Otherwise the Journey

Otherwise the Journey from Joseph Taber on Vimeo.

1 Kings 19:4-8

4But [Elijah] himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die. “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” 5Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” 6He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. 7The angel of the LORD came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” 8He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and nights to Horeb the mount of God.

This is the Word of the LORD

Thanks be to God

John 6:35, 41-51

35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

41Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven?’” 43Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. 44No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. 45It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. 46Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47Very truly I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48I am the bread of life. 49Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

This is the Word of the LORD

Thanks be to God.

Elijah is running scared. He's just won a great victory over the prophets of Baal, and has killed many of them. Jezebel, the queen, has sworn to kill Elijah for his resistance to her rule. So Elijah is running scared.

Then, out in the wilderness, beneath the shelter of a solitary broom tree, Elijah's shame catches up to him. 

Elijah is the prophet of the LORD, he has seen God do amazing things, and is charged with speaking on God's behalf to a people who have a tendency to wander. He knows that the LORD is God, and that there are no other gods before him. Elijah knows that God will protect him. And yet, faced with the threats of wicked rulers, Elijah is running scared.

The people of Capernaum are grumbling. They have seen Jesus do amazing things. He had fed thousands of people with a few loaves and a couple fish. Now he is telling them that they completely missed the point of the miracle of the bread. So the people of Capernaum are grumbling.

Then, in a marketplace near Galilee, gathered around Jesus, the people of Capernaum hear Jesus speak.

The people of Capernaum have followed Jesus. They have seen him do amazing things, healing people, restoring them to themselves, and teaching them so much about God. They know that the LORD is God, and that something is special about this Jesus. The people of Capernaum know that God is working among them. Yet faced with a challenging teaching from Jesus, the people of Capernaum are grumbling.

"He asked that he might die. 'It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.'"

"They were saying, 'Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven?’”

But God's not done working through Elijah just yet. And the people of Capernaum haven't yet seen all that Jesus is giving them. In the face of shamefully running away, in the face of grumbling about teachings they don't understand, God reaches out to them and provides.

Jesus reaches out to the people of Capernaum without compromising his message. They’re struggling with his divine origins, after all, they grew up with him. "It is precisely the news of what God is giving them, and how radically this contradicts what they themselves are making of Jesus's arrival, that provokes the insiders at Capernaum.” The people of Capernaum are complaining because God is not meeting their expectations. So Jesus pushes them a little harder, challenging to look for God’s presence making his home among them.

The people of Capernaum have sought Jesus out to see his deeds of power, and to hear him teach. In the midst of their grumbling, Jesus offers them hope that God has called them to follow Christ, and that they do not need to be bound by their fear of death any longer. “Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day.”

Jesus provides assurance to the crowd. Indeed his words carry the same assurance to all who have read and hear his words of hope throughout the centuries of church history. When we come to Christ, it’s because God has been at work in our lives even before we could respond. We have the assurance that our future is provided for.

But embedded in that message of providential hope is a challenge. Christ draws us into a closer relationship with him, and a fuller discipleship of God. In true Gospel-Of-John style, he does it with metaphor and imagery that leaves the people of Capernaum scratching their heads. "The gospel of John does not explain, but only challenges its hearers to be those who do learn and do come.” Jesus, in the Gospel of John, gives us both assurance and a challenge. When we meet Christ, we come away with both providence and a mission.

We have been called by God. We are learning from Jesus. We are fed by the bread of life. What then, will we do with the nourishment we have found in Christ?

We meet Elijah under a solitary broom tree. He is dropped down into shame and despair. “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” He is running in fear, and prays to God to end his journey.

God answer his prayer with a firm “No.”

“Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, ‘Get up and eat.’ He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water.” Where Elijah had asked for death, God instead provided him with food and water. Our prayers matter to God, but they don’t control God. God has plans for us, to show God’s greatness by working through us, even those of us who, like Elijah, run away in fear. Because we too are no better than our ancestors. The God of our ancestors, however, continues to work through us, and will not let us stay under a solitary broom tree out in the wilderness somewhere.

When Elijah doesn’t quite get it, and lies back down again, God prods him a little harder. “The angel of the LORD came a second time, touched him, and said, ‘Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.’” The providence is there, a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water, but Elijah is also reminded that he is on a journey, even if he doesn’t know the destination yet. God’s providence provides a challenge, and that challenge give Elijah a new direction, so that he’s no longer running away in fear, he is following God’s call.

As we wrestled with our 1 Kings text at lunch bunch earlier this week, one of the folks there observed that God provides, and if we ignore what God provides, the journey will be too much for us. A journey of fear leaves us empty, but if we take in the fullness of what God has given us, we can follow in Elijah’s footsteps and go “in the strength of that food forty days and nights to Horeb the mount of God.”

Horeb is another name for Sinai, where the people of God encamped and received the law, which gave them an identity as the people of God, who would be a light to the nations. Horeb is the place where Elijah’s imperfect ancestors were taught by Moses, who was taught by God.

Centuries later in Capernaum, Jesus reminds the crowd of the prophet who wrote that “they shall all be taught by God.” Jesus knows that God is all about breaking down some barriers. Jesus is, himself, the fullest expression of the inbreaking of the kingdom of heaven into the world. “Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.” Just as the ancient Israelites gathered at Sinai, and as Elijah journeyed to Horeb, the mount of God, so too the people of Capernaum gather around Jesus, to see him work wonders, to hear him teach and interpret the scripture.

Jesus challenges us to put down the forbidden fruit and to take up the bread of life, that we may replace our self-righteous knowledge of good and evil with the wholeness of "they shall all be taught by God.” The law that was given is fulfilled by Jesus Christ, the prophets who spoke pointed to the Jesus Christ, and the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ leads to the cross and the empty tomb so that we might believe Jesus when he tells us that “I am the bread of life.” 

God has provided something beyond our wildest imagination: The Word made flesh. God who is with us. It’s beyond even the miracles that our ancestors had seen. “Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.” But this time is different. This is not a temporary portion, a cake baked on hot stones or a jar of water. “This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.” Just as Elijah found a new purpose out of God’s providence, So we too find our true identity in Jesus Christ. "For the reason why we obtain life by faith is, that we know that all the parts of our life are contained in Christ.” All the parts of our life are contained in Christ, our challenge then, is to answer God’s call on our lives to grow in faith.

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

God’s work in the world has changed everything. In Christ, we are given the freedom to follow God, to be taught by God, to live as servants of the Holy One. The living bread is set before us so that we may be nourished, body and spirit, but God’s presence among us. Otherwise the journey would have been too much for us.

So, taught by God, fed by Christ, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, how will we respond to the challenge?

Let’s find out. Amen.

Confession of Doubt

Confession of Doubt from Joseph Taber on Vimeo.

Ephesians 3:14-21

14For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. 16I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

This is the Word of the LORD

Thanks be to God

Mark 9:14-29

14When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. 15When the crowd saw him, they were immediately overcome with awe, and they ran forward to greet him. 16He asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” 17Someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought you my son; he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak; 18and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they could not do so.”

19He answered them, “You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him to me.” 20And they brought the bow to him. When the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.

21Jesus asked the father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22It has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.” 23Jesus said to him, “If you are able! - All things can be done for the one who believes.” 24Immediately the father of the child cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

25When Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You spirit that keeps this boy from speaking and hearing, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again!” 26After crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” 27But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he was able to stand.

When he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29He said to them, “This kind can come out only through prayer”

This is the Word of the LORD

Thanks be to God.

Earlier this year, I had the confirmation class read the entire gospel of Mark from cover to cover. We covered it in two weeks, and basically only had time to hit the high points, wrestling with any questions they had about the weeks assignment.

This is one of those passages that we slowed down to spend a little more time on.

Stories about unclean spirits are problematic for 21st century Christians. They don’t fit into our worldview. Are they just a pre-modern description of mental or neurological illness? First century Judaism didn’t know anything about brain science or psychology. Did they use “unclean spirits” to cover a multitude of disorders in the same way that “leprosy” described any skin condition? Or is there actually a sense of spiritual warfare between unclean spirits holy spirits?

Stories about unclean spirits are eye-catching. But what catches my eye in this passage is when Jesus makes a distinction, saying “This kind can come out only through prayer.”

There’s a problem with that too.

If this kind can only come out through prayer, then where’s the prayer?

At no point in this passage does Jesus raise his eyes to heaven, or address his Father, or do anything else that we recognize as speaking to God. He rebukes the spirit, then takes the boy by the hand and lifts him up.

“This kind can come out only through prayer.” So where’s the prayer?

“I believe, help my unbelief.”

It’s the prayer of a desperate and frustrated father, who has done all he can for his son. He has tried to care for him, he has protected him when the spirit “cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him.” This father has been beaten up by years of trying to cope. “I believe, help my unbelief.”

Perhaps he heard stories of these new teachers and healers. Perhaps he heard of the disciples and how they were something new, and had done many deeds of power when Jesus sent them out into the world. Perhaps he was just chasing any lead, any hope, so that he could keep moving forward. Each failed healing grinds him down just a little more. Maybe he even angrily wonders why God would allow his son to suffer at the hands of this unclean spirit. He’s frustrated, but he’s got enough faith to try one last time, “I believe, help my unbelief.”

So he takes his child to the disciples, who have done great deeds of power in other places, and among other people. They have healed the sick and cast out unclean spirits elsewhere, so this man brings his son before them and asks for a miracle.

The disciples failure leads to an argument. Scripture doesn’t say how we descend into argument, or how the scribes got involved, but they’re causing a bit of a disturbance, and a great crowd has gathered around them. Jesus, fresh off the mountain from the transfiguration, approaches them, and “they were immediately overcome with awe, and they ran forward to greet him.”

Jesus points them back toward the crowd, just because God is with us doesn’t mean we get to ignore the world around us. “He asked them, ‘what are you arguing about with them?’”

A tired father, who has just seen his hope for his son devolved into an argument between disciples and scribes, steps forward, with maybe just a touch of defiance. He tells his son’s story, reminding all who are present of what’s at stake. “‘Teacher, I brought you my son; he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak; and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they could not do so.’” The argument dissolves. This father has stepped forward to remind the crowd that their theological and political arguments can take a back seat to the fact that his son needs help.

Jesus gets it. He has seen crowds use the sick and those with unclean spirits to prove their own points. He has seen crowds who are more concerned with being right than with being helpful. The argument between the scribes and the disciples shows that they are not immune to preferring rightness to righteousness. Jesus’s rebuke slams the whole crowd, and challenges the father to continue standing up for his son. “He answered them, ‘You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him to me.’”

The father from the crowd stepped forward in anger, challenging Jesus for the failing of his disciples, and challenging the crowd for their argument in the face of those who are hurting. But now, Jesus is stripping way all the layers, refocusing them all on the human being who is suffering in their midst. Wiping away the father’s frustration and opening him up to being vulnerable by bringing his son to Jesus.

In that vulnerability, there’s a glimmer of hope. Perhaps this man Jesus is able to help. Perhaps the unclean spirit will no longer harm my son, perhaps I’ll be set free of having to worry every moment. Perhaps all the frustration and pain is ending for both of us. Perhaps things are going to be better…

They bring the boy forward, and things immediately get worse. “When the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.” It’s not a quick, clean miracle. Like we have seen in our own lives, things get worse before they get better, as though it’s a last gasp by the things that hold us back. The boy and his father are prisoners of his condition, and at the doorway to their release, things get suddenly worse, and doubt begins to creep in.

Wouldn’t it be nice if, in the face of the unclean spirit seizing this boy, Jesus sprang into action and immediately freed the boy? Wouldn’t it by nice if Christ, seeing the suffering waved his arms and solved the problems and the whole crowd went away proclaiming the good news of what they had seen? Wouldn’t be nice if everything got fixed promptly and we never had to endure hardship like this boy or his father?

But the gospel is not a fantasy where everything works out easily. It’s a truth that sometimes life is hard, but that we do not endure things alone, for the kingdom of God is at hand, and we are awakening to God’s presence among us.

Jesus, seeing the boy seized and foaming, asks the father a seemingly disconnected question. He asks “How long has this been happening to him?”

How long? This has been happening since his childhood! This unclean spirit has even tried to kill him by casting him into fire and water. You ask how long? How long are you going to let my son suffer? How long are you going to watch him right here in front of you? “If you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us!”

Jesus catches on the momentary flash in the father’s eye, and pushes him a little farther, challenging him to step out of his frustration and grief so that he’ll be able to be the father his son will need when he is freed from the unclean spirit. “Jesus said to him, ‘If you are able! - All things can be done for the one who believes.’” This is not a matter of pity, it’s a matter of restoration in the face of all the pain and grief of a lifetime of frustration and disappointment.

“Immediately the father of the child cried out, ‘I believe; help my unbelief!’”

Jesus takes that little ember of hope, and breathes life into it. “I believe, help my unbelief” catches fire and builds this father back up as he cries out to God in prayer. “I believe, help my unbelief.” The son is freed from the unclean spirit, but the father too is made whole again, restored in the eyes of the community and restored to his relationship with God, able to confess both his faith and his doubts.

“I believe, help my unbelief” is as honest a prayer as they come. It’s not an instruction or a form that is “appropriate” it’s a raw and unguarded connection between a broken human being a loving God.

The climax of this story is the father’s confession of faith, and his confession of doubt. Each is incomplete without the other, and Jesus goads him until he gets both. The son was freed from the unclean spirit, but the father needed to be healed too.

Jesus’s deeds of power, like casting out spirits, are mind-blowingly impressive. If that were all, he’d be a mythic hero of the faith. This story shows that he’s more than that. Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Son of Man, who is the Messiah, is the one who sets us free. He frees us from the power of sin and death. He gives us the permission to be honest with God again, saying “I believe, help my unbelief,” as both a confession of faith and a confession of doubt. Jesus Christ took a father out of the sinking sand of his despair and set him back on the solid rock of the identity of Jesus Christ, who loves us so much that he will not let us go. Therefore we can have hope beyond even our confession of faith, or our confession of doubt. Because God, in Jesus Christ, holds us fast and lifts us up.

Free to Move

Free to Move from Joseph Taber on Vimeo.
Sermon on II Samuel 7. It was delivered at the Presbyterian Church of Lowell on 7/26/2015.

Acts 7:44-50

“Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the wilderness, as God directed when he spoke to Moses, ordering him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. 45Our ancestors in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors. And it was there until the time of David, 46who found favor with God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob. 47But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands, as the prophet says,

49’Heaven is my throne, 

and the earth is my footstool. 

What kind of house will you build 

for me, says the Lord,

 or what is the place of my rest?

50Did not my hand make all these things?’”

This is the Word of the LORD

Thanks be to God

2 Samuel 7:4-17

4But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan: 5Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the LORD: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? 6I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. 7Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” 

8Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the LORD of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; 9and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. 

12When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. 15But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever. 17In accordance with all these words and with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

This is the Word of the LORD

Thanks be to God.

In the chapters leading up to 2nd Samuel 7, David takes his place as king, establishes his capital in Jerusalem, and brings the ark of the covenant into the royal city with joy and dancing. David's enemies are defeated, God's people are prosperous, and for the moment everything seems right with the world.

So David looks around his grand palace, and announces that it’s time for God to have a house too. So he goes to the prophet Nathan, and essentially asks for a building permit. Nathan thinks it’s a good idea, so he gives his king the go-ahead.

That evening, the LORD pulls Nathan aside for a little chat: “…that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan: Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the LORD: Are you the one to build me a house to live in?”

A house gives stability, comfort, and shows wealth, power, and permanence. But it also comes with obligations and upkeep and can hold its owners in place, as anyone who’s waited hours for a repair person can attest.

A tent, on the other hand, is less secure. It's vulnerable to weather and you can't exactly lock a tent. It does, however, frees you to move. One can set up and tear down a tent in as many different places as needed. God remains in a tent because he’s not done growing his people. God will not be kept out of the fields where his people work and live just to stay closed up in a royal temple. God’s not interested in a house at this point. “I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’” In the tent, God is free to move about among all the people of Israel, not just the wealthy and powerful who can afford to visit a temple in the capital.

The LORD is free to move, and is not going to let the temple happen until God is ready for it to happen. But his “no” to the building project is not a “no” to his servant David. God also reminds David that the LORD is with him, and has been his whole life. “Thus say the LORD of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you.” As King, ”David is the creation of [the LORD's] powerful, relentless graciousness. That is true in the past; it will be true in the future.” God is going to hold on to David and build him up.

Moreover, God is building up all of his people. This is not a “rising tide lifts all ships” kind of wisdom, this is a special relationship between God’s people and the one who is free to move about among all the people. As God moves about, he "will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them.”

Then God chooses to move in a different way. He commits not only to his people Israel and to his servant David, but also to those who come after. “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” God is declaring a new covenant with David and his house, one that is not dependent of human ability, but is dependent on the free gift of God’s steadfast love. This is a new thing.

When I was in high school, one of my teachers was known for moving around the room while he lectured. His lectures were brilliant and compelling. He wandered around the room sharing information and interpreting it in a way that kept the classes attention, which is no small feat for a room full of sleepy eleventh graders. I picked up a good bit of my presenting style from watching him. Especially, in his words, “not being a potted plant.” The way he moved around the room enhanced his energetic lectures, and had the bonus side effect of scanning the room for anyone who wasn’t on task.

So throughout high school and college, when I gave a presentation, I made sure that I wasn’t a potted plant either, that I could wander back and forth across the room, glancing at an outline on the lectern but not being bound by it.

Then, my senior year at Presbyterian College, I took a Southern Literature course. The professor was a man name Dean Thompson, and he’s one of the kindest, most gracious people I’ve met. He was also deaf. If you ever hear me talk about playing something by "hearing aid" instead of by ear, I picked that up from him.

One day, I was giving a presentation in his class, wandering back and forth, as was my custom, when he caught my eye, and made a very clear planting motion. He needed me to stay in one spot as I presented because he could not read my lips while I was moving around the room. The technique that was effective in many contexts was unhelpful in others.

In 2nd Samuel 7, God announces to Nathan, to David, to the people Israel, and to the world, that he is not a potted plant. However, God is also announcing that things are going to be different going forward. David wanted to make things different by building a temple. "In principle a temple lives in tension with the ark. Whereas the ark articulations God's freedom and mobility, the temple removes the danger and possibility that God might depart.” God says “no” to the temple, but affirms David both as a king and as a servant of God. A human-built temple will not bind God’s freedom to move, but God makes a covenantal promise to remain, and to love those whom he has chosen forever.

God will be with David and his family and will not abandon them as he had Saul. Saul’s kingship had caught the bad end of God’s “if.” As in, “if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall my treasured possession out of all the nations.” Saul had wandered off away from the covenant. But God’s covenant with David does not have an “if.” It’s more promise than contract. “This core statement of royal faith is a bold departure from the conditional character of the Mosaic 'if'... Therefore, interpretation must struggle with the tension of 'if' and 'nevertheless' that is present in the Bible, in our own lives, and in the very heart of God.” The LORD tells Nathan, and therefore David, that God will not be locked away from moving around with his people, but that he will also not leave the house of David. If God so desires, God is free to move wherever, and among whomever, he chooses. He has chosen, nevertheless, to plant his steadfast love with the house of David.

We see the blending of God’s freedom to move and the dependability of God’s steadfast love most clearly in Christ. In Jesus Christ, we have a king from the house of David who "has no place to lay his head." He is free to move throughout Judea and among all of God’s people. Even when we tried to bind him in death, Christ did not stay entombed. He broke through the power of sin and death and rules from God's right hand. He is of the house and lineage of David, and he is God-with-us. In the tents and tabernacles and temples, in the triumphs and troubles and travels, God is with us. God is free to move among his people, and neither our sins, nor David's failings, not Solomon's arrogance, nor the armies of Babylon, will remove us from God's steadfast love. Seems like I read somewhere that "neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

This love is assured not out of our deserving, but as a free gift of God's sovereign love. God can do what he wants, even rescuing slaves and making them a great nation. God can do what he wants, including making a shepherd into a king. God can do what he wants, even saying "no" to a king. God can do what he wants, including stand behind the imperfect King David. God can do what he wants, even becoming a human being for the sake of our redemption. God can do what he wants, and that includes loving us beyond all merit. God can do what he wants, and I believe that includes doing amazing things through this church.

Those amazing things God is already doing through us free us to move through this world and with joy, with hope, and with love. God is building the kingdom through us, in tents and tabernacles and in testimony and truth. God is free to move, and bound by the steadfast love we have in Christ Jesus, we are free to follow.

Wilderness Rest

Wilderness Rest from Joseph Taber on Vimeo.

Mark 4:30-56

30The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31He said to them, "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest for a while." For many were coming and going and they had no leisure even to eat. 32And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

35When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; 36send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat." 37But he answered them, "You give them something to eat." They said to hem, "Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?" 38And he said to them, "How many loaves have you? Go and see." When they had found out, they said, "Five, and two fish." 39Then he ordered the people to sit down on the green grass. 40So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. 42And all ate and were filled; 43and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.

45Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46After saying farewell to them, he went up on the mountain to pray.

47When evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. 48When he saw that they were straining at the oars against an adverse wind, he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea. He intended to pass them by. 49But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; 50for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, "Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid." 51Then he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, 52for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

53When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. 54When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, 55and rush about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might tough even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

This is the Word of the LORD

Thanks be to God

We were sent out. Nothing but a walking staff and a message. We were sent out to tell the good news of God, that the kingdom of God is at hand. Beginning with the twelve, sent out in pairs, we spread throughout Galilee, and God did amazing things through us.

Now we who have been sent gather in one place around our teacher. We're excited almost beyond words because we have seen the kingdom of God blossoming around us. "The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught." In praise, joy, and excitement, we can't contain ourselves, our amazement is more than we can process!

We were sent out. We were sent into a hurting world and we have seen the healing that is at hand. The name of Jesus is becoming known, the secret is starting to leak out. This man Jesus is someone special, and we have seen and done great things in his name.

So we gather together, filled with a special knowledge that God is intervening in our lives. In our comings and goings we have seen that this man Jesus is someone special. Jesus speaks: "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while."

Wait, I thought we were supposed to be out in the world? I thought we were supposed to do God's work? You know, be the hands and feet of Christ and all that. Let's go out and do some mission work!

But they listen to Jesus nevertheless, "And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them."

We talked about this at length at Lunch Bunch on Tuesday. One person pointed out that these are the towns from which the apostles have just returned, they've been talking about Jesus and doing amazing things, and now they're on the move again, and this time Jesus is with them. They're following the disciples because they knew they were following Jesus, and the crowds wanted to see this Jesus whose name had become known.

Then, one of our lunch bunch pointed out that a crowd of five thousand people is probably visible from a boat on a lake. If your goal, Jesus, was to sail over to a deserted place where the disciples could rest, perhaps you could have changed course when you saw the deserted place suddenly filled with a multitude of people?

But seeing that crowd, I think Jesus's compassion changed his mind. "...he had compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things." Looking at his weary, but excited, disciples, and at the expectant crowd, Jesus knows that "throughout Israel's life the wilderness is a place...where God often encounters the faithful and provides sustenance, protection, renewal, and direction." So he parks the boat, and begins teaching, knowing that as he teaches, the disciples will find rest as well.

If this were Matthew's gospel, we'd have a record of the teaching, and it would be full of references to the law and the prophets. If this were Luke, we've have a portrait of Jesus as teacher, and we'd see all his references to women and the poor, and reaching beyond social boundaries.

But this is Mark. So the report we have is that "he began to teach them many things." Then we move on to what Jesus does. Because the identity of this Jesus will not be revealed through essays or wisdom, but by his whole story. Jesus is the inbreaking of the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God is at hand in the person and work of Jesus Christ, about whom the disciples have testified, from whom the apostles were sent, by whom the church is still fed. Our scripture passage this morning is a series of miracle stories that keep the question of Jesus’s Identity firmly in our faces. His name has become known, and throngs of people gather because they heard the disciples’ testimony. They had seen the miracle from far off, and now they wanted to experience him up close. The crowds, and the disciples too, try and figure this man Jesus out.

He’s obviously a miracle worker. He goes out into a deserted place and feeds five thousand men with five loaves and two fish, and then they have more leftovers than they started with. Maybe this Jesus is a prophet, like Moses who led the people through the wilderness and gave them bread from heaven, manna.

Not quite. He speaks on God’s behalf, sure. But he’s also something more. After all, it wasn’t Moses who provided manna in the wilderness. Jesus sends the disciples back onto the boat, they’ve been fed, and now they’ll have the boat ride to be by themselves and share stories and process all they’ve seen. Jesus sends the crowd away and takes some time to himself to pray.

Then comes another miracle. In the midst of a storm, and seeing all their striving, Jesus walks out into the sea. “He intended to pass them by.” Now that seems strange to us, wouldn’t Jesus go and help them? Shouldn’t he save the disciples from their “straining at the oars against an adverse wind?”

When Jesus intends to pass them by, it was to show them that the same God who passed by Moses and led him up to Mt. Sinai was with them. The same God who passed by Elijah as he hid from Jezebel also protected them.

The identity of Jesus Christ is revealed across these transitions as more than can be shown in any one excerpt. Jesus sends us out, he gathers us in, he brings us into the wilderness to rest, and feeds us. He passes by us in our storms to give us faith and courage, moving us from terrified to utterly astounded with the words “Take heart, it is I; do no be afraid.” The question is left unasked, but it is firmly in front of us: Who is this man who carries us to a wilderness rest and back, who feeds thousands and walks on water in the midst of a storm.?

The storm has ended, and they have made it to their destination. “When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat.” I’d imagine they did not feel much more rested than when they left for their wilderness rest. But as the calm settled over the sea of Galilee and their oars no longer had to compete with storm-tossed currents, the disciples knew that their teacher, their prophet, their shepherd, their God was up to something special in their midst.

The people of Gennesaret have seen Jesus do amazing things from far off. They’ve heard of multiplying loaves, maybe some of them were even there when it happened. They have begun to grasp who Jesus is, and that he brings them healing and hope in a world full of fear. So they bring out their sick, hope he will bless them, touch them, heal them.

The disciples don’t quite know how to respond as the identity of Jesus Christ is revealed to them. They have fluttered around him, they have advised him, they have feared him and been utterly astounded by him. “…for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.” They’re still living the story.

So are we.

We’re still living the story that sets the identity of Jesus Christ in front of us, and asks us how we will respond to who this man is. We’ll find him in the welcoming handshakes of visitors and in the traditional forms of worship we observe. We’ll find him on mission trip in Petersburg Virginia and in Chicken-Pot-Pie Production nights. This man Jesus on Nazareth meets us in our homes, in our communities, in our jobs and in our daily activities.

Who he is defines and shapes who we are. Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. He’s the crucified Messiah and the Risen Lord. He’s the one who heals in Gennesaret. He’s the one who walks on the water of the sea of Galilee and calms the storms. He’s the one who prays by himself and still knows when we are struggling. Jesus is the one who feeds multitudes and challenges us to give them something to eat as well. He’s the one who takes us to a deserted place to rest by ourselves, and then shows us that “by ourselves” includes more people than we may have guessed.

We know the story that reveals who Jesus is. We are still telling the story of who we are as a result. But know this, as we step out into the world together, our story is built on the firm foundation of the identity of Jesus Christ. No matter how we tell our own story, we tell it gathered around Jesus, just as the apostles did, so the church does still.

One Safe Place

One Safe Place from Joseph Taber on Vimeo.


Mark 4:35-41
35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side." 36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37 A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 

38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" 39 He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40 He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" 41 And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God

Psalm 91
1You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, 
2will say to the Lord, "My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust." 
3For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence; 
4he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. 
5You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, 
6or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at noonday. 
7A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 
8You will only look with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. 
9Because you have made the Lord your refuge, b the Most High your dwelling place, 
10no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent. 
11For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. 
12On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone. 
13You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot. 
14Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name. 
15When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them. 
16With long life I will satisfy them, and show them my salvation.

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

I sure have missed you people. I just got back from a week long mission trip up in Petersburg VA, before that I was on vacation for 10 days at Glacier National Park up in Montana. I’ve missed y’all, and this place, while I’ve been on the road. After 57 sermons in this pulpit, this sanctuary feels like home to me.

Each year, Workcamp chooses a theme. This year, the theme was “One Safe Place.” It’s taken from a song by Marc Cohn. So I’ve been reflecting on what a safe place is for a while.

Flying out of Helena, Montana is an experience. It’s a regional airport, so it doesn’t have the extended hallways and moving sidewalks that we see in Charlotte-Douglass or Atlanta-Hartsfield. I’m pretty confident that there were more TSA agents there than passengers. They had the x-ray for our carry-on and the metal detectors for all the passengers. They had the blue latex gloves in case they had to check pockets or a bag.

All those elements, the uniforms, the technology, the plexiglass barriers, were in place to make us feel safer. Wouldn’t you know it, my suspicious looking face got pulled aside for additional screening?

This is on the way back from our vacation, and the only souvenir I picked up was a hat. Everything else had been through security back in Atlanta when we first flew out. But they went through my bag nonetheless, because the gate on the other side had to be a safe place.

Turns out I accidentally smuggled a small pocket knife through Atlanta security. Near as I can figure, it fell out of the pocket of a pair of pants sometime back in 2007 and has lived behind the inner lining of that suitcase ever since. The security guard who found it behind that lining had to call her supervisor over to see if it was considered “concealed.”

They were very reasonable about the whole thing and let me go after the confiscated the knife. I repacked my bag to join the rest of my family at the gate on the other side of the security equipment and plexiglass that was meant to make the plane feel safe.

Three days later I drove to Petersburg VA with a truckload of power saws, chisels, utility knives, hammers, hand tools of every kind knowing that I was headed to One Safe Place.

At Workcamp, the staff pride ourselves in teaching the youth who come to us that they are capable of doing more than they ever imagined. A church will send us a van full of teenagers, some of whom have never held a screwdriver, and we’ll put a circular saw in their hand and teach them how to use it.

At Workcamp, we welcome people from a variety of backgrounds: affluent and wanting, protestant and catholic, civilian and military, black and white; and we stuff them into a gym together and make them play silly games and do bizarre dances together until they trust one another enough to open up and share their struggles and triumphs with one another.

At Workcamp, we go out into the city of Petersburg and rebuild people’s homes and lives. Some of those homes are in rural areas where the resident is lonely and needs someone to talk to as much as they need to have their handicap ramp repaired. Some of those home are in the historic district, where an elderly lady needs that assurance that someone still cares about her, even if it’s just a teenager who comes to repaint the inside of her living room.

Sometimes we walk into dangerous neighborhoods, with a higher crime rate than the rest of the city. One of my residents this year was named Emma, and in the last few months her home has been broken into multiple times, and not just burglarized, but vandalized as well. Family portraits smashed, obscenities painted on the walls. She’s the sweetest old lady you’ll ever meet, but she’s been made a victim in her own home.

Workcamp came into her home too. We sent five teenagers and one adult, and in four and a half days they rebuilt her back stairs, installed a new handrail, repainted her bedroom, replaced some of her floorboards, added some tin flashing around her roof, and added new deadbolt locks to her front and back doors.

More important than the construction and home repair, Crew 10 made an old lady feel loved, made her feel safe in her own home again. When they said goodbye at the end of the week, she wept for love of them and in gratitude for the blessing that these teenagers had been to her.

After 57.5 sermons in this pulpit, this sanctuary feels like home to me. But as we see time and time again in scripture, home is not a hiding place. It’s a safe place that equips us to face the challenges of following Christ into the world. Our church family is a safe place where we experience God and also lovingly challenge one another to grow, to engage with one another rather than withdraw.

One Safe Place. Not “the only safe place,” but one of many. A safe enough place that we experience love even in the midst of chaos and suffering. It is not boatbuilding or sailing skill that kept the disciples safe in the midst of the storm. Christ was with them in the storm, and that’s what made their boat a safe place.

It’s not the technology at the airport or the locks on our doors or any weapons that keep us safe. It’s the love we feel around us. We are safe in the arms of the Most High God. We feel God’s protective embrace in the arms of our brothers and sisters in Christ. “You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.’ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence; he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.”

Tri-Cities Workcamp is a place where we have a lot of practice making people feel safe enough to be vulnerable, a place where Workcampers are safe enough to accept challenge and grow in faith and wisdom. 

This church is that too. For so many people in our congregation and in our community, I believe that one of the gifts of our congregation is that we are a church where it’s ok to not be ok. We can struggle and still love one another. We can even fall down from time to time and that’s ok. So we’re going to work on developing that gift. Our sanctuary feels a lot like home to us, and we as a church family will continue to build a safe place that remembers, and is guided by, God’s promises “Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name. When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them. With long life I will satisfy them, and show them my salvation.”

After 58 sermons in this pulpit, this sanctuary feels like home to me. And I know that we have seen God’s salvation in Christ Jesus, and we know that we are held safe even in the midst of a fearful world. It may not always be as dramatic as a Workcamp story, but in response to God’s call, we will worship God, grow in faith, and show God’s love to everyone. Because God’s call is what has made us a safe place. Therefore, we heed Christ’s ageless call by healing, teaching, and reclaiming, serving God by loving all.