Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Dwelling on God's holy mountain...


NOTE: Here are my worship notes for this coming Sunday, September 23, 2012.  They are a work in progress about grace, God's holy mountain and living by trust.
 
Introduction
Have you ever said something stupid out loud? I mean really stupid – like you know it was totally wrong and inappropriate even as the words were falling out of your face – but they keep coming?  I’m talking about something really, totally and completely stupid?

I have – you’ve heard some of them, too – I’ve said some stupid things in worship when I’m trying to be funny or spontaneous.  I’ve butchered some historical facts about the Bible when I conflated one reality with another.  And I’ve said stupid things in a manner too harsh when I’ve felt worn-out and hung-up wet to dry.  And if you’re anything like me, you have said some stupid things, too in your day:  words you wish you could take back immediately – not so much because they are embarrassing – but rather because they either confuse or wound another, right?

Sometimes I’ve heard or read stupid things in the Bible – maybe you have, too – things that enflame our hatreds or degrade our neighbors or cause us unnecessary suffering and pain.  I think of the women I’ve counseled through the years who’ve continued to stay in abusive and destructive relationships because they’ve been taught that it is God’s plan for creation for women to submit to their husbands.  After all, it says in Ephesians 5:  Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.

·       I think of our historic anti-Semitism that runs rampant through Christianity born of the notion that the Jews are Christ killers – the gospel of John is filled with barbs against the leaders of Judaism – so it must be God’s will to hate them, right?

·       And then there are those throughout the ages who have wounded and abused themselves physically because they believed that when Jesus said, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell" he was speaking literally not figuratively.

Saying stupid and hurtful things seem to be a part of the human condition – we all do it – we’ve all done it – and we’ll all probably keep doing it this side of glory forever.  To which St. Paul tells us something that is not stupid.  He writes to the early church in Rome:

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.* And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That is, if we truly love God and ache to learn from our stupidity – if we are willing to be humbled by our failures and turn them over to the Lord by grace – then God will take even all that is stupid and hurtful in our lives and history and work it for good.  He’s not saying that everything IS good – nor that everything always is easy – but that even our sins and stupidity can be used for the work of grace for those who are committed to God’s purpose revealed in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.

Insights
And THAT is a huge blessing – a massive gift filled with hope and healing and forgiveness – that is offered to us by God in return for love.  Paul promises that if we love the Lord then there is nothing that can happen that can subvert God’s plan for the world.  What’s more, there is nothing that can ever separate us from God’s love and grace either:

I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And why does Paul make such an outrageous statement and promise?  What evidence does he have in his experience to warrant such a huge claim?

·      Well, he himself has been healed and forgiven – by the crucified and risen Jesus – who came to him in a vision, lifted away the blinders of fear and hatred and set him on the road of life filled with a mission of mercy.  Paul has lived into and through the life, death and resurrection of the Lord so he knows in his flesh what God can do through love.

·       Are you still with me?  Do you hear what I’m trying to say?  Stupidity and sin, fear and hatred, death and destruction can all be used by God for good if we give it to the Lord in love.

Do you know the name Elaine Pagels?  She is a distinguished scholar of religion at Princeton University who has written about the Gnostic Gospels and other spiritual texts that the Church has kept hidden or banished.   Over the years, the more she studied and wrote about the stupidity and sin of the Church as an institution, you could see that she was becoming more and more alienated and disillusioned. 

“But then something happened.  A death.  The death of her son, her oldest child – the worst kind of sorry any parent could imagine.  And as she absorbed the news of his fatal illness, and certain death, she rediscovered something” (Rediscovering Reverence, p. 68) that she describes like this in her book, Beyond Belief:

On a bright Sunday morning in February, shivering in a T-shirt and running shorts, I stepped into the vaulted stone vestibule of the Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York to catch my breath and warm up. Since I had not been in church for a long time, I was startled by my response to the worship in progress – the soaring harmonies of the choir singing with the congregation; and the priest, a woman in bright gold and white vestments, proclaiming the prayers in a clear and resonant voice.  As I stood watching, a thought came to me:  here is a family that knows how to face death…

Standing in the back of that church, I recognized, uncomfortably, that I needed to be there. Here was a place to weep without imposing tears upon a child; and here was a heterogeneous community that had gathered to sing, to celebrate, to acknowledge common needs and to deal with what we cannot control or imagine. And at the same time, the celebration spoke of hope; perhaps that is what made the presence of death bearable…

I returned often to that church, not looking for faith but because in the presence of the worship and the people gathered there – and in a smaller group that met on weekdays in the church basement for mutual encouragement – my defenses fell away, exposing storms of grief and hope.  In that church I gathered new energy to face whatever awaited us as constructively as possible.

Like the Apostle Paul told us:  when we bring whatever we have to the Lord in love… nothing not death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Now that’s an enormous idea – bigger and more awesome than most of our imaginations can grasp - so our spiritual founders took the time to find different symbols from our everyday lives that pointed to the enormity of God’s grace.

·       Sometimes they spoke of God’s presence as the dew of the morning in the desert – and what does that image evoke for you? 

·       At other times God was like a shepherd whose rod and staff brings us protection even in the valley of the shadow of death.   Sometimes God’s love is like a feast – thou preparest a table before me even in the presence of mine enemies and my cup overflows.

·       Today’s reading from the prophet Isaiah suggests that God’s power and presence in our lives is like a mountain – a place that is elevated and huge – a new heaven and new earth even where creation and joy abound.

And before I go a little deeper into Isaiah’s vision, let me ask you:  have you ever been to a mountain top?  What did it feel like?  Think about that deeply – try to reclaim the feelings of being on that mountain – because it is those feelings, not the facts, that give our faith power and depth.

·       What mountain tops have you experienced – where and how – and what did it feel like to be on that mountain?  (Let people share their encounters…)

·       For me, different mountains evoke different feelings:  when I stood on the rim of the Grand Canyon it was humbling – I was saturated with awe and silence – at the enormity and power all around me.  But when I drive Route 7 up to Williamstown and reach the crest that looks out over the valley, on that mountain I start to breathe deeper and feel very much at rest and peace with the world.

Israel’s poetic prophet, Isaiah, mixes three truths together in this morning’s reading about what life is to be like under the love and grace of God.  First, he acknowledges that there is always suffering – the former devastations he calls them – the wounds and pain we bring upon ourselves through stupidity, sin,  greed, fear and hatred.

·         What does that kind of sin and stupidity look like in our time?

·         What are the signs of greed, fear, ignorance and hatred in our generation?

The promise of the prophet is that on God’s holy mountain these wounds will be used to bring about healing and hope through grace.  That may seem incomprehensible – absurd even – but that is the promise.  And trusting in grace means that we don’t have to understand how this works.  We don’t have to be God.  We are simply asked to acknowledge and confess our sins and turn them in humility to the Lord.  First, Isaiah speaks of the suffering.

Second, Isaiah clearly celebrates a sacred reality that both transcends and transforms the former things:  not only is God delighted with the new creation, but humanity is set free.

·       I will rejoice in Jerusalem and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.

·       What do those words say to you?  What is God saying to us about the quality of our lives lived in God’s grace?

·         What about here?  What do you hear in these promises? They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity;* for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord and their descendants as well.

God is creating here – over and over the words of Genesis are used to remind us that the healing and rejoicing of the Lord is a creative gift – a gift of grace after the wounds of sin.  A gift of shalom that is offered to everyone who seeks to dwell on God’s holy mountain

·       And that’s another huge word – shalom   that has to do not only with right relations between people – healing and justice and compassion and creativity all rolled together – but also right relations between human beings and animals and plants and water and air. 

·       Wherever there is enmity between human beings and the land, wherever there is war and fear, wherever there is hunger or homelessness or intolerance, there is no shalom. 

The Apostle Paul calls the absence of shalom God’s wrath – not an active punishment like we’re bad or stupid children – but rather the absence of the Lord’s presence in our lives for a time so that we’ll experience the consequences of our own stubborn opposition to the way of the Lord.  In Romans 1 Paul puts it like this:

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools; and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

I have come to see God’s wrath as less active and more passive than we’ve been told.  It is rather like a loving parent who in exasperation with a child says, “Look I’ve given you love and wisdom and  trust and protection but you insist on doing hurtful things to yourself and others.  Well ok, then, have it your way… and see what you think then.” 

·       So the parent steps back and lets the beloved child stumble and fall and fail.  It is agonizing – it is the powerlessness of love in action – and there are lots of tears and prayers and silence offered up in hope that at some point the pain – the emptiness – will be too great to bear and the child will want a change.

·       And sometimes that happens – the Bible tells a lot of stories about home-comings and feasts after stubborn children grow weary of their sins – and the Scriptures are full of passages about the rejoicing in love that takes place in God’s heart:  my child was once lost, but now she is found.  Hallelujah!

That’s the hope of shalom – and wrath – that together they might bring us home into God’s love. 

Conclusion
But sometimes that doesn’t happen, right?  We know this in our own families and we certainly see it in world events.  And this is where the enormity of God’s love – the awesome and humbling power that is more massive than a mountain – comes back into play:  we are invited to live and act as those who trust.

Now we see as through a glass darkly – only later shall we see face to face – for now we feel only  the emptiness:  now we see the darkness and have no idea how the light of grace will come to pass.  Now we have tears not rejoicing, famine rather than feasting.

To which Paul says very tenderly:  Beloved, please, remember the Lord Jesus Christ – and what came into his life by the grace of God - he, too, was lost but now is found.  He, too, was dead but now lives.  And what God has given to Christ Jesus in love, he offers to us, too.  Not because Jesus earned – not because we deserve it – but because God loves us  as God. 

All things can work together for good for those who love God when we are called according to his purpose. Having experienced this in my own flesh and soul, I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is the good news for those who dwell – and seek – the Lord’s shalom on God’s holy mountain.  So let those who have ears to hear, hear.

 
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