A friend in the United Methodist Church had a video from Betty Butterfield and her visit to the Methodist Church. Hilarious (I'll include it below). Nervously, I searched for Betty's visit to the Episcopal Church. Obviously it's a joke and this style of humor is not for everyone, but behind the humor and satire, it's in interesting look at the Episcopal Church.
Did you catch the line about Methodist preachers secretly want to be Episcopalian...but they couldn't pass the test!!!! HAHA
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
Billions and Billions
I’ve been a little frustrated lately.
I never liked science much in school. I survived freshman biology and senior physics in high school and I took the obligatory freshman biology class in college. I hated chemistry and I am not a fan of math – thus eliminating any fun with physics. Lately I have been making up for lost time. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Brian Greene’s books The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos. I feel smart again after actually grasping the basics of general and special relativity, string theory and the whole bit. These brilliant men and women, from Newton to Sagan to Greene seem to speak (or at least write) as people of faith. By that I mean they speak of theories and ideas, things which they may not yet be able to test, but something they believe could be true. In all truth, reading these books is not much different from reading some of the great spiritual classics.
But…many of the great scientists are not people of faith, in the religious sense. There is, in my opinion, an atheistic revival. At the local Borders (which, as an aside, has the best religion section of all bookstores), there is now an atheist section; one that I do not believe was there a year ago. Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins have published popular books on the subject of the non-existence of God. I have read Hitchens, God is not Great and frankly, I was disappointed. In reading Carl Sagan’s The Varieties of Scientific Experience, again I was disappointed by their arguments. Hitchens is a brilliant man and he uses his rhetorical skill by building up straw man after straw man in “exposing” Christianity. Of course if you take the absolute most broken expressions of Christianity, you can present a case for the failings and destruction of faith. But that would be like taking my 7th grade English class as representing the entirety of world literature (Hitchens is a literature scholar). Sure, The Red Badge of Courage was a good book, but it is not all there is! Likewise, Sagan (whom I love to read) pleads with his readers to use their imagination and broaden their minds and then contrasts this with a limited view of faith and biblical interpretation. That would be like me writing a book on physics using nothing but my 8th grade Earth Science textbook (no offense, Mrs. Strom). Our universe is so vast and so complex and so amazing, we injure ourselves by limiting our imagination and curiosity. Our God is so vast and so complex and amazing that we injure ourselves by limiting our exposure, imagination, and search. I think we should always investigate and examine our faith and why we believe. But I firmly believe that general and special relativity and the expanding universe are not in conflict with the belief in God. In fact, I think they are perfectly compatible! Let's have the conversation! Let's engage each other - but let's do it by first trying to understand each other. I'll read Mach if you'll read Origen.
I never liked science much in school. I survived freshman biology and senior physics in high school and I took the obligatory freshman biology class in college. I hated chemistry and I am not a fan of math – thus eliminating any fun with physics. Lately I have been making up for lost time. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Brian Greene’s books The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos. I feel smart again after actually grasping the basics of general and special relativity, string theory and the whole bit. These brilliant men and women, from Newton to Sagan to Greene seem to speak (or at least write) as people of faith. By that I mean they speak of theories and ideas, things which they may not yet be able to test, but something they believe could be true. In all truth, reading these books is not much different from reading some of the great spiritual classics.
But…many of the great scientists are not people of faith, in the religious sense. There is, in my opinion, an atheistic revival. At the local Borders (which, as an aside, has the best religion section of all bookstores), there is now an atheist section; one that I do not believe was there a year ago. Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins have published popular books on the subject of the non-existence of God. I have read Hitchens, God is not Great and frankly, I was disappointed. In reading Carl Sagan’s The Varieties of Scientific Experience, again I was disappointed by their arguments. Hitchens is a brilliant man and he uses his rhetorical skill by building up straw man after straw man in “exposing” Christianity. Of course if you take the absolute most broken expressions of Christianity, you can present a case for the failings and destruction of faith. But that would be like taking my 7th grade English class as representing the entirety of world literature (Hitchens is a literature scholar). Sure, The Red Badge of Courage was a good book, but it is not all there is! Likewise, Sagan (whom I love to read) pleads with his readers to use their imagination and broaden their minds and then contrasts this with a limited view of faith and biblical interpretation. That would be like me writing a book on physics using nothing but my 8th grade Earth Science textbook (no offense, Mrs. Strom). Our universe is so vast and so complex and so amazing, we injure ourselves by limiting our imagination and curiosity. Our God is so vast and so complex and amazing that we injure ourselves by limiting our exposure, imagination, and search. I think we should always investigate and examine our faith and why we believe. But I firmly believe that general and special relativity and the expanding universe are not in conflict with the belief in God. In fact, I think they are perfectly compatible! Let's have the conversation! Let's engage each other - but let's do it by first trying to understand each other. I'll read Mach if you'll read Origen.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Favorite Things
So, Oprah was recently in Macon doing her annual "favorite things" show. I'm not Oprah, although I wouldn't mind spending a day in her shoes (and I mean "spending"), but I have some favorite things, too. Here's my top ten (and they are all on a priests' budget):
1. Radio stations that play Christmas music 24/7 after Thanksgiving (even though it is in Advent)
2. Route 44 Diet Dr. Peppers from Sonic - especially during Happy Hour
3. Short Work Weeks (so few and far between)
4. Old books
5. Chocolate Milk
6. Heated Car seats on cold mornings
7. Skype
8. Coffee with Splenda
9. Discovery Channel
10.The Book of Common Prayer (read the litany on page 837 tomorrow!)
What are your favorite things?
1. Radio stations that play Christmas music 24/7 after Thanksgiving (even though it is in Advent)
2. Route 44 Diet Dr. Peppers from Sonic - especially during Happy Hour
3. Short Work Weeks (so few and far between)
4. Old books
5. Chocolate Milk
6. Heated Car seats on cold mornings
7. Skype
8. Coffee with Splenda
9. Discovery Channel
10.The Book of Common Prayer (read the litany on page 837 tomorrow!)
What are your favorite things?
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
For your insomnia
Sunday's sermon - note: I don't preach from a manuscript, but this is 90% of what I said (minus the typos - who likes to proofread?).
Okay, I know we are presenting our pledges today, so it says somewhere in the Bible that the priest must make a silly joke about giving to church. Because we want to be faithful to the bible, I have a couple, but if they are not funny, it’s not my fault. I’m just doing what I’m supposed to do. Here goes:
One day there was a family walking out of church. The man says to his wife, “That wasn’t much of a sermon that father gave.” The wife then adds, “Yea, and the choir sang off key.” Meanwhile, their small son has been listening to his parents’ conversation. Finally, he speaks up, “It seemed all right to me,” he says, “especially considering that it only cost us a dollar!”
One more. A 100 dollar bill, a 20 dollar bill, and a one dollar bill meet up at the shredder at the end of their lives. The 100 says, "I've seen the whole world during my lifetime. Why, I've been on cruises in the Caribbean, safaris in Africa, and vacations in Europe." The 20 says, "Well, I've not done quite as well, but I have been to Atlantic City, Disneyland, and Starbucks." They both turn to the one dollar bill and ask, "How about you?" The one, not wanting to be outdone, says, "I've seen the whole country as well. I've been from church to church to church..." Then the 100 asked, "What's a church?"
I know those aren’t very funny, but when you Google church jokes you will find more and more jokes about stewardship, tithing, and money more than any other, probably because a really good joke will have an element of truth to it and these jokes do reflect the reality of stewardship.
And it’s customary for priests and preachers to tell these kinds of jokes because frankly, it’s a little uncomfortable for the preacher to say and for the listeners to hear, “Folks, you need to give more.”
At least it is for me. I talked to my friend Mike this week and he relayed the story of our friend Nathan and his visit to a new church. Apparently he attended church on the wrong day because the pastor was fired up. The Sunday before was stewardship Sunday and the pledges were not meeting expectations.
Now I would prefer to tell you a joke and hope you get the hint, but this pastor left nothing for the creative imagination. It was so hard, that people actually got up during the sermon and walked out!
I don’t know if the pastor’s tactic worked, but something tells me probably not. At St Michael’s there will not be any screaming or threats or even guilt trips. I try to do unto others as I would have them do to me, and screaming, threats and guilt trips have never worked on me, just ask my mama.
We do pretty well here. When I say we do pretty well, I mean that we always seem to meet our needs. We need to be challenged on a consistent basis, because we always need to be challenged. But I have faith that we will receive our pledges and we will make our budgets and rely, as we always do, on God to see us through each year.
So my stewardship sermon will not be so much about money and percentages and all that, even though I think they are very important, and I hope you do, too.
Instead I want to know why we believe in God.
I know that might sound silly, ‘why do we believe in God,’ but think about it for a minute. For a long time I believed in God for the same reason that Abby will believe in God. I’ll tell her to. She’ll be in church. She will say the memory verses. She’ll be in Christmas Pageants. She will reflect what I say, because her father is reflecting what he was told.
And unless she or anyone else actually thinks and searches why they believe in God, then chances are their Christianity will be a watered down, inch thick, shallow attempt at faith.
Faith that is a dogmatic imperative given by authoritative adults will result in faith that cultural and sentimental but not life changing.
A recent survey found that only 42% of Brits pray. The irony is the news article thought that was a pretty good number, but given that England has an official religion, I think those numbers are pretty weak.
Why do we believe in God?
Christianity is really kind of strange, if you step back and take a look at it. We have a Bible that is sometimes hard to read and many times confusing and dull and when it’s not dull it’s morally ambiguous with episodes of God smiting people for not doing the simplest things.
Christianity is easy fodder for critics and our belief in God-in-flesh and the Eucharist, Baptism, and the mysterious Holy Spirit, not to mention the fact that our salvation is through the inhumane execution of a carpenter, makes all sorts of people wonder – why do we believe in God?
We have our problems as Christians. We fight and sometimes when we fight we kill each other, and we do it in the name of the God of Love. We are judgmental and hypocritical and if you ever get close to the inner workings of the church, you may ask yourself, why do we believe in God?
A few weeks ago, I told you that I was going back to the very first church I served 8 years ago to preach. The current pastor is a really nice guy; he is basically in the same spot now that I was in 8 years ago. He has a lovely wife whose sister actually went to college with Cherilyn and me and 8 weeks ago they had child.
Monday I received a phone call from one of the parishioners that their child suddenly died. As of today, the cause of death is still unknown; at least the news hasn’t traveled this far south.
And I don’t know about you, but whenever I hear of things like this I first make sure I know where all of my loved ones are and then I wonder what I would do, what I would feel if I were in that situation.
A young pastor with a young wife with the greatest loss the world can take. In my anger, in my confusion, in my helpless, would my voice rise like Job’s and would I shake my fist at the sky and ask, “why do I believe in you?”
But God already knows this about you and me. God already knows that we have, are, and will ask the question and God has already given us our answer.
Listen to the words of Isaiah, a prophet that watched his entire nation, his kingdom, be pillaged with all the people sent to the far corners of the empire. Hear his message to the people of Israel, hear God’s answer to their question.
"Pay close attention now:
I'm creating new heavens and a new earth.
All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain
are things of the past, to be forgotten.
Look ahead with joy.
Anticipate what I'm creating:
I'll create Jerusalem as sheer joy,
create my people as pure delight.
I'll take joy in Jerusalem,
take delight in my people:
No more sounds of weeping in the city,
no cries of anguish;
No more babies dying in the cradle,
or old people who don't enjoy a full lifetime;
One-hundredth birthdays will be considered normal—
anything less will seem like a cheat.
They'll build houses
and move in.
They'll plant fields
and eat what they grow.
No more building a house
that some outsider takes over,
No more planting fields
that some enemy confiscates,
For my people will be as long-lived as trees,
my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work.
They won't work and have nothing come of it,
they won't have children snatched out from under them.
For they themselves are plantings blessed by God,
with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed.
Before they call out, I'll answer.
Before they've finished speaking, I'll have heard.
Wolf and lamb will graze the same meadow,
lion and ox eat straw from the same trough,
but snakes—they'll get a diet of dirt!
Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill
anywhere on my Holy Mountain," says God.
Deep down in our souls, deep down in our bellies we know there is something behind this life of ours. And we know that the world as is know is not the world as it is supposed to be.
God knows this too! God is not aloof or distant; God knows too well what we feel:
‘No more babies dying in the cradle, or old people who don’t enjoy a full lifetime.’
‘No more sounds of weeping in the city, no cries of anguish.’
‘Before they call out, I’ll answer. Before they’ve finished speaking, I’ll have heard.’
We believe because when we hear this promise of God, we feel its truth. We know babies aren’t supposed to die in the cradles and we know old people are supposed to have full lives. We know there is supposed to be peace and harmony and love and kindness.
We know this because we are created in the image of God and our spiritual DNA is linked back to a time and place when everything was perfect and there was peace and harmony and long life and no agony or sadness.
And because it is in our genes we seek that original perfection and harmony but because we’ve had thousands of years of time and space and rebellion, we seek these things in the wrong places and in the wrong people and in the wrong things.
But when we hear the voice of God, given to us through the prophets, patriarchs, apostles, martyrs, and most of all through Jesus the Christ, we know – we feel – its truth.
We recognize it because we see a part of ourselves in the promises. We see ourselves because we are created in the image of God.
But if we are going to believe in God, let’s believe in God. Let’s believe in Christ and his saving work on the cross and his resurrection. Let’s believe in the Holy Spirit and his guidance and comfort in our daily lives. Let’s believe in the power of the sacraments and how we encounter the living God. Let’s believe in the Church, the reservoir of truth and stability.
Let’s believe it and not allow it to become shallow and hollow and superficial.
For I believe if we truly believe, we won’t need stewardship sermons or even stewardship Sunday’s because giving, and serving, and praying, and worshipping, and loving will be as natural as the beating of a heart.
And while we are always challenged to increase our giving, we are challenged even more to increase our faith, or rather, to increase our commitment to our faith.
Not because I’m telling you to or because we live in a quasi-Christian culture or for any other reason, except that you believe.
You really believe.
Jesus said, ‘Pay close attention now, I’m creating new heavens a new earth.’ No more pain. No more trouble. No more heartache. No more loneliness. No more death. No more war. No more fighting. Just peace. Just love. Just perfection.
It looks so familiar; like we’ve been there before.
Do you believe it? Do you?
Amen.
Okay, I know we are presenting our pledges today, so it says somewhere in the Bible that the priest must make a silly joke about giving to church. Because we want to be faithful to the bible, I have a couple, but if they are not funny, it’s not my fault. I’m just doing what I’m supposed to do. Here goes:
One day there was a family walking out of church. The man says to his wife, “That wasn’t much of a sermon that father gave.” The wife then adds, “Yea, and the choir sang off key.” Meanwhile, their small son has been listening to his parents’ conversation. Finally, he speaks up, “It seemed all right to me,” he says, “especially considering that it only cost us a dollar!”
One more. A 100 dollar bill, a 20 dollar bill, and a one dollar bill meet up at the shredder at the end of their lives. The 100 says, "I've seen the whole world during my lifetime. Why, I've been on cruises in the Caribbean, safaris in Africa, and vacations in Europe." The 20 says, "Well, I've not done quite as well, but I have been to Atlantic City, Disneyland, and Starbucks." They both turn to the one dollar bill and ask, "How about you?" The one, not wanting to be outdone, says, "I've seen the whole country as well. I've been from church to church to church..." Then the 100 asked, "What's a church?"
I know those aren’t very funny, but when you Google church jokes you will find more and more jokes about stewardship, tithing, and money more than any other, probably because a really good joke will have an element of truth to it and these jokes do reflect the reality of stewardship.
And it’s customary for priests and preachers to tell these kinds of jokes because frankly, it’s a little uncomfortable for the preacher to say and for the listeners to hear, “Folks, you need to give more.”
At least it is for me. I talked to my friend Mike this week and he relayed the story of our friend Nathan and his visit to a new church. Apparently he attended church on the wrong day because the pastor was fired up. The Sunday before was stewardship Sunday and the pledges were not meeting expectations.
Now I would prefer to tell you a joke and hope you get the hint, but this pastor left nothing for the creative imagination. It was so hard, that people actually got up during the sermon and walked out!
I don’t know if the pastor’s tactic worked, but something tells me probably not. At St Michael’s there will not be any screaming or threats or even guilt trips. I try to do unto others as I would have them do to me, and screaming, threats and guilt trips have never worked on me, just ask my mama.
We do pretty well here. When I say we do pretty well, I mean that we always seem to meet our needs. We need to be challenged on a consistent basis, because we always need to be challenged. But I have faith that we will receive our pledges and we will make our budgets and rely, as we always do, on God to see us through each year.
So my stewardship sermon will not be so much about money and percentages and all that, even though I think they are very important, and I hope you do, too.
Instead I want to know why we believe in God.
I know that might sound silly, ‘why do we believe in God,’ but think about it for a minute. For a long time I believed in God for the same reason that Abby will believe in God. I’ll tell her to. She’ll be in church. She will say the memory verses. She’ll be in Christmas Pageants. She will reflect what I say, because her father is reflecting what he was told.
And unless she or anyone else actually thinks and searches why they believe in God, then chances are their Christianity will be a watered down, inch thick, shallow attempt at faith.
Faith that is a dogmatic imperative given by authoritative adults will result in faith that cultural and sentimental but not life changing.
A recent survey found that only 42% of Brits pray. The irony is the news article thought that was a pretty good number, but given that England has an official religion, I think those numbers are pretty weak.
Why do we believe in God?
Christianity is really kind of strange, if you step back and take a look at it. We have a Bible that is sometimes hard to read and many times confusing and dull and when it’s not dull it’s morally ambiguous with episodes of God smiting people for not doing the simplest things.
Christianity is easy fodder for critics and our belief in God-in-flesh and the Eucharist, Baptism, and the mysterious Holy Spirit, not to mention the fact that our salvation is through the inhumane execution of a carpenter, makes all sorts of people wonder – why do we believe in God?
We have our problems as Christians. We fight and sometimes when we fight we kill each other, and we do it in the name of the God of Love. We are judgmental and hypocritical and if you ever get close to the inner workings of the church, you may ask yourself, why do we believe in God?
A few weeks ago, I told you that I was going back to the very first church I served 8 years ago to preach. The current pastor is a really nice guy; he is basically in the same spot now that I was in 8 years ago. He has a lovely wife whose sister actually went to college with Cherilyn and me and 8 weeks ago they had child.
Monday I received a phone call from one of the parishioners that their child suddenly died. As of today, the cause of death is still unknown; at least the news hasn’t traveled this far south.
And I don’t know about you, but whenever I hear of things like this I first make sure I know where all of my loved ones are and then I wonder what I would do, what I would feel if I were in that situation.
A young pastor with a young wife with the greatest loss the world can take. In my anger, in my confusion, in my helpless, would my voice rise like Job’s and would I shake my fist at the sky and ask, “why do I believe in you?”
But God already knows this about you and me. God already knows that we have, are, and will ask the question and God has already given us our answer.
Listen to the words of Isaiah, a prophet that watched his entire nation, his kingdom, be pillaged with all the people sent to the far corners of the empire. Hear his message to the people of Israel, hear God’s answer to their question.
"Pay close attention now:
I'm creating new heavens and a new earth.
All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain
are things of the past, to be forgotten.
Look ahead with joy.
Anticipate what I'm creating:
I'll create Jerusalem as sheer joy,
create my people as pure delight.
I'll take joy in Jerusalem,
take delight in my people:
No more sounds of weeping in the city,
no cries of anguish;
No more babies dying in the cradle,
or old people who don't enjoy a full lifetime;
One-hundredth birthdays will be considered normal—
anything less will seem like a cheat.
They'll build houses
and move in.
They'll plant fields
and eat what they grow.
No more building a house
that some outsider takes over,
No more planting fields
that some enemy confiscates,
For my people will be as long-lived as trees,
my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work.
They won't work and have nothing come of it,
they won't have children snatched out from under them.
For they themselves are plantings blessed by God,
with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed.
Before they call out, I'll answer.
Before they've finished speaking, I'll have heard.
Wolf and lamb will graze the same meadow,
lion and ox eat straw from the same trough,
but snakes—they'll get a diet of dirt!
Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill
anywhere on my Holy Mountain," says God.
Deep down in our souls, deep down in our bellies we know there is something behind this life of ours. And we know that the world as is know is not the world as it is supposed to be.
God knows this too! God is not aloof or distant; God knows too well what we feel:
‘No more babies dying in the cradle, or old people who don’t enjoy a full lifetime.’
‘No more sounds of weeping in the city, no cries of anguish.’
‘Before they call out, I’ll answer. Before they’ve finished speaking, I’ll have heard.’
We believe because when we hear this promise of God, we feel its truth. We know babies aren’t supposed to die in the cradles and we know old people are supposed to have full lives. We know there is supposed to be peace and harmony and love and kindness.
We know this because we are created in the image of God and our spiritual DNA is linked back to a time and place when everything was perfect and there was peace and harmony and long life and no agony or sadness.
And because it is in our genes we seek that original perfection and harmony but because we’ve had thousands of years of time and space and rebellion, we seek these things in the wrong places and in the wrong people and in the wrong things.
But when we hear the voice of God, given to us through the prophets, patriarchs, apostles, martyrs, and most of all through Jesus the Christ, we know – we feel – its truth.
We recognize it because we see a part of ourselves in the promises. We see ourselves because we are created in the image of God.
But if we are going to believe in God, let’s believe in God. Let’s believe in Christ and his saving work on the cross and his resurrection. Let’s believe in the Holy Spirit and his guidance and comfort in our daily lives. Let’s believe in the power of the sacraments and how we encounter the living God. Let’s believe in the Church, the reservoir of truth and stability.
Let’s believe it and not allow it to become shallow and hollow and superficial.
For I believe if we truly believe, we won’t need stewardship sermons or even stewardship Sunday’s because giving, and serving, and praying, and worshipping, and loving will be as natural as the beating of a heart.
And while we are always challenged to increase our giving, we are challenged even more to increase our faith, or rather, to increase our commitment to our faith.
Not because I’m telling you to or because we live in a quasi-Christian culture or for any other reason, except that you believe.
You really believe.
Jesus said, ‘Pay close attention now, I’m creating new heavens a new earth.’ No more pain. No more trouble. No more heartache. No more loneliness. No more death. No more war. No more fighting. Just peace. Just love. Just perfection.
It looks so familiar; like we’ve been there before.
Do you believe it? Do you?
Amen.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Sacrifice
From our church newsletter:
There is an oft-used phrase, “use it or lose it.” I certainly think this truism applies to reading the Bible. We need to constantly read and study the Bible, all parts, to continue to grow and understand our faith (theology = faith seeking understanding). Even if we’ve read the Bible a while ago, there are points and stories that we have forgotten and there are points and stories that mean more today than they did yesterday. For instance, I have made it my recent mission to re-discover the Book of Leviticus, perhaps one of the most dry books in the Bible due to all of its sacrificial rules and purity requirements and so on. I purchased a book Essential Torah wanting to know more about the types of sacrifices mandated in Leviticus. There are five: burnt offering (voluntary sacrifice – standard offering), meal offering (partly given for the priests to eat), well-being/peace (voluntary sacrifice – to fulfill a vow), sin offering (obligatory-unintentional sin), and guilt offering (obligatory-misappropriated property). Why all these sacrifices? Why all the rules concerning the way the sacrifice is made? Reading the Jewish perspective, it makes sense; the Jews offered sacrifices in order to remain in right relationship with God. Does God need burnt animals or flour? Of course, not, but God does delight in a person’s heart that is seeks to be in relationship with him – at all times and in all places. When things are going normally – a burnt offering; thankfulness for first fruits – meal offering; for fellowship and for an unexpected blessing, to fulfill a vow and general thankfulness – peace offering; and when we sin – sin and guilt offerings. What is left? Nothing! Everything is covered. At every time, good, bad, and ugly, the people offered sacrifices. The fires on the altars were always burning because the people were compelled to remember God and engage God always. You may have noticed this year we have not made a big deal of stewardship. We held cottage meetings to talk about our church and what we’d like to do and recently a letter was sent out concerning stewardship and November 18 when we will present our sacrifices to God. We don’t want stewardship to be a ‘campaign,’ rather we want it to be a desire to seek a right relationship with God. Read the book of Leviticus. See how the people worshipped. How is your day going? Normal? Very well? Not so great? Horrible? Offer a sacrifice. What kind? John 10:27.
photo above from Brand X Pictures
Monday, November 5, 2007
God does choose!
Sunday, the adult Sunday School class began the month of November with the book of Ephesians, one of St Paul’s letters (some question Paul’s authorship, but for the sake of this post, let’s just say Paul wrote it). Ephesians begins with a doxology, or words of praise for God. Eugene Peterson’s Message (which I must say, I’m really warming up to) has St Paul saying “How blessed is God!” – words of praise. Doxology. Words of praise concerning God are all well and good. The issue quickly arose, however, when we came to verse 4:
My first flippant comment is, this is why we have Presbyterians and Episcopalians. That is not a fair statement, but the point is – this has been and continues to be a divisive issue. Google “Calvin tulip” and read the 5 points of Calvinism and you’ll find the U.L. and I. are ‘unconditional election,’ ‘limited atonement,’ and ‘irresistible grace,’ all of which speak to God choosing certain people (and on the flip side, not choosing others). But what about John 3:16, with God so loving the world that everyone who believes will enjoy the eternal presence of God?
There is a wonderful parable in Matthew’s gospel (chapter 22) of a great wedding banquet that a king prepared for his son. Invitations were sent out to everyone. But lo and behold nobody decided to come. The feast was ready, the table was set, but there were no guests to enjoy the feast. So the king told his servants to go out and find anybody and everybody they could to fill the banquet hall. The servants went high and low and looked behind the trashcans and under rocks and brought everyone they could to the feast. When the place was filled, the king walked around and viewed his guests. There was a man in attendance that was not wearing the proper wedding attire. The king was outraged and had the man thrown out to where weeping and gnashing of teeth were found in the darkness.
Why would the king throw the man out just because he was wearing the wrong outfit? One would think that if he were so hard up for guests, he would take them in no matter what they were wearing. John Wesley had an interesting thought on this. The wedding garment was a sign of righteousness. It’s not just that person believes there is a God, but lives as if there is a God. At the end of the day, God invites everyone, but not everyone accepts the invitation. I would imagine that when the king looked out over the wedding banquet, he could rightly and properly say, “These are my chosen guests.” Those that arrived were chosen by virtue of their invitation and their acceptance of that invitation. Everyone was chosen because everyone was invited. But not everyone accepted the invitation. And not everyone lived in light of the invitation (the wedding garment). As the parable ends, “For many are called, but few are chosen.”
The fact that God chooses is not saying that God is saying “you’re in and you’re out.” If anything, the fact that God has chosen us, (me…even me!) is cause for doxology. God chose the people Israel to be a vehicle for his grace and revelation. That vehicle prepared the world for the greatest revelation of his love and grace – Christ. God has chosen Jew and Gentile, sinner and wretch to be his children. He has chosen us! He doesn’t have to take us, he doesn’t have to love us – but he chooses to!
Will we accept? Will we say 'yes!'? Will we live as if God has elected to save us? With his help, let us say, Amen.
“…just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.”The word that really bothered a segment of our class population was the word “chose.” I can understand the shifting the seat with this word. God chose. God chose before the creation of the universe. On one hand it seems to brush up with fatalism; if God chose and I really have no say so in the matter, then I am a mindless robot with no will or decision-making power on my own. On the other hand it seems to suggest an exclusivity that makes many uncomfortable. “If God chose me, does that mean he did not choose others?” The question was: what does it mean that God chose?
My first flippant comment is, this is why we have Presbyterians and Episcopalians. That is not a fair statement, but the point is – this has been and continues to be a divisive issue. Google “Calvin tulip” and read the 5 points of Calvinism and you’ll find the U.L. and I. are ‘unconditional election,’ ‘limited atonement,’ and ‘irresistible grace,’ all of which speak to God choosing certain people (and on the flip side, not choosing others). But what about John 3:16, with God so loving the world that everyone who believes will enjoy the eternal presence of God?
There is a wonderful parable in Matthew’s gospel (chapter 22) of a great wedding banquet that a king prepared for his son. Invitations were sent out to everyone. But lo and behold nobody decided to come. The feast was ready, the table was set, but there were no guests to enjoy the feast. So the king told his servants to go out and find anybody and everybody they could to fill the banquet hall. The servants went high and low and looked behind the trashcans and under rocks and brought everyone they could to the feast. When the place was filled, the king walked around and viewed his guests. There was a man in attendance that was not wearing the proper wedding attire. The king was outraged and had the man thrown out to where weeping and gnashing of teeth were found in the darkness.
Why would the king throw the man out just because he was wearing the wrong outfit? One would think that if he were so hard up for guests, he would take them in no matter what they were wearing. John Wesley had an interesting thought on this. The wedding garment was a sign of righteousness. It’s not just that person believes there is a God, but lives as if there is a God. At the end of the day, God invites everyone, but not everyone accepts the invitation. I would imagine that when the king looked out over the wedding banquet, he could rightly and properly say, “These are my chosen guests.” Those that arrived were chosen by virtue of their invitation and their acceptance of that invitation. Everyone was chosen because everyone was invited. But not everyone accepted the invitation. And not everyone lived in light of the invitation (the wedding garment). As the parable ends, “For many are called, but few are chosen.”
The fact that God chooses is not saying that God is saying “you’re in and you’re out.” If anything, the fact that God has chosen us, (me…even me!) is cause for doxology. God chose the people Israel to be a vehicle for his grace and revelation. That vehicle prepared the world for the greatest revelation of his love and grace – Christ. God has chosen Jew and Gentile, sinner and wretch to be his children. He has chosen us! He doesn’t have to take us, he doesn’t have to love us – but he chooses to!
Will we accept? Will we say 'yes!'? Will we live as if God has elected to save us? With his help, let us say, Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
