Buy the Field

 

                It’s good to see everyone here today, I guess no one got raptured…

For those of you who weren’t following the young people on TikTok, there was a Rapture Panic this last week
—As your Pastor, I’m your Theologian in Residence, so it is worth naming that the Rapture is a modern misreading of 1^st Thessalonians chapter 4, invented by a Long Islander named Scoffield during the First World War, popularized by some Baptist Texans at Dallas Theological during the second.

                At any rate, folks were behaving atypically this week, with the assumption that the world as they knew it was coming to an end…

                We’ve seen this sort of thing before
—Harold Camping in 2012,
the Left Behind series in the ‘90s,
The Late Great Planet Earth in the ‘70s…

                And these impulses don’t come out of nowhere
—both revival and eschatological speculation
—speculating about the end of the world
—are often signs that something ain’t right in society…
that to a critical mass of people,
it feels like the end of the world.

                And to all that, I would point you all to a saying attributed to Luther, “If the world was to end tomorrow, I would still plant a tree.”

                Or, thinking about Jeremiah’s actions we read about in the first lesson today: “If your world is coming to an end, still redeem that property, buy that field.”

Prayer

 

                Jeremiah, and many of his fellow prophets as well, are known for something called Sign prophecy—I think about it as similar to what I do with the Children’s message—they play with props. Sometimes its big deal stuff, distressingly weird even…

                For example, Jeremiah once threw fresh underwear into a stream and left them there until they got moldy, slimy, and disgusting, then he marched them around Jerusalem telling the people that they were just like moldy underwear…

Or right before today’s reading, he shackled himself to a yoke and wandered the streets warning everyone to shackle themselves to the Babylonian yoke or face God’s wrath…

Imagine that—the Babylonians seen as the vile pagan enemy, an empire threatening to overawe and overpower Judah and their coalition partners…
                Imagine that—the city besieged, the enemy at the gate, and Jeremiah out there blubbering about the Babylonian Yoke being God’s will—it was treasonous…
prophets…
so often their words sound like treason, because they love only God…

 

                And then Jeremiah calls his lawyer
—poor Baruch, always pulled into these situations on account of his friend, the Prophet Jeremiah
—Baruch, Jeremiah’s Right-hand-man is called over to complete another sign prophecy—in this case called over to make something nice and legal; a land deal even as it became clear that the land was no longer any Judahite’s to control… Jeremiah buying and selling property at a time when it was obvious all property was going to belong to the invaders…

                Such prophetic audacity… doesn’t it draw you in?
What the heck is he up to,
God’s city and Jeremiah’s country collapsing…
and he writes a deed of sale! Don’t you want to know why?

 

                Besieged and everything collapsing…
It reminds me of a story from Sarajevo, during the Civil War there… during the 4 year siege there a man found himself in a bombed out building, alone there with nothing but a goat, and hear heard in the distance the cry of a child.

It reminds me of the families of those murdered after the shooting at Mother Emmanuel, of Erika Kirk in the wake of the assassination of her husband…

                But also, those smaller collapses, that are much closer to home.

-A terminal diagnosis and a rapidly contracting future.

-The loss of a job, or even its threat
—the brittleness of vocation and uncertainty of meaning that it brings.

-Hitting rock bottom and recognizing that you’re an addict and can’t get out on your own…

 

                What is Jeremiah up to, “Write me up a deed of sale.”

                In the face of famine, and the crushing power of the most powerful nation in his world—overcoming armies, occupying land, pressing against the capital city’s walls so hard they start to bow inward.

In the face of Jeremiah’s own prophecies of “doom, doom, Doom!”

He redeems a relative’s field… fulfilling a law of God, doing right by his kin.

He did the right thing when it was hard, impossibly so… if you only have ethics when it is easy, you don’t have an ethic, but a hobby… He does the right thing…

But much more than that, he did the right thing, even at a time that was hopeless and the property was worthless. He did the right thing and it became more than an action, it became a sign of something more—a message from God.

 “God says “Take these deeds, both sealed and open, and put them in earthenware jars, so that they’ll last a good while, for thus says the LORD, the House and Fields and Vineyards shall again be bought in this land.”

In the face of immense evil, a couple of legal documents, sealed in a jar, buried in the back yard.

A small thing that proclaimed God’s Word:
“All is going to go to hell, but have hope!
“I will bring them back to this place and I will settle them in safety!
I brought disaster, so I will later bring good fortune!
Fields shall be bought in this land and deeds signed and sealed again, for God is the restorer of fortunes!”

 

That man in Sarajevo, milked that goat for weeks and months and years on end, bringing the milk to neighbors who could feed their little child.

Erika Kirk, and the families of the Emmanuel 9, did the impossible, they forgave their spouses murders.

I think of a strange wedding and funeral I once did—a marriage in the face of a quick killing cancer—and a funeral just days later. Certainly, there was something of Jeremiah’s deed of sale in that.

Those smaller, more personal, collapses too—unemployment and holding on to your core self. Hitting rock bottom and reaching out for help.

It might be an end, but it is not THE end. When the world is roiled all around you, redeem the field.

A+A

Where have all the Libertarians Gone?

              I write this knowing I’m a fella who will never quite fits in politically. I’m a Cold War Era NATO baby, a Liberal from Wyoming, a Left-Wing Libertarian, a Democrat for Decentralization—I contain multitudes, and they all point in somewhat similar directions. In short, truisms like “Think globally, act locally” and “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely” seem true to me.

They are true to me in a way that shapes my long-term political thoughts. They make me skeptical of the centralization of power, be it political, corporate or ecclesiastical, and one of the lenses I use to look at policies is the question, “Does that maximize liberty?” At the end of the day, I’m a party of one who would maybe caucus with Democrat Farm Labor, except I’ve never lived in Minnesota while of voting age.

I point out this background because I’ve been wondering why a political party I have some sympathies towards, the Libertarians, aren’t taking advantage of the moment, and aren’t speaking up for their deeply held beliefs about: liberty, economic freedoms, the sacrosanct nature of speech, small government, and all the rest, at a very clarifying time in our nation. I think doing so would be good for the Libertarians, and also good for America.

 

Speaking up now would be good for the Libertarian Party

              We are at a time when one of the two major political parties is having a wilderness moment. They are on a walk-about finding themselves. “Dems in Disarray” “Leaderless and Lost” and “Who owns the left now?” are all headlines and heartlines of our time. Democrats are out there trying things, everything from Democratic Socialism to No Kings rallies to books about Abundance. And this is as it should be, coalitions have shifted and the parties need to re-assess and figure out who is in their tent now and how they can use what they have to win elections.

              Now, a not small segment of those Democratic Party voters are on a “No Kings” kick. They are framing being a Democrat as being against overreach by President Trump; blunting the force with which he can reach into people’s day to day lives, coercing them to make choices they wouldn’t otherwise make, is what it means to be on the Left.

I believe if the Libertarian Party was to show up at these rallies with clipboards, and passed out yellow and black “don’t tread on me” signs reading: “Libertarians against a Unitary Executive” “Got liberty?” and “Coequal Branches of Government are Sexy” to anyone who would sign onto their mailing list, they would have an okay shot at being a major governing party by 2026 (there are of course all the longstanding jokes that Libertarians very much do not want to be a governing party… but that’s a whole different conversation).

Talk to these Dems reacting to gross overreach by a politician they don’t like, doing things of which they disapprove. Agree with them about the Unitary Executive Theory, and then push them to see it as part of a longer story of the erosion of the Separation of Powers. Agree with them on Abortion, push ‘em on Imminent Domain. Agree with them that the extrajudicial killings of Venezuelans is bad, and remind them that Obama expanded and codified drone warfare. This is a moment where Libertarians could be heard by the mainstream.

 

Speaking Up Would be Good for America

              This could be the Libertarian moment—the “told you so” worst case scenario you’ve always warned America about. And the Libertarian voice, being a minority voice, could express the dangers of our present in a way that lays things out starkly and might be heard by the silent majority, who in some ways just want to be left alone—which is your whole deal!

              “We warned you that the Federal Government invading ranches was bad, now they’re invading the cities as well!”

              “We warned you that using the military for non-war functions is dangerous, now the Commander-in-Chief is asking them to clean up our streets and enforce immigration law and blow-up drug smugglers, in what is being interpreted abroad as an undeclared war on Venezuela.”

              “We warned you that the Government playing favorites with corporations was dangerous—the Cash for Clunkers program and the Affordable Care Act were sins—now the president is requiring fealty and gifts from CEOs, is nationalizing companies, his unchecked words are seesawing the global economy, and he’s moving like a mob boss against independent agencies that influence the economy.”

              “We warned you that even the whiff of imposing ideologies and political correctness in corporations and on college campuses was setting dangerous precedents, now look at what’s happening! Media companies are firing comedians and closing up long cherished late-night shows on account of the president’s grief over the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and he has promise that the two remaining late-night hosts are in his crosshairs. No Government should be so big that the executive’s mood dictates the life of the little guys—the 200-some backstage people who won’t land as gently as Cobert or Kimmel! On top of that, he’s hobbling Universities in such a way that many instructors and staff across the country still don’t know if they’ll have a job by the end of the first semester.”

              “We warned you that power corrupts and pointed to Hunter Biden trading on his father’s name in Ukraine, now when Trump takes a trip to the Middle East a foreign government bribed him with a palatial airplane, and his family business got a sweetheart billion-dollar deal. Conservative estimates are he’s used the presidency to enrich himself by 3.5 billion dollars, and that’s not counting in-kind gifts and grifts, or anyone else's graft.”

              “We warned you that imperial presidencies are only as good as the President, now look where we are! We’re stuck with a man who attacks religious denominations, and food pantries—while hacking away at the safety nets that those private institutions are supposed to replace in a Libertarian vision—a man who folds in more and more power under his awful auspices, who imposes executive orders like his life depends on it, who intervenes in affairs best left up to school boards and town councils.”

 

And the Libertarian Wave is Coming

              And there are signs that Libertarian minded folks are waking up. South Park has aimed its sneer and barking laugh at the would be Emperor, who happens to be naked. Rand Paul is speaking up against misuse of military might abroad… my liberty minded brothers are starting to stand up for what they believe in, starting to turn their eyes from the boogieman of tax and spend liberals to the present reality of a reactionary executive hording governmental power and authority.

Come on out, worst case scenario you strengthen the part of the Democratic party that cares about freedom, and we get a President Jared Polis in 2028. Best care scenario, you are true to your values even when it is tough, and you send a few congress-creatures to Washington and to local legislative bodies, and the country has to take your concerns to heart, because they need your votes to govern.

Jesus, the Risky Squanderer

 

                You know, I could have changed the readings for Founder Sunday, no one would have balked or complained…

but instead I stuck with today’s parable commonly called the Parable of the Dishonest Manager, or, perhaps more positively the Shrewd Steward…
This parable is like a rose, both beautiful and thorny.

                This story of Jesus is one people struggled with from the start
—just look at Luke,
he gives three different interpretations,
right here in today’s reading.

                My own foundational assumption about parables is that they’re not proof texts, but truth texts.
They are always meant to be chewed on,
until they begin to chew on us.
They are stories that will wake you up at 4am and you’ll say, “Wait a minute! That applies to me!”

                The key I am using to read this particular parable is pretty simple really
—I believe that 16 comes after 15…
In chapter 15 the religious authorities accuse Jesus of squandering God’s good will and mercy by associating with sinners, tax collectors, and other ne’re-do-wells.
Jesus is told that he is being a bad steward of God’s kindness,
and he replies with three stories about lost things, animals, and people. He insists that:
“God is like a woman scouring her house for a single cent.
God is like a shepherd leaving all his sheep alone to find a single lost one.
God is like a father embarrassing himself in order to embrace his sinner son.”

                I believe today’s parable continues on this trajectory,
perhaps the disciples just needed a little more convincing… don’t we all?

                At any rate, Jesus continues to explain why he sups with sinners, by telling today’s parable, about this Shrewd Steward, this Risky Squanderer.

Prayer

 

                To the disciples’ hard hearts,
worries that perhaps the religious authorities are right about their Rabbi,
wondering what their neighbors will think about them dining with undesirables.
Jesus says, “Okay, fine, let’s think through what the Pharisees and Scribes are accusing me of doing with God’s grace.

 

                Let’s assume God is a god of limits, who, like Smaug, the Dragon in the Hobbit, hordes his gold
—or rather his grace and welcome
—and kills any poor beggar or fool who tries to so much as touch his treasures.

                That kind of God, has put me in charge of his great pile of mercy,
I’m the steward, the manager.
And soon enough I screw it all up and am called to account.

                This god of limits, calls me into his office and rakes me over the coals.
“Why aren’t you charging interest on my grace,
and looking out for my bottom line?
Show me your books at once!”

                So, I rush to the office
and shoot off email after email to every customer I’ve came into contact with,
I make so may phone calls that the numbers get worn off the buttons.

                I call them all,
the unclean man with a demon,
the pile of people I healed at the house of Peter’s mother-in-law,
the lepers and that paralyzed fella,
the centurion and slave, the widow and her son…

                You get the idea, all those who I’ve been generous to on behalf of God…

                And I say to one, “You owe God 100 jugs of oil, pay 50.”

                To another, “100 bushels of wheat? Let’s make it 80 and call us even.”

                And to all this generosity, the people:
praise God,
rejoin community,
repent and are relieved,
find abundant life…

                And the product of this risky generosity,
this squandering that is salvific
—it is noticed, even by the kind of god who the Religious Authorities think exists.

                If the Pharisees are right, that God is Smaug-like…
my gracious representation of him has brought in more praise and transformation,
than all the tight fistedness of the Scribes.

                Our risky way of honoring God,
seeming to squander God’s goodness by the way we spread it around,
is still the most “profitable” way of doing this God thing…
even playing by the Pharisee’s rules…

And how much more faithful is our open handed generous way of being, because
God IS a God of risky mercy,
IS a God who searches out for the lost,
a God who squanders His very self for the sake of those he seeks.”

 

                What a parable, right! Jesus pointing to the tension between:
Squandering and Generous Abundance,
Risk and Hope.

                They balance like an unstable playground seesaw.
They are like those pictures that are either a duck or a rabbit,
 depending on how you look at ‘em.

 

                Think about it, back in 1756,
the Fritts family built a log cabin out here in the wilderness
—certainly that was an act filled with both risk and hope.

                Or in 1795,
the act of donating quite a bit of property to house a congregation and pastor and bury ancestors here
—people could have seen it as squandering family property…
or a generous act done out of recognition of the abundance on hand.

                Or in 1861,
our country was in a little bit of turmoil then (That’s Norwegian for those of you who have not yet met me),
1861 when Spruce Run hosted the inauguration of the Ministerium of New Jersey
—a new church body!
That’s risky…
and that’s hopeful!

                Or in ’46, the congregation hosted the “Young Christians of Spruce Run” a group that included plenty of young people who weren’t “ours” in a strict sense,
but we didn’t care,
they were our neighbors.
That kind of welcome could be called squandering, but I think we chose to call it generous.

                Or in ’91, when we founded the food pantry,
or in ’94 when we started housing homeless folks,
or 2023 when we started the North Hunterdon Ecumenical Fellowship.
Because we have a history of hope and abundant generosity—we can understand these things as not simply good,
but as pointing to the God we meet in Jesus Christ
—ever faithful,
always gracious,
quick to save
and merciful beyond words.

Amen.

Holy Cross Sunday

                There is a logic to crucifixion.

                For the Roman Empire crucifixion names the dying and dead as:
common criminals,
executed insurrectionists
—overpowered wretches who failed to fall in line.

                For Jews like the Apostle Paul, who had a literalist reading of Deuteronomy 21, “Those who die upon a tree are accursed” branded the crucified as:
condemned by God and cursed like Cain.

                There is a logic to crucifixion
—crushed by God & by Empire.

                Just so, there is a logic to this last week:
—there is a logic to terror—to the attacks on 9/11—those 24 years ago
—destruction, obliteration, leveling of lives…
a logic that is followed by an equally logical response—war and death…

In my experience, friends and peers who peered into the abyss of war in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places best not named
—came back with cauterized faith, moral injury, addictions and eventually suicide

--A logic to the bullet as well
—the shooting of Charlie Kirk in Utah and schoolchildren in Colorado.
People with political axes to grind or mentally ill and desperate for attention
—or some combination of the two
a logic that is followed by an equally logical response
—18% of Americans saying that sometimes political violence against fellow Americans is necessary…
the copycat glorification of mass shooters and all the fear and despair that gets bottled up and internalized by the young and not so young folk.

                There is a logic to crucifixion. But there is also a logic to the cross.

Let us pray

 

                There are two times when Paul shows off his full command of the conventions of the Greek Language,
flourishes and flowery language and all that
—in 2^nd Corinthians 11 he describes his failures as achievements…
and in 1^st Corinthians 1, he describes the ultimate failure—the cross
—the foolishness of the cross
—the message of the cross…
the logic of the cross.

                The Blessed One is cursed, the one who is Justice Incarnate is tried and executed… The logic of crucifixion comes up against the logic of the cross…
And in this strange crash, like flint struck, sparks fly.
All the logic catches fire; it is all upended!
“Do you really want to play by those rules?”
“Is that the system you want to maintain?”
Roman Empire and Ridged reading of Scripture erupt and are replaced by that figure crucified and raised—Jesus Christ.

                The logic of the cross overthrows all power and prestige and posturing
—God is found in the most pitiful piteous of places!

                God upends the status quo,
not as a power play,
nor for bragging rights,
but to bring life to those perishing,
to save the condemned,
to love the least, the last, and the lost.

                The logic of Crucifixion gives way to the logic of the Cross…
When we look upon the poison we willingly drink out of habit or hate, we say, “no! Save us!”
You see, when those same 18% of Americans are asked about specific acts of political violence
—they back away,
“I wouldn’t shoot law makers in Minnesota, or the President in Butler.”
“I wouldn’t bludgeon a politician’s spouse with a hammer or firebomb their home or shoot up a congressional baseball game or invade the capital.”
—only 2%—still too high by far, but the concrete reality of these things…
once you pull back from algorithms and AI purposely showing you the worst of your neighbor
—the logic of crucifixion gives way to the message of the cross!
Like that snake Moses shows the people,
we are able to reflect on the venomous logic of our violent solutions
and shutter, and step back and be saved.

 

                The cross is a story told haltingly and with fear:
He preached good news and healed the sick, was executed as a criminal, and the tomb could not hold him—he is at the right hand of God—in him we find abundant life and rest at the last.
When the message of the cross does its work, there is power in weakness and wisdom in folly. Systems of logic snap up against each other, and the only one that remains is the one founded and bound by love.

                The cross, an opening of the eyes to a new way of reasoning
—if God is there on the cross—in the worst of it
—then isn’t that where we ought to look for him?!?
Should our eyes not scan the horizon for the hurt, the hated, the locked up and left out.
The cross, a pair of glasses to clarify what we see in front of us, especially our neighbor.

                For that matter, when we’re in the midst of those same hurts.
When the awful logic of crucifixion plays itself out upon our lives
and we end up on the cross.
Crushed by ongoing grief,
untangled by war and terrified by terror,
locked down or rushing away.

I want you to know he’s right there with you, with us!
I pray that we’ll be able to say,
at least in some fumbling foolish and weak way
—that’s how it always is,
say something like that anonymous 5^th century preacher once did:
This cross is the tree of my eternal salvation, nourishing, and delighting me. I take root in its roots, I am extended in its branches. In my tent I am shaded by its shade. Its flowers are my flowers; I am wholly delighted by its fruits. This cross is my nourishment when I am hungry, my fountain when I am thirsty, my covering when I am stripped, for my leaves are no longer fig leaves but the breath of life. This is the ladder of Jacob, the way of angels. This is my tree, wide as the firmament, which extends from earth to the heavens. It is the pillar of the universe, the support of the whole world.

Amen.

Philemon Sermon

 

                As is my habit, when the lectionary offers a book of the Bible that is infrequently read
—maybe only once a year,
maybe, like today’s reading from Philemon once every three years
—I make sure to pay attention
—to point the lot of you to its existence and message.
And today the lectionary gives us a doozy—Philemon.
An incredibly short book that:
1. Has been used as clobber verses both by Christians and against the Church.
2. Makes for a very concrete telling of what Christian Practice looks like when it’s lived out. And
3. Illustrates the Cost of Discipleship described by Jesus in today’s Gospel.

 

Prayer

 

                The letter to Philemon is one of those scraps of scripture that get used as clobber verses.
Specifically, Christianity’s detractors often point here to say that Christianity is morally suspect…
and not only the detractors
—famed Theologian Howard Thurman pointedly wrote about his family’s aversion to reading the Apostle Paul,
on account of this and other verses like it, that were historically preached in the Antebellum South to enslaved people,
Pastors in the pockets of Slave owners,
insisted that it was the Christian duty of fugitive slaves to return to their masters.
More broadly, this piece of scripture is part of a perceived pattern that Christianity condones slavery.

                But it is worth naming this sort of thing as a misuse,
a reading not in the actual scripture…
A reading that does not give consideration to
the rhetoric of the letter
or the social location of its first readers.
If you take those two things seriously, it is plain that Paul is doing the exact opposite of what he is accused of doing…

Listen to the rhetoric:
The recalling of familial bonds

—you’re like a son to me…and isn’t Onesimus like a brother

Not to mention the out and out passive aggressiveness of Paul’s words

I COULD command you…
I’m sending Onesimus to you, but he’s my own heart…
I’d PERFER not to force you to free him…
aren’t voluntary good deeds the best?

I certainly wouldn’t remind you that you owe me everything… even your very identity!

Then there is the setting this all takes place in.

                On one hand, this is a public letter
—it is being read aloud in Archippus’ house church where Philemon attends…

                On the other hand, it is read by people living within the Roman Empire
—a society stratified and organized by Patron/Client relationships
and honor and shame taboos
that would make Philemon wince by the time the reader reached the word “partnership” in verse 6
and Onesemus was as good as freed by the time he’s named in verse 10.

                In short, when we look at this letter cleareyed,
it is beyond obvious that using it to uphold slavery in any way is an example of a society misusing the Faith.
That fact then named,
excising that old evil, insidious inserted into our scriptures
—allows us to hear what it is actually saying,
and what these Christians are actually doing…

 

                Think about what this small letter says about how we Christians live out our faith.

Instead of command or force,
Paul upholds love, consent, and voluntary right action…
A wooing of Philemon into doing what is right
—and that makes sense, doesn’t it?
The God who is a weak force in the world,
so much so that, when we look for him, we find him on the cross
—the one who would not bruise a single reed or blow out a single candle
–and yet in that gentleness shall right the whole world
—yes, the follower of such a savior,
one dedicated to such a Divinity
—wooing, yes I suppose that makes sense.

                For that matter, this wordplay using Onesimus’ name, which means Handy or Useful
—he was not useful enslaved to Philemon, but became so serving the Gospel
—useful in Christ
—useful when he is fulfilling his vocation
Vocation—the intriguing web of roles, relationships, and responsibilities that flow from Baptism!
Our usefulness, our meaningfulness,
we can find it in the one who has found us,
Jesus Christ!

                Find too, a oneness in baptism
—Slave and Owner freed to be brothers
—in baptism we find something that both embraces and transcends those other identities we have
—bigotry and barriers have no place in the body of Christ.

                And that is not inconsequential
—there is cost to our following of Jesus,
just by being faithful, in fact, the cross will find us.

 

                Yes, the cost of discipleship. This letter illustrates and clarifies that cost.

                “Hate you family!” Jesus says in the Gospel
—that’s a consequence…
when the meaning of family expands beyond acceptable borders,
the balance will be tipped
—the Christian meaning of Family turns all the rest upside down.

                So too your life and livelihood,
all of it flipped.

The economic cost, the labor lost
—when the majority of the Roman labor force no longer is forced to work,
but instead is afforded a common dignity as fellow Children of God

                Count the costs
—o’ they seem so steep,

Give up possessions,
get back a person!
Philemon, give up your possession! And you get back a person! Onesimus!

                Count the costs
—give up power,
and find your fellows!

                Give up the ties that bind,
and be bound by love!

                Give up on following anyone else,
and there he is, the Lord on the cross!

Amen.

The Hebrews Sermon

           There is much that we think we know about the Letter to the Hebrews

—for example we think it is a letter, and that it is to the Hebrews…
neither of which are true.
This piece of scripture is, in point of fact, a sermon,
and the title “To the Hebrews” was added centuries later when Judaism and Christianity were trying to differentiate themselves from one another.
This sermon became a sort of clobber book, that 2^nd century Christians would use against their Jewish neighbors.

                But that wasn’t how it was originally read…

                You see, this sermon was first preached to a pocket of Christians who have survived the persecutions by Nero
—back in 64, Nero accidently set fire to a section of Rome, and didn’t want to take responsibility, so he said the Christians did it…
and then Rome proceeded to catch Christians and dip them in pitch and light them on fire, as both punishment and a way to light the streets of the city.

                An awful time, contemporaries of the event speak of the smell of burning bodies clogging the nostrils of Rome…

                It is to such a situation that this sermon is preached.
To a Christian community who survived attacks, arrests, harassment…
they held fast through the worst of it…
and years later, the low-level persecution just didn’t stop
—shunned by neighbors and relations, kept out of social clubs,
goods and wealth never returned by the government and the mobs that sack Christian homes,
seen as weird and anti-social at best, seditious at worst.

                And the author reminds these persecuted Christians of their past courage and confidence,
calls them to their best baptized selves
—keep on keeping on,
care for each other,
be loving and welcoming.

He preaches this message in a repeated three-part framework:
1. Consider how God was faithful in Hebrew Scriptures.
2. Guess what, Jesus is faithful like that!
3. Don’t let go of that faithfulness! No matter what, hold on!

Prayer

 

                God has consistently sent messengers and leaders
—Angels and Prophets even!

Christ Jesus
—God’s dear Son, the heft of God’s glory, the spark of creation, God in front of us clear as day…
He is God’s message personified—in the flesh,
and his journey from death to new life is God’s way for us!

                Do not drift away or disobey or fall short!
Do not ignore God’s message for us or stop your ears
—No! Instead, keep hearing the Gospel!

 

                The Temple System
—the Sanctuary of God and the High Priesthood and Sacrifices,
were all done to bring peace and righteousness.

And look to Jesus
—he frees us from the fear of Death,
scours us of our Sin—making us clean.
He is our dwelling place, a sanctuary for those in need,
his tears, tenderly wept, are taken by God as a sacrifice for us.

Take a load off—rest in Christ!
You have found confidence and favor from God on account of Jesus Christ.
Please, don’t lose your spiritual sensitivity,
do not let your hearts grow cold,
even when your society continues to kick you out into the cold.

 

                The Torah
—a Law and story and way of life,
was given to God’s people,
Moses and Aaron,
with Tablets and Temple.

                And look, as the prophet Jeremiah writes, a new sort of way, and story, and law has been put into your hearts.
Jesus does God’s will,
willing us to life even when we are in death.

                You’ve been washed and saved by the Living God!
Christ’s Law of love is within you,
why wouldn’t you encourage each other through the long haul,
Continue to gather together, you are Christ’s body after all!
Be welcoming, for God’s sake!

Love and do good—just as Christ did!

                Heck of a sermon to preach to Christians being persecuted…
I wonder how the Persecuted Church hears this kind of message today…
-How does the Nigerian Christian whose church was firebombed hear this? Be confident.
-How does the South Korean missionary to the North hear it while yet imprisoned? Stay sensitive.

-How does the Indonesian Christian who watched his Pastor uncle be beheaded hears it? Keep on loving!

 

                And what is the meaning of all these words for we, who are certainly well off in the grand scheme of things?
We Christians who may even have a hard time saying, “we are strangers and foreigners here on earth.” Who on our bad days, even confuse our homeland, with our heavenly home.

                No… we can’t go too far down that road…

 

                This sermon is for us as well…
certainly there are some here today who:
-Suffer great pains.
-Worry has not left our hearts,
nor doubts or bouts of laxity.
-Has not your heart been recalcitrant to the Spirit’s calling.
-Aren’t we too tired;
don’t we also struggle with hatred and evil.
-Are we not beset by inclinations toward isolation and defensiveness, as are all peoples!

 

Certainly! We too need to hear of hope; we need to know that God has been faithful.
Jesus Christ will never abandon us! In him we can keep on keeping on!

The anguished of body and soul finds rest in him!

Our slack spirits are slaked…
our hard hearts are made soft…
by our Savior’s words!

He guides us homeward
—through our self-seeking,
patiently creating a welcoming people,
making us walk the way of daring understanding,
and helping us to more clearly and courageously love.

 

God is faithful, we belong to Christ, no matter what, hold on!

Amen.

Vanity O’ Vanity!

                There are many things to commend the Revised Common Lectionary
—our 3-year cycle of reading scripture in the Church
—but one of its shortcomings is that we only read from the book of Ecclesiastes once every three years.

                What a pity.
This book is the most nuanced of the Books of Wisdom
—focused on ending well, and letting go.
Like its more optimistic cousins,
it divides human actions into two camps wisdom and folly,
but then it follows up with: “What then?”
After you succeed, what is next?
It focuses on some deep stuff:

·         Vanity—a chasing after the wind.

·         Generational Churn—What will be done with your successes, by your successors?

·         The meaning of Life—What matters in the end?

·         Possessions—what’s the point of what we accumulate?

 

                Now today,
to hear some of the major themes of Ecclesiastes,
this under-read book of the Bible,
we’re going to consider Jesus’ famed parable of the Rich Fool.

Let us pray

 

                Jesus tells us that there was a man who was so successful
—so wealthy and well off,
that he decided to tear down his barns,
in order to build still larger ones.

                Now, many pastors, not wanting anyone to feel uncomfortable, will rush in and say,
“it is the love of money, not money itself,
that is the root of all kinds of evil.”

And that’s fair as far as it goes, but
—in a world where we’re welcoming the first Trillionaire into existence
—I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t warn you all that possessions are two-edged swords, in fact,
possessions can possess us.
-They can make us love things and use people, instead of use things and love people.
-They can push us into a corner
where we only think of scarcity and the accumulation of more,
when God offers abundance and we ought to be pleased with enough,
and consider wisely that which sustains us.
-After all, who will remember that you had a bigger barn?
Is that what they’ll be talking about at your funeral…
and if so…
is that a good thing?

                On our after-Easter vacation, Lisa, my parents, and I went to Wilmington Delaware, and we toured the Nemours Estates
—Alfred duPont’s mansion and gardens…
but on our way there, we thought we got lost
—we ended up at a big bustling children’s hospital…
Alfred duPont’s other major project…
while his giant home is seen by tourists the world over…
his investment in children’s medicine has consistently revolutionized pediatric orthopedics
and is the only pediatric health system in the nation
with two freestanding children’s hospitals.

A two-edged sword—wealth can cut both ways!

 

                The rich fool just needs to build this bigger barn, and then he can
—and to be clear he is paraphrasing—quoting—Ecclesiastes here:
“Relax, eat, drink, and be merry.”

                There will always be another barn to build…
you can forget to live, living like that.

If we’re not careful, we’ll miss the meaning of it all,
we won’t notice those sublime moments in life
—both in our work and our play. Moments of:
loyalty & gentleness,
wisdom & community,
health & helping.

Part of a meaningful life is noticing those times,
that Luther describes in his commentary on Ecclesiastes writing: “Is it not amazing, when you are empty of cares and something pleasant, something beautiful even, occurs.”

Both Duty & Delight!

 

                But, this eventual point of rest never comes,
instead the man’s only comfort is the words on his tombstone, “Rest in Peace.”
“You fool, this very night your life is being demanded of you.”

                One of Ecclesiastes ongoing refrains is “Vanity of vanities.”
Literally a puff of smoke
—vapor vaporizing (that’s the New Revised Halverson translation).

                Vanity
—it is vapid,
it is vapor,
it is fragile,
we have limits…

                And how do we respond to all that?

                On one hand, we can become grasping
—Scrooge from the Christmas Carol
—oh no! I can’t take it with me!
All my things,
all my effort,
all my wisdom and many books
—“I can’t take them with me!”
Let me clutch them to my chest, for as long as I am able!

                On the other hand, this reality can be freeing.
I can’t take it with me; I might as well share.

Ultimately, most things are out of your control!
For a type A perfectionist, this can be great news,
not only shouldn’t you try to do everything—you can’t!

 

                The comedy TV show “Schitt’s Creek” (S-C-H-I-T-T-S… creek) was popular about 5 years ago
—it was about a ridiculously rich family, who loses everything except Schitt’s Creek,
a quirky run-down town they once bought as a joke.
The whole series could almost be a commentary on Ecclesiastes.
Stripped of wealth, this family is forced to confront duty and delight,
and in so doing start a journey to become people of substance and meaning.

                There is a scene where the brother of the family, David, is taking a drivers test and has a panic attack, and his sister points out,
“Nobody cares…
people aren’t thinking about you, the way you are thinking about you…
if you stop worrying and everything will be easier.”
“It’s vapor vaporizing and that’s okay!”

 

                Finally, this man is left with the question:
“All these things I prepared, whose will they be?”
“I’m aging, I’m dying, who gets my stuff?”
“Will my successor be wise or foolish?”
“What is my legacy?”

                For the inexperienced young,
each new experience can be a crisis.

For the wise elder,
each choice is made more carefully than the last.
How can both care for one another?
How can we live in a way that there is intergenerational hopefulness?
Have we truly passed on what is good?

“What is our legacy?”

 

                Dear siblings, be not grasping, instead generous.
Consider well your legacy and what is enough.
At least for today, be present and faithful.

 

Let us pray:

“O God, we are as grass, we will wither and fade—and as grass we do not know the moment at which we will be cast to the wind. Help us to live our lives so that at our leaving of them it shall not be a tragedy; give to us such trust in your care that be we alive or dead, we abide in you. This we pray in the name of the one who died and rose for us, your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.”

A Review and Reflection on “Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America”

                Christian Smith’s new book is a broad study of the decline and obsolescence of “Traditional Religion” (for Smith this is predominantly white Christian denominations) in America.

Terms & Times:

Obsolete: Smith defines obsolescence as “No longer useful because something else has superseded it in function, efficiency, value, or interest.” His primary example of the subjective feel of obsolescence is the Western as a movie genre. It peaked in the 1970s and then all but disappeared. It is now a passe, outmoded, and worn-out genre.

Pivotal Period: Smith keys in on the 18 years between 1991-2009 as the time period that shaped Traditional American Faith irreparably.

Zeitgeist: The overall vibes of an era.

Neoliberalism: “Utilitarian individualism.” “Greed is good.” Free markets, small government, viewing humans as merely workers and consumers.

The Times

                The time period Smith focuses on is from the end of the Cold War to the “end” of the War on Terror, so ’91-2009. Smith describes this period as encompassing the exhilarating boundary-breaking 90s and the depressing gloom of the 2000s. In the 90s the Church responded to boundary-breaking with calls for repression, and in the aughts' gloom with a happy clappy positivity. The best example of this he uses is comparing grunge music, particularly the song “Smells like Teen Spirit” to Contemporary Christian Music. In short, the vibes were wrong, and that hamstrung the church greatly.

The Vibes

                Smith describes the Millennial Generation’s Zeitgeist as, “Immanent, Individualistic, Anti-institutional, Presentist, Relativist, Distrustful, Subjective, Anti-authority, Multicultural, Minimalist, Transgressive, Pornographic, Jaded, Consumerist, Entertained, and Re-enchanted.” All of which made Christianity less compelling.

                Behind many of these “vibes” and stalking the whole era, was the upsurge and ascension of neoliberalism. “The neoliberal conception is simply not compatible with those of American traditional religions (which believe) humans are divinely dependent and socially interdependent creatures who inhabit a morally significant universe in which they are on a quest to realize, with divine aid, their spiritually and morally higher selves, the aim of which is to enjoy flourishing lives in communities of peace and love that reside under the governing care and judgement of God.” Instead the human is to be an “efficient producer, rational exchanger, and desiring consumer.”

                If all that sounds a little obtuse or abstract, consider how Traditional American Religion deals with stress: “Quiet prayer, contemplation, worship, centering, reading, meditation, singing, connecting with other humans, volunteering, sharing a meal… doesn’t really make anyone money.” Neoliberalism responds instead with, “shopping for and buying new products.” Instead of citizens or members of a particular denomination, neoliberalism demands only that we are consumers.

Particular

                Moving from the big picture forces that constrained and are suffocating traditional religion, what did that look like at a more granular level?

-A new National Identity & Religious Violence

                The enemy during the Cold War was Atheistic Communists, so Americans defined themselves, at least nominally, as Religious Capitalists. Without an atheist enemy, there was less reason to identify as religious. Likewise, after 9/11 religious extremists became the enemy, so being anti-religious was a way to be a good American. Religion became linked to violence in a way it hadn't been directly connected in the Cold War era.

-The Religious Right & Televangelism

                After Jimmy Carter’s presidency Evangelicals embrace the right wing of America, and got in a weird feedback loop in which they begin to mirror the worst aspects of the GOP, and also encouraged those worst tendencies. Additionally, there was a two decade long period of high profile religious scandals, religious leaders using their authority to satiate their lust, greed, and wrath.

-Mainline success & schism

                On the other end of the spectrum, Smith points to the Mainline/liberal theological tradition winning the culture war and finding it all somewhat hollow. Their emphasis on: individualism, pluralism, emancipation, tolerance, free critical inquiry, and experience as a source of religious knowledge, was sucked into the Millennial Zeitgeist/Neoliberal soup and was made redundant. Additionally, mainline denominations had decade long fights over abortion and same sex marriage, which left these denominations split and confused.

-Postmodernism & Multiculturalism

                Suspicion of any grand idea, critiques of any thought system as simply an internal linguistic game, and hyper-tolerance have all made proclamation of the Gospel trickier.

-Intensive Parenting, Emerging Adulthood & Power Hording Boomers

                One of the consequences of neoliberalism turning humans into worker/consumers is a constant need to achieve and compete, a skills race that starts incredibly young. No longer can parents let kids be kids, kids need to be developing skills to compete for jobs on a global scale. This means kids have activities 24/7, which crowds out non-competitive activities like church.

Many more competitive skills require a Bachelors or even Masters level degree for just an entry level position. That means a whole new life-period has developed, “Emerging Adulthood” a 5-10 year period where young adults are adult and not—universities and trade schools step into the role of parents while young people continue to be trained. This is a very unstable time of life. The church doesn’t know what to do with these young adults, and they will likely move to a new city or 3 before they settle down, so the church gives up on them and they return the favor.

Finally, and perhaps as a consequence of the disappearing young adults, Baby Boomers have held onto power way longer than was normal in the church. So long, in fact, that they have sort of calcified in place. Now even when younger generations of church folk come along wanting to take the reins, the Baby Boomers refuse.

-Spirituality and the Occult

                One of the more fascinating parts of this study was the number of post-Boomers who are “Spiritual but not Religious” or even “Occult.” There is a very eclectic sense of the Divine out there. Everything from UFO-focused folks to Bookstore Buddhists to people convinced that werewolves and vampires walk among us. For example, 25% of millennials surveyed believed in werewolves. (I’m not surprised by this, as I’ve written before I’ve met people who sincerely believe St. Paul was a werewolf).

Trapped?

                All of these factors, Smith says, have put the Church in quite a bind, and forced us into any number of no-win situations. We regularly must choose between being milquetoast or narrow-minded, self-degrading or arrogant, archaic or non-distinctive, empty of meaning or exclusivistic, outdated or pandering. Do we spend our time engaging with scientific modernism or engage with postmodernism? If we embrace internet culture we’ll be seen as too anonymous but if we focus on in person events we will be seen as too demanding. The Church can not win.

                For that matter, the loss of Traditional Religion is having damaging consequences for society writ large. Smith points to isolation, a loss of social capital and trust, degradation of mental and emotional health, and spiraling social support.

                And yet, I’m hopeful. While Smith cites James Baldwin’s famous “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced” quote as a call to the Church to finally take a look around, and as much as this book may send some shockwaves or large ripples on the pond… those of us who’ve been paying attention already are out beyond this data and analysis. For post-Boomer clergy this isn’t new information, this is the water in which we live.

I’ve been writing about religious violence since my undergraduate degree more than TWENTY YEARS ago, preaching regularly on it for at least a decade. I literally get kids and adults to play with Legos to talk about post-modernity. My 15 wise people, and 4Ds engage with the vast majority of these dynamics Smith brings up. We post-Boomer clergy have been facing these changes for our whole ministry, in fact, this is what we signed up for. We can do no other.

But what do we do?

Okay, it’s all well and good to thump my Millennial chest about all that, but what ought we be doing?

-Clergy. Live beyond reproach. I know, it’s a silly phrase connecting to our ordination, but seriously, we must never gratify our personal desires with the office we hold. We’ve seen what happens if we fail—decades of slaughtered souls.

-Look to Judaism & The Black Church. One of Smith’s asides is that Judaism retained post-Boomers by committing real funds on programs that were intentionally focused on passing the faith on to the next generation. Likewise, the Black Church has retained younger people by having many role models who lived their faith in a compelling way that Smith describes as, “religion done right.”

-We are still “restless until they rest in him.”  If nothing else, the eclectic re-enchantment of America, fuzzy werewolves and all, suggests that people are still hungry for faith, for meaning, for something beyond the box of a 9-5 neoliberal existence.

-The Ache and the Need. It is worth naming that hunger—people still ache for God. When God’s goodness is named, when grace and generosity, faith and hope, are pointed to, it is still compelling. People are still willing to say, “Wouldn’t that be nice, good even, if it was true.” And that’s enough of a witness. For that matter, all the good social/cultural stuff the Church does—food banks and filling the banks of loneliness by offering community—that’s maybe enough. Together, the need and the ache—I think that’s more than enough for the Gospel to sprout anew.

The Colossian Hymn

For whatever reason I've always focused on the Philippians' "Christ Hymn" when I've thought of the earliest non-Psalm Christian music, but perhaps Colossians 1:15-20 is equally rich. Here is my attempt at making something new out of the text. I'm not entirely pleased with the 3rd verse yet, but here is an initial draft. Enjoy

Refrain:

All in Christ, all through Christ, all for Christ.

Firstborn of Creation, First of the Resurrection,

Reconciliation born in him.

 

Verse 1:

Christ is the invisible made visible;

That is, God in sandals.

Impersonal cosmic forces,

Humans and their horses,

Call him Sibling and Sustainer,

Call him Mirror and Container.

 

Verse 2:

Christ is life before life ever was

All held together by his generous love.

Come out of those graves!

Tell the whole world that he saves!

We are his body, he is the head.

A new beginning, life from the dead!

 

Verse 3:

Christ is where we all fully meet,

Seated together at the Father’s feet.

He is the reconciliation of all things;

“Peace” all our voice as one rings!

Wait! God took it as an honest sacrifice?

Blood and cross became peace and paradise!