Category: Theological Rant
Edgy Advent
On the first Sunday in Advent, I was gifted the trust of the pulpit for a colleague recovering from an illness. The Lectionary is turning to Luke in Year C. The text for the day was Luke 21:25-36. I’ve written about an edgy Advent before. These are the words I shared.
In the book A Walk in the Woods, Bill, a travel writer in his 60s, returns to America after living in Europe for many years. He is a bit restless in his new, old, surroundings. Seeking inspiration and a desire to explore, Bill decides to hike the Appalachian Trail, all 2000 miles of it. Afraid to be on the trail alone, Bill calls friends to see if anyone would take the journey with him. The only one who shows up is an old friend from high school. Stephen is overweight, significantly, and he has a slight drinking problem. He only eats junk food and insists he has to eat every hour to keep from having seizures.
Bill and Stephen buy all the supplies they think they need. Bill pays for it all. They pick out the right backpack, tent, sleeping bag, bear repellent, hiking boots, and socks. They gather up the suggested food packets for the trail. They plan the days of hiking and depart on the best weather day after a last supper in a restaurant surrounded by other hikers preparing to set out as well. Their adventure has low points and some mountaintop vistas along the way.
It is easy to get all the stuff together, read the map, and plan. Any hike, any journey begins with that first step and many more to follow. Christian tradition considers Advent one end of the Christian trail with many entrances and exits.
Some walk the trail anew each year. Some fondly remember the first steps, the first mile, the first blisters. Some in this room know the trail you can point the way or be the guide for others. During Advent, you will hear stories in this sacred space and around tables in your home. One or two might fill you with all the emotions a person can feel. You will hear and see things that set you on edge.
Remember, sometimes, being on an edge requires risk. On the edge can feel too hard. Too painful. Though appealing, the view from the mountaintop doesn’t feel worth the risk. Remember, you don’t usually get to mountain vistas or back to the safety of the valley without traversing a few edges. Even an edgy Advent.
The first Sunday in Advent begins a new Lectionary year. This is Year C, which means that Luke’s faith experience is the primary gospel reading with a sprinkling of Matthew and John during Lent and Easter. Here are a few details to remember as we enter Luke’s gospel.
- The author has the letters of Paul, the Gospel of Mark, and a collection of Jesus sayings that scholars call Q, as well as other material not found in the other gospels as the source material.
- The author of Luke is most likely well-educated, and scholars think is also the author of Acts. Some suggest reading Luke and Acts as a two-volume work.
- Luke is a rich narrative about the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth.
- All the gospel writers are active participants in their cultural moment. Their time was as edgy as our own
Many Christians embrace the traditional themes of Advent: hope, peace, joy, and love. But don’t forget the lectionary readings for Advent begin with Jesus speaking in apocalyptic language about the kindom of God. Advent often begins with a warning, “No one knows the when. Don’t even ask.”
We are near the end of Luke’s gospel. Jesus speaks of events that take place here on Earth and in the stars. It’s a painting, a vision, that doesn’t include a specific timeline. And no one is given the time to ask, “When will this happen? Without taking a breath, Jesus kept talking and told a parable with the hook, “So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly, I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place.” And in v33, there is an odd transition, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
Be on guard. Be alert at all times. If that doesn’t make you a little edgy, I’m not sure what will. Tense. Nervous, Irritable, Unable to relax. Those aren’t side effects in a drug commercial. They all describe what it means to be “on edge.” Can you sense it in yourself and others? Do you hear it? A little squeaking sound.
Our devices and our news silos give us instant access to all the terrors and wonders of the world through our preferred filter.
FOMO, fear of missing out.
YOLO, you only live once.
It’s understandable. It seems like it has been this way since the last fireworks faded from the night sky on New Year’s Eve in 2000. It was amped up in Sept 2001. And again during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, through two decades of election cycles.
Covid-19.
January 6.
Russia invaded Ukraine.
Hamas and Israel are killing each other, again.
Viral political profiteering.
I don’t think your politics, theology, religion, or ideological perspective matters. No matter how early Christmas music begins in the stores, little has felt “normal” for a long time.
But it is Advent, and we are invited to hike or walk the Christian trail. A sign at the trail entrance has the words Hope, Peace, Joy, Love written in big lettering. Smaller lettering at the bottom reads, “People will faint from fear and foreboding. Be on guard. Be alert.”
Some of our cousins in Christian faith think they can manipulate the Holy into acting on their timetable. In their woke-ness, they see signs that fit their perspective and politics, thinking this is it. To me, that’s not hope. That is despair. In the book The First Christmas, New Testament scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan identify the struggle like this.
The imperial kingdom of Rome — and this may indeed apply to any other empire as well— had as its program peace through victory. The eschatological kingdom of God has as its program peace through justice. Both intend peace — one by violence, the other by nonviolence. And still those tectonic plates grind against one another.
Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Birth. HarperOne (New York) 2007. p 69-70.
The longer I live, the more I think of Advent through the lens of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.
Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s business partner in life, appears in spirit form, weighed down by a long chain and his ledger books. Scrooge tells the spirit that Jacob was a good businessman in life. And Jacob, recounting his life and how he made his chain link by link, shouts at Scrooge, “Humankind should have been my business. But, you, Ebenezer, you still have a chance to change.”
I think we are visited by hope, peace, and joy, which are the building blocks of knowing love. During Advent, we are visited by these spirits, these glimpses reminding us of what the writer of Psalm 122 said, “For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, ‘Peace be within you.’ For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good.”
At the end of his second inaugural address, President Lincoln said.
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
Abraham Lincoln, “Second Inaugural Address.” March 4, 1865
Those words always jar my being.
When my cousin Matthew was in 6th grade, his mother bought him shoes three times that year. The summer before 7th grade, she bought him shoes two sizes too big, and she did so each year until he left home after high school. Matthew looked pretty goofy, walking around in shoes too big, and even after learning to navigate the bigger size, sometimes he stumbled. Lincoln gave the Nation a vision back in 1865, an idea at least two sizes too big, even for today.
And the same is true for the prophets in the Hebrew bible. We hear Isaiah spin an image of God’s comfort, reminding us that it is our task to comfort exiles wherever they are found. We must cry out and act out through the lessons taught by our own grief, suffering, growing, and maturing. Act out: the Lord our God is revealed in the way we live and move and have our being. Revealed in the way: practice hope, practice peace practice joy practice love.
It’s an edgy Advent that challenges our time’s distracting sentimentality and consumerism.
An edgy Advent comforts, welcomes, and is gracious without reciprocity.
It’s an Advent that names the wilderness and points to the good news of God.
It’s a compass to help us prepare a way, our way, the Lord’s way, and navigate the trail’s wilderness, valleys, mountaintops, and edges.
Maybe Advent is a bridge that spans a chasm on the Christian trail from ordinary living to another kind of living . . . another kind of neighborliness, compassion, or grace. You have better words that describe what the other side of Advent and Christmas is or is like for you. Advent may be one of those two sizes to big ideas.
I don’t know if you plan to enter the Christian trail this year through Advent or elsewhere. The experiences in your life may be too painful, too confusing, or you just aren’t feeling it: Advent and Christmas. If so, you are not alone. I know many embodying that space, admit it or not. It’s ok. Maybe the best you can do is hear the stories of others who walk this part of the trail. A story like this one from a Magic Monastery.
They have a Brother there who was one of the shepherds who first greeted the Christ Child. Of course, this Brother is very old now, but when you hear him play his flute, you will become very young. (Be careful. You may do something silly.).
The three Wise Men are there also. Each Christmas, one of them will give the sermon. Listen very carefully. You may have difficulty with his language, but that is because he is so wise, and you are so foolish. I thought he was superficial, talking about incense on Christmas. It was only later that I realized he had been talking about the Real incense, and now I can smell that wherever I go. Perhaps when you go there, he will be speaking about the real gold or the real myrrh.
And then there are the angels. You’ll hear them singing. What shall I say? It is God’s music. It gets into your bones. Nothing is the same afterward.
But all of this is nothing. What really matters is when the Word becomes flesh. Wait till you experience that.
Hello. I’ll be your server.
I was recently gifted the trust of the pulpit at First Christian Church in Perry, Oklahoma. This is a mildly edited version of my words base on Mark 10:35-45. Scripture then sermon to follow.
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ And he said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They replied, ‘We are able.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.’
When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’
Siblings in faith, it is good to gather for worship, study, and fellowship. Today’s text reminds disciples that to follow Jesus means not to be served but to serve. That seems like an easy thing to do, especially when tragedy or crisis comes. Around these parts we call it the Oklahoma standard. It’s a response to something, an event that is out of the ordinary. But what about ordinary time?
I’m grateful for your congregation’s witness of the good news of God and the way you serve one another, Perry, this county, and beyond your borders. You set an example, and so does your pastor, Joshua, about what servant leadership means for your community of faith. Thank you for giving Joshua’s time and gifts to our neighbors in Tampa Bay through the work and service of the Red Cross.
The Week of Compassion staff continues to respond in Florida, Georgia, S. Carolina, and western North Carolina with checks to help disciples with immediate basic needs and insurance deductibles. They are working with partners like Church World Service with funding for clean-up buckets. Because Week of Compassion is there, Oklahoma Disciples are there just like we were in Sulphur and Morris earlier this year.
This is one characteristic of our little frontier movement: gather people, organize, respond, and bless them to return to life, even if they call the Holy by a different name, practice another religious tradition, have no religion, or are not interested in religion. That’s what it means to share the good news of God from our doorsteps into the world. Presence can transform cloudy moments and create a chance of good news.
Thank you for gifting me the trust of the pulpit today. If you are visiting today, come back and get involved in this congregation’s practice and proclamation of the good news of God as they follow Jesus taking steps with great care and great tact.
As we worship let us be a witness of the good news of God, and remember:
that the Lord’s mercies never cease;
that the Lord’s mercies are new every morning;
and the Lord’s faithfulness extends beyond our ability to see in a mirror dimly and recognize the image of God in others and our own face.
A creative writing professor encouraged our class to tell a story with the necessary words, the fewer, the better, in such a way that enables the reader or hearer to wonder, ponder, and imagine without needing lots of granular details. Trust the reader or hearer to do the work with you. Their mind may wander off, but a compelling story encourages imagination and questions. Maybe that’s why Mark is my favorite gospel. This short story about the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth has nuance, intrigue, and suspense. The author states the thesis in the opening line, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” And, like some sermons you might have heard in your lifetime, Mark has two endings: the original, which I prefer, and the P.S. or addendum of Mark 16:9-20.
This morning, I will do my best to be like Mark, brief, and stick to my original ending.
Scholars agree that Mark is the first of the gospels in written form, but it is not the first book in the New Testament as we have it. In his book Evolution of the Word: The New Testament in the Order the Books Were Written, Dr. Marcus Borg reminds us that the first written accounts about Jesus and his effect on people were the letters of Paul. Those letters begin to appear about 50 years into the common era. Dr. Borg’s ordering of the documents of the New Testament starts with 1 Thessalonians and ends with 2 Peter. The gospels didn’t begin to appear until around 70 CE. There must have been enough questions about Jesus’ backstory that people needed a prequel, and they got four. All have similar plot lines and the same basic ending, but we meet different characters along the way, and we are confronted with other contexts and theological and political perspectives about this peasant from Galilee, Jesus of Nazareth.
Mainline scholars, including folks like Dr. Borg, help us think about how the Gospel of Mark outlines Jesus’ life in three movements:
Borg, Marcus J. Evolution of the Word: The New Testament in the Order the Books Were Written. Harper One (New York) 2012. p 149-50.
- Galilee, where most of Jesus’ public ministry happens
- Journey from Galilee to Jerusalem for Passover
- Jerusalem and Jesus’ final week, including his confrontation with authorities, execution, and the discovery of the empty tomb.
Enter the story today near the end of the journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. Along the way, Jesus talks about what may or will probably happen to him when they arrive in Jerusalem. That means the 12 and other disciples of Jesus will have some choices. The journey began with Jesus healing a blind man. It took two attempts. Next week, as Jesus prepares to enter Jerusalem, he pauses to heal another blind person. This time, it only takes once.
I think this is a subtle message of this journey to Jerusalem or my journey with Jesus; maybe yours, too. I won’t often or always get it right the first time. This isn’t the first time the disciples have argued about who is the greatest among them. Jesus was disappointed then, just as he is now, when James and John ask about seats of honor at his right and left. This is the second time Jesus has reminded the disciples about being last and first. In his words from the text today, “. . . whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
Mic drop!
They got served.
With this new knowledge, who is ready to drink from that cup or receive that baptism?
I can imagine the silence. If we were in post-production of a movie this is where we would insert the sound of crickets.
Anyone? Anyone? Anyone?
Servant. Slave. Served. Serve. Ransom. Those are weighty words. Those are loaded words that bring up images from the past and present. Some definitions from Merriam-Webster may help.
Servant (def): one that performs duties about the person or home of a master or personal employer.
Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “servant,” accessed October 17, 2024, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/servant.
What images come to mind? You might think of Downton Abbey, another historical time, or the super wealthy as having servants.
You might think of “public servants.” I think of the poll workers and the lady who helped me register my car at the Tag Agency. I think of the security guards at the Capitol, the subway booth attendant, first responders, and the local law enforcement officer reminding me to slow down by flashing their lights rather than pulling me over.
I think of words like Butler or Steward.
Slave (def): noun/verb
– someone captured, sold, or born into chattel slavery.
Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “slave,” accessed October 17, 2024, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slave.
⁃ someone (such as a factory worker or domestic laborer) who is coerced often under threat of violence to work for little or no pay.
– someone or something that is completely subservient to a dominating person or influence.
– to work very hard for long hours or under difficult conditions.
Images flash before my mind’s eye from biblical stories, the American Civil War, and the Holocaust.
But also coal miners. As the family story tells it, my mother’s parents met picking cotton for a quarter a bag a day.
I think of workers picking fruit and vegetables that some say are “taking American jobs,” but the last time I went to an employment agency or checked Indeed or Linkedin, those were not on the openings list.
I look at my phone or clothing and realize that people, many of whom are probably children, in other parts of the world work for little pay so I can have this technology, these clothes, and other stuff as cheaply as possible while corporations make a significant profit. I rationalize that they have a better job than what might be available in their country.
Served (verb) of serve.
Serve (def): intransitive or transitive verbMerriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “serve,” accessed October 17, 2024, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/serve.
- to do military service
- to be of use
- to help persons to food, to wait at table or set out portions of food or drink
- to act as server at (mass or other religious service)
- to work through (a term of service)
We thank veterans for “their service.”
I hear the cabin steward on the cruise ship remind me, “I’m at your service.”
I think of the Lion’s Club, Rotary, The Shriners, Welcome Wagon, The Moose Lodge, or service-oriented social clubs that help people from diverse backgrounds mingle and work for the good in their community.
We’ve probably all heard it at one time: “Hello. I’ll be your server.”
Deacon and elders serve this congregation.
Paying rent, a mortgage, or a loan is working through a term of service.
The Greek word lytron is translated as “ransom,” comes from the root lou which means:
“something to loosen with.”
Strong’s Number 3089 Greek Dictionary (Lexicon-Concordance) http://lexiconcordance.com/greek//3089.html
Ransom in our language means:
(noun/verb)
Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “ransom,” accessed October 17, 2024, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ransom.
- a consideration paid or demanded for the release of someone or something from captivity.
- to free from captivity or punishment by paying a price
There are so many NCIS, CSI, FBI, and lawyer shows to consume that you might think of “making bail or posting a bond.”
Have you ever watched one of those pawn shop reality shows or been in a Pawn Shop? The items there with a loan against them have helped someone get from one paycheck to the next. The things you can buy could not be recovered by their owners or were sold outright.
When I was a student at TCU, after four parking tickets, it seemed like the campus police would tow your car anytime they wanted, even when you were parked legally, but just outside the line or a bumper width in a no-parking zone. I was gone five minutes. FYI, don’t refer to the ticket or parking boot as a ransom. That doesn’t go over well.
Ransom. I think of the Disciples congregation here in Oklahoma, which received a donation from an estate and used it to buy the medical debt of strangers and forgive it for many.
Bob Dylan was on to something when he sang:
You’re still gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
Bob Dylan, Slow Train Coming. “Gotta Serve Somebody.” Columbia Records, 1979.
You’re going to have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re going to have to serve somebody.
The first time I heard the term “servant leadership” was in June 1981, when I was elected to the Coastal Plains Area Youth Council at church camp. My mentors then and still today, set this example for a life of ministry and faith.
Servant leadership prioritizes the growth and well-being of people and communities over oneself and emphasizes putting others’ needs first. This approach encourages team members to produce high-quality work, which ultimately contributes to the company’s overall success.
Career Guide, indeed.com.
Robert K. Greenleaf, an early promoter of this leadership philosophy, notes that a servant leader should focus on,
Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?
Greenleaf, Robert (2007). The Servant as Leader. Corporate Ethics and Corporate Governance. pp. 79–85.
I think that’s the invitation in today’s text. Join Jesus in becoming servant leaders. That’s hard in our culture. It’s probably always been a challenging invitation to accept. Practicing the faith of Jesus sharpens one’s focus on the humanity of being served and serving in the here and now. But, it is hard. It is messy. We make mistakes. When it challenges the acceptable order, it can be life-threatening. Maybe that’s why Christian tradition made Jesus the object of faith, himself the very mystery of the gospel, rather than an example of faith. James, John, and the other ten didn’t grasp that they had heard or witnessed what “serving” meant the first or second time. They focused on worldly power and glory. Empires and kingdoms.
Disciples, remember that God’s grace, forgiveness, and peace are not abstract concepts. God’s grace, forgiveness, and peace are present in this world through your faith and actions as followers of Jesus. Your individual and collective efforts as a congregation have the power to transform the world around you, even if it is just for a moment, and a moment might be, can be enough.
It’s your work and service in this community.
It’s the way you serve your neighbors.
It’s the way you serve one another.
Sometimes, you can sense it.
Sometimes, you can see it.
Usually, you don’t know how kindness, a supportive word, or an action, small or large, can alter the trajectory of a person’s day, week, or life. You may have been a ransom. And it may take a while to know how that moment affected you.
Hello. I’ll be your server. I wonder if you will bump into Jesus in the week ahead?
May God continue to bless you with ministry to do and gospel to be.