Remembering Who We Are

23 September 2018 – 18^th Sunday of Pentecost

Psalm 51:10-17; Deuteronomy 30:1-5, 11-14; John 7:1-8

September 23, 1857: Layman-turned-evangelist Jeremiah C. Lanphier held a lunchtime prayer meeting for businessmen on Fulton Street in New York City.  At first, no one showed up, but by the program's third week the 40 participants requested daily meetings.  Other cities began similar programs, and a revival—sometimes called "The Third Great Awakening"—caught fire across America.

For our Jewish friends, today at sundown marks the beginning of Sukkot, the Festival of Booths.  Some English Bible translations have rendered the meaning Festival of Tabernacles, but this cannot be so because the Tabernacle was the dwelling place of The Lord among His people in the wilderness.  The booths, or tents, were the dwelling places of the people of The Lord. 

Sukkot is an ordained festival to remind the people of The Lord of their dependence on The Lord as they journeyed through the wilderness.  In a manner of speaking, these festivals are annual opportunities for renewal and revival if approached in the right way.  That is, like Communion itself, the festival cannot be just a “thing” to do; the Story must be engaged in a meaningful way.  Only then can there be any sense of revival and, ultimately, a transformation of life and living.  And that is what we must always be seeking, sanctification – “going on to perfection” (Hebrews 6:1) being the bedrock of Methodism.

The Jewish remembrances of the major festivals – Passover (Feast of Unleavened Bread), Shavu’ot (Festival of Weeks, Pentecost), and Sukkot (Festival of booths) – come by commandment of The Lord.  As it is written in Deuteronomy 16:16, Moses instructed the people according to the Word of The Lord: “Three times a year [you] shall appear before The Lord your God at the place He will choose: at the festival of unleavened bread, at the festival of weeks, and at the festival of booths”.

This commandment does not preclude regular weekly Sabbath worship, but they serve as reminders of who they are and where they come from.  These Festivals came at key times during Israel’s exodus from Egypt and journey to the Promised Land.  Each Festival has special meaning and important practices that must be remembered and diligently observed not for “legalistic” reasons but for practical remembrances, lest the people of The Lord forget who they are. 

When the First Great Awakening happened, beginning in Great Britain in the 18^th century and spreading to the American colonies, it was a time of revival and renewal.  Though there were certainly new souls added to the Book of Life by their conversion, there was also a push to “awaken” the souls of a sleeping Church, a people who had forgotten who they really are and who had fallen into an almost mechanical state of doing rather than living into a spiritual state of being and growing.  John Wesley was a key figure in this Awakening.

Yet I cannot help but to think the first REAL “Great Awakening” was that blessed Pentecost (Shavu’ot) as recorded in the second chapter of Acts, that time when the Spirit of The Lord came upon so great a gathering.  Peter called upon the Israelites and recalled to them the Scriptures leading to this moment, which is to say this Moment did not happen in the void.  And there were surely some Gentiles who were awakened for the very first time.

Part of the Festival of Shavu’ot (Pentecost, Acts 2:1) is remembering the giving of Torah (law) from Mt. Sinai.  It was that time when The Lord not only revealed Himself but also revealed the kind of people they must become as they journeyed to the Promised Land.  They were not to be like all the other nations, and they would not be identified strictly by their ancestral connection to Abraham. 

By their living and their worship – all connected to the extent of their willingness to trust and obey The Lord - they would be distinguished from all other peoples.  Much in the same way Jesus teaches that our love for one another is the measure of our discipleship (John 13:35), He also teaches that our love for Him is measured by our willingness to obey His commandments (John 14:15).  And we must not try to distinguish between the commandments of The Father and the commandments of Jesus because they are one and the same.

However, there are many – too many, in fact – who do try to distinguish between OT law and NT teachings, loosely quoting St. Paul while overlooking the teachings of Jesus who affirms the commandments of Torah.  Yet because we seem more inclined to believe Paul than to obey Christ, these many centuries later (it is the year 5779 by the Jewish calendar), I wonder if we Christians know - really know – who we are as a people.

As individual persons, we might be quick to point out our baptism or confirmation or justification – or even our denomination affiliation even if we’ve become inactive in the Faith Community.  As a people, as a Christian people, as THE Church, the Body of Christ, I think it is safe (and sad) to say we have no real concept of ourselves as a people.  Thus we do not know who we really are.

The disconnect between what is traditionally called “Old Testament” and the New did not happen in Jesus’ time and it did not happen at Pentecost after the Resurrection.  I will never forget a discussion in one of my classes in which a classmate boldly claimed, “Jesus only told us to love our neighbors as ourselves”.  While the instructor was nodding in approval, I created a snot-storm (I’m apparently pretty good at that) when I pointed out that Jesus was quoting from Torah (Leviticus 19:18); that collection of books referred to as “the Scriptures” in the New Testament writings.

And because we seem to be pretty good at making things up as we go, pretty much designing a religion around our feelings and our impulses, yet another schism is upon us as United Methodists try to decide what it is we really believe.  And never mind the overwhelming number of Republicans and Democrats who describe themselves as “Christian” but who deliberately distort numbers and other information to political ends! 

Look at who we have become!  As a people, we are hateful, spiteful, vindictive, and determined to destroy any who disagree with us! 

It does not have to be this way.  In fact, our Lord, our God prohibits it.  Our newfound freedom in Christ and the New Covenant does not preclude the commandments our Lord insisted upon to His people in the wilderness and in the Promised Land; it includes us Gentiles.  Jesus told the Samaritan woman that “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22), and St. Paul taught that the Jews are “entrusted with the oracles of God” (Romans 3:22).

What it means to us, then, is what you’ve likely seen on billboards and social media: “That ‘love your neighbor’ thing?  I meant that” – God

It will not come here, but it can begin here.  The community entrusted to our care are counting on the “oracles of God” delivered by the faithful of God.  As Moses encouraged the Israelites in the wilderness, “The Word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart to observe” (Dt 30:14).

Let this be the Day of New Beginnings.  Let this be the Day when we renew ourselves in The Word and repent of our worldly habits and cares.  Let this be our Day to remember who we really are, who we are called to be, and let us become that once again.  For the Time is short, and the Kingdom of Heaven is upon us.  Glory to The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The Royal Law

9 September 2018 – 16^th Sunday of Pentecost

James 2:8-17; Mark 7:24-37

“You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’.” James 2:8

'No Man is an Island'

No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, [that continent] is the less … any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.  And therefore never [ask] for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.  John Donne

Common among the world’s great religions is the concept and necessity of “community”.  That is, we are made to live not only with but for one another.  The Creation Story in which woman was created for man, which we rightly hold as the ideal for marriage, may also be said to express and convey the abiding principle that we are not complete, we are not whole without others.  As it is written, “It is not good for man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18).

Though not all the world’s religions lift up the “royal law” (“Love your neighbor as yourself”), there is nevertheless a common understanding that no community can be greater than the least among them, no stronger than the weakest, no richer than the poorest. 

It must also be understood that no community can stand if there are not laws to regulate life in that community; standards of conduct for individuals for the sake of that community.  These laws must not be used to any individual’s advantage or disadvantage – rich or poor.  These laws are for the well-being of the entire community.

Thus it is an incomplete thing to point to the many persons who were healed by Jesus on an individual basis as the Christian standard of salvation.  If we were to look more closely, as expressed by St. James, St. Paul, the other epistle writers as well as the Church fathers and ancient rabbis, we would find another undeniable reality: when the “royal law” is fulfilled, when we do for our neighbors as zealously as we would do for ourselves, communities are strengthened by the healing of each individual person.  This is the say, one is not saved only for one’s own sake but also for the sake of the community as a whole.  It is as true today as it was in the time of Jesus.  Yet it is largely overlooked or outright denied.

I never knew what it meant to “ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee”.  Poetry was never my thing.  I just didn’t get it, but it may also be said I didn’t want to get it, poetry being for girls and hippies … until an episode of “Longmire” had the Wyoming, ‘Marlboro Man’ sheriff quoting the passage, “Any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind”.  The sheriff was struggling with having had to shoot a man in the line of duty.  He felt badly that he did not feel guilty – and that feeling of guilt (or lack of guilt) was attributed to his understanding of this poem, the connection we all share one to another.

But here is where I personally get hung up – and if you are honest, you probably share this guilt with me – we all “show partiality” to one degree or another, but we deny – or we are not mindful - that we are “committing sin” (James 2:9).  We just don’t think of it as “sinful”.  Yet by denying the sacred worth of a person we deem “lesser”, we diminish the humanity of one who was also created in the Divine Image, one for whom Christ also died. 

We diminish as well our own being as members of the “royal” community regulated by “royal law”; and by “committing sin”, we violate the “royal law”, we diminish our standing before our God and within the community as a whole.  And yet strangely enough, we excuse ourselves from this “sin” in Jesus’ Name by declaring our having been “saved” – all without realizing the community as a whole is weakened when we convince ourselves we are better than we really are. 

How do we do that?  How is it we can knowingly and willfully commit sin and still refer to salvation as “assured”?  Especially as it is written, “Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil” (1 John 3:8); as it is also written, “We will reap what we sow” (Galatians 6:7).  So if we sow sin, without earnest repentance, without the resolve to move in a whole new direction, we will reap sin.  That is, if we normalize sin within the community, we make sin a staple of a community condemned to destruction – by our own hands or by the Hand of the Almighty Himself.  We must always remember the entire nation of Israel was sent into exile – not just the “bad’ persons; the nation as a whole.

We can blame many things for the decline of the American church, but any one thing we point to will ultimately lead us to this reality: we don’t take sin seriously.  And we don’t take sin seriously because we take salvation for granted.  We have lost sight of the fact that salvation is not an “event” and grace without genuine repentance is not a given.  Each must be sought as zealously as that one sheep out of a hundred (Luke 15:3-7).  Each must be embraced as THE Royal Standard.  Each must be engaged day by day and hour by hour; for each is a commitment to a higher level of living and loving.  And each involves others.  Always.

I will grant you it is a hard thing to give up our time for those with whom we are simply not compatible, but I also submit to you there are untold treasures awaiting those who will strive to look more carefully at those whom we would prefer to keep at a safe distance.  Are “they” (whomever “they” may be) really the problem? 

The disconnect between righteousness and religion is deep and wide because we don’t typically connect religion to practical living.  As has been expressed by so many who have become not only disenfranchised but outright hostile to religion in general – and the Church specifically – is that we seem trying to sell “pie-in-the-sky” idealism while overlooking what John Wesley referred to as “practical Christianity”; real-life living.  In a nutshell, it is “The Royal Law”.

 

I submit to you, dear friends, that living and loving as Christ Himself lived and loved is “The Royal Law”, the royal standard.  Anything less makes us all paupers.  Anything less will one day make us beggars; for we will beg for mercy we never showed.  The Royal Law is mercy; the mercy shown us when we were justified, the mercy bestowed on us as we bestow mercy ourselves.

This mercy is not found on Facebook or other social media; it is found only in fellowship, in genuine friendship, in hand shakes and hugs, in giving our time to those who are lonely, to those who are hurting.  It is being a friend to those who have no friends – for these are The Word made flesh in Christ Jesus, love in the flesh by our devotion.  It is Life for them, and it is Life for us for all eternity.  To the glory of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.  Amen.