Last Sunday in Spetember follows this lectionary work:

Pentecost 16 (October 1, 2000)

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22
(Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29) Old Testament Lesson in 1997
Palm 124
James 5:13-20
Mark 9:38-50


The Church in God's World

Moses selected seventy elders, but when the spirit descended on
them,
it splashed over and landed on people who were not chosen as
elders.
The distinction that Moses had made was not so distinct to God.
Moses, ever on the side of God, sees the possibility that there
would be
no distinction at all between elder and laity.

James emphasizes the enfranchisement of the laity by comparing
their
access to God through prayer with that of Elijah.

Jesus refuses to grant the disciples patent rights to his name and
power.
He promises dire consequences for anyone who thwarts even the
most
modest of attempts to align with him.

M. Scott Peck insisted on a non-denominational baptism because he
rejects the idea that church doctrine and order control the door to
the
kingdom. He says that taking communion while yet un-baptized
was
an essential step to his conversion. His comment reminded me of a
time when I, a young pastor and full of my newfound authority,
invited all baptized Christians to come forward for communion. It
hurt
my feelings after the service to find that other feelings were hurt
because of me. A young boy who had always taken communion,
though he had not been baptized, felt excluded by my action. I
have
never quite reconciled my servant role and my pastoral
responsibility
for church order.

The church serves God s love for the world by treating holy things
sacredly, but the church done t make them holy. God does that.
How
does one treat something as holy? You submit yourself to it
because it
is deserving of your devotion. So, the church submits itself to the
sacraments, but in administering church order, that delicate
distinction
can be subverted into the implication that the sacraments submit
themselves to the church.

The distinction between elder and tribe, clergy and laity, is only
appropriate as a submission to the Spirit of God and the leadership
of
that Spirit. Moses submitted to God s call to be the pastor of God
s
people. He wasn't elevated to that position. In fact he says he d
rather
die on the spot than bear that burden. This spirit is crucial in
church
order. Earlier in this month the Vatican produced a document
reasserting the unique claim of Christ on the world and the unique
place of the Roman Catholic Church to mediate that claim.
Sometimes
it is hard to distinguish between Rome's mediating God's claim on
the
world and Rome's laying claim to the world, the Vatican anguishing
over its servant role both to God and the world and the Vatican's
relishing its authority. We all have the same problem with church
order, but we don't all have equally tempting credentials.

Church order is not a matter of laity submitting to clergy, of course,
but rather laity and clergy submitting to God. Just as the seventy
gathered around Moses to support him in his submission to God, so
the
laity gather around the clergy when the church is in submission to
God. For, as the Psalmist reminds us, it is God who saves us; and,
as
that reminds me, it is not the church that saves us.

Proverbs 31:10-31
Ps. 1
James 3:13 4:3, 7-8a
Mark 9:30-37


The Wild Kingdom and God's Kingdom

It is a sign of the reign of God that the humble survive and even thrive.
Only in the Kingdom of God can the humble be called the fittest, not in
Darwin s wild kingdom.

Proverbs 31 celebrates the success of a women in a male dominated society.

Psalm 1 contrasts the fitness of the righteous and the unrighteous..

James contrasts the wild kingdom with God s kingdom and explains that our
frustrations in life come from assuming the rules of the wild kingdom will
get us what we want and need.

Jesus sets forth the rule of God with a rule for God s kingdom, "Whoever
wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all." (Mark 9:35)

It is interesting that Jesus chooses something done primarily by women,
caring for children, as an example of a winning behavior in God s kingdom.
This ties back to the passage from Proverbs where women are praised for
their service in the role of wife, home maker and entrepreneur. Who is the
greatest? Who is the fittest? Is it the man who sits on the board of
directors in the city gate, or the woman who keeps their house? Is it the
person who overcomes his enemies at their own game, or the one who relies on
the righteousness of God? Is it the one who travels with celebrities, with
the movers and shakers of society, or the person who receives a little child
in the name of God?

It is the task of the one who proclaims the Gospel to help the audience
answer these questions faithfully and thereby to help the whole society
answer. It is the task of the preacher to announce the reign of God, and it
is the privilege of the preacher to thus participate in its coming. The
reign of God is a human potential like the clear sky above the smog. It is
there if people can see it; but if people cannot see it, it may as well not
be there. If they can t see that the fittest of all is the servant of all,
then no one will aspire to be the servant of all.

It was curious that death came to two of the world s most famous women at
each end of the same week in 1997, Princess Diana and Mother Teresa. A news
commentator noted the irony by suggesting that it was an expression of God s
sense of humor, demanding that the world hold up the two side by side. If
you believe in God, he added parenthetically. Well, no one who believes in
God revealed in Jesus would attribute to God such treatment of human life --
Allah maybe, not God. Without subtracting from the respect Diana deserves,
we can still point to the contrast of these two lives and note that the
reign of God is visible in the world or else we would never have heard of
Mother Teresa. Here was a woman surrounded by the evil of abysmal poverty
who relied on God and God s righteousness to become the servant of people as
helpless as infants, and she survived. She didn t just survive. She led a
long and meaningful life. So who is the fittest? Who is the greatest? I
don t think it is fair to compare two women whom we barely know, the
Scriptures call us to choose between two definitions of fittest and
greatest, that of the wild kingdom and that of God s kingdom?
(9/21/97)

Pentecost 14 (September 17, 2000)

Proverbs 1:20-33
Ps 19
James 3:1-12
Mark 8:27-38

McGregor's Open Letter To Fellow Pastors
(an e-mail service)

*****
Self-actualized emerged in the past generation as an ideal and term of
praise. It conjures up the
image of a person who keeps his head when all around are losing theirs,
who marches to the
beat of a different drummer, who belies the obvious fact that most of what
human beings do is
conditioned from beyond themselves. Is this idea of self-actualization
merely an expression of
human arrogance, or is it a yearning for a real possibility?

The introduction to the proverbs gives up in advance on our ability to make
wise choices because
we are so conditioned by willful ignorance, waywardness and complacency.

James warns that the tongue is conditioned from beyond the kingdom of God
and is certainly
beyond the control of its owner. Yet he counsels control.

The Psalmist praises an environment obedient to God within which the human
being is
conditioned.

Jesus lives and teaches a life conditioned solely by obedience and self-
sacrifice.

Martin Luther thought of the human will as a horse with a rider. The rider
is either Christ or
Satan. That is how self-actualized he thought people could be. B. F.
Skinner, too, would snort at
the notion. But maybe there is more to it than just existentialism. Maybe
there are a few times
and a few ways that we can actually define ourselves over against the world,
over against our
environment, even over against our fallen natures.

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, If any want to
become my followers, let
them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. (Mark 8:34)
Taking up the cross is
the negation of all claims on our lives other than the claim of Christ. It
is the setting of one s face,
as of flint, toward the reign of God. It is an act of will on our part and
a bestowal of grace on
God's part. It is perhaps the only act available to humanity that could
claim the term
self-actualization. Thank you, brother Martin (Luther).

Victor Frankl died on September 14, three years ago at age 92. In the Nazi
concentration camp
he found within himself that which was not conditioned by the world. He
survived to tell the
world that self- actualization is a spiritual gift not an assertion of
superiority. Hitler trusted in the
latter and died. Frankl believed in the former and lived. Jesus offers,
not just to his disciples but
to the whole multitude, a life that has meaning, to be his follower. In
offering this life to all and
sundry, Jesus implies that his listeners have the power to make that choice.
It is a self-actualizing
choice made possible by the grace of God. It is perhaps our only access to
unassailable value, to
be conditioned by the cross rather than the world.

Pentecost 13 (September 10, 2000)

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
Psalm 125
James 2:1-10 (11-13) 14-17
Mark 7:24-37

God Loves Our Community

The poor was an accepted designation of a class of people 2500 years ago
and is just a recognizable today. Jesus was right when he said, "For you
always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever
you wish; but you will not always have me." (Mark 14:7) Lyndon Johnson
with his Great Society dared to ask why we should always have the poor. The
answer is simple, cheap labor. Our desire for cheap labor is greater than
our desire for community.

The Proverb counsels consideration of the poor because of a fundamental
community among people. The rich and the poor have this in common: the
LORD is the maker of them all." (Proverbs 22:2) What else do the rich and
poor have in common? They prefer cheap labor to costly.

The ditch needs cleaning. The costliest way to get it done is to do it
myself. It is cheaper if you do it. How, you say, can you get me to
clean your ditch? If you are poor enough and I am just prosperous enough,
you will dig it. I don t have to be a rich man to benefit from another
person s poverty.

Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the
poor. But, if I give alms to the poor, how will they be motivated to clean
my ditch? "Such are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches."
(Psalm 73:12) Ease and riches, riches and ease, these are the envy of every
human heart.

So, how could it ever be that the poor are not with us? That the work doesn
t go to the lowest bidder? That the lives of people are not weighed out in
part-time lots at minimum wage with a deduction to offset the tips?

James says that our faith should result in an equitable community where
people have a value not tied to their economic impact but tied to the impact
of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters.
Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs
of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? (James 2:5)
Still, this is not the whole society, just a small sect of the first century
that James is visualizing. If this spirit did not prevail in that small
sect as it certainly did not in Jerusalem where the Proverbs were taught,
how could it ever sway a whole society?

It appears that Jesus experienced a redefinition of his mission, if not his
perceptions, late in his ministry. We find him struggling with a
Syrophoenician woman over the hierarchy of society before God -- Jew first
and then gentile. Or, is Jesus struggling with himself? Where would the
mission of Jesus be now, if it had remained Jew first?

Can we follow Jesus in such a reevaluation of our mission? Can me first
be redefined? Can riches be redefined? Ease? Labor? Now that we ve done
the communist thing, is there anyone with the courage to move forward? Are
we going to end this century where we came in?

What would it be like if we took turns cleaning the ditch? Not just
non-violent inmates, work-fare recipients and executives sentenced to
community service. What if instead of me first, it were our town, our
country, our world? What if riches were defined by what we hold in
common rather than by personal wealth, what we share rather than what we
hoard? What if ease were "Sabbath rest," the rest of the righteous that
the Psalmist describes. "Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion,
which cannot be moved, but abides forever. (Psalms 125:1) What if labor
were an expression of shared responsibility for ourselves, our town, our
country and our world? Remember what community was like when there was a
barn raising?

Pentecost 12 (September 3, 2000)

Song of Solomon 2:8-13
Ps. 45:1-2, 6-9
James 1:17-27
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

In Love With God

A black woman in love, a royal wedding, first fruits of the human race,
and an argument about
what defiles us, close this summer with a homiletical dilemma. Are we the
black woman in love
with God? Is this wedding between Christ and the church -- God and Israel?
Are we having
trouble being a good wife to God, first fruits or not? Do we try to look
like a good wife rather
than act like one?

First tell me about a love for God that is as sensuous as that in the Song.
When was it that you
were as smitten with Christ as with that someone in ninth-grade geometry?
When was God that
real? That beautiful?

Then tell me about the wedding. Was it a grand affair or did you sneak off
and get married?
Where was the honeymoon? Were you scared? Looking back on it, do you think
you knew what
you were doing? Were you really in love?

Dare I ask about your faithfulness? Have you ever wondered about God s
faithfulness? Have you
ever felt as if you married above yourself, as if others were speculating
how long it would last?
Do you now shrink from giving your married name, "Christian?" Is your
marriage in trouble?

What do you suppose God wants out of this marriage? Do you diet to keep God
s eye? Does it
work? Do you take care of the family? Are you there for God?

A friend pointed to the eastern evening sky where a triumphant cumulus cloud
dominated the
horizon, graduating in color and brightness from dark pink at the ground to
alabaster where it
etched itself against the blue, a cloud shaped remarkably like the Starship
Enterprise. Can you
see that and not believe in God? he asked. Can I not love the creator of
such awe in me! I
exclaimed inside myself. It is not the love of youth, but it is the love I
first knew as a youth. It is
like a kiss remembered, God s kiss.

Though I don t remember the honeymoon, I do remember God s carrying me over
the threshold.
The wedding wasn t much. I was too young. Accountable age they said in
that
believers-baptism church, but I was worried that my underwear would show
through the white
gown coming up out of the baptistry wet in front of everyone. I guess a lot
of us get married too
young. That s why we want to be born again. Marriage, the birth of our
children, ordination,
divorce between, but I still remember being carried over the threshold.

I remember being faithful, but I remember being unfaithful too. I can t
accept the idea that all my
labor for the church is an expression of my co-dependency. No, it is love.
Love is in there
somewhere with my need for love. The reluctant hospital visit is even a
fruit of God s grace.
Yes, but my reluctance is a part of the visit too.

It isn t all for show, making a production of the rites of purification the
way the Pharisees do, but
some of it is for show. I am more the Pharisee than I ever say. "How can
one stand in the center
of the sanctuary and not become part of the show? Not to complain about the
pressure to be a
better show than the church down the street or the new one in the suburbs?
Not to complain
about the stress of being a pastor today?" I say. All these pressures to
perform flow in, but Jesus
said it isn t what flows in that defiles us, but what flows out. So, what
flows out?

A song of love. A renewing of vows. An act of kindness. This is the way a
marriage endures
over time.
(8/18/97)

Pentecost 1 (August 27, 2000)

1 Kings 8:(1, 6, 10-11) 22-30, 41-43
Ps. 84
Ephesians 6:10-20
John 6:56-69


We Need Sanctuary

What a sanctuary dedication! This is not just a sanctuary. This is THE
sanctuary, the only house of God, the only point on earth where God takes up
residence. Solomon does make allowance that although the fullness of God
may dwell in his house the expanse of God does not: Even heaven and the
highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house... (1 Kings 8:27)
This sounds a lot like incarnation to me. Although here God is not uniquely
present in a person, God is uniquely present in a building. What Solomon is
celebrating is a kind of nativity of God. Sinai was the annunciation, and
the placing of the arc in the temple is the birth. Now, God is physically
present, the fullness of God. Oh, you go into the wilderness, and God is
there but plays peek-a-boo. In the temple you can count on God s presence
in a different way. So, from then on, people who really wanted to be
related to God would go see him in his house at least once a year.

Imagine being able to go visit the incarnate God! It would be like that
magic spot on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel where the finger of God and
the finger of Adam touch. It would be like in the movie Close Encounters
of a Third Kind when the space ship landed and these gleaming creatures
emerged. Here in this place and no other on earth, human beings meet the
one beyond, the ultimate one. What an experience! What a privilege for an
ephemeral creature!

"A voice says, "Cry out!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All people are
grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field." (Isaiah 40:6)
We cry out against this reality, but it remains the reality. We are grass.
We are radically contingent beings, but if we can relate ourselves to the
eternal one. If we can build him a house, if he will stay in his house, we
can shake this nagging feeling that we are grass.

The house that Solomon built is gone, gone with it for most of us is the
believe that God can be cooped up in any structure we build. Not gone is
our need for sanctuary with God however. What we have left is a kind of
space suit that will protect us from the life-threatening atmosphere outside
of God's house, the vacuum of sin and death. Put on the whole armor of
God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
(Ephesians 6:11) Thus protected for now we look forward to finally entering
God's true sanctuary; "so that, having been justified by his grace, we
might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." (Titus 3:7)

Or, if we eat right... Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in
me, and I in them. (John 6:56) There is a lot of talk nowadays about
eating right, but it is not this talk. Why not?
It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. (John 6:63)
Because we think the flesh is everything. But, if the flesh is everything,
then we are grass, and here comes that nagging feeling again.

We would like to rise above needing God in a sanctuary, needing to wear the
whole armor of God, needing to feed on Jesus as if we were sucklings. We
would like to rise above being contingent creatures. We, like Archimedes,
would like to move the earth with a lever, but we have nowhere to stand.
The more we pretend that we are not grass, the more we look just like grass.
Therefore, accepting our mortality, let us embrace all that God has provided
and set our hearts on things eternal.

Pentecost 10 (August 20, 2000)

1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14
Ps. 111
Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58

McGregor's Open Letter To Fellow Pastors
(an e-mail service)

*****
The Wisdom of the Saved

Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of his father David;
only... (1 Kings 3:3) With these words the kingdom of Israel entered its
golden era. Only what? Only a tragic flaw of some sort obtained. ... he
sacrificed and offered incense at the high places. (But didn t inhale.)
Never mind. Even tragic flaws are covered while prosperity endures. Let
the golden era play out, and then reflect on the meaning of sacrificing and
offering incense at the high places. For now, give him credit for seeking
wisdom. Wisdom is the simple business of not making the same mistake twice
and not repeating the mistake someone else made either. The wisdom of
Solomon provided maxims that would guide people away from humanity s
perennial mistakes. Not bad. Our society would be a lot more stable if
this kind of wisdom prevailed in the home and school. There is talk now of
a new class of people among us, the feral youth, a people who can kill
another person without remorse, yea without a reason. In our rush to
educate, we have left wisdom behind and with wisdom its offspring, morality.

Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the
most of the time, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:15-16) A Roman
citizen in 70 A.D. (or so) says the days are evil. Just wait, Paul. You
are still in the golden era. But the days were evil by the standard of the
Kingdom of God, and so they are today. It is not just an evil that results
from our failure to learn from the mistakes of the past, nor an evil that
proceeds from our lack of insight. Rather, it is an evil that resides in
us, an evil that can only be overcome if it is displaced by the Spirit of
God. Wisdom in this case is not our own but God s. It displaces our
wisdom, but more importantly, it displaces our sin.

Jesus talks about our internalizing his very body. So Jesus said to them,
Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink
his blood, you have no life in you. (John 6:53)
Ugh. Every time I hear Jesus say that, I go into exegetical shock. Help
me, Bultman! John, surely you didn t hear Jesus say that. You are just
adapting what he said to a later theological need, right? Is this any way
to make up for not including the story of the Last Supper in your Gospel?

I have heard people say, Whenever I am not sure of the morality of a
situation, I just ask myself, What would Jesus do? "WWJD" is plastered
around now. I wonder, How do you know what Jesus would do? -- unless, of
course, you eat his flesh and drink is blood, so to speak; unless you have
somehow internalized his very being. Then you would indeed know what he
would do. You would be truly wise and, as Jesus promises, truly alive.

Pentecost 9 (August 13, 2000)

2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33
Ps. 130
Ephesians 4:25-5:2
John 6:35, 41-51

*****

Sinful Saints?

Falsehood, anger, thievery, evil talk, bitterness, wrath, wrangling,
slander, malice and grieving the Holy Spirit of God in general were all to
be found in the Church in Ephesus at the time of Paul s writing. Otherwise,
why would he remonstrate against them? This is the same church Paul
addresses as saints at the beginning of the letter. The sinfulness of the
saints is a confusing idea.

I have been thus confused. It turned out that the man who embezzled a small
fortune from the city was a member of the church I had served. In the
church newsletter was a note from him thanking the congregation for their
support. I couldn t decide whether to celebrate the saints for their
compassion or despise that saint for his thievery and the embarrassment he
was to us all. Paul implores the saints to act like saints, but he never
backs down from their title and inheritance.

"Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How
can he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" (John 6:42) Is this not
the church at Ephesus, the scoundrels we know? Is this not the church of
Jesus Christ with its checkered history? Is this not the church based on
the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and other fabulous stories? It is
with questions like these that the world excuses itself from believing. But
these questions ignore what has come down from heaven and contemplate only
what has come up from the dirt. The truth is that the church is never seen
right unless it is seen as both what comes down from heaven and up from the
dirt, nor is any human being ever seen correctly unless seen as both what
comes up from the dirt and down from heaven. Then the LORD God formed man
from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life; and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

The apparent contradiction in "sinful saints" derives from our
underestimating God's ability to make holy that which God touches and our
further failure to recognize God's touch. God makes holy all that God
touches. We don't become holy in anticipation of God's presence, nor affect
holiness to conjure up God's presence. It is God's presence that makes
holy, not our behavior or our humble origins. Nowhere is this lack of
insight more noticeable than in the sacraments themselves. I have observed
that the church in its celebration of holy communion struggles to hold
together what comes up from the dirt and what comes down from heaven. The
sacrament is either too spooky to think you belong there or too earthy to
believe God belongs there. The mystery of faith is God's ability to make us
holy with a touch.

Pentecost 8 (August 6, 2000)

2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a
Ps. 51:1-12
Ephesians 4:1-16
John 6:24-35


McGregor's Open Letter To Fellow Pastors
(an e-mail service)

*****

Pangs of Plenty

David was hungry. For what? "Had he not enough wives to lie with?" God complained. David,
the reflective man with a reverence for God, was caught off guard by his hunger, a hunger that
comes not from deprivation but from abundance, the hunger that abundance creates. It is the
elusive hope that one day we might be satisfied, complete and victorious.

I had lived many years before it dawned on me that I could possess very little. I did not possess
my wife or my children. I didn t possess my career. It belonged to the church. Things that were
legally in my name could be legally in another name with a single turn of events. Even the food
that I got inside myself would not stay or sustain me long. If I were ever to be satisfied, complete
and victorious, it would not come to me through anything I could possess or convince myself I
did possess.

David was hungry. Then he was angry. Then he was crushed. Like David we get angry at others
without realizing the boomerang in our anger. We direct it outward and say,  the man who has
done this deserves to die. (2 Samuel 12:5) All the time some part of us knows that we have done
it or thought about doing it or done something like it differing only in degree. Consumer oriented
worship services don t deal with our hypocrisy, our sinfulness, too negative. They treat the
worshipper like the innocent child who has just scuffed his knee, all pity and solicitation and
indulgence. (Martin Luther would recognize the irony of Protestand churches now selling
indulgences.) You mustn't treat the religion consumer the way Nathan treated David. But, what
if people are really seeking forgiveness for their sin? Are we to imply that they can be saved
through yet another possession?

David s sin hits him with its full force, but it doesn t hit in the back.
Nathan did what a priest should do, Turn David! The first child of that union would die; the
second would ruin the kingdom and divide the tribes of Israel forever. God heard his confession
and forgave him, but the deed was done. The forgiveness of God does not remove the effect of our
sin on others. The amazing grace is that it removes the enmity between God and us. That will
be enough for David and for us.

If we are not hungry for a world we control, we are hungry for a world not controlled by our sin,
but neither hunger shall be satisfied. There is only one bread from heaven,  and no one can have it;
that is, no one can possess it. Except for the Sabbath, Manna could not be kept, only eaten as it
was given. Likewise the bread of heaven, the righteousness of Jesus, can only be ours as we
receive it hour by hour, day by day. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every
way into him who is the head, into Christ... (Ephesians 4:15) We must grow up... Paul says
with urgency and hope in his voice. Grow up from what? The life of hunger that Paul goes on to
describe.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, that I may not hunger for that which does not satisfy. Mine is the iniquity of the world, I will starve if you do not cleanse me. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. " (John 6:35)

Pentecost 7 (July 30, 2000)

2 Samuel 11:1-15
Ps. 14
Ephesians 3:14-21
John 6:1-21



God's Glory, Our Security

Protection, But he said to them, It is I; do not be afraid. Then they
wanted to take him into the
boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were
going." (John 6:20-21)

Deep security, I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all
the saints, what is the
breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that
surpasses
knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
(Ephesians 3:18-19)

In spite of our sinfulness, "They have all gone astray, they are all alike
perverse; there is no one
who does good, no, not one." (Psalm 14:3) King David included.

How are the promises of God to be appropriated, not just believed but
received? Take abundance
for instance. Jesus didn t just promise to feed the multitude. He did feed
them. Was it more
important that they recognize him as the sustainer of the universe than that
they receive
sustenance? We are not gods. We are creatures. If we don t eat, we die
regardless of what we
believe. So, let s have this promised abundance. What is it? (Manna means
"what is it?") It is a
full stomach and .0024 of a basket of leftovers, each. It doesn t quite add
up to capital formation.
The abundance that God promises doesn t support the construction of a palace
in Versailles. The
problem is that we humans don t know how to do abundance other than to
stretch it thin in
Harlem to thick at the World Trade Center, a microcosm of the problem within
one hundred
blocks along the length of Manhattan Island. The communists thought they
could do it the way
God would but had trouble deciding who would be God, and lacking God had
trouble finding
anyone who would produce the abundance.

Give us this day our daily bread. Let our abundance be God s abundance.
King David couldn't
satisfy himself with God's abundance. He had to have Bathsheba too and was
willing to kill to get
her. O, to be satisfied with God's abundance.

Fragile creatures, in addition to abundance, need protection. Notice that
as soon as Jesus arrives,
the disciples find themselves immediately at the shore to which they had
been desperately rowing
before he came. I thought about that word immediately when a friend said
she would be
checking out of the hospital after supper, after gall bladder surgery that
morning. Surely the Lord
must be near. I remember when it was a hard row home from gall bladder
surgery. When the
Lord is near, it is never so far from shore.

We need abundance because we are creatures, sinful creatures. We waste so
much and horde so
much, only abundance will do. We need protection because we are fragile and
mortal. We are to
the universe like ants on a railroad track, yet we are protected. No other
species is so protected.
Abundance and protection don t add up to deep security, however. Abundance
and protection
don t always materialize. The news media keep us well aware of that. For
all the faithfulness of
God, we remain creatures, appointed once to die. Deep security is not
inherent in the human
condition. If it comes, it comes from God. Paul testifies that it is the
love of God actually
occupying our hearts. Rooted and grounded in love the glory which is God
s alone becomes our
inheritance in Jesus Christ. This is the only deep security I know, or know
of. I believe it because
of the Word proclaimed. I am coached in it because of the church and all
the followers of Christ
who have shown me love. I experience it because God strengthens my inner
being," in answer to
Paul's prayer for the church then and now.


(7/27/97)

*****

Pentecost 6 (July 23, 2000)

2 Samuel 7:1-14a
Ps. 89:20-37
Ephesians 2:11-22
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

*****
Surprised By God's Promise

God makes an generous promise to David. "When your days are fulfilled and
you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you,
who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom... I
will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me." (2 Samuel 7:12,14a)

The Psalmist hears a more exuberant promise, outrageous when you stop to
think about. "I will establish his line forever, and his throne as long as
the heavens endure." (Psalm 89:29)

The outrageousness of the promise in Psalm 89 goes with the outrageousness
of the cross. It won't be King Solomon who lays an eternal foundation for
David's line. He built a magnificent house for God in Jerusalem, but he
missed the mark. He built a temple made by human hands. It would take a
different son of David to make good on the promise in the Psalm, one who
replaced the temple with his risen body. Only he can lay claim to God's
promise: "I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the
earth." (Psalm 89:27) He is highest of the kings for all time because he
transcends time. The kings of the earth can't compete with him because they
can't get their hands on him.

Paul celebrates the new transcendence of David's descendent: "...in his
flesh he has made both groups [Jew and Gentile] into one and has broken down
the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us." (Ephesians 2: 14)
This is how Christ rises above the kings of the earth. He unifies their
subjects under his heavenly reign. When our borders disappear, so does the
power of the local king. The reign of Christ is like the rise of the
Internet in that it dissolves national boundaries and challenges provincial
rule.

The subjects of this heavenly king flock to him. "...they hurried there on
foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he
saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like
sheep without a shepherd..." (Mark 6:33-34) Earthly leaders push. Jesus
pulls. He draws all people to himself, as John puts it. The risen Lord is
the only plausible fulfillment of the promise of God in Psalm 89, the only
way the line of David can be eternal and transcendent.

David set out to build God a house. But God had a better idea. He would
build David a house, not a house made by human hands but a house that
over-arches history. No Babylonian army can conquer this house and raze it
to the ground. Instead it stands forever in the midst of human history
drawing its subjects home. "Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in
Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was
descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with
Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. (Luke 2:4-5)

Thus the promise that the Psalmist heard and proclaimed came true in a way
he couldn't have anticipated. Likewise God's promises to us will come true,
not as we anticipate, confirming our designs, but rather as God designs,
confirming God's glorious creativity.

*****

May these thoughts strengthen you.

Pentecost 5 (July 16, 2000)

2 Samuel 6:1-19 (Excising the mid-portion of this text shows a lack of
reverence for the Scripture and a lack of confidence in the exegetical
ability of the preacher. Karl Barth would not approve,
and neither do I.)
Psalm 24
Ephesians 1:3-14
Mark 6:14-29

The One With The Power

What do John the Baptist and Uzzah have in common? They both fell to a
flash of power that transcended them. This happens. Sometimes those who
tell the story see the hand of God as primary in the person's demise.
Another way to interpret the event is to assign it to fate, "He was in the
wrong place at the wrong time." I find it inconsistent to give God the
credit for our being "in the right place at the right time" and consign the
opposite to bad luck. No, I'd rather wrestle with the problem of God's hand
being in the evil that befalls us as well as the good. Otherwise, our
suffering becomes meaningless. I would rather suffer at God's hand then at
the hand of a stranger -- or worse, a mindless universe. Satan can be
offered as another agent, though not in these Scriptures. If I die because
of Satan, I die related to Satan, not to God. I die because Satan has the
greater claim on my life. I believe that regardless of how we die, the
children of God die in relation to God.


Would you rather make a pastoral call on Uzzah's wife and children to say
that his death was just one of those things that happens occasionally when a
person tries to steady the arc, a million to one chance -- or come to say
that the anger of the Lord "was kindled against him?" A tough choice. It
is tough because we always want to represent God in a winsome way. More
important, is that we represent God truthfully. Was God angry? Or, was God
off duty when it happened? Or, is there a dispassionate side to God's
power, God's provision for the consequences of our actions apart from our
intentions? I wouldn't presume to tell his wife more than I know, but I
wouldn't withhold the truth I do know. She is going to blame God anyway.
Better she should remember that God's anger does not endure like God's
faithfulness. There are people in our audience who are wrestling with the
memory of dreadful loss, not limited to death. If we forbid them from
wrestling with God, how will they ever find blessing?

Is God powerful only to save, not to destroy? Psalm 24 and our Ephesians
passage celebrate God's power to save. The story from Samuel and Mark
invite us to ponder God's power to destroy. Oh, yes, it was Herod's order,
but that order would never have come had it not been for God's calling John
to preach. Can the one who knows all things not bear some responsibility
for all things? The way John died fits his calling and his obedience to
that call. Is it bad that he died that way rather than some other way?

What do we proclaim? We confess God to be the one who has all the power to
save or destroy us, yet who has chosen to save us. It is the mystery of
God's choosing grace above judgment... It is the mystery of God choosing
us... It is the mystery of God's choosing us for grace over judgment in
Christ Jesus that is the Gospel.


(7/13/07)

Pentecost 4 (July 9, 2000)

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10
Psalm 48
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Mark 6:1-13

McGregor's Open Letter To Fellow Pastors
(an e-mail service)

*****

Nazareth Waits

"Pray as if everything depended on God. Work as if everything depended on
you." The relationship between our action and God's action is real and a
real mystery. God gave to David the throne of Saul and the glorious reign
that followed, but David fought for it the whole way too. Paul glories in
the revelation of God entrusted to him. It is both a message and an
ecstatic experience. But, lest he become too full of himself and not filled
enough with the grace of God, he bears in his body a constant messenger of
his mortality, "a thorn in the flesh" he calls it. He interprets it as
God's gift, a way to keep in balance his action and God's action.

The people in Jesus' home town took the opposite tack from David and Paul.
They challenged God to impress them before they would do anything or believe
anything. God didn't impress them. "And he could do no deed of power
there," Mark says. (Mark 6:5) This word "could" is disturbing. Jesus
lacked the power? God lacked the power? What can this mean? Is it as
simple as the veto power we all have over God's constructive power in our
lives, a veto power that derives from the freedom God has given us? Or, is
it a glimpse into the dynamic relationship between God and human beings?
Nazareth is still waiting for God to act, but the riches of God wait in the
wings for Nazareth to act. What riches of God wait in the wings for us to
act? How does this world languish for lack of faith?

Jesus sends the apostles out with an understanding of the reciprocal power
between the message and the listener. He tells them to abandon the
unresponsive audience. This isn't callousness. It is good stewardship.
Jesus didn't spend much time in Nazareth either. It was a waste of his
time. Might I too be a waste of his time? That possibility has to be
raised by this scripture. I could be the citizen of Nazareth. God does no
great work in me because I offer God little or nothing. I may prefer to be
caught up into the seventh heaven more than caught up with loving my
neighbor as myself. I may prefer trusting in my own religious experience
more than I trust God. It can be that the promises of God seem so familiar
to me that I don't expect much. I have minimized their potential in order
to fit them into my small world. "Is not this the carpenter, the son of
Mary..." (Mark 6:3)

The church can be Nazareth to Jesus. It is the place where he is best known.
It can be the place where his power is most domesticated and neutralized.
It can be, but it doesn't have to be. The circle of the disciples knew
Jesus well too, but they knew Jesus differently. The gave him their very
lives. They obeyed his command. They dreamed his dream and hoped his hope.
They delivered the message that lives in us today. What a great work God
has done because of them and because of churches like them.

"Your name, O God, like your praise, reaches to the ends of the earth."
(Psalm 48:10)

*****

May these thoughts strengthen you.

-- Page 198, July 2, 2000

God Makes House Calls

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
Psalm 130
2 Corinthians 8:7-15
Mark 5:21-43


An epitaph and a cry from the depth of despair, a fund raising appeal and tandem miracles — what is the message?

David reminds the Israelites that Saul made them rich (a bit of an overstatement). Paul reminds the Corinthians that Christ made them rich (an understatement). The Psalmist cries out like Jairus cried out at the death of his daughter, and God responds in Jesus. Paul cries out on behalf of the Macedonians and hopes the Corinthian church will respond the way Titus did.

What shall we make of loss, or what will loss make of us? David lost Jonathan; Jairus lost his daughter and the woman lost her health. We are tempted to make nothing of our loss, to dismiss it as if it were nothing. "I don't want to think about it," Tiger Woods said about the death of Payne Stewart. Saul was David's competitor. His death cleared the way to the throne. What was David going to make of his loss? Would he gloat? Would he just get on with his game? Would he stop to plumb the depths of that loss in the presence God?

"No funeral!" "We just had her cremated. Funerals are such downers. Everyone needs to just get on with their lives."

When we avoid Psalm 130, we leave our grief to eat away at us unrecognized. When we name the loss, calling it by it's right name, and call on God as our witness, grief has met its match.

There is no cure for loss except the presence of God. If God didn't make house calls, loss would be forever. Jesus dropped what he was doing and followed Jairus home. Little did anyone know what his presence would do for the woman in the crowd. Paul wants people in Corinth to drop what they are doing with their money and take Christ to Macedonia. Little would they know about the impact of God on lives there.

"The child is not dead but sleeping." (Mark 5:39) Did the mourners not know the difference between a dead person and a sleeping person!? What they didn't know was that our death in Christ is but sleep. Jairus called Jesus into his home to transform his loss. He didn't deny his loss. He didn't presume he could deal with it on his own. He called for help, and God made a house call. We never know who all will be saved when we ask God to come to our house.

Pentecost 2 -- Page 197, June 25, 2000

Confrontation Without and Within

1 Samuel 17:(1a, 4-11, 19-23) 32-49
Psalm 9:9-20 or (1 Samuel 17:57-18:5, 10-16 Ps. 133)
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Mark 4:35-41


Confrontation is all about: David and Goliath, Saul and David, Paul and the church at Corinth, the Disciples and the weather. The Psalmist points us to God, the ultimate answer to confrontation. He blesses the community that lives in God's peace.

As satisfying as David's victory over Goliath may have been, it was hardly the end of confrontation in his life. Confrontation was his way of life. Is it any different with us? Perhaps we have never had a confrontation as dramatic as that of David and Goliath, nothing that gave us the impression that our victory was decisive. Our confrontations may be chronic like those of David and Saul or Paul and the church at Corinth. Or they may be confrontations with the faceless enemy, the storm at sea, depression like Saul's or life-threatening illness.

"The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble." (Psalm 9:9)

David's life was a counterpoint between confrontation with the world around him and consolation from the Psalm within him. He engaged dynamically both life around and life within, both the world and God. The Psalmist could speak with confidence at David's funeral service. Adding up the score, God's hand had clearly prevailed against David's enemies. The Psalmist would have more trouble at Paul's funeral. Paul does a better job preaching his own funeral service.

"We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see--we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything." (2 Corinthians 6:8b-10)

Sometimes God protects us by adopting our conflict with the world, by calming the sea by healing our illness. Sometimes God protects us by adopting our conflict within, treated as impostors and yet... as dying and yet." It is hard to trust God's love when God abandons us to the ravages of the world, the confrontations without. It is hard to take seriously a prayer like Psalm 9:19-20, "Rise up, O LORD! Do not let mortals prevail; let the nations be judged before you. Put them in fear, O LORD; let the nations know that they are only human."

Paul like other apostles was overtaken by the evil forces of this world and died a martyr's death. He, like Jesus, placed his faith in God's protection outside the arena of this world, indeed he submitted to defeat at the hands of the world. His victory lay within him, shared with God but not with the world. He was seen as sorrowful, yet within, he was always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything! By the grace of God he had prevailed in the greatest confrontation of all, the confrontation within.

Holy Trinity -- Page 196, June 18, 2000

Pushbuttons or Touchstones

Isaiah 6:1-8
Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40
Exodus 3:1-6
Psalm 29
Romans 8:12-17
John 3:1-17


In this day of high-tech everything, most of us have given up on the question "How does it work?" in favor of "Which button do I push?" I am afraid that is also true in our relationship with God. Of course, there is no harder question to ask than "How does God work?" but there was a time when Christians took that question on with zeal and carved their discoveries in stone. The doctrine of the Trinity is one of those stones, but what kind of stone, a tomb stone of the past or a touchstone forever? This Sunday is a good time to stop looking for the right button to push and just meditate on God.

How does God work? At a distance, a very great distance -- and at the highest level of power: "The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as king forever." (Ps. 29:10)

Then what of the divinity of Christ? "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son . . . " (Jn 3:16) Is that as close as God can get, to send someone? Is that how God works? Islam and Judaism say "yes." Christianity says "no." The meaning of "only Son" is revealed later in John: "Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?'" (John 14:9) Paul points us to the identity of God in Jesus with these words: "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us." (2 Cor 5:18-19)

Utterly powerless, Jesus hung on the cross. Strangely forgiving, he prayed for his torturers. Is this how God works? Or, is this just one of God's strange prophets at work? If we don't say "This is God, and this is how God works," we have nothing to say about God -- nothing that other religions can't say just as well.

So, how does God work? At the highest levels of power and the greatest distance from us -- yes. Personally entering history in the person of Jesus, who was fully human and fully God -- yes. And, personally encountering us in our ongoing history: "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple." (Isaiah 6:1) "When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!' it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God . . . " (Rom 8:15-16)

I believe in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the Christian confession of how God works. No one else bears this witness. The world will hear it from no one else, and yet we are strangely silent about the Trinity, even in our worship -- too busy pushing buttons.

June 4, 2000

An Alien Church

Exodus 28:1-4, 9-10, 29-30
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
Psalm 1
1 John 5:9-13
John 17:6-19


I remember, as a teen, watching Rev. Monseigneur Fulton J. Sheen on television explain the Roman Catholic view of the relationship between the church and the world. It was the "three- storied universe." On the ground floor was humanity. On the second floor was the church, and on the third floor was heaven. The role of the church, he explained pointing to a visual aid on an easel, was to reach down and pull people up from the first floor to the second floor and eventually to the third floor. It was a way of thinking about the church's being in the world but not of the world.

Jesus talks this way in his high priestly prayer, "I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world." (John 17:14)

Jesus had transformed the disciples. Before they met him they belonged to the world. Now, they do not belong to the world. They are aliens. Jesus has alienated the disciples to the world just as he was alien to the world. He is going to the Father, and that will complete demonstrate the "three-story universe" -- the disciples on the second floor; God and Jesus on the third floor; and the world on the first floor.

I don't think John intends for us to think the disciples are being left in the lurch by Jesus. I believe he intends us to meditate on the profound transformation that has elevated the disciples to the level on which Jesus lived in the world. This is where the church should always live, on the level of Jesus' earthly life.

In my lifetime I have seen the church progressively divest itself of the alien nature Jesus imparted to it. The rationale has been to make the church relevant to modern people. So, Roman Catholics traded the Latin mass for English, and Protestant preachers tried to demonstrate they were human like everyone else. Liturgy has degenerated to drivel. Worship has become like a Las Vegas show, a parade of entertainment. In our desperation to keep the world in our fold, we have become no different than the world. We have lost our alien status, and we don't even realize it. We will realize it when the world says to the church, "You have nothing we need because all you have is of the world." Watch as religions alien to our culture attract more and more people. I am not saying we should cling to past forms because they seem alien or quaint. New forms are needed, new forms that are in the world but not of the world.

God dressed up Aaron to set him apart from the world. He was to live on the second story, to intercede between God and the people of God. The church of Jesus Christ is the heir of this priesthood. All believers are to the world what Aaron was to the tribes of Israel.

The priesthood of the believer calls for a different dress: "And you shall speak to all who have ability, whom I have endowed with skill, that they make Aaron's vestments to consecrate him for my priesthood. These are the vestments that they shall make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a checkered tunic, a turban, and a sash." (Exodus 28:3-4)

It calls for a different walk: "Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night." (Psalm 1:1-2)

It calls for a different drummer: ‘Then they prayed and said, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place."' (Acts 1:24-25)

It calls for a different way of being: "Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life."

The salvation of the world will come from outside the world. People instinctively know this. When the church mimics the world, people will find someone else to point them beyond the world, perhaps someone who doesn't have eternal life.

Therefore, exhort your people to accept their priesthood as the work of Christ in them, and because of that transformation to accept an authentic alienation from this world which is passing away.

May 27, 2000

Love One Another

Psalm 98
Isaiah 45:11-13, 18-19
Acts 10:44-48
1 John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17                                   Story to define Christian love


"Unconditional love" became a popular phrase to describe God's love for us in the 70's. Was this "unconditional love" a precious characteristic of God or a way of saying that all human beings are essentially lovable? "Win-Win relationships" in the 80's fit with "I'm OK, You're OK." Implicit in these expressions is the idea that there is an underlying harmony among people, within people and between people and God.

The Scriptures don't support this idea very well. Neither does the world we experience. The passage from Isaiah is about winners and losers. It is about God reversing the positions of winners and losers, not eliminating the competition. In the story from Acts, gentile losers are turned into winners by the Holy Spirit. 1 John talks about conquering the world. Does that make the disciple a winner and the rest or the people in the world losers? In the gospel lesson, Jesus promises love to those who conquer their own willfulness: "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love..." "You are my friends if you do what I command you." (John 15:10, 14) The promise of love is conditioned by the disciple's obedience and faithfulness.

It is one of the credos of humanism that human beings are innately good; they just get "dysfunctional" through exposure to other people. This begs the question, "Who invented dysfunctional?" (Scientology teaches that we got dysfunctional because of malevolent aliens that visited our planet aeons ago and implanted dysfunctional programs in our brains -- a science fiction version of the doctrine of original sin.) The Bible doesn't support the idea that human beings are innately good, maybe Psalm 8 a little. The Bible offers much more support for the proposition that goodness does not come naturally to human beings but can happen anyway with a lot of help from God.

Jesus commands the disciples to love one another. Why? Because he knows that they are not inclined to love one another? Something there is that has to be overcome inside us for us to be the friends of God. It can be overcome by God's grace tutored by God's commandments. What is that something to be overcome? Sin, of course. You know it, and I know it, but it won't preach anymore because the word "sin" has been turned into "peccadillo," and there is no retrieving it for most of our audience. So, let's talk about being friends and enemies of God. The meaning of these words is still clear and vivid.

We are born enemies of God. That doesn't mean infants are vicious. That doesn't mean God is our enemy. It means that infants think they are the center of the universe. A person will remain the enemy of God until he or she recognizes God to be the center of the universe, God's natural place, and the person to be the obedient friend of God, our appropriate place. This is the foundation of any and all "win-win" relationships because anyone who defines himself or herself as the center of the universe has to make a loser of those who challenge that position.

So what's the point?

Your audience is in mortal danger if they are not the friends of God. The danger is death in its broadest sense, and alienation from life is the symptom. (Not "I'm OK - You're OK", not "win- win"; not dysfunctional -- DEAD.) On the other hand, the friends of God have a champion in God against death (alienation from life). Witness the Old Testament Lesson and the Psalm. In order to become the friend of God one welcomes God's transforming presence in the Holy Spirit and embraces the commandment to love. Witness the Gospel and Epistle Lessons. These Scriptures do not support the conclusion that the friends of God should seek out and destroy the enemies of God. That is God's business. People who bomb abortion clinics misunderstand. The enemy is within ourselves and can't be dealt with by destroying other people.

"No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." (John 15:13) No greater honor can we have than to be offered friendship with God; therefore, let us take up the commandment to love with gratitude.

Easter 5 --  May 21, 2000

Not Pressed, Grafted

Deuteronomy 4:32-40
Acts 8:26-40
Psalm 22:25-31
1 John 4:7-21
John 15:1-8


To graft a branch onto a vine you must cut open the vine. To graft a branch you must cut off the branch. Jesus was cut open, his hands, his feet, his side. The source of his life, his blood, became available. If anyone is cut off from their root and grafted into his body, his life blood nourishes them.

I had never thought about the wounds of Christ exactly that way before. My life is grafted into his, tissue for tissue, hand to hand and side to side. It is his blood that flows in me, not just the closed system of my circulatory system. The roots I had before I was grafted into Christ were shallow and spindly, entangled in culture and self-will. The vine he offers is rooted in heaven, and now so am I. Rooted in heaven I am free to bear much fruit, viz. "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23)

Moses asks the Hebrew people, "Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by terrifying displays of power, as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?" (Deuteronomy 4:34) The Gospel writer might ask, "Has any god ever allowed himself to be pierced so that he might graft you into himself?"

After describing our suffering but not knowing it to be God's suffering -- without knowing God's mightiest act -- the Psalmist proclaims, "Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord, and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it." (Psalm 22:31)

So, a black eunuch cut himself from his roots there on the road to Gaza and was grafted into Christ. The Coptic Church bears witness to the fruit that he bore thereafter.

Fruit is not the achievement of the branch. We branches fret so about achievement. "It is too hard to make an 'A' in your class," was one criticism I received teaching Old Testament at the College of the Southwest. "Never mind being rooted in learning, we want to squeeze out straight A's." Life gets harder as we squeeze it for its last drop of value. Corporations earn billions by squeezing employees for more value. The General Conference of The United Methodist Church squeezes the Annual Conference. The Annual Conference squeezes the preachers and churches for more achievement (money). This is what happens to branches that have been cut off and thrown into the press.

But, we have been grafted into Christ. Fruitfulness is our nature! Instead of squeezing harder, let us meditate longer on that pierced body into which our bodies have been grafted. Feel the flow of blood enriching our blood, washing over our every cell -- not a vitality rooted in our deteriorating environment but one fed from above.

CURRENT CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE (updated May 9, 2000)

- Easter 4 (Page 191 — May 14, 2000)
- Easter 3 (Page 190 — May 7, 2000)
- Easter 2 (Page 189 — April 30, 2000)
- Links

Easter 4 -- Page 191, May 14, 2000

Shepherds or Peddlers

Ezekiel 34:1-10
Acts 4:5-12
Psalm 23
1 John 3:16-27
John 10:11-18


Few sets of lections are as clear as these in identifying the theme: "shepherd." Jesus contrasts the good shepherd and the bad shepherd (the hired hand). Ezekiel castigates the bad shepherd. Peter proclaims the ultimate shepherd to an audience of bad shepherds. In the epistle, John reminds us that the good shepherd is in us and among us, always the potential for us.

Back in 1997, Marshall Applewhite led his "Heaven's Gate" sheep to mass suicide. He was a bad shepherd, but his snaring of the sheep points to the failure of the would-be good shepherds. His sheep were ready to give their lives for a better world on high. Does that ring a bell? Was it Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna who extolled martyrdom? There was a belief in the early church that dying for Christ was a direct route through the gates of heaven. The cult suicide is different from martyrdom, but it has disturbing similarities to our own distant past. "For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain." (Philippians 1:21)

Here were young people ready to see dying as gain but without seeing living as Christ. Where was baptism, dying and rising with Christ, the passage they really sought? Where was the good shepherd when they needed an alternative to Marshall Applewhite? Who is that good shepherd? Is it Christ alone? Do we say, "Where was Christ when these sheep were being stolen?" Or, are we not also to say, "Where were we?" And, if we are also God's shepherds, then Ezekiel is talking about us. We clergy are called out by the prophet, but are the clergy alone to lead all the lost sheep in the world? Shouldn't the laity be included as well? Shouldn't we ask, "Where were we all when these sheep were being stolen away?"

Mass suicides get our attention, but more sheep are lost quietly. Sheep get stolen by just wandering off. We don't even notice. They are just gone. Who is in charge of noticing? Does your church notice? They don't just wander away from a congregation. They wander away from the way that leads to life. Watching the church rolls is a start. Watching the whole city is our calling. But we couldn't possibly watch the whole city unless the churches united for the task. Instead we torment ourselves with the entrepreneurial model of church leadership, the demand to sell ourselves in the religious market place, to beguile the wary religious customer or to hold on to our own finicky clientele. We can't see ourselves as shepherds when we are busy being peddlers.

The twenty-third Psalm is the most loved of the Psalms. Likewise the church could be the most loved of bodies within the community if it didn't behave like a hired hand, like jealous hired hands vying for the fat sheep. The good news is that the church is not bound to be a hired hand. The Good Shepherd is alive among us and in us and always a potential for us.

Easter 3 --  May 7, 2000