Category: Preaching Notes
a Living Memorial
Last Sunday I was gifted the trust of the pulpit, digital pulpit that is, at First Christian Church in Stroud. It was a digital pulpit because I recorded my sermon at my home, and shared the file with their artist that knits the service together for broadcast on the congregation’s Facebook page. They are a “tape delay worship service” that enables the congregation to have many members participate in the leading of worship. My thanks to Rev. Paul for the opportunity to preach. Check out their worship services and Paul’s excellent “children’s messages” by visiting them online.
Since it was Memorial Day weekend, I thought it would be good to address Memorial Day in conjunction with the Lectionary gospel reading from a couple of weeks ago: John 14:15-26. This is an edited version of my words.
We come to worship seeking to hear and experience the good news:
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, or recognize the image of God in others as well as in our own face.
Please join me in prayer.
Open our ears and our hearts, O God, that our meditations, words, and living are a reflection of our faith in You, who creates, who redeems, and who sustains our lives. Amen.
I don’t know about you, but this coronavirus separation has felt like equal parts of the movies Groundhog Day and The Day the Earth Stood Still (the original). Some days are a time travelers maze.
How long ago was Easter?
Pentecost, that day when we celebrate that people heard about the good news of God in their own language, Pentecost is just over the horizon.
It is important to remember the distance we have traveled to get to this Sunday. Remember back where the story began with waiting, Angelic choirs, a manger and shepherds returning to the fields giving thanks to God for all that they had seen and heard as it had been told to them. Mary pondered it all in her heart.
The Ashes that mark Lent. Long dusty roads littered with parable after parable all leading toward Jerusalem.
A parade through the city gates to shouts of Hosanna and palm waving crowds. A quiet room around a table with bread and cup, then betrayal, denial, and crucifixion.
Days later we were shocked by the proclamation of Mary Magdalene, “I’ve seen the risen Lord.”
We heard that two people met Jesus when they were on there way to Emmaus and knew it was him when he broke bread with them that evening. Someone told the story about Thomas seeing Jesus, and that helped me with my own doubt.
Today, the gospel of John reminds us that if we love Jesus, we will keep his commandments. We’ve heard beatitudes, parables and seen miracles. What commandments are we supposed to keep? Jesus responds, “They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me.”
We’ve heard Jesus’ commandments distilled in at least two ways.
“Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.” AND “Love one another just as Jesus has loved us.” Like all of us, the disciples must look confused, so Jesus responds, ‘Those who love me will keep my word and God will make a home in them.’
That sounds like a living memorial.
It all began with a group of women decorating the graves of soldiers during the Civil War. Decoration Day was institutionalized by President Johnson in 1966, and became a recognized Federal holiday by order of Congress in the “National Holiday Act of 1971.” We know it as “Memorial Day.” It is a day of remembering the many that have died when diplomacy failed and ushered in the violence of war. It is a day of honoring the many whose military service lead to their the last full measure of devotion on behalf of the person next to them and a grateful Nation.
For many, Memorial Day is a reminder about the opening of pools, the beginning of summer, a weekend at the lake, discounts on this and that, or an excuse for people of faith to bring civic religion into their places of worship. In this coronavirus separation we have to measure our response: flight, fight, or freeze. And no matter where you consumer your news, or the politicians you think are telling the truth, or ideology you support, there is still that pesky peasant from Galilee saying, “They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me.”
This is one of those moments when we need to be leaders rather than participants in our culture. It is one of those times when we need an “Advocate,” and we need to “ad-vo-cate,” for living memorials that turn the other cheek, carry a pack another mile, give a coat when someone asks for a dollar, or pray for our enemies. Ad-Vo-Cate for a common good based in my neighbor as myself.
Maybe it would help to remember that a memorial “is something designed to preserve the memory of a person or event.”Memorial. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Memorial (accessed: May 22, 2014).
Hear some familiar memorial words from Psalm 46:
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with tumult.”New Revised Standard Version
Memorials help us hear the voices of people that can no longer cry out, that can no longer laugh, or be what God created them to be.
Memorials can shame behavior.
Memorials can shout warning!
Memorials can whisper wisdom.
Memorials rise up and out of the ashes of human history as reminders:
Yad Vashem
World War II Memorial
Hiroshima Peace Memorial
Korean War Memorial
Vietnam War Memorial
Berlin Wall Memorial
Oklahoma City National Memorial
MLK Memorial
Arlington National Cemetery
9/11 Memorial
Some memorials are small crosses with flowers along the side of a road. Stained glass windows dot sanctuaries. Some memorials are scrapbooks, photos, a tool or heirloom passed down, a candle lit on a holiday, or china used on the dinner table.
In houses of worship around the world people of diverse faith traditions ask questions. People of no particular faith ask them too. You know, those questions that begin with “W”. Why?
Why, do bad things to happen? Why God?
When? When will war cease and our friends and loved come home?
When will justice be done? When God?
What? What does this mean? What God?
It doesn’t matter what your first language is. It doesn’t matter if you ask in the quick cadence of a northerner, the slow drawl of a southerner, or in street slang. Grief and fear, like the cry of new life, are universal sounds. Sounds that bring you to your knees, punch you in the stomach, take your breath away or let loose a river of tears and thoughts and words.
It is hard to think of our neighbor, or keep the commandments of Jesus, or be a living memorial when you cannot hear the universal sounds or choose to tune them out.
Have you visited a memorial? Do you have a memorial in your home or one that you carry with you?
These words are etched in the stone on my favorite memorial.
“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.”(2)Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.
Some memorials are meant to inspire us to the possibilities of our existence. Even in the hard times. Even in coronavirus times, we are reminded what others lived through. Some call us to go and do likewise; and do even greater things. Maybe if we can hear the universal sounds, we can advocate for the melody of peace, advocate for our neighbor, and in keeping Jesus’ commandments the words “they will know we are Christians by our love” will be etched on our hearts.
When we do this, we are living memorials not of the Empire, then or now, nor of the violence of the cross.
We are living memorials of the one that taught be salt and light;
the one who fed a multitude with a couple of fish and some bread;
and who commanded, “love one another just as I’ve loved you.”
Disciples gather around a table each week. It is a memorial marker and meal. We share and hear the words, “Do this in remembrance of me.” Remember, if you love Jesus you will keep his commandments and the spirit of Truth will abide in you. Sigh. That’s the hard part. Keep his commandments. This coronavirus is the latest challenge making that a hard thing to do: keep Jesus’ commandments.
But you can do it.
Remember, you are a living memorial in your journey of faith?
Internal Voice
A lightly edited version of my sermon at First Christian Church in Pond Creek last Sunday.
Internal Voice
Mark 6:14-29
King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some were saying, ‘John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.’ But others said, ‘It is Elijah.’ And others said, ‘It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.’ But when Herod heard of it, he said, ‘John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.’
For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her. For John had been telling Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’ And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, ‘Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.’ And he solemnly swore to her, ‘Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.’
She went out and said to her mother, ‘What should I ask for?’ She replied, ‘The head of John the baptizer. ’Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, ‘I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.’
The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. When John’s disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.
Last Wednesday I told your minister and a few friends via Facebook that before I agree to guest preach again I’m going to look closer at the Lectionary texts for a given Sunday. This week is the prophet Amos’ plumb line and the beheading of John the Baptist in the Gospel of Mark. What was I thinking? And a side note. You don’t need to watch Game of Thrones, Survivor, 24, The Sopranos, Days of Our Lives, The Voice, Westworld, House of Cards, Breaking Bad, or whatever your favorite drama of the day is. Pick up your bible, particularly one that is not a paraphrase, and start reading from the beginning. Try not to read it like an authoritative book or holy scripture, or like you know the end of the story. Read it as a novel. You are going to meet some real characters. You are going to meet some archetypes of humanity. You may meet yourself. And when you’ve done that, then go back and revisit it as a guide for living the good news of God. Buckle up church. Here we go.
John the Baptizer usually appears at Advent and Epiphany. We hear early on that John and Jesus are cousins by birth and take a divergent approach in their call to serve the good news of God.
Jesus travels the countryside telling ethical eschatology stories: parables, that confront, confound, and comfort in the here and now. His stories focus on the lives people lead, their choices, and the systemic consequences of choices; and he does some healing on the side. The good news of God is that God is always near, encouraging, interacting, loving, forgiving, but not controlling. God is waiting for us to make better choices.(1) Waiting, but what then?
John sets up in one place from which he barks an apocalyptic eschatology, a picture of life and culture that is so corrupt and problematic that only a divine radical action can fix it – save it – make it right again. We are sinners in the hands of an angry God. Think Noah’s story. People are so involved in the matrix of corruption they can no longer distinguish between what’s real or not real; what is right and wrong. Repent. Get baptized and wake up. Change yourself, do your best, but really only God can change the whole thing; God will change the whole thing. Faithful, repentant humans are waiting on God. But, what then?
John is by far the most interesting show in the desert. He fires people up using that old time religion, a call to repentance, calls for justice, and John openly challenges the power structures, political and religious, that are holding civil society together in the delicate balance of occupation. John is a critic. He is an internet troll that you cannot block from your social media. Israel is occupied, the people are treated unjustly, the Apostle Paul is roaming the Gentile lands preaching Christ Jesus, and at the time that Mark’s gospel is written Rome has destroyed the temple. Actual occupation not perceived occupation nor metaphorical occupation. For more on the time, search for the writings of Josephus, a first century jewish historian.
It’s odd that the shortest gospel about the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth takes up so much space with this story about John’s death. The story is sandwiched between Jesus sending his disciples out in pairs with only the clothes on their backs to preach repentance and heal. When they return Jesus wants the whole crew to go on retreat, but a crowd of people recognize them going ashore, so Jesus teaches and with the disciples help, uninspired in their work, feeds the crowd of 5000 men. There were no doubt many women and children too.
And that is where we meet up with John and Jesus today. Herod hears of Jesus of Nazareth, his deeds, teachings, and he has disciples too. That sounds like John the Baptizer. Some were saying that John has been resurrected in Jesus. But wait, John is dead? How? When?
And so, we have a classic flashback moment when the camera zooms into a character’s eyes looking pensive into the distance or you get the classic wavy lines indicating the passage for time. Herod has jailed John who is a bothersome voice outside of town, but Herod is also interested in what John has to say. The text says Herod was ‘perplexed’. Curious might better capture Herod’s interest in John. Prophets are almost always fascinating to and feared by authority structure.
Mark creates a narrative, “For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John . . .”
But, I think we are reading, hearing, is Herod’s internal voice, going over the details again about John’s death. You know that dialogue you have with yourself. It is that reflective:
I should have . . .
I could have . . .
Why didn’t I . . .
It’s that replay of the details over and over wondering if it could have been different. It happens after conversations and choices that lead to actions that become regretful, guilt riddled, painful. Sometimes there is no way to make amends or make it right. It is even hard to admit to ourselves we made a wrong choice or own our mistake. It seems like we’ve become a “beg forgiveness rather than ask permission” culture during my lifetime. Sometimes you get removed from a situation or conversation and think, “If I had only said that, then . . .” A great comeback to a question or remark, but it’s too late. At the climax of conflict between two or more characters in film, usually one speaks for the internal voice, “It didn’t have to be this way.” or “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
John the baptizer is beheaded. Herod hears John’s echo in Jesus of Nazareth; and Jesus has disciples. Hmm. What then?
I don’t know if you know it, but this is a fruitful and fraught-filled time to be a mainline Christian minister or priest, and specifically, one that preaches as part of ministry each week. By mainline, I mean those ministers that are part of what I think of as historically centrists denominations: Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, yes some Catholics, yes some Baptists, United Church of Christ, and yes, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Alongside other faith traditions and persons of no faith at all, mainline Christendom since World War II learned from the internal conversations of history that caused more death in God’s name than blessed the living with bread and fish. For a bit of time, that centrist theology helped create a kind of manageable peace.
Many, mainline clergy, look out at congregations deeply divided by political and cultural change. Each faction has its own media and facts, just as the marketers and culture war profiteers desire. Politicians have served up those to blame for our forced choices, our willful choices, uneducated choices, and the change that cannot be controlled, just managed.
Managed uncontrollable change. Ten years ago my mother-in-law was asked by a TV news reporter about the demolition of an iconic bridge and the new bridge connecting her town to another. My mother-in-law said, “Well, its sad, but that’s progress.”
Many mainline clergy, including Disciples of Christ, are delicately, subtly saying, “It didn’t have to be this way. It doesn’t have to be this way.” Some do so out of love for the people in their care. Some, have families to tend and it is just easier to swallow the guilt of not speaking out than risk metaphorical beheading – being fired. Clergy hear, “Just preach the gospel. Don’t be political.” What then do we do with the stories about John the Baptizer and the parables of Jesus of Nazareth. Are we to only embrace the apocalyptic eschatology? Those who are baptized are called to a different way of living. What about the ethical?
Writing about the Mister Rogers documentary, David Brooks of the New York Times notes:
His (Mister Rogers) show was an expression of the mainline Protestantism that was once the dominating morality in American life . . . Rogers was singing from a song sheet now lost, a song sheet that once joined conservative evangelicals and secular progressives. The song sheet may be stacked somewhere in a drawer in the national attic, ready for reuse once again.(2)
The founders of our little frontier movement rebelled against the creeds and those who used Christian creedal identity to exclude persons from table fellowship and normalize the tribalism of their day. It is not surprising that generations of Disciples embraced the motto, “In essentials unity. In non-essentials liberty. In all things charity.” But, over the past 20 years, that too has become a song sheet stacked away somewhere that may get reused someday. And, like everything else in culture right now, it seems no one can agree on what essential means.
Intentional Christian community. You have to want it. But, what then?
Maybe the best way to approach texts like this is to ask questions:
- Where are the echos of John in our world?
- Where are the echos of Herod?
- Where are the echos of those whose only worth is entertaining us?
- Where are the echos of those who will do anything to enrich themselves no matter who may be harmed?
- How is Jesus echoed in this congregation’s practice of the good news of God?
John the Baptizer and Jesus of Nazareth call us to remember and act upon, “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
You can love God and love your neighbor as yourself. That’s the ethical good news of God that Jesus proclaimed while John waited for God’s reconciling action.
Which one will disciples choose today?
________
Notes
- This line of thought about Jesus attributed to Dr. John Dominic Crossing, “From Jesus to Christ”. Frontline, April 1998.
-
David Brooks, Fred Rogers and the Loveliness of the Little Good. New York Times, July 5, 2018.