Sunday, May 28, 2017

Remember

Remember from Joseph Taber on Vimeo.


Exodus 3:9-15
9The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10So come, I will sent you to Pharaoh to bring out my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 11But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be a sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”

13But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 15God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: This is my name forever, and this is my title for all generations.”

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God

Matthew 28:16-20
16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshipped 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.


North Carolina Public Schools End of Grade testing. Third grade through eighth grade reading and math standardized tests. In my experience, a mind-numbing exercise in #2 pencils and scantron sheets. Another test at the end of my 9th grade English course, this time it was called an "End of Course" test instead of "End of Grade." Yet for every test, pre-test, or practice test, from third grade through ninth grade there was the same poem and sample questions:

"As I was standing in the street,/As quiet as could be/A great big ugly man came up/And tied his horse to me."

Not the greatest poem in the world, and not really worth memorizing, but when you see it again and again, year after year, it sticks.

The questions were even better, Question 1:"Where was the speaker standing?" The answer, every year, was "B: In the street." Question 2:"What kind of writing is this?" "C: a poem."

Personally, I think the state of North Carolina was setting a really low bar for what constitutes a poem, but that's just me.

We're coming up on exam season for public schools, and a new generation of students are going to have to take a new round of standardized tests as we seek to put growth and development into measurable units. The motivation behind it isn't that bad, I guess. Fans of standardized testing want to evaluate each student's reading comprehension skills as objectively as possible.

The other classic way to check on whether someone understood what they read is to ask them to put it in their own words. "In your own words, what happened in this poem?"

The "in your own words" test is better, but harder to grade. I got variations of that question all through school, even into my college classes.

After years of standardized tests and nearly two decades of "in your own words," I ended up in my Old Testament survey class in Seminary. Dr. Kathleen O'Connor and Dr. Christine Yoder taught us as a team, and when it came to the prophets we were asked to get into groups and talk about a passage, then present it to the rest of the class. "Use the language of the text," they said.

Group after group got up to present their passage. Group after group put the story into their own words, as they had been taught in school. Group after group got interrupted by the professors, "Use the language of the text," they said.

My group was towards the end of the line, and we heard this pattern repeat again and again, each group speaking "in their own words," and being gently reprimanded by Dr. Yoder or Dr. O'Connor. "Use the language of the text," they said.

Their lesson clicked. What they were teaching us opened up for me in a way that I can only attribute to the movement of the Holy Spirit. "Use the language of the text," they said. Trust the words of Holy Scripture to be enough. Trust the Holy Spirit to speak through the stories we have been given. Trust that what you have been given in these passages is enough. "Use the language of the text," they said.

If you can say it with scripture, you ought to. Or do you really think you can say it better than what God the Holy Spirit has preserved for us down through the centuries? You don't have to create something for yourself, what God has given us is sufficient. Use the language of the text.

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

I wonder if the disciples felt something similar as they began to understand Jesus’s teaching. Their experience, their education, everything had led them to expect something very specific from the world, and from God. They expected an invincible messiah to cast out the occupying empire and restore the world order of David’s day. Instead, Jesus is the suffering savior who goes silently to his death, and rises again to restore all of humanity.

I wonder if some doubted because the world they prepared for was completely different from the one in which they now found themselves. Fishermen became preachers. Tax collectors became writers. Galileans become missionaries. This is not the world they expected to live in.

No wonder some doubted. We’ve heard this story for two thousand years, and we’ve got our doubts too. Here in our congregation, we spent Lent studying James, and throughout this Easter season, we have kept the image of enacted faith in front of us. Yet even at the ascension, some were present who weren’t sure. We know what it’s like to struggle to put what we profess into practice.

But it’s not all up to us. The truth of the gospel does not depend on our ability, or even our faithfulness. Those at the ascension worshipped Jesus even though they had their doubts. God has already accomplished our salvation, all that’s left is to live as those who are beloved by God.

In a gospel where Jesus repeatedly chastises the disciples for their lack of faith, here he does not make any comment about doubt. Instead he offers words of comfort and opportunities to serve. You have doubts? Jesus promises “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.” You’re not sure? “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.” Jesus doesn’t expect us to have all the answers before we begin to carry out our mission. We will come to understand as we serve. Are you terrified that you are not qualified for the mission God has given you? Jesus tells us “remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This scene connects all the way back to God’s call of Moses. They are gathered on a mountaintop to begin a task that they do not feel qualified for, yet God will do great things through them anyway. They are tasked with bringing the people out of bondage, with restoring the people’s relationship with their sacred stories. Moses doesn’t just bring commands to let the people go, he also brings the name of God, I AM WHO I AM, to the people. Just so the disciples bring the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit out into the world.

This is the God of our ancestors, for we are adopted into God’s household, and the words of scripture are telling us our family story. They tell us that God is with us forever, for all generations, to the end of the age.

These are the stories that create communities. These are the stories that form bonds between people. Even that silly rhyme from the EOGs, when recited, brings solidarity to all those who have slogged through the ridiculous standardized tests. How much more, then, will the stories we have been given bring us together. More than solidarity, these stories fill us with love for the God we meet in scripture. We use the language of the text because we fall in love, even when we don’t understand.

Because some of the disciples doubted, and Jesus was with them anyway. I love reading the Bible because this is where I get to meet Jesus, and to learn to recognize him, and get the assurance that he is with us even to the end of the age.

The language of scripture are my own words. Remember that these are your words too. This is your story too. This gospel is yours too. Not because we have the only right interpretation, or even the best. These are our own words because they are God’s words, and we belong to God.

“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 [Jesus] commanded you. And Remember, [Christ] is with you always, to the end of the age.”



Alleluia. Amen.

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