Acting Out

I was honored to offer the keynote one day this week for our CYF Conference (high school). I offered some words of thanks and told the group a bit more about me through showing some images of my life. I also had some books that I had read or am reading along with some movies I travel with. Here is the text of my words, mostly, as I did go off text a time or two.

I hear you all memorized a piece of scripture yesterday when Pam was here. What was it? (1 Cor 11:23-26)

Do you have a morning routine. Does it contain music? Mine does. Most mornings my day begins with these lyrics from a song called “Onward” by the rock n roll group Yes.

Displayed in all the things I see
There’s a love you show to me
Portrayed in all the things you say
You’re the day
Leading the way

Onward through the night
Onward through the night of my life(1)

And after Onward I hear these lyrics by the group U2.

You broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross of my shame
Oh my shame, you know I believed it.

But I still haven’t found
What I’m looking for.(2)

This year the camp curriculum is focusing on branching out in faith. So, how do we branch out in faith?

Here’s an example of how many of us branch out. A friend of mine was fixing lunch for her and her 6 year old daughter. She asked the daughter to go in the pantry and get a can of soup. The child says, “I don’t want to go in the pantry. It’s dark in there and scary.” Mom responded, “Last week at vacation bible school we learned that Jesus is with us everywhere. You don’t need to be afraid. Jesus is with you everywhere, even in the pantry. So, please go get a can of soup.” The daughter thought for a moment and then walked to the pantry. She opened the door and shouted in, “Hey Jesus, if you are in there could you hand me a can of soup.”(3)

The gospel writers sometimes describe Jesus as the vine and followers of Jesus, or those that call him Christ, are the branches and leaves. We each grow in our own way seeking light that helps us mature toward what Jesus sometimes calls, bearing fruit. Twenty to thirty years after Jesus was crucified a guy named Paul, who was first called Saul, whose life was changed by the stories about Jesus of Nazareth and some mud on his eyes, claimed the name Paul and went around starting churches. Paul described what he called the fruits of the spirit as a way of identifying people who “got it” about proclaiming Christ. What are the fruits of the spirit? Anyone? Anyone?

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. [Galatians 5:22-23]

Maybe we need to think of following Jesus not as branching out, but as acting out faith.

Have you ever heard someone say, “Oh, she’s just acting out.” Has anyone ever described your behavior that way? Back in the 1980’s psychology began using this term and it became a polite was of saying, “He’s misbehaving.” But it means more than misbehaving. It means, non clinically speaking, how is it a person listens to the competing emotions that bubble up in any given situation, good or bad, and in all the soup of emotion and rational thought, choose or not choose, the next action.(4)

So, let’s say that I just got on your last nerve for the last time and you’ve had it. Your emotions are saying get up and show the jerk how it really is!

But something else inside you says, “Wait, there’s something else here, let’s look and find out what it is.”

And something else says, “I’m scared that if I say something Michael is going to hate me.”

And something else says, “There he goes getting away with it again, and I have to stop him.”

And something else says, “I’m a wimp if I don’t speak up.”

And something else says, “ I’m not taking this anymore.”

Which emotion do you obey? As simple as I can make it, acting out is listening to and acting on the strongest emotion in any moment of crisis or celebration without concern for the consequence of your action. As advanced as our brains are, we still have a fight or flight portion that triggers our acting out and often over rides the rational thinking part of our brain.

You know, road rage is people acting out. I spend some time in my car and see it. Often the rage is not about being cut off in traffic. No, the anger is based in something that happened before the person got it the car thirty minutes ago, yesterday, or last week, that a driver is still steaming over. Road rage! You know the feeling, the emotion that makes you use the horn or tell the other driver they are number one with the non-neighborly finger. Maybe you tailgate and you have no idea how this rage will escalate and into what outcome. Rage. And how does that work out for you?

And, donating for hurricane, tornado, or earthquake relief is acting out. You see images, hear stories, feel sympathy and act out by giving. The work that happens at Mission Stillwater next week is acting out faith. It is the church looking like Jesus.

The stories that are part of this year’s curriculum all highlight a different aspect of what it means to follow Jesus, and how we can keep the commandment that Jesus gave: abide in our love of God and our neighbor. You are exploring three of them this week.

covenant community and covenant ritual or practice;
relationships with neighbor and stranger;
knowing God through our practice of the teachings of Jesus.

Today’s bit of scripture about neighbor and stranger comes from the gospel of John. Before we hear it there are some things we need to remember about John’s gospel.

The synoptic gospels, Mark, Matthew, and Luke are all narratives about the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. They contain most of the teaching stories (the parables) that are authentic to Jesus or attributed to Jesus. When I say attributed I mean parables that someone a generation later said, “You know, I hear that Jesus told this story.” And that story made it into the gospel. Or, the author of the gospel may have heard a parable they liked from another wandering prophet, borrowed it, and said, “Jesus said . . .”
John’s gospel is a book of theology about who Jesus is in relationship to God and Jesus’ purpose in the grand drama of the cosmos. If you are a Harry Potter fan think, Part 1 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. John’s gospel has some stories mixed in about Jesus, but it’s intent it not to tell his life story, but to point to why his life was important then, to believers or those that wanted to believe then, and the entire world; and is important for everyone today.
Think about how this gospel begins. Anyone know?
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word (he) was in the beginning with God.” Often Christians think this must mean that Jesus and the Word of God are the same thing. Well, probably not. That’s a misinterpretation of the Word of God. A NT scholar, Dr. Macus Borg, helps us think about this differently. If you are looking for a scholar to read that is easy to read, I highly recommend Marcus Borg. Borg note this in his book, Evolution of the Word: “Jesus is the embodiment and revelation of what can be seen of the Word/Wisdom of God in human life.”(5)
In the time that John wrote this gospel there was a struggle between Jews and Gentiles about the direction of ‘the Way’ which is what followers of Jesus were called before being named, “Christians”. So, in telling Jesus’ story the writers of the gospels set him against the religious authorities and in Matthew and John specifically, the religious authorities look like really bad people. We hear them called scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees in the gospels. These were the men trying to hold the culture of being Jewish together when they were under Roman rule. It is hard for me, a white male in America, to understand this situation because I am, in these stories, a representative of Rome. And so are all of you. Native peoples in our Nation are the few that can truly relate to what the Jews were experiencing in the gospel accounts because their ancestors have been driven from their land and today, live in occupied land. We can sympathize, maybe even empathize, with people trying to hold on to their culture and religious heritage, but that’s about all as we seek to understand.What we know from centuries of scholarly study is that is not fair to the religious authorities for the Jewish people then or now, to be treated badly by Christians because for them Jesus was a rabbi or teacher, not Messiah or Christ.
Last one. This bit of scripture was not part of the original manuscript of this gospel. When you have some time pick up chapter 7 and read through to the end of chapter 8, and you will see that it doesn’t really fit in this place of John’s gospel. For whatever reason it was added much later. Maybe a scribe thought something in chapter 7 (there were not chapter numbers until much, much later) maybe a scribe thought something needed a bit more explanation and he just added what we are about to hear. The edition of John that we have was approved two centuries later and had this story in it.

You may be asking yourself, “Why is this information important?” Sure, it allows Michael to demonstrate that he stayed awake in a couple of seminary classes, but what gives? I too looked like many of you do right now in a few of my seminary classes. Why? Fair question. Great question.

Because our brand of Christian witness, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) relies on individual interpretation and dialogue within the community of faith to challenge the status quo, to be accountable to each other, and help Christianity evolve. It is how grow and evolve in our understanding and practice of Christian faith. It is important because there are too many believers in Christ and followers of Jesus that just want to be told what they need to know and believe to get into heaven. Why the distinction between believers in Christ and followers of Jesus? Because I know many people that believe in Christ, but the teachings of Christ are only relevant while inside the walls of the church. I know people who practice the way of Jesus, his teachings, but don’t call him Christ.

When I was in seminary we were reminded that the gospel is always one generation away from extinction. The same is true for the Church. It is one generation away from extinction or being irrelevant to our covenantal community. It becomes a habit like taking your daily vitamin, but you cannot really tell if it makes a difference. This stuff matters if you are going to be an active participant in shaping the direction and ministry of your congregation. It matters that you are the best educated you can be so that when you are a counselor at camp in the years to come, you can listen to campers, nudge, nurture, and educate them to own their faith just like the adults do with you today.

It is pretty easy to believe in something. It is what you do based on that belief that is the harder task.

I need some volunteers to help us hear and see the scripture.

John 8:2-11 [7:53-8:11]

Scene

Narrator: Jesus and his disciples are in Jerusalem for the Festival of Booths. This festival celebrates the harvest and commemorates Israel’s sojourn in the desert after their exodus from Egypt and before entering, some might say invading, the promised land. Attending the festival was a requirement of all adult Jewish males.

Half way through the festival Jesus enters the temple and begins teaching those gathered. The crowd has all kinds of people: Jewish religious leaders, scribes (the educated helpers of the religious leaders), Jewish citizens under Roman occupation, and temple guards. After a discussion between the religious leaders and the temple guards about why they had not arrested Jesus, everyone goes home for the night, but Jesus goes out to the Mount of Olives.

Early the next morning Jesus arrives at the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery. Making her stand before all of them. They say,

Scribes & Pharisees: Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?

Narrator: Jesus bends down and begins writing on the ground with his finger.

Scribes and Pharisees: Well, what do you say?

Jesus Stands Up and says: Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.

Narrator: Jesus bends back to the ground and continues writing. After a while, the scribes and Pharisees begin to leave one by one until it is only Jesus and the accused woman. Jesus stands up after they all have gone.

Jesus: Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?

Woman: No one, sir.

Jesus: Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.

Scene Ends

Talkback Time:

What is happening in this story?

What characters do you identify with most, right now?

When have you played the scribes, the woman, Jesus in your life?

It is important to clarify what “adultery” is in this story and for the ancient Jewish community. In this story it is a sexual act. The text says someone walked in on this woman involved in a sexual act. Where is the man? Why isn’t he being accused? For the ancient Jewish community, the woman could only commit adultery if she was engaged to be married, or promised to another man by her father, or married. And given the concern of rape culture on college campuses, this woman may have another story to tell, but when we meet her no one asks those kind of questions. If you want to learn more, please contact my companion, Rev. Dr. Lisa Davison. Have you ever seen the old tv show, “Friends?” Yes? A good show. One of the characters in “Friends” is named Phoebe and in one episode she performs songs for children at a local library. She is called the “the lady singer who tells the truth.” My companion will do the same about the First Testament (Old Testament or Hebrew Bible) for you. She will tell you the truth about what is and is not in the text.

Maybe we need to think about adultery not as a sexual act, but as: to whom or to what have you harmed or “cheated on” or given less than your best? When have you been taken advantage of and no one would stand up to you? When did a stranger stand up for you?

So, Jesus takes some time before acting out. He listens, sorts what he may or may not feel about this woman and what she has been accused of doing. And the writer gives us the nice little moral teaching from Jesus: let the one without sin cast the first stone. He shames the religious leaders. He does this in another gospel. Does it sound familiar? My paraphrase: “Why do you care about the speck in your neighbors eye when you ignore the log in your own?” So we take these stories as reminders about being judgmental and being cautious when making judgements. That is a good lesson to remember. But, rather than carry a stone around in our pocket to remind us to not judge people unfairly, or without all the facts, maybe the stone should remind us about how to reconcile.

I think Jesus is showing us a way to reconcile and enable reconciliation. What does that word mean?

Reconcile: verb (used with object), reconciled, reconciling.

1. to cause (a person) to accept or be resigned to something not desired: He was reconciled to his fate.

2. to win over to friendliness; cause to become amicable:

to reconcile hostile persons.

3. to compose or settle (a quarrel, dispute, etc.).

4. to bring into agreement or harmony; make compatible or consistent: to reconcile differing statements; to reconcile accounts.

5. to reconsecrate (a desecrated church, cemetery, etc.).

6. to restore (an excommunicate or penitent) to communion in a church.(6)

So, Jesus takes some time to draw in the dirt. I wonder what he was drawing. For John, that is not an important detail. Time passes in this situation until the religious authorities are shamed into walking away. Can shame still work now that the Internet exists? There is a lot of ‘shameful’ stuff out there on the web. When were you last shamed into doing the right thing? Shame is different than guilt. Guilt, it seems to me, is only good once. If it doesn’t help you change your behavior the first time, then it is just baggage you drag around with you the rest of your life. But, shame, that can or once could be, a way to learn even when you don’t want to. Shame. One of the last things my mother said to me on the way out the door to college was, “You dad and I raised you right and the best way we could. We know you can make good decisions. You are going out there and we know you will not embarrass your family. Maybe yourself, but not your family.”

If we are going to ‘act out’ faith in Jesus or the way that Jesus lived, it must mean being awake, conscious, and aware of your surroundings and your baggage. Reconcile. Right now it is really hard in our culture to find ways to reconcile that don’t include winners and losers. You may want to reconcile or someone may not want to reconcile with you. What then? Reconcile: How we do it is a choice we make.

I mentioned my morning music. It is about 30 minutes and ends with these lyrics from my favorite modern prophet, we’ve already heard from, and it seems a fitting end for my words with you.

You say love is a temple, love a higher law
Love is a temple, love the higher law.
You ask me to enter, but then you make me crawl
And I can’t be holding on to what you got, when all you got is hurt.

One love, one blood, one life, you got to do what you should.
One life with each other: sisters, brothers.
One life, but we’re not the same.
We get to carry each other, carry each other.
One, one.(7)

__________

Notes

YES, Tomato, “Onward.” 1978.
U2, The Joshua Tree, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” 1987.
Unknown author of this joke.
Andrew Matthews, Psychology Today, “Acting Out: Learning to Hold the Tension.” April 29, 2012.
Marcus Borg, Evolution of the Word. Harper One (New York) 2012. p 305.
reconcile. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/reconcile (accessed: June 27, 2017).
U2. Achtung Baby, “One.” 1991.