How To Screw Up Worship

Proper 16 (year c)

Psalm 71.1-6, Jeremiah 1.4-10, Luke 13.10-17, & Hebrews 12.18-29:

When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day." Luke 13.13-14

Meditation: "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire."   (Hebrews 12 .28 & 29)

Reflection: The reign that God proclaims and that we receive "cannot be shaken." Whatever we may or may not see, whatever we may or may not accomplish, this promise is true. We can trust it.

"Jesus heals a crippled woman, provoking criticism from Pharisees who, perhaps threatened by Jesus' growing popularity and power, accuse him of breaking Sabbath rules. Jesus' response is quick and severe; he exposes their hardness of heart by asking, 'ought not this woman ... be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?' Jesus rejects the rigid interpretation of the law and insists instead on the spirit of the law - that the Sabbath provides liberation and renewal for all."  - Freed from Bondage

Consider: Shaken, NOT Stirred?  As we look at this woman, bound in sickness-"crippled for eighteen years," the religious authority may well have marked her as undeserving of kindness, through an embellished purity code system. First, she was a woman-property, and of little more worth, and a long sickness might have been believed to be God's just judgment on her in their eyes.  So, Jesus affirms her as a "daughter of Abraham" and exposes their hypocrisy-they would rather take care of cattle, instead of a child of God.

Jesus points them to the Sabbath-the true meaning, and spirit of Sabbath. Remember him speaking on another occasion, "I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?" (Luke 6.9). The words he uses after freeing her, connotes the idea of obligation under the law. They surely understood his rebuke to be lawfully endorsed.

Prophets "pluck up" and "pull down." They "destroy" and "overthrow" (Jeremiah 1.10). His prophetic words and actions, reprimand the religious leaders of the day, for placing legalistic, and oppressive regulations-business as usual-ahead of the weightier matters of the law-like justice and mercy. Ultimately, prophesy is "to build and to plant," redirecting and renewing a vision with true compassion, as a worshipful reflection of God and his merciful order.

Today, the church seems to have things organized in such a way that this worshipful reflection finds its place in the margins of "normal" church life.  The "business" of church, seems to have superseded the true "work" of the church.  I wonder what will remain when our shaking begins.

Lord, let the shaking begin...

Posted by Pastor Kork at 12:01 AM EDT

Updated: Monday, 27 August 2007 5:50 PM EDT

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Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong. - 2 Corinthians 12:10

Posted by Pastor Kork at 12:27 PM EDT

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We should pray without ceasing because we cannot complete anything without God's help.  - John Trithemius

Quoted in Essential Monastic Wisdom, by Hugh Feiss

Posted by Pastor Kork at 12:25 PM EDT

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In the early Christian communities, the character of the Jesus movement found expression in the abolition of social distinctions of class, religion, race, and gender.  - Mary John Mananzan  Quoted in Cry Freedom, by Charles Ringma

Posted by Pastor Kork at 3:26 PM EDT

Updated: Thursday, 19 July 2007 3:27 PM EDT

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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 Corinthians 5:18-19

Posted by Pastor Kork at 10:31 AM EDT

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The Power of Weakness

Proper 9 (year c)

Psalm 30, 2 kings 5.1-14, Luke 10.1-11, 16-20, & Galatians 6.1-16

Luke 10.3-6: Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.  Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road.  Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house!'  And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you.      

Meditation: ...If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit.  So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up.  So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith."    (Galatians 6.8-10)

Reflection: "Our readings testify to the contagiousness of a lived faith, which not only witnesses to our dependence on God but also enables us to trust more fully in one another."  - Michaela Bruzzese

Consider: "Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.  Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals;..."

Is Jesus nuts?  He tells us to go out perfectly vulnerable!  Why would he do that?  Doesn't he realize that power is the way of procuring what it is that we want and need? Doesn't he realize that setting up his kingdom would be something that's going to need capital and prestige in order to make it great?  Amazing!  Doesn't he realize that we will look like fools?

I received an interesting question this week about this mission.  There was an obvious struggle within Jesus' earthly ministry, in that there were not a shortage of laws, and truly, his disciples thought that there was a military conquest (to whatever degree they even understood that) to begin, thus ushering in this kingdom.  Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem-to the cross, and they are out and about, rallying people to this inauguration.   Surely they knew enough to understand that Jesus' kingship was different, and slowly they were able to digest his methods, gaining some understanding.  But, underneath, they were still thinking that these are just a means to an end-a bait and switch (maybe) until the "power" of his kingdom was revealed.  In short, gaining support through good works, and in the end overthrowing the bad guys, establishing the kingdom through last minute "power."  "We Win!" 

However, what we find to be true later, is that Jesus wasn't playing bait and switch.  He meant it from beginning to end, and the methods that he employed, were kingdom living examples modeled right before them.  They were not a way to the Kingdom, but walking in the Kingdom. 

It is also interesting, that when Jesus went to the cross, he didn't have his friends with him.  They misunderstood the message and the method.  When he went to the cross, a struggle ensued within them.  Viewing their mission as failed, they were struck with the thought that the movement was aborted.

So, here is the question, when Jesus sent the twelve out earlier, and now as we read, he sends the 70 (or the 72 in earlier manuscripts), we wonder, "what was message that they were actually preaching?"  great question.  Why didn't most people follow him all the way?  Were they preach the wrong message? 

Could it be that this was the reason that there were so many (throngs in fact) of people celebrating him as he entered the city--the "triumphal entry" into Jerusalem, as it is now known?  More good questions.

I do believe that Jesus was beginning to move toward making a show of evil.  It was his time of gathering people, making a show of, and exposing the "powers," selfishness, and sin, for what it truly is.  His message (and their message) was obviously the good news of his kingdom, and how close it has come to them.  We see hints in relation to what Jesus and his mission truly were, and we, ourselves, have been prepared even down to our shoes, with the preparation of this message--the gospel of peace; the good news of the kingdom.  Our reading from Galatians, divides the ideas of what constitutes spirit and what scripture calls flesh.

Today, our power struggle with Jesus, is the breaking of our old paradigms that says that we must be powerful in order to accomplish his will.  Jesus hands us the option of a radical surrendering of our strength.  God calls our strength "flesh" and when it is employed, the kingdom is not seen.  However, if we will forgo our own prerogatives, and our own righteous agendas--assuring that there is nothing in it for us by this world standards--then the message is not tainted, and the kingdom is free to rise above the private fires of difficult lives made worse by the gasoline of purity codes and sin police; free to rise above the ashes of people's lives.

In our reading from second Kings we see a nobody; a girl; the least important; One who is done wrong and still finds the higher road of blessing those who curse.  Perhaps she thought that Elisha would call down fire on Naaman, perhaps she thought that he would treat her better if the Prophet would heal him.  In either case God's way of blessing was reveled in weakness, regardless of her motive, the kingdom of God came very near to Naaman.

Maybe the lesson for Naaman (and us) is that all of this is, in fact, impossible, if we are independent; strong; self-reliant and able.  The little prisoner of war, needed Elisha, Namman needed Elisha, the disciples needed each other, the Galatians needed each other.  None of them need a program.  They needed the true good news of safety that is contained in true family.  They needed a good kingdom.

When has the kingdom of God come near you? Has it come near lately? Have you positioned yourself where it be revealed through you?

We can expend a lot of energy helping people to find God with all the wrong motives--with huge misunderstanding--with our own agenda.  But even in spite of our misunderstanding, and our simple mindedness, God finds a way of bursting forth in simplicity, to those he's reaching.  I ask us to think, for own sake and reward, if we have made ourselves small enough to apprentice with Jesus in his mission to people in our time.

With whom are you sharing the good news of the end of domination? 

Embrace your smallness.

Posted by Pastor Kork at 12:01 AM EDT

Updated: Tuesday, 10 July 2007 4:08 PM EDT

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Free to Live as a Slave

Proper 8 (year c)

Psalm 77.1-2, 11-20, 2 Kings 2.1-2, 6-14, Luke 9.51-62 & Galatians 5.1, 13-25

Reflection:  "To have no place to lay your head is difficult, unsettling - and an essential part of a walk with God. This "liminal space" is a unique spiritual position where human beings hate to be but where the biblical God is always leading us."  - Richard Rohr, OFM

Consider: To compound the distinction, Jesus, unlike Elijah, does not permit his followers to say goodbye or even to bury their dead, for "no one who looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God." To follow Jesus is to do so wholeheartedly-there is no middle ground.

Paul reminds the Galatians community that they "were called for freedom," which is most fully expressed by the ability "to serve one another through love." He insists that this law is the highest way because it bears the true fruits of "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control" (Galatians 5:22-23).

James and John's suggestion to punish those who rejected them was a clear indication that they still lived by the flesh. We, too, can easily see where our loyalties lie by the fruits of our actions, especially those directed toward our enemies.

How can we possibly proclaim the good news if we ourselves have not left everything to live it?

Good questions - "What is the relationship between faith and the law?"."

Posted by Pastor Kork at 12:01 AM EDT

Updated: Tuesday, 10 July 2007 2:48 PM EDT

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Gerasenes & Galatians - Abrahamic Children

Proper 7 (year c)

Psalm 42, 1 Kings 19.1-15a, Luke 8.26-39, & Galatians 3.23-29

Galatians 3.23 & 24  Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed.   Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith.

Meditation:  But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.' (Galatians 3.25-28)

Reflection:  "Must Gentile Christians adopt Jewish practices? Or does faith in Jesus make the law obsolete? Faced with these questions, Galatians responds with a vision of the law as a guardian until Christ's coming." - Jim Rice

Consider: Good questions posed by Jim Rice, "What is the relationship between faith and the law?" Our early church leaders struggled with these questions as embodied in the letter to the Galatians and even more thoroughly in Paul's letter to the Romans.

In this week's reading, we hear words about Abraham being "saved" by "faith," and that this faith was unfulfilled until the coming of Christ. In between, the law was needed as a guardian to keep us on the right track and save us from veering too far from God's will.

This scripture is translated in very different ways, and the message itself, can become confused by our own theological viewpoint.

We can read in the NRSV that before faith came, we were ‘imprisoned and guarded' under the law, which was our ‘disciplinarian,' while other translations say that the law was our ‘schoolmaster,' ‘custodian,' and ‘guardian.'

Rice points out that the Greek word in question actually referred to a slave who had charge of a child from age 6 to 16, one who accompanied the child to school each day to see that he or she fell into no harm or mischief. Paul is saying that the law is like a caretaker that looked after the people of God until it was no longer needed, replaced by the freedom that comes with faith."

We are discussing if the law has been made obsolete in Christ.  We, as "Christians" do have a tendency to want to believe that Jewish-ness is superseded by Christian-ness.  Our language implicitly sounds like this and we gravitate to scriptures like Jesus discussing communion, 2 Corinthians 3.6, and Hebrews chapters 8 and 9 (new covenant and better promises) to pose as our scriptural correctness is superior to that of ancient Israel.  I suppose that if I were to selectively rest on those scriptures, I would conclude that we, as Christians, are what God desired all along-meaning our way of doing things.

Certainly God did mean for us to be free, and without the stain and guilt of sin, as our religious efforts strain to embrace today, but have we really found freedom in Christ, or have we become a neo-legal covenantal people, simply transplanting old (covenant) laws with a new (covenant) "disciplinarian" and reverting to old ways of governing ourselves with a modern type of purity code(s) disguised as grace, wrapped in church law, government, and discipline (not meaning the disciplines of worship and consecration).

Maybe another way of understanding this idea of old testament law vs. new testament Christ following is to view it as the original intent of all of those Mosaic laws are modeled, and in fact fulfilled (or filled up), in Christ-as He would have said it, "I [Jesus] did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.," Or yet another way of viewing this, might be, as Jesus having filled himself up with the scriptures (or the law), thus becoming them - modeling what they have meant all along.  We are coming to understand that much of what our modern, traditional understanding of what this means to us is a serious demystifying of the scriptures. 

"What it means to us, and in the context of the early church's debates over who was eligible for God's grace, rests very clearly on Paul's summation that there is "neither Jew, nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, that if we truly follow Christ (as expressed in the scriptures), we are safe because he will never lead us into sin, where law will judge us to be guilty. Christ has rendered obsolete the practice of separating and judging on the basis of race, ethnicity, religious lineage, gender, economic status, or class. The human tendency to divide and denigrate is deeply ingrained, but God's way of equality and unity is the new order of things. The consequences of that profound revelation are still unfolding in us today."

Peace!

Posted by Pastor Kork at 12:01 AM EDT

Updated: Tuesday, 26 June 2007 6:56 PM EDT

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