Pentecost--Acts 2

On this Pentecost Sunday we wait for the emergence of the Spirit to fill our lives and eliminate our problems. But God's Spirit doesn't work in that way. We are filled with God's Spirit and our problems just begin, because we see the world with new eyes and recognize fully that our attitudes and beliefs are not consonant with this new vision.

Maybe we read Galatians and learn from Paul that the Law (scripture) is a great schoolmaster but at some point we need to grow up and learn to live by the Spirit. For him that meant that Gentiles could come to Christ through faith with nothing more required. For us maybe that means that homosexuals have the same freedom. Our old formulas for who is in and who is out of God's favor gets turned on its head. We have to make adjustments.

Perhaps our first reaction to the news that Osama Bin Laden had been killed was to party in the streets with other Americans, but somewhere deep inside there is this gnawing sense that we are simply continuing the cycle of violence and not really making our world a safer place. This thought certainly makes us feel out of place amid the celebration and self-congratulations, and we're afraid to say any such thing at the water cooler.

Yes, one can get all kinds of strange ideas when one gets filled with the Spirit. It can complicate one's life.

Has the fire touched you yet? Are you willing to be touched?

Let God Rise Up!, Psalm 68

Let God rise up, let his enemies be scattered;
Let those who hate him flee before him...
Sing to God, sing praises to his name,
Lift up a song to him who rides upon the clouds.
(vss. 1,4)

Today is Ascension Day! Aren't you excited? Are you planning anything special for the day?

Okay, so it doesn't get the same attention in the church calendar as Christmas or Easter, but still, the last glimpses of Jesus on earth (unless you believe he appears in tree bark or a piece of toast from time to time) is a pretty special occasion.

The lectionary couples Psalm 68 with the story of Jesus' ascension in Acts. Both scriptures invite us to look up. Both scriptures invite us to imagine a God who is in control of all creation, who is set against all that wars with shalom and who will ultimately bring full shalom into being.

Life can get pretty horizontal. It's a good idea to lift your eyes toward the heavens with joy and hope, even if you have to tolerate a little rain in your face. Researchers tell us that one's environment impacts how one thinks and behaves. For instance, people who are asked to function in a room with high ceilings demonstrate a greater capacity for imaginative, creative work. Maybe that's why churches, traditionally, have developed spaces with arched ceilings. Makes it easier to catch a glimpse of that rider in the clouds. Maybe we ought to be meeting outside more often!

What aspects of your life have become way too horizontal? What ways can you orient your attention upward? If the Psalms are any indication, praise and prayer are a good place to start.

A New Temple--1 Peter 2:2-10

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

If you are reading this then Harold Camping, the odd biblical calculator who predicted the Rapture for May 21, either got his end time calculations wrong or you got left behind. Unless you noticed a much shorter, more grumpy, line at Starbucks this morning, it is probably the former. Not to worry. I'm sure Harold will be quick to point out where his calculations were off and issue another date for the Rapture. It's tricky work predicting the apocalypse. One can't expect infallibility.

It's not end time predictions that have bugged me about Camping. When I've seen him on TV, I've found those kind of amusing. Rather, it is his encouragement to Christians to leave their churches. It seems his primary proclamation is that the Church is corrupt, and that good Christians should leave it. Stands to reason I'd be offended by this since I'm a pastor.

His message makes no sense in light of 1 Peter 2:2-10, where the Christian community of believers--the church--is said to be the new temple (the Jerusalem temple had been destroyed by the Romans), which is built on Christ the cornerstone and is home to the very presence of God. Now, I'm quite aware that the Church is not perfect, but it still in some mysterious sense houses the presence of God.

When in your community of faith do you most sense God's presence? In worship? In serving the homeless a meal? Playing frisbee at a church picnic?

How would your church change if it really, really understood itself to be God's temple on earth?

Hiatus

It's been awhile since I've blogged. Too much stuff going on. Thank you to all the blog's followers for your patience.

I'm going on study leave for a couple of weeks and hope to be blogging again by the middle of May.

Peace be with you (and now imagine Jesus breathing on you as in John 21).

Conversation Starters--John 3:1-17

How would you start a conversation with Jesus if you had the chance? Might be challenge enough to be able to utter anything much less something coherent.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus at nighttime, presumably because he was a religious leaders and so he had a reputation to protect. Jesus had become popular, but he was an outsider who did not always say things or do things that were considered orthodox by those who were recognized as authorities.

Nicodemus is one of those authorities, but he sees something special in the miracles Jesus has performed, so he's willing to take a step outside his acceptable circles to interact with Jesus. He'll only take a minimal risk however; he'll come under cloak of darkness.

He starts out proclaiming his brilliance, "We know you are a teacher who has come from God." Starting a conversation with Jesus by proclaiming what you know is probably not the advisable way to begin. Jesus responds, "No one can see the Kingdom without being born from above." I think this is Jesus' way of saying, You haven't a clue, Nic. All of the sudden Jesus is talking a language that Nicodemus doesn't understand at all. It's clear that Nicodemus, though he is a religious leader, knows very little about the spiritual life. Sometimes those who seem to be closest to the truth are actually furthest away. As a pastor, I am very aware of this danger.

Anyone who affiliates in some way with a religious organization should be aware of this danger, because most religious organizations lay out some kind of path to follow to gain maturity and stature in faith. Yet, according to Jesus, the Spirit of God is like a wind that blows in very unpredictable ways. We're currently reading, as a church, Sara Miles' Jesus Freak, which is her story of how the Spirit has affected her life and ministry, although some of her practices have been difficult for her church to understand or approve of.

Have you been born anew (or from above, since the Greek word here could mean either)? How did it happen? Or is it happening or yet to happen?

Okay, Beloved, Now What? Matt. 4:1-11

As the gospel writers tell it, immediately after Jesus is baptized and the voice from heaven proclaims, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well-pleased," God's Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness where he suffers deprivation and is confronted by his own human need. The tempter comes along and begins his offers with, "If you are the son of God..."

The close proximity of these two scenes suggest to me that the gospel writers are trying to show us that the temptation story is about Jesus' identity, and it should lead us to wonder what Jesus will do with his knowledge that he is God's messiah. Will he use his status to alleviate his own human suffering and thus render him invulnerable to the basic human needs that all humans share or will he fully enter into the human condition? Buddha said that life is suffering. Would the son of God willingly enter into this life or use his powers to rise above it?

You know the answers because you know the temptation story. Jesus refused to turn stones into bread, throw himself down from the temple tower hoping for the deliverance of angels or seek earthly rule. Rather, he walks this lonesome valley like the rest of us and uses his power to alleviate the suffering of others.

The seeds of Jesus' resurrection are found in these decisions he makes in the wilderness because when he chooses to live a fully human life, he, of course, is choosing to die a human death. So even in the first Sunday of Lent, we can see a foreshadowing of Easter.

Given that in your baptism God has claimed you as his/her beloved, what are you doing with your considerable powers? And if you are presently in the wilderness, what kind of choices are you making?

The King's Speech, Matthew 17:1-9

The best picture award at the Academy Awards this year was for The King's Speech. I saw it and also thought it was a fantastic movie. Here was this very powerful man who had a flaw--at least for him and the rest of the royal family--that made him vulnerable to feelings of shame and to ridicule from others. He worked hard and with the help of others, overcame his stammer in time to offer encouragement to his people at a dark time in British history. When the king speaks, people listen.

This Sunday is Transfiguration Sunday. All the lectionary scriptures tell of the experience of encountering a mysterious, awe-inspiring God.

In Exodus 24:12-18, Moses goes up to Mt. Sinai to receive God's commandments and is enveloped in a divine cloud. To the people of Israel below, it didn't look like a cloud but rather a devouring fire that Moses walked into. Frightening!

Psalm 99 begins: "The Lord is king; let the peoples tremble!"

And in Matthew 17, Jesus is transfigured on the mountain and appears with Elijah and Moses. Peter, James and John have some ideas about how to sustain this glorious occasion so that everyone who wishes can behold it; he wants to build some dwellings. But suddenly there appeared a bright cloud (a lot of clouds in these sorts of stories; what do you make of that?), and a voice from the cloud says, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!" The disciples fall to the ground in fear.

It is clear that when this King speaks, he doesn't have any problem communicating. The natural reaction is fear and trembling.

How might this connect with the life of faith? When have you trembled in the face of a reality larger than you? Is an awe-inspired trembling healthy sometimes?