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News & Happenings
September 5 Sunday Worship at 10am
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Pastor Eric Fjeldal's July 2010 Sunday Sermons
Pastor Eric's sermons are presented here in reverse chronological order...in other words, the most recent sermons are at the top of the list, working backwards through time.
July 11th: "Who Isn't Your Neighbor"
Luke 10: 25-37
We are all familiar with the phrase "a good Samaritan." We use it all the time to describe someone or some act of kindness. We use it as a way of identifying someone who does a good deed. I wonder though, does our familiarity with the term minimize the story’s impact? I believe it does because I believe Jesus is telling us a story that says more than; "be helpful when you come across someone in trouble." He is saying more than "feel guilty when you ignore a homeless person, a day laborer, a neighbor whom you really don't know."
James Wallace writes:
I do not want to exclude offering help to those depending on the kindness of strangers, but this parable goes beyond that. It not only lays down a big challenge but makes an even bigger offering of gospel or good news. This is a story for people who recognize that they are on a journey – not just a journey from womb to tomb, but from birth to rebirth, from partial life to abundant life. The gospel proclaims what God pours into the hearts of all those who journey in this dangerous world. (Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol.3, pg.239)
What God pours into our hearts is mercy; mercy born of compassion.
We know the story. The question is asked by a scheming lawyer or as Douglas John Hall interprets "a scholar of the scriptures". Jesus answers him with a question; "What do the scriptures say?" The scholar answers, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." Jesus then responds you have given the right answer; do this, and you will live." The scholar not satisfied and wishing to justify himself asks another question. “And who is my neighbor?" The response is not what the man was hoping. Jesus tells him a story that reminds him his neighbor is one he truly hates, a Samaritan. In fact, so great is the Jewish hatred of Samaritans, the man cannot even say the word, "Samaritan". Instead he defines the act, "the one who shows mercy." Jesus replies "Go and do likewise."
The message is clear; the law is not gospel, the gospel is law. To a world that wants to believe faithfulness is defined by "being holy as God is holy", the response is "be compassionate as God is compassionate." Compassion has to do with more than just doing nice, or good, or right things. Compassion is the ability to feel the feelings of another at a level lower than one’s head, "in the womb," "in the bowels", and then to act accordingly. It is to feel the suffering of others. ( Marcus Borg, Heart of Christianity, pg. 153)
On our own, left to our own abilities we are not capable of such compassion. Try as we may, we can never be that loving and caring. To paraphrase Fredrick Buechner, we are capable of human love which is the love for equals. We are capable of love for the less fortunate; love for those who suffer, are poor, sick, a failure or unlovely. This kind of love is a beautiful thing. Rarer are those who are able to love the more fortunate. Saintly love, that is to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich always bewilders the world. Then there is the love for the enemy, love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens and inflicts pain. The tortured’s love for the torture. This, Buechner reminds us, is God's love. It conquers the world. (Buechner, Listening To Your Life, pg. 302-303)
In other words, without calling upon God we cannot be truly compassionate. We cannot exhibit true mercy. This is so because to be moved from the condition of "natural" self-preservation to one of profound concern for others, the whole gospel -- with the cross at the center -- is required. (Hall pg. 240)
"God so loved the world…" It begins there.
And even when we respond with true compassion and mercy it is only our response to the kindness of the One who made us and who tries to keep us human. (Hall pg.242)
I say this because there is something about us that always wants to define who our neighbor is. The parable of The Good Samaritan tells us we are not to make the distinction. We do not get to decide, not if we desire to truly be faithful.
This is why one of our growing edges is the challenge to be inclusive. We all have a list of those we seek to exclude. The reasons for these lists may vary, national pride, attitudes and beliefs regarding politics, religion, ethnicity, sexuality, personal hurt or disappointment, but still we all have our list. Because we do, like the scholar in this morning's story, if we take this parable to heart on some levels we can't help but find it offensive. (Matthew Skinner, Feasting On the Word, pg.243) This parable challenges our beliefs, perceptions, biases and prejudices.
Being compassionate is not easy, nor is it automatic. It is impossible to be compassionate if we are not grounded in faith. As Douglas Hall reminds us; "The unfortunate one in the ditch represents as much of a nuisance to the Samaritan as the two passer-bys. Every truly moral act presupposes an astonishing store of meditation-upon experience that is "theological", whether it is called that or not. (Feasting On the Word, pg. 238) This truth affirms our need to stay connected to God, our faith and our community; not so we can reinforce what we know, but so we can grow and expand our understanding of what it means to be in community with one another and the world. What hopefully follows is a greatly expanded definition of neighbor and a greater appreciation of what it means to truly be compassionate as God is compassionate.
This is a much needed message in our world today, for it is precisely kindness or mercy that is so conspicuously absent from the life of our world -- a world driven by competition, greed and individualism, but also (let us note) a world whose most ethically minded often seem apt to be more concerned for rights than for forgiveness, for justice than for mercy, for equality than for compassion. (Hall, pg.240)
Because this message is not the world's message, as people of faith we need to do more than just hear it. We need to strive to live it and share it; for while helping people who are in trouble may be the first step, it is not the healing, merciful step.
The call to compassion is one that takes us out of our comfort zone. It is a call that moves us from asking others, "who is my neighbor?" to asking ourselves, "Why don't I think of him or her as my neighbor; and what do I need to do so that I am better able to do just that?" Once we start asking that question it is then that we have a sense of what it means to open ourselves to the transforming power of God. It is then that we begin to understand the depth of God's mercy and compassion for us and for this world. It is then that we have a sense of what it means "to go and do likewise." Amen.
July 25th:"It's All You Need to Know"
Luke 11: 1-4
Last September the Wednesday night Study Group read The Lord's Prayer for Today. Together we discovered that this prayer does not say what most think it says. As Fredrick Buechner wrote, "We do well to not pray this prayer lightly". The reality is too often we do pray this prayer lightly and in so doing, lose sight of its depth and meaning.
The Lord's Prayer is probably the best known prayer. People turn to it all the time. Sadly too often we really don't hear what we are praying. Maybe we don't want to hear what this prayer says because it says more than we think it does. The truth is the Lord's Prayer is challenging and provocative.
I once had a Sunday school class of middle school youth rewrite the Lord's Prayer. They wrote this:
Our Father in heaven holy is your name.
You will reward us when we follow you here and in heaven.
Forgive us our wrong doings and we will forgive others.
Help us to resist temptation and save us from evil.
You are our reward, our power and our glory forever and ever. Amen.
I believe while being well intended these youth distorted the prayer's meaning. They focused the prayer on themselves instead of God, neighbor and the world. We could be tempted to excuse this as an act of middle school youth who given their age and development tends to be on them. I do not believe that thinking this way is accurate. I suspect it is more a statement about the culture in which they and we live, which means their perspective was not much different than most people; for we tend to focus on ourselves.
The Lord's Prayer speaks to our souls, our total being, the totality of who we are. It speaks to our hungers, thirsts, grief, loves and hopes. It also affirms our limitations and our longing for something more, something deeper. It does this through its corporate petitions. The language of this prayer is first person plural which tells us this prayer is about more than the individual praying it. This is why it is important to pray this prayer as part of a faith community.
The Lord's Prayer tells us that we can never fill our own needs. It affirms that we need to look beyond ourselves to God's grace, love and mercy. It affirms our responsibility to offer this love, grace and mercy to the world. As Matthew Skinner writes; "God's forgiveness of us serves as a stimulus for us to recognize our need to forgive those indebted to us" again and again. (Feasting On the Word, pg. 287).
The Lord's Prayer is all we need to know about faith and our relationship with God. It affirms our dependency and need for God. The phrase "give us this day our daily bread" reminds us that we are dependent on and called to rely on God for what we need. Matthew Skinner reminds us that this phrase can also be translated, "give us this day our necessary bread." This understanding leads to our asking, "Given all we have, all that consumes our lives, what is it really necessary?" Taken seriously this is a struggle which can lead to our questioning the way we live; a struggle that most do not want to enter.
When we say, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" we are affirming the importance of our commitment to what God desires. What does God desire? As the prophets remind us, God desires justice; which is different than charity. Bill Moyers explains the difference.
Charity is commendable; everyone should be charitable. But justice aims to create a
social order in which if individuals choose not to be charitable,
people will not go hungry, unschooled or sick without care.
Charity depends on the vicissitudes of whim and personal wealth;
justice depends on commitment instead of circumstance.
Faith-based charity provides crumbs from the table; faith-based justice offers a place at the table.
If taken seriously, the Lord's Prayer leads to true salvation; that is peace and healing for all of who we are, for the whole community and the whole of creation. Whether we recognize it or not, this is something we need. As William Carl III writes in The Lord's Prayer for Today:
In the 21st century the Lord's Prayer, especially its second set of petitions, reminds us
in a truly incarnational way of our responsibility for the world,
the environment and those who are helpless.
When spoken from the depths of our need for solidarity with the poor of the earth
whose voices have long been silent,
the Lord's Prayer proves to be a profoundly liberating prayer.
Called to prayer, we are summoned not to passivity but to activity;
not to indifference about evil in and around us,
but to passion for justice, freedom and peace in the whole creation.
Again the use of the first person plural reinforces that we pray not just for ourselves and those we love. We pray for all.
The early Church added these words, "For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen." The belief is these words were added as an affirmation of God. Amen means "I agree", "so be it." These words also help us remember the order of things. They serve as a reminder that our relationship with God is not an equal relationship. God is God and we are the people. We are called to partner with God, but we do not being about the kingdom of God. God does and has done that. The kingdom is present, but all too often we don't recognize it. The Prayer of Affirmation that we use often as a Response of the People affirms this.
May we continue to trust in your promise of a time when swords will
be beaten into plowshares, when you will wipe away every tear from
your children's eyes, when pain and death will be no more.
May we give our lives in service to that vision,
living with and for others as if the promise were already fulfilled.
"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." This is our hope and our fear, isn’t it? God's will be done on earth is exactly what our world needs. As William Carl III wrote in The Lord's Prayer for Today;
With postmodern, post-Christendom secularism on the one hand
and radical fundamentalism and runaway global evangelism
that sometimes ignores social justice on the other,
the Jesus prayer patterns for us a way to avoid
both narrow sectarianism and patriotic triumphalism.
It lifts us beyond a saccharine "me and Jesus" religion
that threatens to turn us in on ourselves in narcissistic naval gazing.
It saves us from ourselves if we truly listen to it and heed its advice.
As challenging as it is, we need this prayer; for the words of comfort and promise it offers, and also for the prophetic word that guides and challenges us as we seek to be faithful to a God who heals, sustains and renews all. This prayer calls us out of ourselves, back into God's world, which is exactly what we need. If you agree, I invite you to join me in saying, "Amen. So be it, I agree."
Let the people say, "Amen."
July 18th: "It's Not Either -- Or"
Luke 10: 38-44
We have all heard the story of Mary and Martha so often that we think we know its meaning; but just like last week's story of the Good Samaritan, we run the risk that accompanies familiarity. We run the risk of missing the point; of minimizing the meaning. We run this risk in part because we can all relate to Mary and Martha. We know people just like them. We are just like them. To varying degrees we are all a little Mary and a little Martha, and much of the time it is good we are.
We can also relate to Jesus' loving response, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things." Again, we run the risk of misinterpreting the meaning in these words. The story is not about choosing the contemplative life over the active life; for as James Wallace writes.
Jesus is not going after Busy Martha, but Worried and Distracted Martha.
He is speaking to his dear friend Martha, who has worked herself into a state
of anxious distraction over the meal she wanted to have for him. She has
focused her frustration not only on her sister but now also her friend and guest,
and lost sight of the one she significantly calls "Lord". Jesus is gently calling
her to refocus. Hospitality is not primarily about food; more important is the
focus. (James Wallace, Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol. 3 pg. 265)
I suspect we all need to hear these words because we, like Martha, have at some time lost our focus.
We have become distracted, worrying about unimportant things. In the process we forget what is important; what truly matters. As people of faith what matters is our connection to God and what we do and fail to do to enrich this connection.
When someone is coming to dinner that table needs to be set. By this I mean there are times when:
we need to stop talking about it and do something.
we need to act even if we are unsure of the outcome.
practical day to day things need to be done even if they are not fun or glamorous.
There are Mary's then and today that don't ever seem to get this.
There are also times when focusing on table setting can be a cop-out. By this I mean there are times when we need to:
sit at someone's feet and listen.
put people before tasks.
put being present with someone before doing for them.
There are Martha's then and today that don't ever seem to get this.
Martha's lament to Jesus reminds us how easy it is to become distracted. Three times in her lament, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me." Martha makes it about her and not her guest or her desire to be in service. In her anxiety, Martha seeks to have Jesus meet her needs despite her initial desire to serve him.
Sound familiar? Can you relate?
There is so much mania and drama that hooks us, and so much of what worries us is really quite trivial. We are all guilty of making much to do about nothing. We all have people in our lives that encourage us to make much to do about nothing. This is not surprising given the world in which we live. It is not surprising given the worldview we are encouraged to embrace; on that is more focused on me and mine than it is on God.
The Martha's of our world are not the only ones guilty of such behavior. The message is not that Mary was right and Martha was wrong. It is not either -- or. The message is we get ourselves in trouble when we let things come between God and us.
When our focus is on God and our relationship with God:
we are more likely to remember what is important.
we are less likely to be worried about and distracted by trivia.
we are less likely to keep score, that is worry about who is doing it right.
we are less likely to focus on how someone else is or is not behaving.
There is a reason the writer of Luke/Acts has today's story following the story of the Good Samaritan. In the Good Samaritan the lawyer asked what he needed to do inherit eternal life. Jesus' answer was, love God and love your neighbor. The story of the Good Samaritan shows us how to love our neighbor. Today's story shows us to love God.
In today's story we hear Jesus telling Martha that Mary has chosen "the better part." This phrase, while troubling, reminds us that whether we are loving God or our neighbor, there can only be one object of our devotion. Matthew Skinner writes:
"To be genuine, acts of discipleship whether contemplative, active or anything else,
need to maintain such focus. Martha's problem is that her service strays from
attending to its rightful object of devotion; God in Christ.
(Matthew Skinner, Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol. 3 pg. 267)
As we strive to be more faithful it is helpful to know whether we are more Mary or Martha. More importantly, whichever we are more of, it is crucial to remember who or what needs to be the object of our devotion. We need to know why we do what we do. Is it to serve God or glorify ourselves?
The message is clear whether we are more Mary or Martha our focus and devotion needs to be on God;
"for God and God alone is the One who can bring both peace and energy to all our undertakings."
(James Wallace, Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol. 3, pg. 267)
Once we remember this, everything else has a way of falling into place. Amen.
July 4th: "To Sing It or Live It?"
Luke 10: 1-11
Pan you imagine being one of the 70; one that Jesus sent to proclaim the message; to prepare the way; to announce God's coming kingdom. Can you imagine having to proclaim that there is no time like now, to know and live God"s peace?
Wait a minute. Isn’t that who we are? Isn't that what we are called to do; how we are called to live? It is one thing to sing "I Love to tell the Story", it is another to live the story. To model it by the way we live. We do this not by seeking to be perfect. We do it by striving to be faithful; remembering that faithfulness makes us vulnerable.
It is interesting and challenging that the 70 are told to take nothing for their journey. They are called to leave it all behind. I am among those who hear this call metaphorically, however there is something to be said about our need for stuff. Stuff is a big part of our lives, both in terms of all we have and also all we take with us when we go on a journey. Most of us tend to over pack. Just look at those traveling for vacation. Their cars and vans are stuffed to the max. And what we don't readily see. All of our tech stuff; cell phones, I pods, I phones, blackberries, lap top computers. I also want us to think about all of the emotional baggage we carry around; the stuff that makes it difficult for us to not make it about us. Sometimes this manifests itself in material things; most times it is found in our attitudes, beliefs and assumptions. All of this causes distractions and confuses our mission.
What is our mission? Our mission is simply to be faithful to God by living our faith. Showing others that faith in God and Christ does make a difference in the way we live; in terms of what we value and how we respond in situations. People of faith are called to see the world differently. We can't do this when we make ourselves the focus. We need to move out of the way enough to allow others and us to discover the ways God's presence makes a difference. We do this by striving to put God in Christ at the center of our lives, remembering we are not the message, we are the messenger.
To paraphrase Richard Shaffer:
The burden of persuasion is not on us, for we are not the focus.
Our authority is not in our status, possessions or abilities.
As present-day messengers, we have been appointed by Christ to share
the good news of the coming (& present) kingdom.
We rejoice, not in the power of our accomplishments…
Like the early messengers our work is to offer peace and share the good news that the kingdom of God is near. Our focus is to be on the gifts that come from God,
not on the personalities of the messengers who bring them.
(Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol. 3, pg. 216)
To do this means we must set aside our stuff and be hospitable. Commenting to today's scripture passage, Elaine Heath writes.
The role of hospitality in the mission cannot be overstated.
The hospitality of the 70 is shown in their mission of peace, in which they eschew all forms of exploitation, self-centeredness and personal gain.
Their single purpose is to prepare others to encounter Jesus.
This is done peacefully, through grateful presence and conversation.
The apostles must be relational and respectful in order to be invited into others’ homes, where they might share the gospel of the kingdom of God.
Theirs is a vulnerable position, for they cannot force receptivity or hospitality on the part of others. (Feasting on the Word, Year C Vol. 3, pg. 218)
Truly being hospitable is difficult. Our culture does not readily encourage it. The German definition is "friendship for the guest." The Dutch definition is "freedom of the guest." Both remind us it is not about us, but the other.
Henri Nouwen describes it this way:
Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space
where the stranger or person we seek to help can enter and become a friend
instead of an enemy.
Hospitality is not to change people,
but to offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines.
It is not to lead our neighbor into a corner where there are no alternatives left,
but to open a wide spectrum of options for choice & commitment.
It is not a method of making our God and our way into the criteria of happiness,
but the opening of an opportunity for others to find their God & their way.
Hospitality is not a subtle invitation to adopt the lifestyle of the host,
but the gift of a chance for the guest to find his or her own way.
(Dance of Life, pg. 79-80)
In a world that focuses on results and accomplishments the mission of the 70, our mission, is a difficult mission to carry out; and yet this is what we are called to do. Those who do it know the benefits that come with being faithful. They know that faithfulness is it own reward, for faithfulness is the only way to truly know the healing, hope, love, grace and mercy God offers. For this healing hope, love, grace and mercy are what make it possible for us to go from singing "I Love to Tell the Story" to living the story; even though doing so makes us vulnerable. Amen.
