Sunday, August 31, 2014

Adversary

Adversary from Joseph Taber on Vimeo.

Matthew 16:21-28

21From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

24Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

27For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. 28Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God

Jeremiah 15:15-21

15O LORD, you know; remember me and visit me,
and bring down retribution for me on my persecutors.
In your forbearance do not take me away;
know that on your account I suffer insult.
16your words were found, and I ate them,
and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart;
for I am called by your name,
O LORD, God of hosts.
17I did not sit in the company of merrymakers,
nor did I rejoice;
under the weight of your hand I sat alone,
for you had filled me with indignation.
18Why is my pain unceasing,
my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?
Truly, you are to me like a deceitful brook,
like waters that fail.

19Therefore, thus says the LORD:
If you turn back, I will take you back, and you shall stand before me.
If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless you shall serve as my mouth.
It is they who will turn to you, not you who will turn to them.
20And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze;
they will fight against you but they shall not prevail over you
for I am with you to save you and deliver you,
says the LORD.
21I will deliver you out of the hand
of the wicked
and redeem you from the 
grasp of the ruthless.

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God.

It is my hope that nobody will need this sermon. It is my hope that we will all shake hands and smile at the end of this service, and never have to think about it again.

However, if that was my belief, I would be saying something very different.

The prophet Jeremiah lived through deep trauma and testifies to the horror he and his people experienced. “Oh LORD, you know; remember me and visit me.” It is my hope that no one here will live through that kind of pain.

There are profound moments of darkness in this world, where chaos seems to rule and the world doesn’t make sense. It is tempting to believe that nobody close to us ever has to go through that, but we know that we live in a world where suffering exists.

There’s a lot of tradition, much of which is supported by scripture, that one should give one’s worries over to God, trusting that God will take care of them. As Paul’s letter to the Romans says, God works all things together for the good of those who love God. Matthew also urges us not to worry about tomorrow, but to focus on the troubles of today. Those passages, and the trust in God they portray, provide a lot of comfort in an anxious world. They can help keep a person from feeling overwhelmed, and give them the faith and strength they need to continue.

While this kind of theology is a great help in the daily struggles that grind at us,  sometimes we cannot give our worries over to God. Some wounds are deeper than our faith, waves of psychological and spiritual pain that sweep us off the rocks to which we cling: the grief of a sudden death, the fear of one who suffers violent abuse, the silent howling of one who has been sexually assaulted. Traditional responses, the rocks of our faith, no longer hold meaning. We cannot hold on to what used to hold us up. When someone suffers that level of trauma, their whole world plunges into unspeakable, soul-wrenching darkness. “Why is my pain unceasing, my wound, incurable, refusing to be healed?”

Jeremiah lives in that darkness, his whole ministry is defined by it. Jeremiah's Judah lives with the trauma of death, abuse, and assault daily and on a national scale. There is no one left to say "give it to God." And to a person dealing with these trauma, there's not always a way to hear it.

There is not an analogue in American cultural memory for the catastrophe of the Babylonian captivity. the closest we get is New Orleans in the days following hurricane Katrina, where society simply ceased to function in the wake of a natural disaster. For ancient Judah, the armies of Babylon were the force of nature that stripped away everything on which they thought they could rely, including their relationship with God. The catastrophe of Babylon’s conquest of Judah has broken down every support system and comfort they had, including temple worship.

Jeremiah had been a Levite, a temple assistant. Before babylon invaded, he was educated, respected, and gratefully living out his calling. “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart.” But in the chaos after the conquest, “[the word of God] is all that is left for Jeremiah; it is nothing and yet it is everything.” The theology of the temple, and of the Judean monarchy, has failed, so Jeremiah, who had internalized the word of God, writes his own lament, his own confessions, because there is no prayer strong enough for the deep wounds of his soul.

But on an individual level, many of us have, tragically, lived through that kind of trauma. All of us, at one time or another, have felt grief that turns our anger against God. Jeremiah stands in for us, expressing the frustrations that we are culturally conditioned to keep to ourselves. After all, we’re supposed to be happy all the time, right? “I did not sit in the company of merrymakers, nor did I rejoice;” Trauma and grief can reach a point where those experiencing kit withdraw from their social interaction as a defense mechanism, joy becomes so foreign it cannot be approached.

Jeremiah uses language that is disturbing and foreign to the theology which most of up hold dear. God is supposed to be present and accountable always, a very present help in times of trouble. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for thou art with me?

But Jeremiah is not walking through that valley, he lives there. Surrounded by the atrocities of war and plunder. So he speaks in ways that don't fit with what we've come to expect from scripture. Jeremiah, and the nations to whom he preaches, do not feel as though they can count on God. Their experience is that nothing is predictable, and they have no control over their own lives. “Truly, you are to me as a deceitful brook, like waters that fail," Jeremiah says to God.

We are not the first interpreters to be troubled by Jeremiah's theology. John Calvin, one of our foremost theological ancestors, wrote “If we take the words as they appear to mean, they seem to border on blasphemy; for God had not without reason testified before, that he is the fountain of living water.” That description, of God as living waters, is spoken by Jeremiah earlier in the book. The prophet here is throwing God's own words back in his face, and with them, the entire covenant. From Jeremiah's perspective, God has abandoned his people and broken the covenant. Jeremiah’s trauma-fed accusation is that God is not the protector of Judah, but an adversary. jeremiah feels trapped between God and God’s people. “Under the weight of your hand I sat alone, for you had filled me with indignation.

We don't find much assurance in the words of a prophet who doesn't trust the God on whose behalf he speaks. So Jeremiah, instead of giving assurances he doesn't have, gives us the language to hang on to God with both hands, a way to tell the truth of deep suffering and to still have God as a part of our lives, even when we lost sight of the assurances we have.

There is resurrection after disaster. The exile kicks off a renaissance in Jewish thought, giving rise to synagogues, rich literature, and even the concept of monotheism. Perhaps Jeremiah can see those things coming. Perhaps he knows that one day other prophets will offer clearer hope, and other generations will be able to hear it.

But for now, the people are withdrawn from their social support systems. Trauma robs us of our ability to connect with others. People who have endured that level of violence against their souls cannot reach out in love, or hope, the trauma has robbed them of that capacity. Jeremiah, as spiritual leader and prophet, is given the primary purpose of maintaining the integrity of these people's relationship with the God of their ancestors. He has to keep a relationship with God strong enough to survive the trauma.

In the abyss of anguish, that means hanging on to God as an adversary. Jeremiah gives the people a way to express themselves without endangering any fragile healing at work. Their faith isn't just shaken, it's shattered. But out of that mess, “[Jeremiah’s prayers] provide a way to pray that gathers in the afflicted, draws them back from social isolation, articulates doubt, and shows how it is possible to cling relentlessly to God in the wreckage of their world.”

I hope that this way of doing theology remains distant to us. I hope that we will be able to leave here and take only the joyful sounds of "Jesus loves me." I hope that we can see that there is more to the story, that the prophets that write after Jeremiah, like Isaiah and Zechariah, can fill us with hope. However, if that had been true for everybody, we would not need the prophet Jeremiah's words.

There are people in this room who have picked up the pieces from trauma, who have stared profound grief in the face, who have endured abuse, who survived sexual assault. There may be people here who will have their faith shattered by some future disaster. Jeremiah led an entire nation in pleading with God, "I thought I could depend on you!” There may be people who have wept that same prayer. Jeremiah sets the example that “challenging God’s apparent unreliability in this manner is fully spiritual. It is language of fidelity, because it assumes God values relationship and is open to being affected personally be a believer’s suffering.

There are places of profound darkness in the world, from which human eyes cannot see the light that shines. There are places where people cannot hold on to hope, because something has removed that capacity from them. And yet a light shines in the darkness nevertheless, and the darkness cannot extinguish the light. Dr. Kathleen O'Connor reads Jeremiah's words as a model for how to hold on to God when we have lost all hope:

“Here is what to do in the pit of hopelessness: cling to God, even when God has slipped away. Yell at the top of your collective lungs. Hold tightly, mercilessly, and with every ounce of strength, shout and scream at the deity…Lay it out so you can see it yourselves and can see each other in the deep, unending wound. God is hidden there in that space.”

In that space, we find Christ crucified. Divinity hidden on a cross, joining us in the depths of human suffering, sharing Jeremiah’s feelings of abandonment, taking part in the grief and trauma which are part of life in a broken creation.

Jeremiah’s laments accuse God of being absent in trauma, because how could a loving God possibly allow so much suffering to those whom he had covenanted to love and defend. When Christ announces he is heading to the cross, Peter tries to protect him. But Christ’s mission is to participate in the whole drama of human life. That has to include the disaster of the cross, or the title of Emmanuel, “God with us” means nothing. Jesus cannot let Peter’s short sighted love stop him from his obedience to eternal love.

There is promise of resurrection, sure. But before Christ can promise to be with us, even to the end of the age; he must cry out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When we are living through trauma, we may not be able to take comfort in the resurrection we hope is coming, because the nature of trauma is that it breaks down hope and leaves us wordlessly empty.

And God replies, even in the pit, we still have a future. “Therefore, thus says the LORD: If you turn back, I will take you back, and you shall stand before me.” There is a resurrection after the cross, there is a return from exile, there is a loving God at the end of lament. But until we get there, I think Jeremiah shows us that it's ok to be honest with God, to struggle with faith, to doubt, and even to feel like an adversary of The LORD.

Perhaps Jeremiah's theology is a preview of the crucifixion. It is suffering, and bleak, and horrifying. We have lost some of the scandal of the cross over the years, placed it on too many items of jewelry and made it normal. Jeremiah's adversarial relationship with God is offensive to most of us, troubling and uncomfortable. Perhaps we are too quick to gloss over it and get to the happier resurrection, or even to join Peter in saying "God forbid it, Lord! this must never happen to you!” But perhaps that is us setting our minds not on divine things, but on human things.


But it's ok to rail at God. It's ok to accuse him of not holding up his end. It's ok to sit at the foot of the cross, or in the ashes of exile. Jeremiah shows us how to hold on to faith when we cannot be faithful. But Christ goes to the cross so that we will not have to face our trauma alone. Christ shows us that God is faithful even when we cannot believe God when he says “I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked and redeem you from the ruthless.” We know, therefore, out of exile, and death, and crucifixion, comes resurrection, and we know the story doesn't end it tears of lament, but in tears of joy.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Imperative

Imperative from Joseph Taber on Vimeo.
Matthew 16:13-20

13Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14and they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15He said to them, “But who do you say that I am? 16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heavens and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God

Isaiah 51:1-6

1Listen to Me, you who pursue justice,
You who seek the LORD:
Look to the rock you were hewn from,
To the quarry you were dug from.
2Look back to Abraham your father
And to Sarah who brought you forth.
For he was only one when I called him,
But I blessed him and made him many.

3Truly the LORD has comforted Zion,
Comforted all her ruins;
He has made her wilderness like Eden,
Her desert like the Garden of the LORD.
Gladness and joy shall abide there,
Thanksgiving and the sound of music.

4Hearken to Me, My people,
And give ear to Me, O My nation,
For teaching shall go forth from Me,
My way for the light of peoples.
In a moment I will bring it;
5the triumph I grant is near,
The success I give has gone forth.
My arms shall provide for the peoples;
The coastlands shall trust in Me,
They shall look to My arm.

6Raise your eyes to the heavens,
And look upon the earth beneath:
Though the heavens should melt away like smoke,
and the earth wear out like a garment,
and its inhabitants die out as well,
My victory shall stand forever,
My triumph shall remain unbroken.

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God.

Listen! Look! Look! Hearken! Give ear! Raise your eyes! Look!

Seven times in six verses, God gives us a word that commands us to act. The Lord of heaven and earth issues an Imperial Decree, and we are expected comply.

Listen, look, look, hearken, give ear, raise your eyes, look!

We 21st century American Christians tend to shy away from talking too much about God's commands. We're much more comfortable hearing about how God invites us to join with what God is doing, we'd rather not hear as much about what God expects us. Instead, tell us again about how God loves us no matter what we do or think.

God is speaking to a people who are empty, who have spent so long trying to just get by in a world full of exile and terror. People who inherited vineyards which they did not plant, only to see the beauty of the earth melt away as they were taken from their places of comfort.

This passage is not addressed to the righteous, the delivered, the victorious. It's addressed to those who are chasing it down. “Listen to Me, you who pursue justice. “This word is for those who are desperate for hope, but haven't found it yet.

God's people are in exile, far away from the land that symbolizes the covenant, far away from the trappings of their temple worship, far away from their connection to the ancestral inheritance. They are in Babylon. Yet even in exile in Babylon, God calls them to pay attention to their roots, which are not just in Israel and Judah, or in Sinai, or even Egypt. For once, long ago, God told a man named Abram to get up and leave the city and house of his father and to go to a place where God would show him. So Abram, who would become known as Abraham, left the city of Ur, an ancient  city in the Babylonian empire. Even in exile, God reminds the people of their roots, of the covenant God has bade with them. Look at the quarry from which you were hewn. Look at the rocks from which you were formed. Listen, look, look, hearken, give ear, raise your eyes, look!

These divine commands, these orders from on high, God's Word made imperative, are not instructions to go on a spiritual journey or to enact some sort of ritual. The people to whom God is speaking cannot carry their end of the relationship, at least not yet. These seven verbs grab our attention and orient us to a God who is acting. Listen, look, look, hearken, give ear, raise your eyes, look!

We've been waiting for a long time to see God's action. We've trained ourselves to see God in the small actions, but we long to see God really roll up his sleeves and do something amazing. We remember a time when the pews were so full we had to think creatively about how to fit everyone inside the church, and many congregations built larger grander sanctuaries as well. Now we see not only available seats, but pews which lie empty, like unplanted fields gone to weeds. We remember a time when church life was the center of whole communities. Now we see communities, even communities of faith, divided by political differences and family squabbles.

Is that the rock we were hewn from? Is that the quarry from which we were dug? Are we to remain in this desert of institutional decline? No wonder God is issuing commands! It’s time for us to turn things around, to be ready to act, if we just work a little harder at what we’re doing, everything will go back to the way it was, a whole company of believers making sure that the church is the focus of society!

God's word spoken through the prophet Isaiah does not call some spiritual army to attention, it calls us to pay attention. This text does not point us to our own action, or even our own comfort. The focus of this passage, and ideally of the life of the church, is on what God is doing. Because God is about to make the wilderness like Eden, the desert like the Garden of The Lord.

Listen, look, look, hearken, give ear, raise your eyes, look!

None of these verbs are missional, or empowering, they do not invite participation in the work God is doing, they don't even require purity or the right belief. They are all observational. Listen. Look. Look. Hearken. Give ear. Raise your eyes. Look!

As God speaks these words to them, the people of God are too beaten down to participate in what God is doing. They're just too tired to respond in faith. Too many years of decline, too many years of chasing after justice, and never reaching it. God's people, in this text, need to be reminded that God is acting, that God is mighty, and that God is working for their good.

So God commands them to pay attention, and to remember to whom they belong.

We are dug from the same quarry, hewn from the same rocky ground, as our spiritual ancestors. But God can make that rocky wilderness like Eden. God transforms the desert into the Garden of The Lord. Our spiritual ancestors did not accomplish great things, or even great faith, by themselves, or grow from two old people into a nation, a childless couple into the Matriarch and Patriarch through whom all peoples bless themselves. Only God can do that. So why do we focus so much of our attention on replicating their results through our own feeble efforts, instead of trusting in the God who is leading us to a land which God will show us?

Our exile is spiritually exhausting. We’re so tired of trying to continue forward out of our own strength, which we know is not sufficient. In our anxiety, we make decisions based on what we think will make our denomination not decline as quickly. We try and hold on to our resources because we can only see the day when they run out. We forget that the church is not called to promote itself, but always to Proclaim the Lordship of Christ. We exile ourselves with our own sense of self-importance, until we find ourselves in a land where anxiety and fear abide, hand-wringing and the sound of worry.

But even in our exile, God is still at work, bringing us back to himself, to the land which God will show us. Gladness and joy shall abide there, Thanksgiving and the sound of music. Listen, look, look, hearken, give ear, raise your eyes, look, for God is acting. Christ is Lord of heaven and earth, even though that looks different, in our different world, than it looked for our ancestors. Even in exile we have hope in God,  whose “arms shall provide for the peoples; The coastlands shall trust in [God], They shall look to [God’s] arm.”

We know that God is faithful to the covenant even when we are not. We have seen this theme played out time and again throughout scripture, church history, and our own lives. What has gone before us is not to be discarded, ”Our ancestors and their history and connected to our hope; our hope is the foundation of our future. God's promises to Sarah and Abraham flow to and infuse hope in the exile.” Out of exile comes life, and beauty, and a people who are reformed, and are always being reformed. They are different, sure, and have their own particularity, but they are also connected to all the saints in every time and place. Listen. Look. Look. Hearken. Give ear. Raise your eyes. Look!

We share hope in a new minister, and a new congregation. We see fruits beginning to flourish within ourselves and one another, we're caught up in the excitement of new life, where we had only seen a dormant grind for so long. But that newness will fade into a mature and trusting Pastoral Relationship. The hope of newness is ephemeral and will fade. the hope in God’s promises to our ancestors is sure, even though we do not know the form it will take.

God says For teaching shall go forth from Me, My way for the light of peoples. In a moment I will bring it; the triumph I grant is near,” The teaching which shall go forth from God gives us the words to answer “Who do you say that I am?” with “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Listen, look, look, hearken, give ear, raise your eyes, look! God’s imperative to us is not to grow in stature, or number, or to fit in with the culture, or be popular. God doesn’t issue a call to attention so that we will be ready to act immediately, God calls us to pay attention so that we will see who God is, and be able in all things to proclaim the Lordship of Christ. Listen. Look. Look. Hearken. Give ear. Raise your eyes. Look!

These commands remind us of God's love, they connect us to the narrative that gives the events of our lives meaning. Listen, look, look, hearken, give ear, raise your eyes, look! "Though the heavens should melt away like smoke, and the earth wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants die out as well, My victory shall stand forever, My triumph shall remain unbroken.”

So the church remains connected to the rock frown which we are hewn, to the quarry from which we were dug. We still pursue justice, but we find ourselves watching for God, exploring creation with the hope that we will find what God is already doing for us, to us, and through us. We respond in faith when we are able, and when we cannot, God commands us to Listen. Look. Look. Hearken. Give ear. Raise your eyes. Look!


God's commands remind us of the covenant, and call us to remember the wonders God has done in our sight in the past. So our obedience to God’s command is not an obligation, but a joy. God’s commands remind us of the covenant, linking our action to the reasons we act. God’s imperative empowers our declaration that Christ is Lord. QGod’s victory shall stand forever, God’s triumph shall remain unbroken,” and we listen, look, look, hearken, give ear, raise our eyes, look, and finally answer, QJesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Morning Walk

Morning Walk from Joseph Taber on Vimeo.

Genesis 32:6-12, 22-31

6The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” 7Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and also the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies, 8thinking, “If Esau comes to the one company and destroys it, then the company that is left will escape.”

9And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good,’ 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff have I crossed this Jordan; and now I have become two companies. 11Deliver me, please, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children. 12Yet you have said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because of their number.’”

22The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children,  and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23Jd took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. 24Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” 29Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” 31The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God

Matthew 14:22-33

Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. 25And early in the morning he came walking on toward them on the sea. 26But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. 27But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.”

28Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29He said, “Come,” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. 30But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God.

Jacob, the classic trickster of the Old Testament, is out of ideas. He may have fooled his father Isaac and stolen his brother Esau’s birthright, but now his brother is back with an army of 400 men. Jacob is a wealthy man, but all his gains are ill-gotten, results of his trickster ways and his ability to use his cleverness to gain at the expense of others.

The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”

Jacob, whose pranks are the stuff of legend, who has always managed to gain and keep the upper hand, is out of ideas. He writes off have of his household as lost, knowing that he cannot withstand an attack by such a large force, but maybe he can escape with the survivors. His mother’s favorite, but second-born, child, Jacob learned to always look for the advantage.

Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and also the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies, thinking, “If Esau comes to the one company and destroys it, then the company that is left will escape.”

Jacob, the heel-grabbing younger twin, faced with the potential wrath of a cheated older brother, is out of ideas. 

Unless,

Unless the promises of God, unlike those of Jacob, are reliable and sure. The only trick Jacob has left is that God is not a trickster like he is.

“And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good,’  I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff have I crossed  this Jordan; and now I have become two companies. Deliver me, please, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children. Yet you have said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because of their number.’”

This prayer, I think, marks a turning point for Jacob. His whole life he has been able to take the blessing of a sharp mind, which God had given him, and used it for his own benefit. This time, with the weight of past debts riding towards him, that's not at option. He recognizes that his ability to outmaneuver his opponents has failed him, so he must turn from cleverness to faith, reminding God of the blessings of God's promise, and crediting God with what the Trickster had "earned" in his journeys.

He has no other option, and turns to God, knowing full well that if God chooses not to intervene, it will mean his destruction. "The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok."

Peter has been in and around boats his whole life. He was a fisherman, after all, before a traveling preacher named Jesus told him to "Come, follow me." Now he's learning to fish for people, but he's the one who feels caught.

He's caught up in the moments when Jesus heals the sick, he's caught up in the inspiration of the crowds when Jesus talks about the kingdom of God, even when he doesn't understand Jesus's full meaning. Peter is caught in a storm on the Sea of Galilee while his miracle-working master is praying on his own.

But the ranks of the disciples are filled with experienced fishermen, who know how to handle the wind and the waves. They're in the deep water, where their boat was designed to be. A strong headwind and some battering waves far away from land is a good workout, but no reason to panic, at least not yet.

But then something strange appears out of the fog, a human figure, at first mistaken for a ghost. "And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, 'Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.'" The disciples do not fear the storm, they have experience with the natural. The idea, however, that something supernatural is at work gives them reason to cry out in fear.

Something supernatural is at work at the Jabbok.

Jacob is striving against a mysterious figure, a man who is not clearly identified in the text. They grapple with one another through the night, and Jacob cannot quite get the upper hand. On the other hand, the unnamed man does not prevail against the heel-grabber either. "When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, 'Let me go, for the day is breaking.' But Jacob said, 'I will not let you go unless you bless me.'"

The Trickster, the Heel-Grabber, refuses to loose his hold on the man, even though his hip is dislocated. “Jacob had asked for a blessing. Perhaps he dreamed of security, land, more sons. But what he got was a new identity through an assault from God.” He demands a blessing, and receives a new identity. "So he said to him, 'What is your name?' And he said, 'Jacob.' Then the man said, 'You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.'" The Heel-Grabber is liberated from the hold the past held on him. Esau is still waiting for him, but a newly-named Israel is able to face his past without being bound by it. Instead of hanging on for every possible advantage, Israel can see the value in the struggle, knowing that the process is perhaps even more important than the results.

The blessing of Israel is a new liveliness that means he can move forward to reconciliation with Esau, he is no longer the weary trickster out of ideas, he is Israel, who has struggle with God and with people and prevailed. But he is neither in a position to strut, nor swagger. Neither can he run away from trouble or dodge the storms that lie ahead in his path. The blessing of newness of life is so great that it leaves him limping.

But the limp blessed him with the ability to step out on faith.

Peter stands on a boat in the middle of a storm, but the storm he can handle. It’s this supernatural walking on water that gives him pause. He cries out in fear at the sight. 
But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.
Peter answered him, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’ He said, ‘Come,’ So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus.”

Peter hears his master’s voice telling him “Come,” and in it he hears a command powerful enough to convince him to get out of the boat. he hears the same voice that commanded him to put down his nets and become a fisher of people. He hears the same voice that told him that Blessed are the peacemakers. I wonder if he heard the Word that was with God and was God at the beginning. I wonder if he heard the Word that rang out saying “Hear O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD alone.” He heard his teacher and his friend say “Come,” so whatever was packed in that simple command, he got out of the boat and walked on water.

Peter can only hold on to his faith in Jesus’s command for a moment. “But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’” 

Peter’s absolute faith in God’s ability to call him out onto the stormy water falters, but his hope that his Lord can still save him does not. When you’re out on the water, in the midst of a storm, and you go from walking on water to sinking, there are no more tricks. There are no sails for this fisherman to trim, no clever ideas for keeping the collection of beams and sealant afloat, because Peter, nicknamed “Rock” has walked out onto the water to have an encounter with God. Not even his faith, a blessing time and again in the past, is sufficient to save him. The only solid thing he has left is the hope that his Lord is trustworthy and sure, that God’s blessings can outmatch the storm.

“Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’”

I imagine “You of little faith,” which is only directed at Jesus’s followers, never unbelievers, as though it is always said with a smile. Drawing Peter up out of the water, Jesus knows full well with which kind of limited people he is working. Jesus knows that the faith of all of his followers is finite.

But the God in whom we have faith is infinite, and perfects out faith in us even before we know how to act on it or carry it forward into the world. God’s blessings are not a promise that everything will suddenly be easy. In fact, God’s blessings challenge us to do what is difficult. Peter did not walk on calm waters, after all. He stepped out of the boat in the middle of a storm. While his fear sank him, for a moment there, God blessed him by letting him walk on water.

Peter’s cry as he is sinking echoes Jacob’s prayer when he knows he will encounter Esau. Both rely solely on God’s grace when their own abilities, Jacob’s cleverness and Peter’s faith, fail. “Lord, Save me!” and “Deliver me, please,” are variations on the same hope. Our hope is in the one who blesses us in ways beyond our imagination.

But those blessings are not always the grace that is usually imagined. One could say that Israel limped on water for the rest of his life. He was free from his old patterns of behavior, but his damaged hip was among the blessings he was given that night at the ford of the river Jabbok. Jesus caught Peter and pulled him up, a reminder that even as a fisher of people, he had been caught already, and that one day others would take him to a place he did not with to go.

God’s blessings can leave us limping or empower us to walk on water. Perhaps though, those are not so far apart as we may suppose. Israel’s morning walk took him from the place where he had spent the night struggling with God, called Penuel, and led him to reconciliation with his brother, Esau, rather than the battle he had perhaps expected. Peter’s morning walk took him from the familiarity and safety of a boat into the middle of a raging storm just because his Lord called to him.


God has blessed us with each other, with a unique community and a particular place to go out and do the ministry to which God has called us. We will find our own version of walking on water as we seek to worship God, grow in faith, and show God’s love to everyone. We will find our own painful reconciliation as we limp across the ford of the river Jabbok. But we know that the blessings of the LORD are all around us, and that whether we are limping or walking on water, God is still active among us, and for that, we will live in gratitude, service, and love, singing praises to the one who intervenes in this world and empowers our ministry.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Dinner Conversation

Dinner Conversation from Joseph Taber on Vimeo.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

23 For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, 24and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for* you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ 25In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ 26For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God

Matthew 14:13-21

13 Now when Jesus heard [that John had been executed], he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. 15When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’ 16Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’ 17They replied, ‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’ 18And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’ 19Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. 21And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God

My Dad is a storyteller, many of us know him from his days as the Executive Presbyter here in Western North Carolina, others of us met him Friday night as he moved around the reception, proud papa of a teaching elder. I, of course, know him in a different way than the rest of our congregation, what with him being my Dad and all.

Dad had some wisdom that he shared, periodically, on the subject of storytelling: "All stories are true, some of them actually happened."

A human life is a collection of stories. We are the main character in most of them, but not all of our stories feature our names on the title page. We inherit stories from those who have gone before us, and pass them on to generations whom we have not yet met. "For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you,"

Our stories define us and connect us with the ones with whom we share them. That's why we so lovingly choose children's books when we gather for a baby shower, books like The Runaway Bunny, or Goodnight Moon, or I Love You Forever, because we remember how lovingly those stories were shared with us, even before we knew why that mattered. We know that many of those stories did not happen, but that doesn't make them less true.

The stories that did happen are our Mothers reading us The Runaway Bunny and we knew that she would love us to the end of the earth, no matter what happened. The stories that did happen were our Father's telling us the stories of what happened at work that day, and making us feel loved and accepted by including us in the Dinner Conversations. The stories that did happen were our Mothers' making up a tune to sing while reading I Love You Forever, before we understood that it meant more to her than it did to us.

Our experience with those stories made their truth real to us.

But not every dinner conversation was a pleasant one, and there is more than one story in our anthology that doesn't have a happy ending. There are tragedies alongside the comedies. Those stories are true too, and their harshness shapes our lives just as much as the warmth of the happy stories does. We don't tell those stories as often, and we certainly don't tell them because they're pleasant, or happy, or polite dinner conversation.

In a few minutes, we will gather around the Lord's Table for a sacrament, but we will do so knowing that the dinner table was not a safe place for everyone. Some tables are terrifying centers of abuse, altars to trauma that removes our ability to tell our story the way it happened.

We tell the hard stories because they're true. Even we cannot face that truth straight on, we can tell the truth, but tell it slant.

Sometimes we tell stories in ways that open up old wounds, it's painful and may leave us bleeding, but it's also the only way to make room for healing.

All this happened, more or less.

Our Gospel lesson this morning tells the story of a miracle. Jesus, out of his grief over the loss of his cousin and colleague in ministry, John the Baptist, "he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns."

The story of Jesus is so filled with truth, that crowds gather and walk around the outside of a lake just for a chance to have a piece of God's truth.

"When [Jesus] went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick."

Even in his grief, Jesus is still filled with compassion for God's people, and rolls up his sleeves to minister to them.

"15When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’"

The disciples see God doing great things, and immediately miss the point. Again. But I wonder if maybe they saw that Jesus was tired, and that he needed space to grieve, but this crowd did not see it, they only saw their own need for healing. Perhaps the disciples were trying to protect Jesus, and were showing love and care for him, at the expense of the crowds.

16Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’ 

The disciples, perhaps hoping to give Jesus a chance to rest, want to just wave the crowds off to fend for themselves, Jesus’s boundless compassion looks creatively at the situation and finds a way to teach the disciples what it looks like to love God and neighbor by feeding those who are hungry.

17They replied, ‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’18And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’

When our mission falls flat on its face, and we are left with “we have nothing,” God finds a way to include us in the healing work of God. God’s compassion includes us even when we think we have nothing to give. Because even when we have nothing, we can still share our story, our part in God’s story, our partaking of the bread of life. “The Lord’s Supper is, in the first place, the sacrament of the sharing of the divine life with humanity.”

19Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. 21And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Ah, the miracle. The part of the story where more empirically minded folk raise an eyebrow. There is some speculation as to how this miracle actually happened. One theory is the traditional magic basket approach, where the bread and fish multiplied and never ran out. The other is the stone soup version, where the crowed, inspired by Jesus's generosity in sharing what little the disciples had, revealed that they had brought a little with them, and the hearts of the whole multitude were changed such that they shared everything they had, with plenty left over.

I think either one counts as a miracle. I personally favor the traditional interpretation, that God provided abundance from nothing so that all could be fed. The more modern understanding, however, that God changed the hearts of thousands through a simple act of generosity is a profound miracle as well.

I also think that if it were essential for us to know one way or the other, the Holy Spirit would have included the pertinent details in the unique and authoritative witness we have in scripture. Such a detail would fit in well alongside the stories of God providing manna in the wilderness, or alongside the account in Numbers of each tribe's identical offering for sacrifice and for the tabernacle.

But irrespective of the details, the truth of the story is that through God's intervention, we are fed and what looked like scarcity has become abundance.

But without the stories we tell, we would never get to experience that truth. For Presbyterians, the reading and proclamation of the Word is always tied to the sacraments, because the story and the truth it contains, give us language to describe our experience of God. “The elements of bread and with mediate the spiritual presence of Jesus Christ only insofar as they are celebrated in the larger context of those narratives that identify Jesus as the Christ.”

All stories are true, some actually happened.

But the stories we tell around God’s table are not empty fantasies, they are truth-laden testimony to who God is, and to who we are as followers of Jesus Christ.

The proof is at the table, where we are invited by Christ to dine with our God throughout the power of the Holy Spirit. We are elevated by God through the sacrament to sit and share a meal with disciples in every time and place, and the elements of bread and wine awaken us to the real presence of Christ among us.

One theologian, writing about what happens at Communion, confessed that nobody really gets it, that the sacrament, by its nature, is a mystery. “Now, if anyone should ask me how this takes place, I shall not be ashamed to confess that it is a secret to lofty for either my mind to comprehend or my words to declare. And, to speak more plainly, I rather experience than understand it.”

Perhaps the feeding of the five thousand serves as a reminder that we cannot do our work apart from God. Communion reminds, reveals, and promises the God is in our midst, empowering our mission, finding ways for us is worship God, grow in faith, and show God’s love to everyone.


Thanks be to God for that.

Friday, August 8, 2014

Ordination Service!



Watch my ordination live! The service starts at 6:30, we'll probably start streaming around that time as well.

You can also watch it on youtube.

Thanks to everyone who is helping with the service, my administrative commission, all the musicians, and everyone who travelled to be here today!

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Go, Therefore



1 Kings 19:9-18
9At [Horeb, the mount of God, Elijah] came to a cave, and spent the night there. Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" 10He answered, "I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it way."

11[God] said, "Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD  is about to pass by." Now there was a great wind, so string that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; 12and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 13When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and wont out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" 14He answered, "I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away." 15Then the LORD said to him, "Go return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as King of Aram. 16Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha, son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. 17Whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall kind, and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall kill. 18Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him."

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God

Matthew 28:16-20
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God

Both of our stories this morning are, I'm quite sure, familiar to all of us. They are stories where God shows us something of himself. In 1 Kings, God reveals something of himself through the sound of sheer silence, or a still, small voice in other translations. In Matthew, God's self-revelation comes in the form of the post-resurrection Christ, sending the disciples throughout the world and promising to be with them.

But besides their familiarity and God's self-sharing, these stories are connected through the doubt they portray in those who serve God. Some of the disciples, seeing Jesus ready to ascend to heaven, doubted. Elijah is just coming off of a major victory against the prophets of Baal and loses his nerve, fleeing into the wilderness until he comes to Horeb, the mount of God, which is sometimes also called Sinai.

One story takes place where the instruction of God came down, the other where the Word of God made flesh was taken up, and both are filled with the doubt of those who lived through them.

We are living through frightening times. An hour's worth of evening news is good for a full night of unsleeping anxiety. That doesn't even count the innumerable small things that make our daily lives uneasy: family unrest, problems at work, troubled friendships, health issues, money troubles, the list goes on. Like Elijah, we may be driven out into the wilderness just for a chance to get away from the problems we see.

"I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it way."

I feel like I've been doing everything right, and yet so much is still going wrong! I'm out of ideas, out of energy, out of resources, "I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away." We can almost taste the unspoken plea as it rests just behind our lips and Elijah's, "O God, please help me..."

We expect God to intervene out of wind, earthquake, and flame, elemental solutions to the problems of our souls. We see them as something we can grab hold of, a solution tailor-made to impress us and restart our struggling faith.

But God was not in the wind, neither was God in the earthquake, or even the fire. "After the fire a sound of sheer silence." No distractions, no excuses: it's time for a face-to-face chat with the almighty.

I don't think it goes the way Elijah envisioned it.

When we're in the kind of mindset that I see in Elijah here, we expect that God has somehow done us a disservice, and that when we present our case, God will apologize and take us up into his loving embrace and promise that it'll all be better soon. "Look God, we had a deal. I would be a good person and you would make my life easy. I've been a good person, very zealous for the Lord, and yet my life is still difficult. Come on! Do your job! Make me happy!"

"Elijah..." says the LORD, in the same tone of voice, no doubt, that God used when he called to  Adam and said "where are you?" The tone of voice that indicates that God already knows the answer, but is giving us the opportunity to confess it ourselves. "There came a voice to him that said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

So Elijah lays out his case, woe is him, for his task as a prophet is so difficult, and he's all alone. "He answered, 'I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.'"

I love God's response here, because it's so vastly different than what we expect from God when we're standing in Elijah's shoes. I think we expect a pat on the head and an invitation to rest until we're no longer tired of the big mean world in which we live.

God response, instead, bypasses our whining and sends us back out to work. For the prophet Elijah, on the run and feeling all alone, "The outcome of the [experience of God] is vigorous, risky intervention in the life of Israel and of its neighbors." Elijah's solution was to retreat from the world' God's commissions him to engage it, to continue preaching the Word of the Lord in the face of ridicule and persecution. God's command of faithfulness does not mean withdrawing from the world, but getting to work for the good of God's people.

And yet God does not just leave Elijah feeling ignored either. His concerns are valid, our world is harsh, and its people resist their Lord beyond belief. God reminds Elijah that he is not alone, as he feels. He is called to anoint the next generation's prophet: Elisha, son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah. God also tells him of seven thousand other faithful people still living in Israel. Elijah is not as alone as he thought.

Though it's tempting to get caught up in our own struggles, and to imagine that we are alone in all the world, God reminds us that we do not go into the world by ourselves. Wherever we go, we're going together.

I am terrible at telling ahead of time what events in my life are going to be a big deal to me. I didn't think my Seminary graduation back in May was going to be a big deal, and it surprised me. I thought the Presbytery meeting on Tuesday would be just another, final, hoop through which to jump, after all, I've already been a pastoral presence in this congregation for two months. I had been through the wind, the earthquake, the fire, in seminary, in the committee on preparation for ministry, and the call search process. No distractions, no excuses: it's time for a face-to-face chat with the presbytery.

It did not go the way I envisioned it.

Like Elijah’s prideful loneliness, I had overlooked my community of faith who surprised me with a profound expression of y'all's love for me. A group of folks, representing this whole congregation, met at the church at way-too-early in the morning to ride the church bus for two hours because we neither struggle nor triumph alone. Wherever we go, we're going together.

That's the lesson I took from Elijah's encounter at Horeb, the mount of God. The impressive fanfare of wind, earthquake, and fire do not contain God, although they point to him. Once God has our attention, through the sound of sheer silence, we encounter him face-to-face and are reminded that, excepting only Christ, the world does not begin or end with any lone individual. God elects a people.

We have stories of individual encounters with God, Jacob at the ford of the river Jabbok, Moses at the burning bush, Saul on the road to Damascus. "These encounters with individual persons are characteristically not ends in themselves but concern [the LORD's] larger purposes.”

God’s purposes are almost always larger than a single individual. God intends good for all of creation, and for all of those whom he loves. God gives us one another and calls us to journey though our lives as connected, particular people. We each have our own experiences and are called to share them with one another. Even though I was surrounded by my fellow Presbyterians on Tuesday, many of whom have known me since childhood, the fact that my church sent a group to represent them means more than I can express. Through your expression of love, God spoke to me saying that wherever our church is going, we’re going together.

“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.”

There will be days when we have doubts, both as individuals and as a congregation. When we do, however, we join the company of Elijah and Christ’s earliest disciples. They make for good company, even in our doubts. Even though Elijah’s plea may taste just a bit like self-centered whining, even though the disciples doubt in the very face of the resurrected Christ, their doubts are not unfounded.

We are living through frightening times. An hour's worth of evening news is good for a full night of unsleeping anxiety. That doesn't even count the innumerable small things that make our daily lives uneasy: family unrest, problems at work, troubled friendships, health issues, money troubles, the list goes on…

But we do not have to face our fears alone.

Like the disciples, called by God to a place of worship, we have seen the risen Christ among us. God has promised to go with us, even when it means death on a cross and the depths of human suffering. Like Elijah on Horeb, the mount of God, we are reminded that there are faithful people in our communities who can be a comfort and fellow kingdom-workers with us.

God shares himself in the face of Elijah’s fear by giving him a job to do, and reminds Elijah that he is part of a beloved community on whom God would not give up. “The LORD said to him, "Go return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as King of Aram. Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha, son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place… Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” I do not know where this church is going, but we are going there together.

Christ sent us out into the world saying “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” I do not know where this church is going, but I know that God goes with us.

We will have doubts, we will have fears, but we will also have triumphs and will lift up our heads in hope, because God goes with us as we travel together. From Horeb, the mount of God, to Galilee, the mountain to which Jesus had directed them, to the foothills of Western North Carolina in a little town called Lowell, we will move forward together, knowing that God goes with us.

These stories are familiar to us because we have keep telling them to one another. They are not just bible stories, they are our stories, and we have lived them as much as the characters who are featured in the text. We know that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, and that support can overwhelm our loneliness and help us get back to showing the love of Christ as we work with each other and walk hand in hand.

I do not know where this church is going. My hope is that we are on the edge of profound spiritual growth and faithful service, but I do not know what that journey will look like.

I do not know where this church is going. My hope is that we are leaning forward into a future where we will see God’s wonders in our congregation, our presbytery, our denomination, our community, our region, our world, but I do not know what service God has in mind for us.

I do not know where this church is going, but I know we go with God, and with one another. So let us Go, therefore, into the world. We have work to do, obedient service to Christ our king. It is not our ability that makes this work doable, it is the fact that wherever we are going, we go together. It is the truth that whoever we are going, God goes with us.


Alleluia, Amen