Author: J. Barrett Lee

“My Feet Is Tired, But My Soul Is Rested”

On By J. Barrett LeeIn SermonLeave a comment
“Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

This morning’s sermon from First Presbyterian, Boonville.

The text is Matthew 18:15-20.

Someone once asked the famous author C.S. Lewis why he thought it was necessary for Christians to go to church.  Lewis, with his usual wit and candor, had this to say:

When I first became a Christian, about fourteen years ago, I thought that I could do it on my own, by retiring to my rooms and reading theology, and I wouldn’t go to the churches and Gospel Halls; . . . I disliked very much their hymns, which I considered to be fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music. But as I went on I saw the great merit of it. I came up against different people of quite different outlooks and different education, and then gradually my conceit just began peeling off. I realized that the hymns (which were just sixth-rate music) were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic-side boots in the opposite pew, and then you realize that you aren’t fit to clean those boots. It gets you out of your solitary conceit.

The “solitary conceit” that Lewis mentioned is one of the hallmarks of trendy spirituality in our culture.  Spiritually-minded Americans, from Transcendentalists to Evangelicals, have often emphasized individuality at the expense of community when it comes to their devotional lives.  Lillian Daniels, a United Church of Christ minister from Illinois, minces no words as she calls this kind of spiritual individualism “self-centered” and “boring”.  She goes on:

There is nothing challenging about having deep thoughts all by oneself. What is interesting is doing this work in community, where other people might call you on stuff, or heaven forbid, disagree with you. Where life with God gets rich and provocative is when you dig deeply into a tradition that you did not invent all for yourself.

One’s relationship with God is always personal but never private.  One does not simply wander off into a cave to commune with the Divine in total silence and solitude.  Even ancient hermits in the desert maintained practices of hospitality toward wandering beggars and spiritual seekers.  One cannot be a Christian by oneself.

We find this counter-conviction to American individualism all through today’s gospel reading.  Here we see Jesus teaching the people about spiritual community.  Specifically, he’s talking about those times when community gets messy.  He starts with the words, “If another member of the church sins against you”.  This is Jesus giving advice about conflict resolution.  Rather than getting bogged down in the procedure that Jesus lays out, I’d like for us to focus our attention this morning on the underlying values and beliefs that undergird Jesus’ message to us in this passage.  I say “values” and “beliefs” but really there’s just one of each: a value and a belief.

The value that Jesus was trying to communicate is the value of reconciliation.  Reconciliation was a major theme in the ministry of Jesus and the early church.  Notice how it comes up again and again in this passage.  Jesus says repeatedly that the goal of this conflict-resolution exercise is to persuade people to “listen” to one another.  That word, “listen”, appears four times in three verses.  Meanwhile, there’s no “eye for an eye” or “hellfire and damnation” language at all.  Even in the worst-case scenario, where the “sinner” will not “listen”, Jesus recommends that the church should “let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”  This might sound like punishment at first (remember that tax collectors were the most hated people in ancient Israel), but remember how Jesus treats tax collectors and other religious outsiders?  He welcomes them and affirms them!  He goes out of his way to make sure that these people know they are loved by God.  It seems like Jesus is saying that the point where negotiations fail is the point where real love begins.  This is so different from our world where justice is associated with punishment and vengeance!  For Jesus, real justice is the restoration of harmonious relationships.

The theme of reconciliation that resonates through this passage is related to the core belief that Jesus is trying to instill in his followers: the belief that God is love.  As the people of the community of faith work together to reconcile their differences, Jesus tells them that they will begin to discover a mysterious divine presence working in and through them.  Decisions made in this spirit of reconciliation will have the weight of spiritual truth.  This is what Jesus means when he says, “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  Likewise, the community of faith that is committed to reconciliation will see God working impossible miracles through them.  Jesus says, “If two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.”  Reconciliation and love are important values to embody because they most accurately reflect who God is.  God is present wherever this process of reconciliation is going on.  Don’t look for God in the sky or in magical rituals, but in the genuine love that is made manifest through us, the people of the church.  This is why Jesus says, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

Love.  It’s all about love.  Love is what Jesus calls us to.  Love is who God is.

This belief runs entirely counter to our culture’s punishment-oriented individualism.  In that sense, it is truly “counter-cultural”.  People who believe in love, as Jesus presented it, are crazy by this world’s standards.  Yet these people see things that others can’t see.  When they speak, they speak with supernatural clarity and conviction.  When they stand together, they sense that there is “something more” standing with them, empowering them, and holding them up.

One of my favorite examples of this power at work comes from the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott that took place in 1955-56.  For over a year, the African American citizens of Montgomery, Alabama  stood together against the demonic spirits of racism and discrimination.  These prophetic activists were made the subjects of constant harassment from local citizens, government, and police.  Walking together along city streets, many of them described a feeling of divine empowerment.  Wherever these few were gathered in the name of Jesus, he was there among them.

One particularly elderly woman was stopped on the street one day during the boycott.  The interviewer asked whether her feet were exhausted from all the walking, perhaps hoping that she might give up soon and take a bus.  Her reply resonated with exactly the kind of spiritual authority and divine presence that Jesus was talking about:

“My feet is tired,” she said, “but my soul is rested.”

As we go out from this place today, may our lives reflect that same kind of divine glory.  May we sense that same spiritual presence among us, especially in this sacrament of Holy Communion.  May our church be known to this community as a place where reconciliation happens.  May we all be able to say as we reach the end of our earthly pilgrimage, “My feet is tired, but my soul is rested.”

The Gift of Diversity

On By J. Barrett LeeIn Sermon2 Comments

This morning’s sermon from First Presbyterian, Boonville.

The text is Genesis 11:1-9.

Who here has seen the movie (or read the book) Jurassic Park?

It was one of the epic stories of the 1990s.  Scientists find a way to bring dinosaurs back to life and put them on display for tourists.  How is that possible?  No problem!  They cloned them using dino-DNA from prehistoric mosquitoes trapped in fossilized tree sap.  How do they control the dinosaurs?  No problem!  Genetic manipulation makes it so that the dinosaurs can’t reproduce while high-powered electric fences keep them safely contained.  However, those who are familiar with the story know what happens next.  The genetic manipulation doesn’t take and the dinosaurs start breeding.  Then a power-outage deactivates the electric fences.  The tourists’ initial wonder gives way to terror as they are chased and eaten by hungry prehistoric predators!

The scientists of Jurassic Park thought they had the answer to everything.  They thought they had absolute control over their situation.  But life turns out to be just a little bit more complicated than the scientists expected.  Their control gives way to chaos.  In the end, Jurassic Park is a classic story about human progress gone wild.

This morning, we read from another classic story of human progress gone wild.  It’s the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11.  The story begins on a positive note.  The human race exists as one family with one language.  They are explorers and inventors who bravely probe the depths of human creativity and ingenuity.  They settle new territory and develop new technology (i.e. bricks).  All in all, it sounds like a pretty utopian society, kind of like the United Federation of Planets in Star Trek.  But the Bible, it seems, is a bit more realistic than Star Trek.  It doesn’t take long before this “masterpiece society” develops a dark side.

The human race quickly gets ahead of itself in verse 4, saying, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves”.  That’s quite a leap, isn’t it?  One day, they’re inventing bricks and the very next day, they’re building downtown Manhattan, complete with skyscrapers!  There’s no small amount of arrogance that comes with this new idea.  Their new skyscraper will have “its top in the heavens”.  Humanity literally intends to lift itself up by its own bootstraps.  Also, they intend to “make a name” for themselves.  They want to be feared and respected.  By whom?  We don’t know.  Theoretically, this group comprises the entire human race.  But that’s just one more reason why we’re not reading these stories as literal and historical fact.  They’re stories that are meant to tell us something about who we are and who God is.

What’s the reason for this sudden and huge undertaking?  Why build this urban metropolis?  The people tell us why in the second half of verse 4: “otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”  They’re afraid.  They’re afraid of being scattered.  The flip side of their arrogant pride is a paralyzing fear.  Do you know anyone like this?  Some big and tough person whose macho attitude is just a cover for feeling afraid and insecure?  Bullies like this are everywhere: from high school locker rooms to corporate board rooms.  They’re all motivated by fear.  In fact, if we’re honest with ourselves, I think we can all identify with that impulse to hide our fear with pride.  It’s no different for the humans in this story.  Their big building project is motivated by fear.

The ironic thing is that this fear becomes a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.  The text tells us in verse 8 that, in the end, “Yahweh scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth”.  The very thing they feared is what they brought upon themselves through their efforts to relieve their fear.  It’s kind of tragic, isn’t it?

But is “scattering” really so bad?

In order to answer that question, we should first look at the reason why God decided to do it.  Everybody was safe, happy, and getting along with each other in Babel.  Why not leave well enough alone?  God gives a hint in verse 6, saying, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.”  Now, that might not sound so bad at first, but think about the kinds of things that humans tend to do when they get together and make big progress on big projects.  Midway through the twentieth century, humanity unlocked the secrets of the atom.  The very next thing we did was make a giant bomb and use it.  We then spent the remainder of the century living in the shadow of the mushroom cloud, terrified of nuclear annihilation and “mutually assured destruction”.  That’s the kind of thing that human beings do when “nothing that they propose to do [is] impossible for them.”  So God, interrupting this progress-gone-wild and scattering the human race, was actually saving people from themselves.

Also, according to the text of Genesis, “scattering” itself may have been part of God’s plan for humanity from the beginning.  In Genesis 1, God says to humanity, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth”.  God says it again in chapter 9, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”  And yet again, only six verses later, “And you, be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and multiply in it.”  Is it just me or is God sounding like a broken record here?  Do you think maybe there’s a point that God is trying to make here?  Yeah, I think so too.

I think God is trying to say, “Hey everybody, get out there!  Go out into this amazing world and be who you were meant to be!  Don’t let fear hold you back!”

Traditionally, the invention of languages in this story is thought of as a punishment for the human race, but I’m not so sure about that.  I see it as a blessing.  God sees human beings imprisoning themselves behind walls made of brick and fear.  God is a like a mother eagle who gives her little birdies a push out of the nest in order to teach them how to fly!  The push out of the nest in this case is the confusion of languages.  In other words, God challenges humanity to become who they were meant to be by giving them the gift of diversity.

In many ways, things aren’t so different for you and me.  We build our own protective “towers” of ideology.  Whether you’re fearful about the economy, social justice, church attendance, or family values, the temptation is the same: to imprison yourself behind the brick walls of arrogance and fear, blurting out easy answers in convenient, bumper sticker-sized slogans, and surrounding yourself with people who talk like you, look like you, think like you, and believe like you.

Enter God.  God sneaks behind the walls of your tower of terror with this brilliant gift of diversity.

Through this gift, God shows you that life is far more complicated than your easy answers would have you believe.  Through this gift, God meets you with the realization that you really don’t understand the human being sitting right next to you at home, at church, or in line for the voting booth.  And if you ever hope to understand that person, it’s going to take a long and difficult process of patient listening.

But if you can rise to the occasion, if you can receive God’s gift of diversity, and if you can accept God’s invitation to embrace real unity rather than simple uniformity among your fellow human beings, you’ll discover that being “scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” isn’t so bad after all as God leads you out from behind your walls of fear and into this amazing world and the fruitful life that God has always meant for you to have.

Textual Harassment

On By J. Barrett LeeIn Sermon4 Comments

This week’s sermon from First Presbyterian, Boonville.

The text is Genesis 9:18-28.

One of the scariest things about the Bible is how people can take one small part literally and out-of-context in order to make it say some pretty strange things.  We’re used to this in some ways.  Who hasn’t seen “John 3:16” posted on billboards or bumper stickers around town?  Thank goodness nobody (so far) has put Leviticus 26:29 on their bumper sticker: “You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters.”  Personally, that verse alone is enough to make me think twice before eating at any place that calls itself a “family restaurant”!

What would it be like if we took things that literally in our love poetry?

“Oh darling, your face reminds me of the morning sun!”

“Are you calling me a giant ball of gas?!”

It wouldn’t work!

And it doesn’t work with the Bible either.  The Bible is not a magic book filled with easy answers that can never be wrong.  Yet some Christians still seem to treat it as such.

I have a good friend who has struggled with clinical depression for over a decade.  Folks at church would tell her things like, “You should just remember what it says in Nehemiah 8:10: ‘the joy of the Lord is your strength.’”  These folks sincerely meant well, but their words did more harm than good.

My friend responded, “Ordering me around with Bible verses about joy will only make me feel more distant from God than I already do!”

Again, the Bible is not a magic book that’s full of easy and infallible answers.  It’s complicated and often confusing.  The divine Word comes to us in the midst of these human words.  You have to listen for it.  And sometimes, it can be very hard to hear.

Nowhere in the Bible is this truer than in the passage we read this morning from Genesis.  This is the real end of the Noah’s Ark story.  It’s the part they probably didn’t teach you about in Sunday school.  It’s pretty dark and disturbing, isn’t it?  There’s no divine intervention or moral to the story.  All we have is the image of Noah getting blackout drunk, Ham committing an unspeakable act of abuse against his father, and Noah then cursing his grandson Canaan for all time.  This story doesn’t lend itself to simplistic interpretation.

Many biblical scholars see this as a story that was made up in order to explain the origins of a certain international conflict.  In the ancient Middle East, there was an intense rivalry between Israelites and Canaanites.  They were competitors for the same piece of land (not unlike the modern-day conflict between Israelis and Palestinians).  Undoubtedly, young Hebrews would eventually come to the point of asking, “Why do we hate them so much, anyway?”  So the tribal elders produced this story as an answer to that question.  You may have noticed that Noah’s cursed grandson is named “Canaan”, just like the nation that was then in conflict with the Israelites.

Canaan was the son of Ham, who had other sons.  If you look at the list of their descendants in Genesis 10, you’ll see some other familiar names: Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, and the Philistines.  All of these (along with the Canaanites) were the ancient enemies of Israel.  And (according to the story) they all had Noah’s son Ham as their common ancestor.  The Israelites, on the other hand, claimed Noah’s other son, Shem, as their ancestor.  By the way, that’s where we get the words “Semitic” and “Anti-Semitic” in reference to Jewish people.  “Semitic” is derived from the name “Shem”.

So, for the purposes of this story, all of Israel’s national enemies are lumped into one convenient ethnic basket.  They can all be traced back to one person: Ham son of Noah.  You can see why the Israelite storytellers then had a vested interest in making this individual out to be as nasty and evil as possible.  So they have him commit this horrible act of violence against a member of his own family (who also happens to be a member of Israel’s family, according to the mythological genealogy in Genesis).

The text tells us that Ham “saw the nakedness of his father”.  This is more than just accidentally walking in on someone in the shower.  It’s a Hebrew euphemism that typically refers to some kind of shameful abuse.  Thankfully, the text spares us the gory details.

Ham, the ancestor of Israel’s enemies, is a perverted deviant while Shem, the ancestor of Israel, is the hero who tries to help his father.  As a result, Noah proclaims, “Cursed be Canaan [son of Ham]” and “Blessed by Yahweh my God be Shem”.  So, an ancient Hebrew reading this story would come away with the notion that “we are the good guys” and “they (our enemies) are the bad guys”.  The purpose of this story is to justify the hatred of one’s enemies.  It paints the ancestor of one’s rival as a monster who was less than human.  This hardly seems consistent with the ethic of love that Jesus taught!

What’s even more disturbing is the way this text was interpreted by Christians for several centuries.  You’re looking at the primary biblical text that was used to justify the institution of slavery until the 19th century.  Early commentators portrayed Ham as the ancestor of African people.  His African descendants, they said, bore the weight of Noah’s curse and were thus doomed to be the “lowest of slaves”.  Christians bought this line of twisted theology for hundreds of years.  Our African brothers and sisters suffered and died under the yoke of slavery because of it.  It wasn’t until the 19th century that Christians in the abolitionist movement came up with a new way to read and interpret the Bible.  Thankfully, many Christians in that day followed this new guiding light from the Holy Spirit.  In fact, some of them lived right here in our own community.  We know from historical records that the Underground Railroad ran right through our little village of Boonville as escaped slaves made their way toward freedom.

You may notice that, while I’ve said a lot about how this passage should not be interpreted, I haven’t said much about how this passage should be interpreted.  I’ll be honest: I’m not going to.  This is a difficult passage that defies easy answers.  If I were to make an attempt at interpreting this passage, it might go something like this:

This is a warning passage.  The hateful rhetoric in the book of Genesis eventually gave rise to brutal genocide of Canaanites in the book of Joshua.  In the same way, the Anti-Semitism of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s eventually gave rise to the Holocaust in the 1940s.  I might ask a question: What words are we using today that might become the basis for atrocities in the future?  But, like I said, I’m not going to give this particular Genesis passage a full treatment in this sermon.  Instead, I’m using it as a springboard to launch us into a discussion about how we understand and use the Bible itself.

If we treat the Bible like a magic book with easy and infallible answers, then we are bound to end up in some strange ideological territory.  This text alone has been used to justify everything from slavery to genocide.  The good news is that this is not the only way to read the Bible.  If we come to the text with open minds and hearts, we can trust that the Holy Spirit can and does still speak to us through these ancient words.  Even though the Bible was used to uphold the institution of slavery, let’s not forget that the abolitionists also drew their inspiration from the same Bible.  They just read it differently!

How can we be sure that we won’t end up reading the Bible in a way that oppresses and dehumanizes our fellow human beings?  What kinds of tools are out there to help us listen for the divine Word as it comes to us in midst of these human words?  There are several.

To name a few, I’m going to pull from a paper published by the Presbyterian Church back in in 1982.  It sets forth some general guidelines for understanding the authority and interpretation of the Bible.  These guidelines are printed on an insert in your bulletin.  I invite you to take it home with you and look it over in greater detail.  In the meantime, let’s read these guidelines out loud together as our Affirmation of Faith this morning:

BIBLICAL AUTHORITY AND INTERPRETATION

The United Presbyterian Church in the USA, 1982

Recognize that Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, is the center of Scripture.  The redemptive activity of God is central to the entire Scripture.  The Old Testament themes of the covenant and the messiah testify to this activity.  In the center of the New Testament is Jesus Christ: the Word made flesh, the fulfillment of Israel’s messianic hope, and the promise of the Kingdom.  It is to Christ that the church witnesses.  When interpreting Scripture, keeping Christ in the center aids in evaluating the significance of the problems and controversies that always persist in the vigorous, historical life of the church.

Let the focus be on the plain text of Scripture, to the grammatical and historical context, rather than to allegory or subjective fantasy.

Depend on the guidance of the Holy Spirit in interpreting and applying God’s message.

Be guided by the doctrinal consensus of the church, which is the rule of faith.

Let all interpretations be in accord with the rule of love, the two-fold commandment to love God and to love our neighbor.

Remember that the interpretation of the Bible requires earnest study in order to establish the best text and to interpret the influence and cultural context in which the divine message has come.

Seek to interpret a particular passage of the Bible in light of all the Bible.

Life in the Midst of Chaos: Underdogs, Roller Derby, and Noah’s Ark

On By J. Barrett LeeIn Sermon1 Comment

This morning’s sermon from First Presbyterian, Boonville.

The text is the story of Noah’s Ark, found in Genesis 6-9.

Has anyone here ever been to a roller derby bout?  It’s quite an experience.  Two teams on roller skates chase each other around an elliptical track.  Unlike most American sports, there’s no ball or puck involved.  Certain players, called ‘Jammers’, score points by passing other players without getting knocked down.  It’s a high-energy, full-contact sport with its own quirky sense of humor that makes for really fun viewing.  Explaining all the rules would take more time than I have for this sermon.  If you ever want to check it out for yourself, there’s a local organization that supports multiple teams from our area.  My wife and I are particularly fond of rooting for the Rome Wreckers and the Utica Clubbers whenever we get the chance.

We became roller derby fans a few years ago after seeing a movie called Whip It starring Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore.  Whip It is the story of a young girl named Bliss Cavendar who is somewhat lacking in the self-esteem department.  That changes once she discovers roller derby and joins her local team (which is somewhat lacking in the winning department).  Going by the nickname “Babe Ruthless”, Bliss finds out that she’s actually pretty good on roller skates.  I could keep going, but I don’t want to spoil the movie for those who might see it.  It’s worth a rental and it gives you a fun introduction to roller derby.

Whip It is a classic underdog story.  It’s all about finding confidence, embracing who you are, and following your dreams until they get you somewhere.  Who doesn’t love rooting for the underdog?  We do it in Star Wars and Harry Potter.  We do it in history class every time we read about the American Revolution.  We even do it in the Bible.

This morning, we read from the story of Noah’s Ark in Genesis, which is one of the most well-known (and strange) underdog stories in the entire Bible.  This story can be found in the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  Our Muslim neighbors regard Noah as one of their great prophets along with Muhammad, Adam, Moses, and Jesus.

Even people who haven’t been to church, synagogue, or mosque are somewhat familiar with the story.  God tells Noah to build an ark (a fancy word that really just means “box”) because a flood is coming that will engulf the whole earth.  Noah builds, the flood comes, lives are saved, the ark lands, and a rainbow appears.  That’s the story in brief.

Before I get into looking at Noah himself, there are a few things I should clear up about this story.  First of all, a lot of people have trouble believing in a God who would commit such large-scale genocide against so many people, plants, and animals.  Why should anyone worship that kind of deity?  If any human president did that, they would be tried for “crimes against humanity”!  Well, it might help you to know in this case that the almighty Yahweh would probably be acquitted based on the evidence at hand.  There is no scientific evidence that a great flood has covered the entire world in the last five thousand years.  Like our earlier stories from the Garden of Eden, it seems that the story of Noah’s Ark contains little (if any) historical fact.  So we can all rest easy.  The God we worship never actually killed the majority of the human race in a great flood.  We can let God off the hook for that one and focus instead on what’s happening in the story itself.  There is truth to be found here, even in the absence of scientific and historical fact.

 

It’s no accident that a flood is what overtakes human civilization in this story.  Do you remember way back in Genesis 1, which we read several weeks ago?  That story opened with the image of a dark and stormy ocean.  To the ancient Hebrews, the sea was a symbol of chaos.  To them it represented all the random and dangerous parts of the world that worked against God’s will in the world.  It’s the raw material of creation that God shapes into various useful environments and creatures.  So it’s highly symbolic that, when the hearts of humanity become filled with violence and evil, the sea (a symbol for chaos) overtakes the cultivated and “civilized” land.  The flood represented more than just a natural disaster; it was the undoing of creation itself.

That being said, let’s look at Noah himself.  He’s a guy with a pretty weird dream.  He’s building a boat in the middle of the desert.  He says that rain is coming but there isn’t a cloud in the sky.  Jewish and Muslim embellishments on this story spend a lot more time describing the kind of ridicule that Noah experienced because of his faith in God (and the ark project).  But Noah the underdog holds fast onto his dream and keeps building.  Unlike Noah’s neighbors, we (the readers) know why he’s acting so strange.  He’s building the ark because he’s heard God’s voice.  Noah is dreaming God’s dream.

We don’t know exactly how Noah heard God’s voice.  Maybe it came through a literal dream or vision.  Maybe it came down like a voice over a loudspeaker through a part in the clouds.  Maybe he just had a kind of “holy hunch” about what was about to happen.  The text doesn’t tell us exactly how he heard it.  All we really know is that Noah listened and acted.

Personally, I like to imagine the last option being the way that Noah heard God’s voice.  I like to imagine that he looked around at his society and saw the forces of chaos and violence threatening to overwhelm his fellow human beings.  Disturbed by what he sees, Noah acts on a hunch and works quickly to preserve life as best as he can, in spite of the abuse heaped upon him by his neighbors.

The amazing thing is that, not only does God inspire the dream, but God also provides for the completion of Noah’s dream.  In spite of all odds being stacked against him, Noah’s little lifeboat project survives a watery Armageddon and lands safely to begin a new world.

This seems to bear a lot of similarities to the ways in which people tend to hear “God’s voice” in our own society.  Brave people of faith step out, based on a “holy hunch”, often against impossible odds, and make a real difference in their world.  Knowingly or unknowingly, these prophets are the ones who are dreaming God’s dream.

Martin Luther King, Jr. caught onto this when he dreamed out loud “that one day my children will live in a world where they will be judged, not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”  People told him the end of segregation was impossible in the south, but forty years later, God is still seeing that dream through.

During the Great Depression in New York City, a man named Peter Maurin and a woman named Dorothy Day were greatly disturbed by the poverty they saw in the city around them.  Dorothy and Peter were especially troubled that most of the people on the unemployment line believed that the church had no good news for the poor.  As a result, Dorothy and Peter started publishing a newspaper called The Catholic Worker that aimed to teach people about the social teachings of Christianity.  In addition to publishing the paper, Dorothy opened up her own apartment to homeless people and fed hundreds of people every day from a soup and bread line.  Peter Maurin commented on their little project, “We are bring forth a new world from the ashes of the old.”

Isn’t that exactly what Noah was doing?  “Bringing forth a new world from the ashes of the old.”  Preserving life in the midst of rising chaos.  Peter and Dorothy were also dreaming God’s dream.  As the economy collapsed around them, they reached out with a creative vision for preserving life in the midst of chaos.  They built an “ark” in their own way.  Even though both of them are long gone, their newspaper is still being published today.  Poor people in New York City can still get soup and bread every day from their “house of hospitality”.  Similar houses, inspired by Peter and Dorothy’s example, have since opened up in big cities all over the world.

When you look around at our society today, where do you see the forces of violence and chaos wreaking havoc?  What injustice and inequality threatens the essence of life?  Do you have a “holy hunch” about some way to respond to this injustice?

We live in an age when media pundits of all ideological stripes shout their opinions louder and louder over each other.  Eventually, their angry words become part of the larger and louder chaotic chorus around them.  They all have something to say about what other people should be doing, but so few of them get up and do something themselves.  So, my question to you is: what do you sense God calling YOU to do?  What evidence of violence or chaos do you see?  What kind of wild idea or hunch do you have for somehow preserving life in the midst of that chaos?

Answer this question, and you’ll be dreaming God’s dream too.  Your holy hunch might sound like just another crazy underdog idea.  People might ridicule you for it, but if you make a leap of faith, I think you’ll find God working miracles to see this dream through to its fulfillment.

God loves a good underdog story.  Incidentally, so do I.  I’d love to hear your wild and crazy ideas about doing real ministry in our little church.  We might not be the biggest, richest, or most powerful act in town, but if we step out in faith while dreaming God’s dreams, I believe that we, like Noah, can expect to see some miraculous things happening that we never would have thought possible.

So, I leave you with these words from the classic rock band Aerosmith: “Dream on!”

CSI: Mesopotamia

On By J. Barrett LeeIn SermonLeave a comment

This morning’s sermon from First Presbyterian, Boonville.

The text is Genesis 4:1-16.

Click here if you’d rather listen to this sermon at fpcboonville.org!

Imagine with me, if you will, that you’ve got three kids.  (Maybe you really do have three kids, but if not, then just imagine with me.)  Two of your three hypothetical kids are doing just fine: they get good grades, make lots of friends, and generally enjoy life.  But then there’s your third.  This one comes home with cuts and bruises on a regular basis.  Nobody ever comes over to play with this kid.  Then you get a phone call from the teacher, letting you know that your child’s grades are slipping so badly that she might not be able to advance next year with the rest of the class.

What do you think a good parent should do in a situation like this?  What would you do?  Let’s look at some options.

First of all, you could cut your losses.  This kid had just as much opportunity to succeed as the other two.  If she can’t compete on a level playing field, it’s no one’s fault but her own.  You could take the time, energy, and resources that you would otherwise spend on that child and use them instead to improve the lives of the other two, who seem to be doing a better job of managing their own affairs.  Besides, raising kids is labor-intensive!  When you look at the situation statistically, two out of three ain’t bad!  So that’s one option.

The next option is to look at the playing field itself.  You can carefully divvy up your parenting effort between the three kids.  Make sure that each one has an equal share of your time and energy.  Why not create a schedule?  How about a menu of parental services offered?  This way, you can be sure that everything gets done in a way that is totally fair.  Everybody gets something from you.  We’ll call it “Equal-Opportunity Parenting”.  That’s another option.

There is a third option, but it’s completely ridiculous and totally unfair.  You could meet your kid with a hug at the door as she gets off the school bus.  You could bandage cuts and nurse bruises while you ask what happened at school.  You could give hugs while you get tears and snot all over your good work clothes.  You could take time out of your busy day for conferences with teachers and guidance counselors.  You could make phone calls to other parents.  You could help with homework, even if it means missing NCIS.  Like I said, this option is totally ridiculous.

Who in their right mind would sign up for something like that?  Who?  Wait, you would?  Seriously?

But what if it’s a waste of time?  It doesn’t make sense to waste that effort on someone who’s not going to be a neurosurgeon or movie star!

“It doesn’t matter when it’s your kid,” you say?  Well then, that certainly says something about you all as parents!  You would go out on a limb for this kid, just because she is your own.  While you love all your children, you would give this one special attention simply because she needs it more at the moment.  Her potential productivity does matter to you, does it?  She’s precious to you, just for being alive!

Well, did you know that God loves God’s kids in the same way?  God loves us all, but some of us need God more than others.  God has a special place in God’s heart for those who are poor, oppressed, or discriminated against in this world.  God cares most about those who matter least.

We can see this truth depicted beautifully (but also brutally) in today’s scripture reading from Genesis 4.

It’s the famous story of Cain and Abel.  We learn a lot about these two brothers by looking carefully at the first few verses of the text.  Cain is the firstborn son of Adam and Eve.  A lot of celebration surrounds the story of his birth.  Eve announces to the world, “I’ve gotten a man, with Yahweh’s help!”  She doesn’t even call him a “baby”, he’s her “man”.  Likewise, the name “Cain” comes from the Hebrew word for “gotten”.  Her statement about Yahweh helping comes almost as an afterthought.  In addition to being the firstborn, we also learn that Cain was a farmer, which was considered to be a more “civilized” and “powerful” profession in the ancient world.

Abel, on the other hand, doesn’t receive much attention at all.  He’s just “another baby”.  In the original text, Abel is referred to as “Cain’s brother” before we even learn his name!  The name “Abel” means “vapor” or “breath”.  It signifies something that is fleeting or meaningless.  We get the idea early on that Abel doesn’t seem to matter much as a person.  He’s kind of an underdog who probably grew up in the shadow of his big brother, Cain.  As an adult, we learn that he became a shepherd.  As wanderers, shepherds were treated like despised, working-class people in ancient Middle Eastern cultures.  They were considered to be “backward rednecks” who wandered from place to place with the sheep.  They depended on the kindness of farmers (like Cain) for the sustenance of their flocks.  Most of the time, people spread all kinds of nasty rumors about nomadic shepherds.

Cain was the star of this family while Abel was little more than an afterthought.  Cain got all the attention.  Cain won his parents’ favor.  Cain did well for himself, while Abel seemed to struggle in his brother’s shadow.

All of a sudden, it seems significant that Yahweh deliberately chose to favor Abel’s offering over Cain’s.  Many theologians have offered potential explanations of why it is that the God Yahweh showed such favoritism.  Some say that Abel’s offering was better of quality, being from the “choice cuts of meat”.  Others suggest that Cain was somehow morally inferior to Abel.  Personally, I like the idea that God was showing affirmation to Abel the underdog.

Reading the story this way helps to shed some light on Cain himself.  If he’s used to being the top dog, then it makes sense that he would be upset about having to take second place to such a “loser” as Abel.  It would have felt insulting to him, as God’s amazing grace often does to those who seem to “have their act together”.

Even so, Yahweh does not abandon Cain in this critical moment.  We can see God acting as Cain’s pastoral counselor, warning him about the impending danger of uncontrolled rage and telling him, in effect, “Cain, you’re better than that.”

Unfortunately, we know how the story goes.  Cain doesn’t listen.  We get to see this “favorite son” at his worst.  Even after the ghastly deed is done, Cain’s lingering bitterness shows through in his sarcasm: “How should I know [where my brother is]?  Am I his babysitter?”

Cain has been thoroughly (and permanently) knocked off his pedestal as the family hero.  How the mighty have fallen!  He loses his status as a “civilized farmer” and is forced to become a “homeless wanderer on Earth” (much like his brother Abel once was).  He settles in the land of Nod, which means “wandering” in Hebrew.  Eugene Peterson calls it “No-Man’s-Land”.  Through his murderous actions, Cain has become what he once despised.

But, even in “No-Man’s-Land”, Yahweh is not absent.  In fact, Cain’s newfound status as an exiled and struggling underdog puts him in an ideal position for a divine encounter.  In Cain’s moment of deepest helplessness and hopelessness, God intervenes with a word of grace.  It is here that Yahweh imposes the famous “Mark of Cain”.

We often associate Cain’s mark as a sign of shame or punishment, much like Nathaniel Hawthorne’s famous “Scarlet Letter”.  However, if we look at what’s actually happening in this story, God puts the mark on Cain “to protect him”.  It’s an act of loving care and grace!

For the first time in his life, Cain is in the uncomfortable position of having to rely on someone other than himself.  God graciously steps in to fill that void.  Cain has now become the troubled child and God will continue to reach out in tender compassion, even for this murderer.

God cares most about those who matter least.

That’s what this passage is all about.  It doesn’t matter that Cain shows promise and Abel doesn’t.  It doesn’t matter that Abel deserves it and Cain doesn’t.  God is Love and Love loves because that’s just who God is.  It has nothing to do with the worthiness of the object.

The same is true for each one of you in relation to God.  You are loved no matter who you are or what you’ve done.  You can’t earn God’s love.  You can’t stop it.  You can’t sin it away.  It just is.

Maybe, like Abel, you’ve been an underdog all your life.  Maybe, like Cain, your own bad decisions have earned you a place in “No-Man’s-Land”.  Either way, God is with you.  God loves you.  Nothing can change that.  Ever.

My Most Embarrassing Moment… Ever

On By J. Barrett LeeIn SermonLeave a comment

This week’s sermon from First Presbyterian, Boonville.

The text is Genesis 3.

If you have ten minutes, I highly recommend listening rather than reading, since the story is much funnier when heard.

Click here to listen to the sermon recording.

As I was preparing this week’s sermon, I called my mother in North Carolina to see if she could help me.

“Mom,” I said, “I’m looking for a story about my teenage years for this week’s sermon.  I’m looking for some amusing incident when I made a bad decision and had to face the consequences.”

Well, let me tell you something: I learned a valuable lesson from this exercise.  I learned that parents have a supernatural ability to reach into the deep, dark shadows of the past and pull out your single most embarrassing moment.  Furthermore, I learned that if you ask them to exercise this ability, they will.

Let’s just say that, in the future, I’m going to think twice before I ask for my mother’s input on a sermon!

However, I can’t complain too much because I got exactly what I asked for: a somewhat amusing story about a time when I made a bad decision.  Over the phone, my mother laughed as hard as I’ve heard her laugh in a long time.  So, without further ado, I give you my most embarrassing moment:

I almost got arrested once.  It happened late one night in the years after I had finished high school.  I met some pals at “an establishment of merriment” and got caught up on our high school days.  After they left, I went to go settle my tab and discovered that I was a little short on cash.

My next move was to find an ATM inside a nearby mall.  The door was locked.  What next?  Well, there was this outdoor fountain beside the mall entrance.  You know, the kind of fountain that people toss their spare change into for good luck.  I was only a little short on my bill.  I could probably get what I needed from there.  So I rolled up my sleeves and you can guess what I tried next.

Thanks to the magic of closed-circuit surveillance television, Mall Security was on me in a flash.  They escorted me into their office, let me off easy, and banished me from the mall for a year.  I wish I could say that I learned some kind of redemptive and philosophical lesson from this encounter.  I can’t say that.  But I can tell you I learned that the money in those fountains goes to local charities and is taken quite seriously by Mall Security!

It was a growing-up moment and a stupid decision on my part.  Like I said, there’s not really any redeeming quality to this story.  It simply stands out as moment in my life when I was not at my best.

So it is with this morning’s story from Genesis 3.  There’s no moral to this story.  There’s no last-minute rescue or redemption.

Over the millennia, theologians of all stripes have tried to impose additional layers of meaning onto this text.  In the Christian tradition, many have read this story as an historical account of how “original sin” came into the world.  The talking serpent is understood to be Satan himself, tempting humanity to sin.  Paying special attention to Eve’s role in these events and the curse imposed upon her by God in the end, many have also used this story to justify the subjugation and mistreatment of women in the western world.

However, the text does not lend itself so easily to such black and white interpretation.  The serpent is never explicitly named as “Satan” in this passage.  Likewise, there is no mention of “original sin” whatsoever.

This story is often referred to as the story of “the Fall”, but I don’t see it as such.  For me, this is not a story about humankind “falling down”.  Instead, I see it as a story about humankind “growing up”.

In my understanding, humanity was not created perfect, but innocent.  The human race was in its infancy in the Garden of Eden.  Everything was provided for them as a free gift from God.  This is not at all unlike what human beings do with their own children.  They are born into our lives and we provide for them in any way that we can.  Parents feed, clothe, shelter, and love their kids.  It’s the natural thing to do.

However, there comes a time when kids grow up.  They start taking for themselves the things that we used to give them.  It starts in the terrible twos and continues through the teenage years.  As they grow older, they take on more and more knowledge.  With that knowledge comes increased responsibility.  It can be a very difficult process.  But eventually, most teenagers break through into adult life and (hopefully) a more mature relationship with their parents.

This is exactly what happened with Adam and Eve in this story.  They begin as children.  They were placed in a lovely garden where everything was given to them.  Then, they begin to exercise their free will.  They tested the boundaries set for them.  They took upon themselves the “knowledge of good and evil” and become responsible for it.  They had to leave their happy home.  That which was previously given to them had to be worked for.  This is the way of the world.  It’s the way life goes.

It’s the same journey that all of us must undertake at some point.

It begins with a decision that cannot be undone.  We must face reality and go out into the world.  The end results are mixed.  Sometimes we learn from their mistakes and sometimes we don’t.  Sometimes we use our power responsibly and sometimes we don’t.

I don’t believe this particular story is historical at all.  To quote the author Rob Bell, I see this as a story that “happens”, not one that “happened”.  It’s a very human story that expresses truth but not fact.  There is no airtight theological system at work here, nor is there a redemptive resolution at the end.  Adam and Eve walk off into an uncertain future that will be of their own making.  What it becomes is up to them.

However, I do see a glimmer of hope:

God is present.  At no point in this difficult “growing up” process does God ever reject Adam and Eve as children.  They must be made to face reality, but they will not do so alone.  God provides them with new clothes on their way out the door and, as we know from the rest of the book of Genesis, God never gives up on them or their family.

God keeps on showing up unexpectedly in the darkest of situations.  God is constantly working to guide, provide, and console.  I used to tell folks in my street ministry, “I like the book of Genesis.  It’s one of the few books I can read and find people more dysfunctional than I am.  And God never gives up on them!”  God doesn’t give up on Adam and Eve either.

Don’t parents do this with their grown-up kids as well?  They never give up.  They never stop hoping.  They never stop loving.  In the best of circumstances, a new relationship begins to develop.  This relationship is more mature and more mutual than the one-sided provider role that falls to the parents of little kids.

I believe this is God’s hope for us.  As we learn to use our power, God’s hope is that we will someday return home as adult believers who have become mature in our faith.  We can explore new and undreamed of territory that was completely foreign to us before.  We come back to God with a gift to offer and not just a need to fill.  This kind of relationship is more mutual and fulfilling for parties on both sides.  Having known the fruit of labor and redemption, we appreciate what we have so much more.

That is the kind of relationship that God wants with each one of us.  Are we prepared to accept that offer?

You Are Accepted

On By J. Barrett LeeIn Uncategorized2 Comments

This is my favorite passage from theologian Paul Tillich.  It is taken from a sermon in his book The Shaking of the Foundations.

This is one of those precious few texts I repeatedly return to when I need to remind myself of what it means to be a “Christian”.

Do we know what it means to be struck by grace? It does not mean that we suddenly believe that God exists, or that Jesus is the Saviour, or that the Bible contains the truth. To believe that something is, is almost contrary to the meaning of grace. Furthermore, grace does not mean simply that we are making progress in our moral self-control, in our fight against special faults, and in our relationships to men and to society. Moral progress may be a fruit of grace; but it is not grace itself, and it can even prevent us from receiving grace. For there is too often a graceless acceptance of Christian doctrines and a graceless battle against the structures of evil in our personalities. Such a graceless relation to God may lead us by necessity either to arrogance or to despair. It would be better to refuse God and the Christ and the Bible than to accept them without grace. For if we accept without grace, we do so in the state of separation, and can only succeed in deepening the separation. We cannot transform our lives, unless we allow them to be transformed by that stroke of grace. It happens; or it does not happen. And certainly it does not happen if we try to force it upon ourselves, just as it shall not happen so long as we think, in our self-complacency, that we have no need of it. Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life. It strikes us when we feel that our separation is deeper than usual, because we have violated another life, a life which we loved, or from which we were estranged. It strikes us when our disgust for our own being, our indifference, our weakness, our hostility, and our lack of direction and composure have become intolerable to us. It strikes us when, year after year, the longed-for perfection of life does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage. Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: “You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!” If that happens to us, we experience grace. After such an experience we may not be better than before, and we may not believe more than before. But everything is transformed. In that moment, grace conquers sin, and reconciliation bridges the gulf of estrangement. And nothing is demanded of this experience, no religious or moral or intellectual presupposition, nothing but acceptance.

Farting My Way Toward Hope

On By J. Barrett LeeIn Uncategorized1 Comment

I was having a conversation with someone after worship last night.  This friend is a longtime worker for peace and justice in this country.  We were celebrating the passage of marriage equality in New York state and simultaneously mourning our governor’s immediate turnaround to lift the ban on hydrofracking.

I’m enough of a Calvinist that I believe there will always be something wrong with this world.  We’ll never get it totally right.  There will always be one more reason to march on the capitol, call your senator, write an editorial, or practice civil disobedience.  That’s what “total depravity” means to me.

On the other hand, I also believe that victory is inevitable for the cause of goodness and right.

Why do I believe this?

  • Not because I “have faith in people”.  I don’t.  Trying to make a left-hand turn without a stoplight onto Black River Boulevard during rush hour will destroy that for anyone.
  • Not because I trust the spineless Democrats or the heartless Republicans.  I don’t.
  • Not because I “believe in America”.  I don’t.  It’s a country like any other.  There are some wonderful things about it and some horrible things.  If you want to know what happens when people uncritically “believe in their country”, just look at the Third Reich.

I believe the final victory of goodness and right is inevitable because I believe in God.  With my Christian coreligionists (among others), I accept the biblical tenet that “God is love” (that’s 1 John 4:16, in case anybody wants to look it up).  This means that love is the “Ground of all Being”, to borrow a phrase from Paul Tillich.  Love sits at the center of the universe.  Love is the source of the Big Bang and all subsequent nebulae, quasars, galaxies, and planets.  The “invisible hand” of the cosmic economy is love (apologies to Adam Smith).

If this is true, then all that is not love is destined to dissipate into nothingness.  This goes for all ego-centricity, injustice, exploitation, prejudice, and death-dealing.  The Jewish prophet Isaiah sang his Dylanesque folk song: “They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the whole earth will be full of the knowledge of Yahweh (lit. “The One Who Is”) as the waters cover the sea.”

I shared this idea with my friend, who continues to struggle with this faith.  She lamented the fact that, for the moment, evil seems so present and powerful.  How do we know it won’t win or last forever?  In a flash of T.M.I. insight, I thought of a helpful (if gross) analogy:

Have you ever been in a closed room when somebody ripped a really really smelly fart?  It’s over-powering.  You can’t even think straight.  You feel like you’re going to die.  But what happens when you crack a window or step outside?  The smell goes away.  In the context of the larger scheme of things, the fart has less substance and less reality than the world around it.  So it is with the evil we see in this world.  If love exists at the center of the universe, then all that is not love is destined to disperse into nothingness once somebody opens a window.

We can even get biblical with this.  Here’s a line from Psalm 68.  When I read this, I interpret “enemies” and “wicked” to mean “evil itself” rather than individual human beings.  As it says in the New Testament, the struggle of faith is not against “enemies of blood and flesh” but against “spiritual forces of evil”.  Disclaimer aside, read on:

“O God, arise, and let your enemies be scattered; let those who hate you flee before you.  Let them vanish like smoke when the wind drives it away; as wax melts at the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.  But let the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; let them also be merry and joyful.”

How You Say It

On By J. Barrett LeeIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Greetings all!

This has been an amazing few months in my life.  In May, the Presbyterian Church (USA) amended their constitution to allow for the ordination of LGBT deacons, elders, and pastors.  Then, last week, New York became the sixth US state to legalize same-sex marriage.  My wife and I participated in demonstrations both inside and outside our state capitol building.

I also had the opportunity to speak on the local news about the upcoming vote in the senate.

Here is the link to that conversation.

On the Sunday after the vote passed, the same news station surprised us by showing up with cameras in hand at our morning worship service.

Click here to watch the video of the segment they did on our church.

The responses have been myriad and diverse.  Here are some words I would use to describe the responses:

Thankful
Condescending
Cruel
Honest
Self-righteous
Pedantic
Supportive
Confused
Curious
Reaching out
Loving
Combative
Arrogant
Hard-hearted
Compassionate
Hateful
Ignorant

Look carefully at this list.  It would be a mistake to assume that all the “positive” adjectives refer to those who agree with me and all the “negative” adjectives apply to those who think differently.  As a matter of fact, the list is mixed for a reason.  I could use several of these words to describe people on both sides of “this issue” (although I am loathe to call it that).

What speaks the most about us in times like these is how we respond, and not just the content of our response.  I have felt such compassionate support from those who passionately disagree with me.  I have also cringed at the hard-hearted self-righteousness of those who hold views similar to my own.

I will continue to hold onto the views I express in these articles because I believe them to be good and true.  I honestly believe that I am following (however imperfectly) the lead of the Holy Spirit and the message of the Bible as I take the course I have chosen.  I know that not all of you will agree with me.  I won’t ask you to change your mind unless you want to.  I will not enter into a Bible-quoting argument with you unless you truly want to understand how someone can read the Bible differently than you do.

I encourage you all, wherever you stand, to look at the character of your response to others.  Is it in keeping with the Spirit of Christ?  In your words and deeds, are you loving your neighbor as yourself?

What you say does not say so much as how you say it.