Shooting the Messenger

26 August 2018 – 14^th Sunday of Pentecost

Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:52-69

“Lord, to whom can we go?  You have the words of eternal life”.  John 6:68

These “words of eternal life” are the True Treasury of the Holy Church; not the bank accounts.  And it is not only the priests and the pastors who have been entrusted with this Treasury; it is the whole congregation, every baptized soul; those who claim to be “saved” as well as those struggling to find their place.  We must still be responsible stewards of those material things entrusted to - and for - the care of the Church and its mission, but we must always be aware of the everlasting Treasury, the real “treasure” Jesus spoke of; that “treasure which moth cannot destroy, and thieves cannot steal” (Matthew 6:19-20).

I might also add, that which is incorruptible even by corrupted hands.

I am compelled to share with you the heartache I am experiencing with this latest round of clergy abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church.  The Church of Rome must still be reeling from the same scandal that rocked the Church in the early 90’s and left many Catholics – including myself – not only disgusted but somewhat disoriented. 

We attended Mass at a church in Albuquerque one Sunday, and it was so familiar and so comforting to me that I began to wonder why I ever fell away.  It was a beautiful church, the homily was (as best I can recall) decent, and the Mass itself was as familiar as “home”.  I know my Southern Baptist wife did not share my feelings, but I think she would have been so willing if it would help to awaken my soul.

All was well in that moment … until the priest announced that this church’s portion of the scandal settlement had been assessed at $10,000.00.  He was announcing that they would have to raise the money somehow to pay their portion of what the archdiocese offered to some of the victims who had sued.  As if the congregation were somehow part of the problem.

Many would share my grief, and many more still do.  And while there have been bishops and cardinals – including the pope – expressing grief and dismay, one particular cardinal seemed more concerned with the loss of credibility than with the damage actually done.  Turn that thought inside-out as I did, and the article read like he is more concerned with the potential loss of revenue than with the damage done to so many souls.  To be clear, this is not what the good cardinal said.  It only shows how easily we can twist words when our minds are already made up.  The cardinal was right; credibility has been damaged, if not destroyed.

To be sure, the whole Church – Catholic and Protestant alike – is facing a crisis of credibility.  From the Church of Rome, to the non-denominational mega-churches and the mainline Protestant denominations, to the TV evangelists who live like nothing short of royalty, people see what is going on.  And it isn’t exclusively the Roman Catholic Church facing scandals of this nature.  Yet while these clergy and/or the institutions they serve have certainly given the Church as a whole a black eye, the very worst – THE VERY WORST – of it all is that the Gospel of The Lord and the historic doctrines of the Church are suddenly without merit.

The reality is that the messenger, rather than the message itself, is given far more weight and influence than any individual clergy person is entitled to.  The Gospel is still the Gospel.  The Truth, however “difficult to accept” it may be, is still the Truth.  And we are compelled to “seek”, to “ask”, to “knock”.  In the minds of mere mortal humans, however, the worth and credibility of the message are gauged by the perceived worth and credibility of the messenger.

So as Jesus began teaching about His flesh and blood as “real food” and “real drink” (John 6:55), it is little wonder many walked away!  The “messenger” seemed suddenly … unstable.  Jesus had been preaching and teaching Good News, hope, and redemption.  Up to this point, it was all good … until they thought they heard “cannibalism”.  Suddenly all He had taught and all He had shown up to that point?  Forgotten.  Now He was just a very strange messenger who no longer had a message.

Understand Jesus was talking to Jews.  The consumption of blood – any blood, but certainly human blood – is prohibited; “It is the life of the flesh” (Leviticus 17:11).  It would stand to reason, then, that the consumption of human flesh would be equally prohibited.  So of course, what Jesus is teaching is “difficult”!  And who indeed “can accept it”??  The answer, of course, would be whomever would stick around and ask more questions.  How many times have we rejected an idea out of hand only because it did not mesh with what we already think or believe?  Especially if it is a religious principle we were raised with and were told it must not be questioned?

This is what was happening with the dwindling crowd.  They took what Jesus said literally rather than metaphorically.  As that happens, as with us, any teaching that does not match a literal interpretation or an already-developed concept will always be “difficult to accept”.

Like muscles to the physical body, faith to the spiritual self must be stretched and strengthened, and there are no short-cuts to sanctification, spiritual “perfection”.  It will be hard, but I think that was Jesus’ whole point.  I don’t think He was deliberately trying to thin the herd, but He was also not going to simply tell them what they wanted to hear; He was telling them – AND US – what we need to know so that we may fully LIVE the Life to which we are called!

As St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, there are “mysteries of the Gospel” (6:19).  And these “mysteries” require engagement.  They require effort.  And they demand our attention; for only when we finally arrive at The Truth will we finally be set Free from our doubts, our false assertions, and our hollow beliefs that do not benefit the whole Church.  We are now, and will always be, looking for the “Words of Eternal Life”.  For there truly is nowhere else to go.

Christ our Shepherd is showing us The Way.  His language and His parables are not “easy”, but those who draw closer to understand will find Life.  And in abundance.  Thanks be to The Lord.  Amen.

The Virtue of Wisdom

19 August 2018 – 13^th Sunday of Pentecost

1 Kings 3:3-14; Luke 21:8-19 

“The fear of The Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding.  His praise endures forever.”  Psalm 111:10

The late Christian author (and former atheist), C.S. Lewis, once wrote, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at its testing point”.   St. Augustine held that “Humility is the foundation of all other virtues; in the soul in which this virtue does not exist, there can be no other virtue except in mere appearance”.

What each is saying is it would be difficult to measure one virtue against another because it would come near to suggesting if we think we possess one virtue in its fullness, we would probably not only be wrong but we might falsely believe we have no need of the others, failing to appreciate the wisdom of knowing each virtue is necessarily and intimately connected to the others toward the complete and whole person.  When we pick and choose, we miss what it means to become truly “holy”.  And “without holiness, one will not see God” (Hebrews 12:14).

Traditionally, the seven Christian virtues combine the four classical cardinal virtues of prudence (caution, discernment), justice (with mercy), temperance (abstinence from harmful things), and courage – with the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. 

Yet even the virtues cannot have meaning if we lack the greatest virtue of all: wisdom.  It is wisdom by which we use these virtues to bring glory to our Father.  Wisdom should not be confused with “common sense” – since what is “common” is often unique only to a specific culture.  By wisdom, I mean God-given wisdom by which we may think and act against the cultural tide; for it is this wisdom – and no other - which not only brings glory to The Father but also guides the faithful to Glory.

King Solomon was smart enough – perhaps wise enough in worldly wisdom – to know he was in over his head as king of The Lord’s Chosen.  But rather than to surrender himself to what might have been construed as “common sense” in his day – as sacrificing in the high places rather than only in the Temple (1 Kings 3:3) – he chose to pursue and to use what The Lord would entrust to him.  

This request so pleased The Lord, He granted not only an overabundance of wisdom to Solomon, He also granted to Solomon “riches and honor” beyond wisdom (1 Kings 3:13) as well as long life – IF – he would honor The Lord’s commandments as his father, King David, did (1 Kings 3:14).  It must also be noted, as it is written, that our willingness and desire to walk humbly with our God is indeed the measure of our love for Him (1 Kings 3:3; Micah 6:8).

A desire to serve The Lord – an earnest and ongoing desire – is what feeds us, enlightens us, sustains us, gives lasting meaning to all we do, and will ultimately save us – as the “wise one” who built his house on rock (Matthew 7:24-27) or the “wise one” who will know what to say only when The Lord grants it is time to say it (Luke 21:8-19).   Only Divine Wisdom can give us that measure of discernment.

Even this desire to serve and please The Lord, however, does not seem to be innate to every human soul nor will it always come easily to even the most devoted disciple because there is an ongoing conflict between the spirit of a person that seeks The Lord and the flesh of a person that seeks only its own gratification. 

If we try to pretend this conflict does not exist only because we think ourselves “saved”, it may also be said we are profoundly lacking in wisdom and are at extreme spiritual risk because in our humanness, we will always default to our most basic setting – the sustenance and pleasure of self.  It is a part of who we are and is the measure of what we must overcome to be fully connected to our Lord and to one another; fully sanctified, perfected in our faith in, and devotion to, Him.

It is written in the Psalms (111:10), in the Proverbs (9:10), and in the Apocrypha (Ecclesiasticus 1:14) that “fear of The Lord is the beginning of wisdom”.  It cannot be overstated, however, that “fear” in the biblical context does not mean to be “afraid” as we understand the word “fear”.  It is rather THE measure of respect, a profound sense of humility (Augustine) in knowing it ain’t about ‘me’, and the courage (Lewis) to trust that if we give ourselves fully to The Lord and withhold no part of ourselves, He will grant what we must earnestly learn to “seek” (Matthew 7:7). 

There is a caveat, though: we must learn – and we must teach - to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” … THEN “all these things will be added to [us]” (Matthew 6:33); “these things” we had previously wasted a lot of time worrying about.  It may well come to be “these things” we once worried about lacking will suddenly seem less important … when we get our priorities right.

What Solomon sought and earnestly desired above all things is affirmed by Jesus’ several lessons.  Before anything else – including perhaps faith itself – can begin to have any meaning, there must be wisdom; for as it is written in the Proverbs: “I [wisdom] walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, endowing with wealth those who love me, and filling their treasuries.  The Lord created Me at the beginning of His work, the first of His acts of long ago” (8:20-22) … “for whoever finds Me finds life and obtains favor from The Lord” (8:35) – just as the young king Solomon did.

We might be inclined to ask how wisdom affects salvation or whether we should be more concerned with getting saved than with acquiring wisdom, but I think reducing life in Christ to a mere either/or ultimatum misses the point and robs us of the full life we are created for and called into as we are freed from the old life that robbed us of everlasting meaning.  Only with wisdom can we even know what to do with salvation!

In the end, it is not only about being justified before The Lord; it is about “going on to perfection” (Hebrews 6:1), being holy, perfected, complete as He is (Leviticus 20:26; Matthew 5:48).  It is about being not only a disciple of Christ Jesus; it is about becoming an accurate reflection of Him.  This should always be our daily task and life’s ambition – “for whoever finds Me finds life and obtains favor from The Lord”.  Amen.

The Irony of the Free Press

The First Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees to the people, among other things, a free press unencumbered and uncensored by government.  It is the ideal expressed by Thomas Jefferson that a self-governed people have a duty to be informed by independent sources, and these sources have a duty to Truth.  The trick today, however, seems to be finding reliable sources and discerning “fact” from “opinion”.

This perpetual battle between President Trump and the media may seem disturbing to some, perceived as an effort by the government to suppress or infringe upon a free press.  So I find profound irony in the idea that a free press calls government to account and yet balks at being called to account not only by the president but by the people as well.

News used to be restricted only to a daily newspaper and the six o’clock television news.  There was a clear distinction between “fact” and “opinion”.  The so-called “fourth estate”, once held in high regard, maintained a high and necessary standard of responsible journalism, keeping the public informed, and protecting its reputation as reliable.

Today, in the age of unfettered opinion and an Internet that has made “journalists” of most everyone with an opinion (including myself), there is not only no longer a clear distinction between “fact” and “opinion”; there seems also lacking any measure of accountability.  The government is held to account by a free press, but who can call a free press to account?

It is impossible not to have some measure of bias, whether in politics, philosophy, or religion.  Those who believe themselves to be completely free of bias only kid themselves.  Bias is part of our human nature, but this bias can serve us well when we understand and learn to appreciate its usefulness.  What “I” may feel strongly about is tempered by “your” own passions and beliefs.  It is the acknowledgment that “I” alone cannot know all things but must have “your” perspective to draw a reasonable conclusion.  Sometimes (perhaps often) our biases can run away with us, and this is the foundation of the ongoing conflict.

The president seems to be at war with the media, and the media seem slanted against this president (depending on the source).  A recent effort was proposed by the Boston Globe to get all news outlets to write editorials defending a free press against a perceived effort by the president to suppress.  As was written in The Globe’s editorial, “The whole project is not anti-Trump; it is really pro-press” (https://apps.bostonglobe.com/opinion/graphics/2018/08/freepress/).

I will agree, at least in part, with some of the editorials insisting the press is not “the enemy; it is the people”.  What I do not agree with is the press’s seeming insistence that it cannot – or should not - be held accountable by some other than itself.  The president and many of his supporters (yes, including Fox News as well as others) have called out certain news sources as not only unreliable but just this side of libelous, reporting “facts” not clearly established.  There are suspicions, there are opinions, there are perceptions, but “facts” seem to be mere speculation of what could be rather than what actually is.

I think of so many cases in which those accused of crimes, whose names and faces are splashed across front pages around the country pretty much seal the doom of the accused.  Not only are these determined to be guilty before they’ve had the benefit of a trial, but often their lives are completely upended and ultimately ruined.  If they are exonerated and vindicated, the damage has already been done.  The passion of a people is stirred to the point of irrationality, and the guaranteed right of a fair trial is rendered impossible.  In some cases, a perverted sense of vigilante justice puts not only the accused but those charged to protect them in very real danger.

The public has a right to know, and a free press is a necessary instrument of that right.  Yet any “right” exercised without a profound sense of duty and social responsibility can only become anarchy, the evidence of such found all around us today. 

What drives so much of the cynicism, suspicions, and frustrations of the masses is the reality that the press (and independent “journalists”) have collectively muddied the waters and blurred the line between “fact” and “opinion”, especially citing “sources not authorized to speak”.  It seems a clever way to insert an “opinion” without accountability because we can never know the true source.

It is little wonder the press is struggling for its character.  It is not solely because of President Trump’s accusations.  He has only said what so many have suspected for so long: a free press is necessary to a free people, but an unencumbered press not held to account by an independent source is as dangerous and as volatile as an armed mob.

Yet just as surely as Thomas Jefferson defended the necessity of a free press, he also maintained the responsibility of a public to read and to discern.  For if it can truly be said that if “the press is the people”, given the uncertainty of reliable sources, it does not speak well of what we have become.

The Broken Heart of Grace

12 August 2018 – 12^th Sunday of Pentecost

2 Samuel 18:5-9,15,31-33; Psalm 130; Ephesians 4:25-5:2 

“Be angry, but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger.”  Ephesian 4:26

In 2^nd Samuel 18, King David had been forced to flee because his son, Absalom, had risen up against him and would try to overthrow him.  David chose to flee rather than to fight because he wanted no harm to come to his son.  He had even ordered his commanders to “deal gently, for my sake, with the young man Absalom” (2 Sam 18:5).

David’s army would still face Absalom’s army in battle, however, because there was too much at stake.  It wasn’t that David refused to fight at all; he only wanted no harm to come to his beloved son.  Yet even as David had given his commanders a “hands off” order regarding Absalom, Absalom had come face-to-face with David’s army and was killed rather than merely captured. 

When David was told of his son’s death, the king mourned, wishing it could have been him who had died instead of his beloved son.  Rather than understand or share his grief, David’s commanders got a little bent out of shape.  Because of his death, Absalom’s army had been hobbled and the rebellion put down.  Yet the king was not relieved; he was deeply grieved.  Though Absalom had tried to overthrow his father and would have surely resulted in the death of the king, there was still one important and immutable factor that cannot be overlooked: the depth of a father’s love.  Rebellion did not change that, but that love did not mean there would not be consequences for that rebellion.

Though the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles are largely considered historical accounts, this particular passage in 2^nd Samuel is a profound analogy of The Holy Father’s unwavering love for His own.  Despite our almost constant rebellion – sometimes hidden, at other times in plain sight – the enduring Love of The Father is even more constant than our rebellion.  As St. Paul wrote to the Romans, “While we were still sinners (rebels), Christ died for us” (5:8).

It is always easy to imagine The Lord’s wrath and fury; the First Testament is filled with such images.  Yet even Jesus speaks of the Day of Judgment when the wrath of the Eternal Judge will “separate the sheep from the goats” (Matthew 25:31-46), when true disciples will be separated from Christians “in name only”.  It will be that time when the disobedient will be “cast into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30).

Yet before even all this, there is The Eternal Heart of Grace that is quite capable of being broken.  It is The Heart of the Almighty and Eternal Creator who made us in His Image and gave us the capacity – though not necessarily the will - to love (that we must do on our own, but we can IF we use what is given to us).  It is this Eternal One who has determined that we, even at our worst, are worth redeeming, worth saving.  This manifest Love, revealed and perfected in Christ Jesus, exists as surely as you and I will more often be found in rebellion than in grace.  It must be noted that grace does not excuse rebellion.

The very worst thing to have happened that has robbed the contemporary Church of its vitality, its sense of gratitude, faithfulness, and duty to one another, is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer termed “cheap grace” – expecting something for nothing; i.e., forgiveness without repentance.  It is conveyed in “bumper sticker” and social media theology that lacks engagement, depth, and wisdom, and is often reduced to a “meme”.  It is expressed in such a careless way that active membership and participation in the life of the Church is cast aside as inconsequential since, as so many try to claim, their salvation has already been “assured”.

Salvation itself, rather than to be understood as the Divine Gift which must be received AND lived into, has become an “entitlement” we think we are owed; taking advantage, as we often do, of that which is given seemingly without cost.  The vitality of the United Methodist Church is at risk not because of what may or may not happen in St. Louis next year but because of what has already happened at “home” for generations.   We have stopped “making disciples”, we have stopped “equipping disciples to make disciples”, we do not hold one another accountable to discipleship, choosing popularity over faithfulness, and we are no longer concerned with the “transformation of our communities”.  We do not care, nor are we concerned, about the cost of rebellion.

To be sure, Absalom was very intentional about his open rebellion against his father.  What he did to undermine the king, he meant to do; and because of his false sense of pride and personal entitlement, he did not care about the kingdom as a whole; he cared only about himself.  In the end, it cost him his very life.  Yet though he lived as his father’s enemy, he nevertheless died as his father’s son.  And a father’s heart was broken.

Unlike Absalom, we are more often not so intentional in our rebellion as we are neglectful of the relationship of the congregation we are invited into; and rather than to “love our neighbors as ourselves”, we selectively offer our love only to those whom we deem worthy.  And the very worst of it all is that, like Absalom, we are so blinded by our own desires, our own ambitions, our own pride that we cannot see – nor do we seem to care about – what we are doing to the Heart of the One who gave of Himself so completely that His death was unavoidable.  But the strength of that Love made the Resurrection imminent because, as much as humankind has tried to silence and “bury” or ignore the Living Word, The Word cannot be silenced.  “Though heaven and earth will pass away, My Words will never pass away” (Luke 21:33).

This is the reality of Divine Love.  This kind of love is so completely vulnerable that if it is not respected, if it is not embraced, if it is not reciprocated, the Broken Heart is inevitable.  It is the only measure of True Love and must be received and shared as freely as it is given.  For this is The Way that is Christ, and it is the True and Full Heart of a Father’s Love.  Amen.

The True (and only) Bread from Heaven

5 August 2018 – 11^th Sunday of Pentecost 

Numbers 21:1-9; John 6:26-35

“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”  John 3:14

The incident recorded in Numbers 21 was not the first time the Israelites complained about the manna, but it does seem to be the first point at which they spoke so aggressively against it.  In Numbers 11 the complaint was, “There is nothing but manna”; but in Numbers 21 they finally crossed the line: “We HATE this horrible manna!”

There is nothing quite like having a basic need met but then deciding that’s no longer good enough, huh?

Years ago I worked for a trucking company in Little Rock; and though I was making a very good salary, the work days were long and often miserable because the environment was downright toxic.  In 1999 I had also begun my first appointment as a lay speaker to a small church outside of Conway.  

I would sometimes take the long way home from Little Rock to Conway via Wye Mountain and come out in Bigelow where this little church was.  One evening I was driving home the back way and decided to stop at the church for a little quiet time.  It had been an especially challenging day at work, and I needed to figure out how to clear my head.

In the quiet of the church with only the hissing of the gas heater, I opened my Bible randomly and found myself reading from Numbers 11.  I got stuck on vss 4-6: “The Israelites wept and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat!  We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at’.”

Moses had overheard the complaints and then went to The Lord, effectively saying to The Lord, “Just kill me now!  These people are more than I can handle!”  But The Lord told Moses to gather the elders so they could all hear The Lord at the same time when He declared they would get their precious meat – so much so that they will nearly choke on it to the point of it becoming “loathsome” to them (vs 20) … because they had all they needed – but – their personal preferences were not being met.  And they were ready to give up and go back.

The Lord was sustaining them on their wilderness journey with the manna; but they were deciding for themselves not only that this True Gift was no longer good enough for them, they also were falsely and selectively remembering the “good ol’ days” in Egypt when they were fed like livestock.  They had forgotten how they had cried out to The Lord under the burden of their cruel servitude.  They only remembered the food.

What struck me in my own bitter moment was my paycheck, my manna.  It was sustaining my family, but the journey (the work week) was sometimes more than I could bear to the point that I was not even grateful for the paycheck.  I was being given all I needed, but it was no longer good enough.  I felt like I was “choking” on it all.

Though I certainly experienced a profound moment of clarity that evening in that quiet church, it was not long before I had forgotten that moment.  I had been given clarity in being reminded I had all I needed.  I knew what I needed to do, and I knew I should not look a gift horse in the mouth; and yet, like the Israelites, I had moved from the disgust of chapter 11 to the utter disdain of chapter 21 in only a few short years.  Soon what I had held in such contempt disappeared completely.  I got laid off a few months before the company went under. 

Even then, I was luckier than many of my former co-workers.  I got severance because I had been with that company nearly twenty years, but those who got caught up in the final moments were lucky to have gotten their final paycheck.

It was ugly, and I was in touch with several co-workers who were scrambling at the end – right before Christmas!  And the funny thing?  The really funny thing??  I was still angry and bitter for having gotten laid off even while serving a full-time appointment in Magnolia (more manna)!  I had invested so much with this company and had often gone way “above and beyond” because of my personal ambition.  I could not – would not – see that The Lord was sustaining me, had sustained me, had led me.  All I had to do was connect the dots.

Sometimes we don’t get our preference and, thus, cannot see our basic needs are met.  Griping and complaining do not help.  Trying to reach into the past with false or incomplete memories does not help.  In fact, as we learned from the Israelites, it only angers The Lord because He has seen to our most basic needs, but what we’ve been given in abundance is somehow no longer good enough.  

We seem happy – HAPPY – to complain when, though we have plenty of bread, we are unsatisfied with the kind of bread.  We may sometimes even feel cheated and less-than-filled only because the bread, though plentiful, is not to our liking.  We lose sight of what is important.

The True Bread of Life is The Eternal Word which became flesh.  He is our our ONLY sustenance who feeds us not only in this life, but will in the Life to Come.  We often cannot see that because we have filled our heads with false hopes and misleading personal desires because we are too focused on ourselves and not at all on Him.   Sometimes even in worship!

Those who focus always on Him and His Way will always have enough; but if we focus too much on the kind of bread we’re being given and forget why we’re being fed in the first place, we will lose our way.  And we will never be satisfied.

We must be learn to be grateful for every moment we are being sustained, and we must never forget that He alone is the True Bread from Heaven sent to sustain us for however long the journey may last.  Lift Him up, and He will raise us up!  Amen.