gift, and arduously instructing on its practice and use. The challenge in explaining to him just what he has done is helping him to realize that he has not just done this for his son, he has done this for many members of the Body. Introducing a gift that we as children can never fully master but as a pastor and father he has taught so many the value, the joy, and the assurance of that gift.

            I love my dad. I love him as my dad but he will never be just my dad, he’ll always be my pastor. I’m thankful for every pastor who has ever served me, for the gifts they shared with me. My dad will always have a special place in my life, though, because without him that gift may very well have been left behind in the middle of a desert town or a violent city street. Instead that was the gift that washed my wounds, remitted my shortcomings, fed my hunger, and assured me life. Without that gift I very well may still be alive but I, without a doubt, would not be living.

             So, after 40 years of serving God’s Church, thank you for being a servant of the gospel of Christ in my life, when it was the only gift I had. I hope I can model the servant that you have been and the servant you continue to be in my own life.

           

Don't Laugh

Genesis 18:1-15 and 21:1-7 (Narrative Lectionary)

A-maze-ing Laughter bronze sculpture by Yue Minjun

“You need to have the faith of Abraham!” I’ve heard that one in hospitals, war zones, and on homicide scenes. 

References to Abraham as the most faithful servant of God in human history goes beyond Christianity. The Muslim community and the Jewish community also lift up Abraham as an example of the type of faith we should all aspire to. But faith is a complicated topic, especially in a Lutheran context. 

Dr. Brian Gerrish wrote extensively on the topic of faith and claimed that faith has two sides; belief and trust. Every dictionary in the Western world seems to agree with Gerrish because belief and trust are the most frequently used terms to describe the essence of faith. Most Lutherans struggle with this understanding of faith, because at the center of our faith tradition and theology is another term for faith; gift. Gift as a descriptor of faith allows us to pawn off our own shortcomings regarding faith, as a fault not of our own but rather the fault of God. As if God is some cranky rich miser that withholds faith from some, while lavishing others with it in abundance. It certainly takes any responsibility for faith out of our own hands. 

Which leads us to a question; Would we prefer the choice to trust in God, or would we rather sit back with our feet kicked up and our arms outstretched awaiting God’s “faith handout” when things get a little rough or our “faith tank” is running on empty?

Faith as belief is without a doubt a true gift. As we heard last week, God gives, God creates, God builds an intricate design out of the desire for companionship and goodness. In that intelligent design we are given a chance to fathom a creator. Go to the Grand Canyon, the mountains, sleep out under the stars, or look up at the night sky while you are at the ocean and tell me you don’t consider the evidence of a higher power. This creation itself serves as the fingerprint or even a footprint of a creator. It is in that revealed goodness we receive the object of our belief; God.

Trust on the other hand, is far more complicated. My dear mentor and friend, Dr Eric Crump was notorious for his reminder during every theology study session he lead, when he would forcefully remind us: “NO ONE can do your believing for you!” It was a very passionate topic for him, not surprisingly since his mentor Dr Gerrish was equally passionate about the topic. As we are given evidence of the object of our belief it becomes our responsibility to further engage that object.

Today we see in the story of Abraham the journey of faith beginning. As Abraham begins his journey that faith is not without fault, and God shows up in our lesson today to investigate that faith. God seems to be embodied in the form of three creepy travelers who are traveling through the desert during a time of the day when no one in their right mind should be traveling. Even to this day people in the Middle East, especially in secluded regions do nothing in the middle of the day, especially travel. Just consider what would happen if you traveled through the desert on foot as temperatures reached upwards of 130 degrees! The circumstance is so strange that Abraham doesn’t even seem to realize these travelers are really there, the first time he looks up to see them. It’s only on his second take that he realizes it isn’t a dream or a mirage. What is more, a tribal society would rarely see three men traveling alone. People in bedouin tribal societies traveled in groups for protection from other tribes, criminals, and nature. It would have been most likely that three men traveling in the middle of the day were nothing but trouble. Abraham is a good bedouin man who extends the most essential and beautiful cultural courtesy I have ever seen; Middle Eastern hospitality. While not always practiced, it is a common custom among many to this day to extend not only your best food and drink but your protection as well. In so doing you not only assured the survival of those travelers but you could very well invite trouble if those travelers were criminals, outcasts, or raiders. 

Abraham is a good man, yes, but a faithful man? Not just yet. 

This story loses its edge because we know that God is present among these three travelers. For a middle eastern community, even today, the story is eerie and mysterious. Abraham takes a chance because he is a good bedouin. Sarah takes just as much of a chance as Abraham. 

An example of bedouin hospitality today

While this may serve as an example of good bedouin hospitality, even today, when a group of mysterious travelers come into my home, knowing my wife’s full, and might I add only recently changed name,  -keep in mind Sarah’s name was only changed from Sarai to Sarah in the previous chapter- I would certainly be a little bit on edge, not to mention if one of them decides to offer their medical advice as a high risk OBGYN all of a sudden! 

The creepy scale does go off the charts though when Sarah laughs WITHIN herself, and one traveler simply asks “Why is Sarah laughing?” This is the point at which the Friday the 13th music starts fading in and you start screaming at the TV screen “Don’t run into the graveyard!” It’s any wonder the text reports that Sarah was scared and you can bet she is even more freaked out when one of them outright calls her out on her halfway honest denial because she didn’t even laugh out loud!

Sisters and brothers, we may not fully appreciate this story because we take the identity of these three travelers for granted but it puts any modern thriller to shame. The cliffhanger of the story is when Abraham is put on the spot; “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?” claims one; challenging Abraham to acknowledge that to deny God’s ability to perform the task of granting Abraham a child would be to deny the very existence of the one true God that has created everything in the known world. For Abraham to deny such a thing would be to deny the very existence of God. 

Of course Abraham won't say that it cannot be done! After all, this is the God that created all Abraham can see with his own eyes, how can God not perform the simple task of granting Abraham a child after creating the entire world!? But not long ago, in Genesis 17,  Abraham literally fell on his face in laughter. For us we know this is God, throughout this wonderful, eerie, and spooky story but if you carefully read this text it is difficult to tell at what point Abraham realizes that these three have anything to do with God. It is all part of God’s shaping of Abraham’s faith. Testing him, questioning him, making sure that he is the best choice for this job.

Sarai offering Hagar to Abraham
(Stom)

Despite the fact he handed his wife over to the Pharaoh to save his own skin in Genesis chapter 12. 

And 

He responds to the promise of rewards so great they are beyond his imagination with “What good is all that if I don’t have a child to pass it onto?” in Genesis 15

And

Then, after God promises Abraham a son, Sarah insists that they use their slave Hagar to bear them a son who they end up treating so badly she runs off into the desert to die, only to return because God told Hagar that she would be protected. Genesis 16

And 

after all this, Abraham falls on his face laughing at God’s assurance that Sarah will bear a child in chapter 17. 

How’s that for the three strike rule? Do you still think that we should model the “Faith of Abraham?”

The culmination of Abraham’s faith is exemplified through Isaac. Isaac the name given by God. Often mistakenly interpreted to mean “laughter” the name actually literally means “HE laughed”

“He laughed”?

Sacrifice of Isaac (Caragaggio)

How would you like your only child to be named in order to remind you every time you looked in their eyes that you laughed at God’s promise, you laughed at God’s power, you laughed in the face of the One who created everything? The one who gave you everything, and could take it all away in the blink of an eye? How’s that for a little motivation?

So it is any wonder that Abraham is reminded “Don’t you laugh” when he is ordered to take his son named; “oh by the way you laughed at God” up on Mount Moriah to be sacrificed.  It is any wonder that Abraham is reminded “Don’t you laugh” when he is ordered to bind his son named; “oh by the way you laughed at God” to the altar. It is any wonder that Abraham is reminded “Don’t you laugh” when he is ordered to plunge a knife into his son named “oh by the way you laughed at God”. And it is any wonder that Abraham is reminded “Don’t you laugh” when his quivering hands froze just short of his son named “oh by the way you laughed at God” as God assures Abraham that unlike the other gods of the time, this God does not require the blood of children in sacrifice but only the faith, the belief, the trust, of those who follow the object of that faith; the God. 

You see, I don’t want the faith of Abraham. I want the faith that God carefully tempered in Abraham. A faith that was tempered like steel.  A faith, belief, and trust in the God who has, does, and will continue to provide.

But unlike Abraham, I don’t have to look into the eyes of my children to be reminded not to laugh at God’s power. I don’t have to look into the eyes of my children to remember the blessings I receive through God the creator. I don’t have to look into the eyes of my children to remember the love and grace of God, the One who first loved us.

Because God didn’t give me a son to remind me not to laugh, God gave me THE Son.

The Son who loved us. 

The Son who taught us. 

The Son who showed us God. 

The Son we nailed to the cross. 

The Son that we all laughed at. 

So every time you look on that cross remember we too once laughed at the power of God and remember that by that cross we too have the opportunity to be reminded of the true witness to faith in God through Jesus the Christ. 

Amen. 

Mocking of Christ (Carracci)

Sources

Gerrish, B A. “Saving and Secular Faith: An Invitation to Systematic Theology”. Fortress Press, August 5, 2015. 

Create in me a clean heart!

Mark 7: 1-23

Our Gospel lesson for today is a favorite among Barbecue connoisseurs and Bacon enthusiasts. Yes, even I think happily upon today’s Gospel lesson when I hover over my smoker, adjusting the temperature, placing just the right amount of wood chips into the smoke box, and generously spraying a thin glaze upon the slowly cooking meat. I cannot help but think, even out loud, “thank you for your insights, Jesus; this is delicious!” It’s a good thing that confession is good for the soul, however, because if that is all I can get out of the gospel today, then I have fallen into the same trap as the Pharisees. 

Today’s lesson is about the barriers that are drawn between you, me, us, all of us, and God. As protestants we have a tendency to lean all too legalistically in opposition towards legalism. We find so much fault in the legalism of the Hebrew scripture that we still often claim Jesus Christ comes to us in order to abolish the law. This isn’t just a claim made today but in scripture, and Jesus is all too aware when he clarifies; “I have come not to abolish but to fulfill the law” in Matthew’s Gospel which shares a variation of today’s gospel from Mark. 

So, in today’s Gospel, it most certainly seems that Jesus is clearing out some of the old practices of temple Judaism but I am not so sure he is clearing out the problem of legalistic Judaism as much as the problem of human inauthenticity. Second temple Judaism is in fact steeped in numerous traditions and legal codes. We find many of them in Leviticus and even Deuteronomy, today’s first lesson in fact is an example of this. And when we read these laws we can’t help but wonder where this could leave us, if it is the standard upon which we should be judged. 

My wife and I maintain a garden of squash, tomatoes, and corn; Guess what? Confession is good for the soul because yes, I am in violation of the law - Leviticus 19:19 “you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed"

In fact my own fashion as I stand here before you is in gross violation of the law. Yes, my ever so fashionable polyester/cotton blend clerical shirt is declared unfit, especially for someone such as myself standing before you in this role. Again, Leviticus 19:19 “you shall put on a garment made of two different materials.”

Leviticus 10:9 seems to even proclaim that one of the most reverential forms of worship in our service is in fact… unlawful, “Drink no wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons, when you enter the tent of meeting” the very sacrament of Holy Communion is forbidden according to the legal codes of Leviticus.

This list could go on and on and on, but that would also be missing the point today. My intention is not to discredit the manner in which we worship but to clarify the meaning of this text itself because the action is not what is being brought into question in today’s Gospel; it is the abuse of the action. Second temple rules and regulations were interpreted and presented to the people through religious lawyers and priests, who presented their interpretations of the legal codes as well as additions to those codes. This was not intended to oppress but to assist. Assisting the people of God to live lives that were worthy of being considered lives of God’s chosen people. To remain within the parameters of this chosen state, they were called to follow the legal codes prescribed so that they would remain clean. Clean in a manner less worthy of an Old Spice commercial  and more worthy of an audience with God. This was a method of purification of the body that constantly assured the purification of a person striving to be in God’s good favor because of a zest fully clean spiritual state.

What we see in much of Leviticus and Deuteronomy are spiritual disciplines meant to impact the fallen state of humanity due to sin. Methods for God’s chosen people to be called back to the righteousness of God’s favor. When we consider the tragedy that befell Israel time and again it is certainly understandable why this community would continuously strive for a state of cleanliness. There must have been little doubt within their own minds that their own uncleanliness had invited their own demise and certainly they wouldn’t want to revisit such tragedy.

Which leaves us to our Gospel lesson today and honestly, as a parent I can most certainly ask; Is washing your hands before sitting down to the table REALLY too much to ask? For Jesus it most certainly is, because this is not just a squirt of some antibacterial soap with a quick rinse under the faucet. This is a specific method of ritual purification, using a specific technique, with a specific amount of water, which was poured over the hands in a specific way, and this is all done not once but between each course offered at the table and at the conclusion of the meal as well. Certainly a bit extreme and it wasn’t just extreme to Jesus but many Jews of this period found these practices to be “too orthodox”. But I’m not so sure that Jesus confronts them due to the extreme methods of purification as much as he is confronting them on the results of such a practice. All of these practices served as spiritual surgical gloves and masks, prepared to protect the chosen from the uncleanliness and sin of the world as if an epidemic of sin had broken out without the possibility of a cure. And so instead of confronting the epidemic itself, Jesus points out that what has become the  common practice was to set things into categories; pure and impure. The problem is that no one realizes that the impurity lies within those declaring everything else to impure. 

One of my favorite programs, based on a comic book of course, is “The Walking Dead”. The program depicts a post apocalyptic world that is plagued by zombies. The protagonist, Rick Grimes, strives to seek out hope in the zombie plagued world attempting to protect both his biological family and his new extended family of survivors. At the conclusion of the first season of the program, Rick leads the group of survivors to the Center for Disease Control  in Atlanta, in hopes that a lone scientist in a bunker below the CDC has discovered a cure for this plague. In the final scene of that first season, the scientist whispers into Rick’s ear the reality that has led the scientist to abandon all hope. Rick’s horrified reaction to the secret exchange was not only kept secret from the group until the end of the second season but the audience watching as well. It turns out that what the scientist discovered and shares with Rick, is that all of humanity is in fact infected with the zombie plague and will themselves be doomed to the same fate as all the zombies wandering the post apocalyptic world. 

I can’t help but wonder if the Pharisees displayed the same shocked look as Rick Grimes when Jesus informs them that the plague of uncleanliness is not something that they can protect themselves from because they themselves are in fact already spiritually unclean, spiritually infected. 

What we are being lead to in this Gospel is that the reality of religious tradition is not a bad thing in and of itself. It is meant to remind us of the story, it is meant to call us back towards God, it is meant to assure us of the promise received in Jesus the Christ. What it is not meant to do, is to be a method of condemnation or worse a method of masking ourselves from our own impurities, sin, and selfishness. As we once claimed in our order of confession and absolution; masking this would mean that “we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us”

It is in this moment that Jesus informs the Pharisees that they have indeed deceived themselves of their own impurity. If our use of tradition masks us from our own uncleanliness while instead condemning others for theirs, then we fail to understand the words of our seldom sung offertory hymn “Create in me a clean heart O’ God and renew a right spirit within me”. This is the nature of worship not to be called by the pastor, the priest, the rabbi, or the pharisee to the railing but to be personally drawn to God by the very words of Christ. Not to condemn other’s because they deny themselves the means of God’s grace but to invite- and with reverential and grateful hearts- ourselves be drawn and in turn lead others to the redemptive grace of God. But it is a natural tendency for us to be drawn in the direction of condemnation of other’s rather than invitation to the assurance we receive from outside ourselves.

~

This past Wednesday morning at 6:45 am accusations of uncleanliness were made by Vester Flanagan against previous employers and his one time coworkers. Flanagan, who used the on air name, Bryce Williams expressed his frustration with their perceived uncleanliness through a tragic act of violence that took the lives of Broadcaster Allison Parker and Cameraman Adam Ward while leaving Vicki Gardner, who was being interviewed at the time, hospitalized. And, he did it all over a live broadcast in Roanoke, as I am sure you are all aware. Vester Flanagan made allegations of grievance that his employers and coworkers were hostile towards him due to his race and sexuality, pointing out their alleged uncleanliness of bigotry and racism; all the while failing to recognize the spiral of uncleanliness he himself was falling into as he carried out his own act of uncleanliness, sin, and brokenness. 

Similarly, one of the sources of Flanagan’s frustration and anger was the mass shooting at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston just a few months ago, on June 17th. The event ended similarly and with eerily similar motivations.The attack in that instance occurred at the hands of another individual who claimed grievances of uncleanliness at the hands of another. Roof claimed that his own opportunities had been limited because of the unclean and sinful agenda of those outside his own race which he alleged were “taking over the country” and “had to go”. Both of these men had formulated an agenda based on their own judgement of the uncleanliness of others. 

And let us just consider for a moment if their accusations were justified, regardless of how outlandish it may seem. Does that alleviate them of their own uncleanliness? What is worse, does my allegation of their uncleanliness alleviate me of my own?

And if I am to be a true witness to the Gospel of Christ, then who am I not to seek out the Dylan Roofs and Vester Flanagans of this world and call them BESIDE me, BESIDE US ALL as my brothers and sisters in Christ. Equally unclean, desperately unclean, seeking out the merciful grace and love of the only source of cleansing that can ever cleanse a soul as broken, sinful, and unclean as me! I cannot come before that font or this railing with a mask of cleanliness, God knows my uncleanliness far too well for it to be hidden. 

It is not in setting ourselves apart from the unclean and calling it tradition or clean that we experience God. It is not in directing our own variation of cheap law accusingly at others in which we can purify ourselves and declare ourselves clean.

It is in bringing ourselves, our unclean selves to God, authentically, hopefully, and even at times desperately in our own pain that we experience God. It is there that we find Jesus the Christ, and it is in that moment that we experience a true faith. 

Amen

Sources

Darabont, Frank. The Walking Dead: Season 1. AMC and Anchor Bay Entertainment, 2011.

Being a Window to Wisdom and Redemption

Dionysus

As we near the conclusion of Ephesians the author gives us some parting words of wisdom. This portion of our text offers contrasting ways of living for the believing community and the way of living for the unbelieving community. The author contrasts these two communities as light and darkness leading into our reading for today; proclaiming that ”once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light—“ Take notice though, the audience is never asked to leave the darkness. The letter continues; contrasting the wise with the unwise, foolishness with the will of God, and being filled with drunkenness with being filled with the Spirit. 

One interpretation of today’s reading can easily lead us away from being in the world, closing off our community and shunning those who are outside of our beliefs and practices. But that was not the state of the first century church. In fact the drunkenness described is most likely a reference to the Roman cult of Dionysus. A cult that flourished in the communities where many Christians themselves lived. Dionysus was basically the god of the Delta Tau Chi fraternity of Faber College from National Lampoons Animal House. As you can imagine, even if you weren’t a devout follower that was probably a worship service a lot of people wanted to attend. But Dionysus is the god of more than just wine and parties, he is the Roman god of madness and recklessness. But at no time does the letter of Ephesians imply that we should leave the party. The author calls the church to stay at the party in the midst of the unwise, the foolish, and even the reckless living.

It’s not an easy thing to do in the first century world, it’s not an easy thing to live in the midst of today either. We most often attempt to use this particular reading as a means to justify leaving such circumstances, disassociating ourselves with those who differ from us. As my father once told me, “Be careful who you spend time with, if you sleep with dogs you’re bound to get fleas”.

But that’s not what we are hearing today. The church is being called in this letter to wade into the midst of an unbelieving world, a world that does not want their wisdom and rightfully so. Yes, you heard me right; the world doesn’t want our wisdom and it doesn’t need it, it didn’t then and it doesn’t now. 

One thing I have struggled with over these past few years is the source of wisdom. Dr Thomas Sowell once said, “It takes considerable knowledge to realize the extent of your own ignorance”.  I think Dr Sowell lays out the reason the world doesn’t want our wisdom right there; we don’t have any. The lesson for today is not drawing attention to our wisdom it is drawing attention to God’s wisdom, God’s will, God’s Spirit. Karl Barth, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Paul Tillich, and many many more great theologians had one thing in common, they all agreed that no matter how much we may think we know, we know very little because the true source of all wisdom is God through Jesus as the Christ. But that doesn’t really strike confidence in our hearts. Borrowing wisdom as we wade into a world that may in fact be hostile to us seems like borrowing someone else’s parachute while standing in front of an open airplane door thousands of feet off the ground. It doesn’t inspire confidence. We want to know we are prepared as we go out into the world with our own wisdom, our own knowledge, packing our own parachute, knowing without a doubt it will open. 

And here we find an element of trust in our lesson today, trust not in ourselves but the revelation of God through the life and ministry of Jesus the Christ. It is in the model of that life that we are filled with the Spirit and we find God’s will and wisdom. There is a catch though, it’s not the kind of wisdom that is going to get us to the final round of Jeopardy, but if you want to change the world, the broken world, the party we are called to wade into, it is the wisdom we are called to share. The problem is that this is not the kind of wisdom, will, or Spirit we really want to channel, and it’s  not just because of the persecution we could face for it. I think the biggest problem we find in this sharing is that we not only don’t want to do it, but our broken state draws us away from it. 

I remember the first time I heard the most succinct socratic method of argumentation expressed to me in my childhood years: “I’m rubber you’re glue whatever you say to me bounces off of me and sticks to you!” The first time I heard it about 30 years ago I couldn’t help but to marvel at such argumentative prose on the kindergarten playground. I used to wonder why every presidential debate wasn’t decided by the first candidate to utilize such a phrase, little did I realize thirty years later presidential debates would in fact be decided by such comebacks. In fact, how many of our own interactions, with not only the world but our own family and friends, ends with just this type of unreasonable, unwise, foolish, and yes, reckless means of communication. We have fulfilled our call to be in the world, but instead of modeling the example of Christian living that God has revealed through Jesus the Christ, we have consistently chosen to mirror the model of the world. ~

This past week tensions flared again in Ferguson, Missouri. During renewed protests in that city a young man was shot after he himself allegedly fired on police. In response to this shooting a group known as the Oath Keepers arrived in Ferguson armed with high powered rifles and tactical vests further antagonizing protestors. In Ferguson we have seen this cycle continue; outrage mirrors outrage. In the Central African Republic we have seen similar forms of mirroring. Christian villages have decimated Muslim villages only to be decimated themselves by Muslims in order to seek out retribution. The same has been true of the Sunni and Shiite allegiances of Iraq, the Kurds and the Turks, the Palestinians and the Israelis. Violence mirrors violence, hate mirrors hate, insults mirror insults, gossiping mirrors gossiping and all of these are expressions of the source of all negative mirroring. Retribution mirroring retribution is an endless cycle.

Oath Keepers in Ferguson 

Paul Tillich, in a sermon, spoke to this, referring to two forms of justice: retributive justice* and creative justice. Retributive justice* is a form justice that is deemed proportionate punishment to the crime committed, but the standards of what is proportionate is weighed heavily on the perception of the one rendering the judgement. When that judgement is rendered by an angry crowd or a solitary angry person can we say it is truly proportionate in the eyes of a reasonable person much less the reasonable God? The second form is creative justice which Tillich proposes is the form of justice that reunites, by love, what has been separated. But this concept is easier said than done, it is a pill easier to prescribe than to swallow one’s self. ~

A few weeks ago I received a phone call from a dear friend and Marine I fought alongside in Iraq. He had asked if I would serve as a reference for him, because at the age of 35 he has decided to leave everything behind and join the Peace Corps. Upon filling out his application he was asked to select the most desirable locations. 

#1- Indonesia

#2- North Africa

#3- Western Caribbean 

As you can imagine, the peace corps personnel who interviewed him were quite concerned when they glanced over his resume to discover he was a Marine Corps Infantry combat veteran who had served in Iraq. As the interview progressed and they discovered more about the combat operations in which we took part, they grew more concerned. Finally the question, the big white elephant in the room was brought to light when the interviewer said simply “Why were your top two choices Muslim countries?” to which my dear friend replied, “I loved the people in Iraq and I still love them. When I see what has happened all I want to do is figure out a way to work with and heal the wounds that have been inflicted between their culture and mine.”

My friend pictured on the far left

His application went from the bottom of the stack to the top and he will be leaving in March. I will miss my dear fried and brother for three long years, but I know and I am confident that he is going to not only mirror God’s creative justice in Indonesia but in his own life and his own healing as well. 

In the long run, mirroring Christ’s model for us, Christ’s wisdom, Christ’s Spirit, Christ’s will isn’t mirroring anything at all when you really think about it. Mirrors only show us what is behind us but God’s creative justice is a window. It is a window that shows us the way forward not backward like a mirror. Forward to God's redemption, God's reconciliation, God's renewal. A way forward into Christian living in God's wisdom, God's will, being filled with God's Spirit while still being in and walking in this world following the One who reveals God to us by the incarnation. It is a window into the redemption of a world that we can never heal without looking into God’s plan that God has for this broken creation. 

If you stare hard enough into that window you just might see a small hill in the distance with the sun sinking down behind it, and on the top of that hill if we look hard enough you can make out a solitary figure hanging on a cross. 

Amen. 

*Paul Tillich’s sermon is specifically centered on the difference between “Calculating Justice” and “Creative Justice" but for the sake of clarity and familiarity with terms, retributive justice is being contrasted here. If you would like to explore further regarding Tillich’s thoughts on creative, calculating, and retributive justice, he wrote about these dynamics in his work; Love, Power, and Justice. 

Sources

Landis, John. National Lampoon’s Animal House. Universal Studios, 2008.

Tillich, Paul, and Mary Ann Stenger. The New Being. Lincoln: Bison Books, 2005.