Category: Christian Discipleship

Messengers of Joy

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Values

[Note:  This is the 3rd in a series of Advent Dramas for lighting the candles of Advent at Jerome United Methodist  Church this Advent.]

Interviewer:    Good morning, church, and welcome to the 3rd Sunday of Advent.  Our Advent journey is moving closer to Bethlehem.  The spirit of Christmas is in the air, and today our Advent guest is one of the messengers of God’s joy to the world.

[Angel enters to some kind of musical fanfare (“Angels We Have Heard on High”).  Angel is  dressed in contemporary clothes and looks like any typical member of the congregation.]

[Interviewer looks around for someone else, looking very confused and surprised]

Angel:    Peace and joy to you my friend.  You look surprised to see me.  [She checks a date book or map]  This is Jerome UMC isn’t it?  That’s where I’m supposed to be today.

Interviewer:     Yes, it is, but … I was expecting an angel……  And, well, I’m sorry, but you don’t look like an angel.

Angel:    I get that a lot.  We try to fit in, you know, so people don’t freak out.  It makes it a lot easier to get our message heard if people aren’t in shock.

Interviewer:    That makes sense.  I hadn’t thought about it that way.  So, tell us about the message the angels delivered that first Christmas.  Angels show up quiet often in that story.

Angel:    We really do, don’t we!   First Gabriel appeared to Zechariah in the temple to tell him that his prayers for a son had been heard and would be answered.  And then Gabe was back again 6 months later to tell Mary that God was with her in a very special way.  And that dear girl responded with such amazing faith and became the mother of God’s Messiah.

Interviewer:    It must be wonderful to bring such messages of joy to people.

Angel:    Oh, it’s incredible fun, but there’s more.  Angels spoke to Joseph several times in his dreams.  We really carried him through that whole process.

Interviewer:    So do angels always work so quietly, behind the scenes?

Angel:    Oh, Heavens No!  At Bethlehem we all turned out in full force to deliver our biggest message of all.  We told the shepherds where to find the newborn king and broadcast good news to the entire world.

Interviewer:    Wow.  So as we anticipate that marvelous event in just two weeks, would you help me light the candle of  joy?

Angel:    I would love to.

Interviewer:    Joy to the World, the Savior Reigns!

[They light the candle together and exit the stage as congregation sings “Angels We Have Heard on High” or “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing”]

Advent Drama: Mary’s journey from fear to faith

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Values

Note: This is the second of a series of brief dramas for lighting the candles of Advent written for Jerome UMC.

Interviewer:     On this second Sunday of Advent we continue our journey toward Christmas.  Last Sunday we heard about Zechariah’s transition from doubt to hope, and we lit the first Advent candle representing Hope.  [he/she lights the candle]

Today we turn our attention to Faith, and our guest from biblical times is a woman of tremendous Faith, Mary the mother of Jesus.

[Mary enters in biblical costume]

Interviewer:     Welcome Mary.  Please share with us how you felt when you first learned you were to be the mother of God’s Son.

Mary:   I was totally shocked when an angel showed up out of nowhere and told me I was to be the mother of the Messiah!  Me!  A poor young woman engaged to a carpenter.  Why would God choose us to raise his son?  I was scared to death!

Interviewer:     So you and Joseph were engaged but not married yet?

Mary:   That’s right, and you can’t imagine what my family and the townspeople would say about that.  And what could I tell Joseph?  He’d never believe God was the father of my baby!  Nobody would.   Joseph would assume I had been unfaithful to him.  That was considered adultery, and the punishment for that was death by stoning!  I was really scared!

Interviewer:     I can’t imagine how terrified you must have been.  How did you ever handle it?

Mary:   It was really strange.  The angel told me that God was with me.  He said, “Nothing is impossible with God,” and being a devout Jewish girl, I knew this was true.  My faith came over me and calmed my fear.  I suddenly just knew that I could trust God completely.  And from a place deep inside me I said, “I am the Lord’s servant.  May it be to me as you have said.”

Interviewer:     All of us are called to be such faithful servants who know that with God all things are possible.  [Mary lights candle as Interviewer speaks]  As we light the second Candle of Advent may it light the way on our journey from fear to faith.

Comfort, Isaiah 40:1-11

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Values

I looked at my calendar about 14 days ago with a start.  I should have known – there was plenty of evidence–frost on the pumpkin, darkness at 5 pm, another notch on my senior citizen belt with an October birthday, the wonderful sound of silence when the political ads stopped, and the smart alek neighbors who got their Christmas decorations up during Indian summer.  The evidence was way beyond a reasonable doubt that we are well into fall – stewardship campaigns, non-stop Christmas advertising – and yet, still in denial about the waning days of 2011, I was surprised to realize that Advent was approaching like a runaway freight train!  Yikes, I’d better get ready.  As an old boy scout, I’m supposed to always be prepared, but somehow Advent and Christmas always get here before I’m ready.

That’s rather appropriate actually.  God has a way of sneaking up on us and surprising us when we least expect it, and yet we are also ironically very impatient.  Stores open earlier and earlier every year for black Friday shoppers, creeping further and further into black Thursday, as in Thanksgiving Day.  Is nothing sacred?

I was on a retreat many years ago about this time of year at a beautiful camp in the Pocono Mountains in eastern Pennsylvania.  I woke up early on the Sunday morning I was there and decided to drive to a spot where I was told I could witness a beautiful sunrise.  Not being a morning person, sunrises are rare occurrences for me, and they are always better in the mountains or on the sea shore; so I hopped into my car and drove a short distance to the designated scenic overlook.  It was very chilly in the pre-dawn darkness, and I had not had my morning caffeine fix; so I began to shiver and grow impatient.  I didn’t know what time sunrise was supposed to happen, but it wasn’t happening fast enough to suit me.   I soon grew weary of waiting and decided to forego the sunrise and head back to a warm lodge and a hot breakfast.  As I drove down the mountain road, of course, I caught the first glimpse of the fiery red ball of the sun peaking through the leafless trees in my rear view mirror.  I turned around at the first opportunity and drove quickly back up to the lookout point.  Of course, the sun had already crested the horizon by the time I got back there.   I missed the most beautiful part of the sunrise.  I was too impatient – couldn’t wait a few minutes for something I knew was going to happen because it had happened every day since the beginning of time.  I was disappointed – and then I laughed as I remembered what day it was.  It was the first Sunday of Advent – the season of waiting and preparation.

How hard it is to wait – even for things we know are guaranteed to come. How hard it is to hope for things to be better when there is so little sign of change or improvement in a bad situation.  We take years and decades to dig ourselves into difficult situations and expect instant gratification or solutions.

“Comfort, comfort my people” say these familiar words from Isaiah 40.  I don’t know about you, but when I hear these words read or sung in Handel’s great oratorio, “Messiah,” my attention is drawn immediately to the word “comfort.”  Don’t we all like comfort?  We like to be in our comfort zones.  We indulge in comfort food when we are stressed – when the teen-age driver is out later than curfew, or our team falls behind in a big game – bring on those nachos and chocolate chip cookies.  When we are sad or lonely or grieving, we long for a comforting word,  an understanding smile or a warm hug.    Comfort is good – and God knows there is much in these difficult economic times of uncertainty that we need and want to be comforted about.

But there’s another little word in that opening verse of Isaiah 40 that caught my eye as I studied this familiar text this time—the tiny little two letter word, ‘my.’  ‘My’ or ‘mine’ can be a negative word when used to express selfish or greedy feelings.  We all know that right after ‘no’ one of the first words young toddlers learn is ‘mine.’   But ‘my’ can also be a word of extreme comfort and love.  To talk about my spouse or my children or my family or my church or my country implies a bond of affection – and that’s the way Isaiah uses the word in this text.  “Comfort, O comfort MY people, says your God.”  God is claiming and reclaiming the children of Israel after a long and difficult period of estrangement, alienation and rebellion.

Anyone else have any estrangement and alienation in your family?  Any siblings or in-laws or children who aren’t speaking to any or all members of the family?  We talk alot about dysfunctional families, but my experience is that term is redundant.  Families are made up of fallible human beings who are by definition somewhat dysfunctional.  And that includes God’s family too.  But that doesn’t mean we still don’t belong to our families.  My uncle may have been an unreasonable, arrogant, immature jerk who got mad over how my grandmother’s estate got parceled out and pouted till the day he died – but he was still part of the family.

“Comfort, MY people, says your God.”  God’s children have been rebellious.  They have ignored God’s will and God’s laws.  They put their faith in earthly kings and worldly power in the days of King David and Solomon, and the once great kingdom of Israel went downhill faster than an out-of-control bobsled.  The kingdom was split into two weaker states by political infighting and jealousy and in that weakened state had been overrun by the more powerful nations of Assyria and Babylon.  The northern kingdom of Israel fell to Assyria first, in 720 BCE, and 130 years later in 588 BCE, the southern kingdom of Judah, which had Jerusalem as its proud capital, was destroyed and overrun by the Babylonians.  The leaders and any people of influence were carted off to Babylon as prisoners and lived there for decades while entire generations forgot their homeland, their roots, and their God.

Imagine conquering armies invading the Buckeye state from that state up north and forcing us to live in exile in Detroit or even Ann Arbor!!!!  The people of Israel were suffering; they were in need of comfort.  They felt forgotten and abandoned by their God.  How could God allow this horrible thing to happen to God’s chosen people!!!  Surely the gods of Babylon must be better and stronger than Yahweh or this tragedy would never have happened.  Many of the exiles bowed down and worshipped the gods of Babylon and became quite comfortable in their new surroundings, having lost hope of ever returning to Jerusalem.  They turned their backs on Yahweh.

And yet, God calls them “MY people.”  We may forget who we are and whose we are, but God does not forget.  And that’s the message of Hope as we live into the Advent season again.  We may be poorer than we were a year ago or grieving the loss of health or a loved one. We may be carrying a heavy load of guilt for mistakes and poor choices we’ve made that led to bad consequences, but we are not disowned by our God. God still recognizes us and calls us to him – “comfort MY people.”

That reminds us of another great story in the Hebrew Scriptures when God’s children were in a different foreign land as slaves in Egypt.  They had been there for 400 long hard years and many had forgotten their ancestors and their God.  After 4 centuries I’m sure many of them were convinced that God had long since forgotten them.  But God has a memory and a heart for his people that is greater than anything we can imageine.  And God called Moses to go down to Egypt with a message for Pharaoh, king of Egypt.  That message was not “let those poor slaves go,” or “let those Hebrew people go free,” No, God’s message through Moses was very specific and clear.  God told Moses, “I have observed the misery of MY people who are in Egypt… I will send you to Pharaoh to bring MY people out of Egypt.”  (Exodus 3:7 & 10)  God claims and comforts his own.   God never forgets who we are and whose we are, even when we do.  And that’s reason for Hope.

But notice in this text that we don’t just get to sit back and wait passively for God’s comfort and deliverance to come.  Isaiah says, “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (40:3) We are called to partner with God in our own liberation.  And that’s not easy work.  God doesn’t send us to some cushy spa or tropical paradise or comfortable suburb to do God’s work. The preparation of God’s way needs to be done in the places where God’s presence and comfort are most needed – in the wilderness – in the desert.  Where the lost and the least are, that’s where the way of the Lord needs to be prepared.   Because the comfort of God is like the children’s song about “The Magic Penny.” Remember what it says – ‘hold it tight and you won’t have any, but if you lend it, spend it, you’ll have so many they’ll roll all over the floor.”

Isaiah 40:5 gives us the clue about where God’s highway goes with another very small easily over-looked word.  This one is slightly bigger than ‘my,’ it has three letters instead of two, but it’s a very powerful important word.  It’s the word ‘ALL.’ The text says that if we prepare the way of the Lord, “then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and ALL people shall see it together.”   That’s a pivotal and important move in this text.  This section of Isaiah expands our understanding of who God’s people are in a most dramatic fashion.

Scholars believe that the last half of the book of Isaiah was written at a later date and by a different anonymous author than the first 39 chapters.  The historical context and the tone of the message shift dramatically at the beginning of chapter 40 from one of judgment and dire prediction of impending doom leading up to the fall of Jerusalem, to words of hope and restoration in chapters 40-55 as the period of exile and banishment are coming to an end.  And part of that shift of viewpoint includes the realization that when God says MY people, the circle of God’s concern and love is universal and inclusive, not parochial and exclusive.  The realization has dawned that if God is the creator of the entire universe, then God is also the Lord and lover of all creation and cannot be limited to one tribe or segment of the human family.

In chapter 49 Isaiah says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob…I will give you as a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (49:6). God’s kingdom and God’s people know no geographic or political or ideological boundaries.  ALL means all, as in “All people shall see the glory of God together”  (40:5).

Human understanding about the nature of God is an evolving process.  While some early Hebrews understood God as vengeful and to be feared, Jesus came to show us the tender, loving, merciful nature of God; and both images of God are evident in this text from Isaiah.  “The Lord comes with might,” it says in verse 10, and then in the next verse goes on to say, “he will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.”

Those are words of comfort.  They give us hope because we see clearly the loving, merciful nature of our God who never forgets that we are God’s people – loved, forgiven, and redeemed, if we choose to return to him like the prodigal children we all are from time to time.  God calls us to partnership, to prepare the way of the Lord, and we begin “Where meek souls will receive him, still the Christ child enters in.”

But our partnership with God means we don’t have to and cannot prepare the way for God alone.  We are all mortal – we are like grass that withers and fades – but “the word of our God will stand forever.” (40:8)   Our broken world more than ever needs God’s challenging, expansive and inclusive word of hope.  As Einstein said, “We can’t solve our problems with the same kind of thinking that created them in the first place.”  We need God’s vision of a new heaven and a new earth, of a peaceable kingdom.  That word is in God’s word, and it’s a word of Hope.  Advent and Christmas come in the darkest, coldest time of the year – and that’s no accident.  At the times when we most need words of comfort and hope, God knows our needs.  God hears our cries, and sends messengers in most unusual and unexpected forms to say, “Comfort, my people,” “let my people go” — set them free from doubt and fear and hopelessness.
Moses was an exile – on the lam because he had killed an Egyptian.  He was not articulate or powerful or influential –and yet God chose him and empowered him to be God’s messenger of hope.

In the return of the Exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem – God again chose a most unexpected servant to set God’s people free.  King Cyrus of Persia had no idea he was acting as God’s messenger.  He was just out to expand his own power and kingdom by knocking Babylon off as king of the hill.  But God chose this pagan ruler as the agent of liberation for God’s people.  Persia, if you are a fan of God’s irony and surprise, was where modern day Iran now sits.  God continuously sends words and acts of hope in most unexpected shapes and forms and places

And by the way, that’s exactly what God has in store for anyone who’s ready in about 21 days in a little one-horse town called Bethlehem.

Hope doesn’t always come in the way we expect.  So be ready – and prepare your hearts for the coming of the Lord.

From Doubt to Hope, Luke 1:5-25, 57-80

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Values

[Note: This is an Advent sermon preached at Jerome UMC, Plain City/Dublin, Ohio on November 27.  It is the companion piece to the drama posted earlier in the week.]

Prayer:  O God, being alone with our doubts is not an easy place to be for most of us – but it’s a necessary place from time to time for reflection, prayer and time with you.  Zechariah doubted your promise and needed some time out to be still and know you are God.  Zechariah’s story challenges us as we begin this hectic holiday season, and we pray for the wisdom to find adequate time especially now to pray and reflect on the reason for the season.  Amen.

How would you rate your level of doubt on a scale of 1-10?  My doubt score changes from day to day, sometimes hour to hour.  I’ve learned that some doubt is better than others; a healthy bit of skepticism can keep me from being naively gullible to a sales pitch or one of those Chicken Little alerts we all get from time to time in our email inbox.  The ones that assure us the sky is falling and our computers are going to crash if we don’t send all of our passwords and personal information to someone in Bangladesh immediately and forward this dire warning to everyone in our address book.  I’m most thankful for snopes.com as a resource for checking those things out before I perpetuate them.

Doubt is like yeast.  It only takes a smidgen of it to influence our decisions.  The doctors say, “we’re 90% sure this is nothing to worry about,” and that’s good.  90% is an A-, right?  But it’s that darn 10% that convinces us we need CAT Scans and PET scans – and I don’t’ even have a cat or a pet!  My dear wife, Diana, went sky diving a few years ago, and the instructor assured us it was 95% foolproof.  She went up and had a once in a lifetime experience, but the 5% doubt kept me on the ground watching.

There are lots of good reasons to have doubts today – political paralysis, congressional chaos, economic uncertainty here and abroad, virtual and real time bullies, violence masquerading as entertainment, fears about changes in health care.  You know the list all too well.  Part of the reason doubt is epidemic is TMI – too much information—and 90% of it is bad news.  The 24-7 news cycle makes it very hard to escape from it.  Following the stock market creates more whip lash than riding some monster roller coaster at Cedar Point.  When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated it took weeks for the news of his death to reach the western parts of our country.  Compare that with how quickly we know about tragedies today.
Most of us watched the 2nd plane crash into the world trade center in real time, live as it happened.  God’s still small voice is hard to hear amid the information overload.  There’s an easy solution to some of the TMI – I pads and I phones all have a great little app called an OFF Switch.  And the good news of the Gospel is that we also have an OFF switch for I DOUBT.

One of the biggies in the doubt department is our fear and uncertainty about eternal life.  We profess a belief in eternal life that is light years better than anything we have here, but we are very reluctant to reap that reward.  We will seek out any possible medical treatment to postpone our passage to paradise.  We sometimes even resort to eating wisely – well, not this weekend – or exercising.  I’ve heard it said that exercise doesn’t make you live longer – it just seems like it.  I recently saw an email about the advantages of walking that said walking every day will extend your life expectancy – so you can spend 7 more months and $30k more in a nursing home before you die.  My favorite – “My grandpa starting walking 3 miles every day when he was 55 years old, and we have no idea where he is now.”

Seriously – why are we so unwilling to depart this life?  Isn’t a big part of it that 10% of doubt and uncertainty about what the future holds?  Eternity is a long time, and we want to get it right.  Frederick Beuchner says “Doubt is the ants in the pants of faith.”  We can’t have faith without some doubt because faith and hope are about things we can’t see or touch or feel.  You don’t hope for something you already have – nobody puts something they already have on their list for Santa.

Hope implies a degree of ambiguity, and the strength of our hope depends on what evidence we have to lessen our uncertainty.  Evidence is funny stuff.  Two people can look at exactly the same object and see it differently depending on their perspective.  The glass half full or half empty is the classic example, and what we see when we look at that glass depends on the lens through which we view it.  Do we look through the lens of faith and hope or put on glasses of doubt and cynicism. What is your default position?

A communication professor of mine in grad school called this process attention switching, meaning that how we choose to think and talk about life and situations makes all the difference in how we feel about them.  My favorite example from Dr. Brown was the difference between asking someone at a back yard barbeque, “Would you like a pork chop?” or instead asking, “Would you like a piece of dead pig?”   Same reality, very different response.

Do we look at life through a lens of doubt or hope?  Hope implies the need to wait, and that’s hard for us 21st century folks for whom instant gratification is way too slow.  Next time you are on an airplane – watch how many people grab for their cell phones the second the wheels touch the tarmac.  We can’t wait to know what’s happened or if someone has called us or texted us in the two hours we’ve been off line.  We don’t like to wait – Black Friday is now Black Turkey day or earlier.  We can’t wait till the football season is over to hire the next coach – we want our Messiah and we want him now – not four weeks from now.

Guess how long it was between the time Isaiah wrote his prophesies about the Messiah –How “the government will be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  We could use that kind of leadership in Washington or Greece or Rome – most anywhere today, right?  But do you know how long it was between Isaiah’s time and Jesus’ birth – six or seven hundred years!  And then Jesus wasn’t what the Jews wanted for Christmas; so they missed him and are still waiting for the Messiah.    We have GPS’s that track my Fed Ex packages, and Santa’s travels on Christmas Eve.  Why can’t we come up with a Messiah tracker and take doubt out of the whole process?  Just think how much easier if would be to time our last minute conversions if we knew when Jesus was coming back!

The bottom line question is – what evidence do we have for being Hopeful people?  The way to look for that evidence is to ask what God has done for us in the past.  Notice I did not say what God has done for us lately.  That’s the wrong question.  God’s time table is different than ours.

The Bible is our record of God’s steadfast love and redeeming actions.  Read your Bible this Advent season to remember how God over and over again saves people from their doubts and sinful behaviors.  None of the leading characters in the biblical story are perfect.   There’s more sibling rivalry and adultery and deceit in the Bible than a modern day soap opera.  The sub-title for the Bible could well be “All of God’s Children.”  But God’s love and redemption trump human doubt and dubious deeds every time.  God’s grace is stronger than Moses murdering an Egyptian and Peter’s denial of Jesus.  It’s even stronger than a Roman execution and the tomb that couldn’t contain our risen Lord.  So that love is certainly stronger than my doubt and yours.  When in doubt, pray on those things.  If we focus our attention on the promises God has kept and the blessings we have received instead of on the disappointments and doubts – we have a much better chance of having an attitude of gratitude.  We enjoy celebrating Thanksgiving, except for some of those annoying relatives; but making thanksgiving a way of life year round is what hopeful people do.

Now, let’s look at Zechariah’s story – thought we’d never get back there didn’t you?  Luke tells us Zechariah was a priest, a godly, righteous man.  Being that kind of religious person, we can assume Zechariah knew his Bible.  He knew the stories of his people and how God had delivered them from Egypt and from the Exile in Babylon.  He knew the story of God’s salvation history, and he most certainly would have known the foundational story of how the nation of Israel began with the birth of Isaac, Abraham and Sarah’s son.  That story in Genesis is so similar to Zechariah and Elizabeth’s situation that I can’t believe Zechariah could have possibly missed the connection.  Abram and Sarai were old geezers too – barren, giving up hope that God’s promise that they would be the parents of a great nation could ever happen.  They doubted too – they laughed at God’s messenger when they were told Sarai would conceive in her 90’s.  But they weren’t laughing nine months later, and after that Abraham believed God’s promises.  Genesis and Romans both tell us that Abraham’s belief was “reckoned to him as righteousness.”  (Gen. 15:6, Romans 4:9)  That’s very important because it is the basis for our Protestant belief in salvation, not through doing enough good works, but through faith and trust in God’s grace.

So, given all that obvious evidence, why would Zechariah fail to believe it was possible for him and Elizabeth to have a son?  In a word, Doubt.  We all have it.  Martin Luther is famous for saying, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.”  God by nature is mysterious and beyond our human ability to figure things out logically.  The problem Zechariah has and that Abraham had originally, and that some people have with the virgin birth, is that we think rationally and scientifically.  We know AARP card carriers don’t have babies – thank God for that!

But this isn’t a biology test –it’s a theology test.  And that’s what moves us from doubt to hope, from mere intellectual belief in God to 100% trust in God’s promises.  Belief is something I do in my head.  For example, I understand the physics of why parachutes work; I believe it.  But it takes real trust and faith for me to strap one of those on my back and jump out of an airplane.

It also takes a Leap of faith to trust that God will provide for us now and forever – that we can bet our lives on god’s promises.

Advent is a season of Hope because we wait for Christmas and the birth of Christ.  We remember again what our Awesome God has done and that he is a promise keeping God who gives himself 100% to become one of us – an even more outrageous miracle than Zechariah’s becoming a daddy in is golden years.

The good news is that just as Abraham and Zechariah doubted God at first, our doubts can also be transformed into hope and trust if we take time to ponder the mystery of this Christmas season.  God will give us time to do that, just as he gave Zechariah quiet time to consider his choice between doubt and hope.

To be fair, we know Zechariah’s story began in doubt – but it didn’t end there.   I’d like for Zechariah to come tell us the rest of his story.  Come on down Zechariah, and I’ll interpret for you.

Zechariah:    [excited and animated]  No need to interpret.  It was a real miracle!  Elizabeth did indeed conceive, just as the angel said.  And when her time came she gave birth to a beautiful son.  Everyone expected us to name him after me, but God had told us both to name him “John,” even though no one in our family ever had that name.  I guess God knew “Zechariah the Baptist” didn’t roll of the tongue as well as “John the Baptist!”

Interviewer:    So, when did you get your voice back?

Zechariah:    As soon as I showed my belief in God’s plan.  I wrote, “His Name is John,” and immediately my voice returned, and I haven’t stopped witnessing since.  I tell everyone who will listen what great things God had planned for our son.  God has promised us that John will live in the wilderness and become strong so he will ready when the time comes to go before the Messiah to prepare his ways – the ways of repentance and forgiveness and salvation!

Interviewer:    Thank you, Zechariah, for sharing your amazing journey from doubt to Hope.

Zechariah:    Thanks be to God!

Zechariah’s Journey from Doubt to Hope: An Advent drama based on Luke 1

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Values

Note:    This is the first of a series of brief dramas for use during the Advent season.  Others will feature Mary, an Angel, Joseph, and a person who embodies the Christ-filled life.

[The role of the Interviewer works best if played by the preacher for the service but could be played by someone else]

Interviewer:    Good morning Church!  If you have noticed the extra candles up here this morning you know this is a special day – the first Sunday of Advent.  Advent is the time when we prepare our hearts for the birth of Christ.

These four weeks of Advent are a time when we can take a spiritual journey—a trip from doubt and fear, sadness and apathy, all the way to hope, faith, joy, love and peace.  To aid us on that journey we’ve asked some of the key Biblical characters in this great story to share their own journeys with us.  Today our guest is Zechariah.

[Zechariah enters in biblical costume, looking confused and fearful, uncomfortable and wary.]

Interviewer:    Zechariah, welcome.  Come on in- no need to be afraid.  You’re among friends here in God’s house.

[Zechariah writes on a stone or ceramic tablet he’s carrying and shows it to Interviewer]

Interviewer:    Oh, I see.  It seems Zechariah has lost his ability to speak.

[Zechariah writes again]

He says he was in the temple and could not believe the crazy, incredible news that a messenger claiming to be an angel gave him.  So, Zechariah, what was this news and why didn’t you believe it?

[Zechariah writes again]

I see.  Yes, I’d have trouble believing that too.  As you can see folks, Zechariah is not a young man, and this “angel” told him he and his wife Elizabeth, who’s also no “spring chicken” it says here—the angel said that Zechariah and Elizabeth were going to have a baby after many years of bareness.  No wonder Zechariah had his doubts.  Does Medicare cover maternity bills?

[Zechariah writes again and then rubs his back as if it is hurting]

Interviewer reads tablet and laughs:    Zechariah says, “Elizabeth and I are both at that age where if we have body parts that don‘t hurt, they don’t work!”  [Chuckles again]  So you didn’t believe the angel’s message.  Why did that cause you to lose your voice, Zechariah?

[Zechariah writes again]

So, losing your ability to speak was your punishment for doubting, for not believing?  [Zechariah nods]   And God sort of put you in time out then?  [Zechariah nods again]

For how long?   [Zechariah writes again]

He says, “I guess until I believe!”

Interviewer:    [puts hand on Zechariah’s shoulder to comfort him]   Our prayers are with you, Zechariah.  I know how hard it must be for you not to be able to talk.

[Zechariah exits slowly looking very sad.  He sits in front pew or seat until he returns later]

Interviewer:    Waiting and hoping is not easy in difficult times, especially when what we are hoping for seems so impossible to believe—like God’s sending his son to live among us in human form.  That’s why the first Advent candle is the candle of Hope.  [Lights candle as he/she continues to talk]

Even when doubt threatens to overwhelm us, as it did Zechariah, we are people of hope because we believe the words of Isaiah who tells us that even though we grow  faint and weary, those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength and be lifted up on Eagles’ wings.

[Congregation sings “On Eagles’ Wings” and then proceeds with rest of worship service.  Zechariah sits in front pew or seat during rest of service so he is visible and present to the congregation.  At appropriate time he will return  to tell the rest of his story.]

[At End of Sermon]
Interviewer:    We heard earlier how Zechariah’s story in Luke began in doubt, but it doesn’t end there.  Zechariah, come tell us the rest of your story.

Zechariah:    [excited and animated] It was a real miracle!  Elizabeth did indeed conceive, just as the angel said.  And when her time came she gave birth to a beautiful son.  Everyone expected us to name him after me, but God had told us both to name him “John,” even though no one in our family ever had that name.  I guess God knew “Zechariah the Baptist” didn’t roll of the tongue as well as “John the Baptist!”

Interviewer:    So, when did you get your voice back?

Zechariah:    As soon as I showed my belief in God’s plan.  I wrote, “His Name is John,” and immediately my voice returned; and I haven’t stopped witnessing since.  I tell everyone who will listen what great things God had planned for our son.  John lived in the wilderness and became strong so he was ready when the time came to go before the Messiah to prepare his ways – the ways of repentance and forgiveness and salvation!

Interviewer:    Thank you, Zechariah, for sharing your amazing journey from doubt to Hope.

Zechariah:    Thanks be to God!

[Zechariah exits and Interviewer/pastor concludes service with prayer/appropriate congregational hymn/song/benediction]

God Gives the Geep Hell, Matthew 25:31-46

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Values

One of the mysteries of life is why no one wants to sit down front in church.  Everywhere else– at the theater or the sports arena or a rock concert–front row seats go for top dollar, but church folks come early to get those great back pew seats.  Explanation: in the old days the front pew was called “the sinners pew.”  Maybe good theology to put those who most need the sermon directly under the preacher’s watchful eye–but not good marketing to sell those front row seats.

In a similar vein, this week’s Gospel lesson from Matthew 25 about Jesus separating the sheep from the goats may explain why in some churches more people sit on the right side of the sanctuary than the left.  In the parable those on Jesus’ right get praised and have their tickets punched for heaven, while those on the left go the other way.  And the reason is simple—those on the right have treated the hungry, lonely, naked, sick, and prisoners with compassion while those on the left have not.  And Jesus says in the most famous line from this parable, “what you did to the least of these who are members of my family, you did to me” (verses 40 and 45).

Matthew 25 is one of the lectionary texts for November 20, the last Sunday before Advent begins.  It is the Sunday in the church calendar known as Christ the King or Reign of Christ Sunday.  Since the church liturgical year begins with Advent (the four Sundays prior to Christmas), Christ the King Sunday is the last Sunday of the Christian year, and is a time when the Scripture lessons focus on the end time and judgment for how we have lived our lives.  It’s the bad news before we turn to the good news of the birth and incarnation of Christ at Christmas.  The Hebrew Scripture for this Sunday is from Ezekiel 34:11-24 and contains a very similar passage about the fate of good and bad sheep.

Among the challenging questions these passages raise are these: What kind of king is it who judges our lives?  And what kind of critters are we who come to be judged?  It’s pretty easy to tell the difference between an actual sheep and a goat.  It’s not so easy to identify saints and sinners.  Case in point—a week ago Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was a much revered and respected iconic hero.  Some have said he was one of the most influential people in the state of Pennsylvania.  But in a few short 24-hour news cycles the whole world learned Joe Pa is a flawed and fallible human being like everyone else.

There’s a marvelous contemporary parable attributed to Rabbi Haim, a traveling preacher which addresses that question:

“I once ascended to the firmaments. I first went to see Hell and the sight was horrifying. Row after row of tables were laden with platters of sumptuous food, yet the people seated around the tables were pale and emaciated, moaning in hunger. As I came closer, I understood their predicament.  Every person held a full spoon, but both arms were splinted with wooden slats so he could not bend either elbow to bring the food to his mouth. It broke my heart to hear the tortured groans of these poor people as they held their food so near but could not consume it.

Next I went to visit Heaven. I was surprised to see the same setting I had witnessed in Hell–row after row of long tables laden with food. But in contrast to Hell, the people here in Heaven were sitting contentedly talking with each other, obviously sated from their sumptuous meal.

As I came closer, I was amazed to discover that here, too, each person had his arms splinted on wooden slats that prevented him from bending his elbows. How, then, did they manage to eat?  As I watched, a man picked up his spoon and dug it into the dish before him. Then he stretched across the table and fed the person across from him! The recipient of this kindness thanked him and returned the favor by leaning across the table to feed his benefactor.

I suddenly understood. Heaven and Hell offer the same circumstances and conditions. The critical difference is in the way the people treat each other. I ran back to Hell to share this solution with the poor souls trapped there. I whispered in the ear of one starving man, ‘You do not have to go hungry. Use your spoon to feed your neighbor, and he will surely return the favor and feed you.’  ‘You expect me to feed the detestable man sitting across the table?’ said the man angrily. ‘I would rather starve than give him the pleasure of eating!’

I then understood God’s wisdom in choosing who is worthy to go to Heaven and who deserves to go to Hell.”

Saints and sinners look a lot alike.  We not pure-bred sheep or goats, but a mixed breed, and that’s why the difficult task of passing eternal judgment should be left to God and not done by fallible human beings. [Check out Jesus’ quotes: “Judge not that you be not judged” (Matt. 7:1) and “If any of you are without sin, let him/her cast the first stone” (John 8:7).]

This parable makes me wonder what Jesus will do with me.  Some days I’m the sweetest most lovable, patient, compassionate person in the world.  The next day I may throw away an appeal for a worthwhile charity without even opening the envelope.  I’ll see someone in need and hurry by on the other side because I’m too busy and my agenda is much more important than yours.  And those who have caught my immature, competitive act at a basketball game or on the golf course know that God is definitely not done working on me yet.  I hope Jesus catches me on one of my good days because I’m not a full-blooded sheep or goat.  I’m a half breed or what Ronald Luckey once called a “Geep.”

And I’m not alone.  I have a dear friend who is the most compassionate pacifist I know; but I remember a conversation we once had about an 84 year-old woman who had been raped and tortured.  There was not one ounce of compassion in how my friend would have treated that rapist if he could have gotten his hands on him.  Or take the lovable actor Andy Griffith.  I once read he had dreams of beating up on dear old Barney Fife.

What will Jesus do with all of us Geep?  Ronald Luckey says our judge will give us hell.  God will show us all of God’s children who have been abused, who are starving and suffering, and we will feel the pain God has always felt.  We will feel regret and remorse as God parades by us all the missed opportunities we’ve had to serve others—all those times we were too busy to help or to care, too scared to get involved, too torn by conflicting loyalties.  We will see in vivid Technicolor all those times we were too selfish or stupid to figure out how to reach across the table and feed each other.

And we will have to stand there and take our medicine.  I have always been afraid that when my time’s up and my life flashes before my eyes it will be boring.  But boring will be so much better than regrets and remorse.  So much better than having Jesus show me all the times I failed—failed my moral and ethical responsibility to do justice and mercy.  He will make me listen to all my lame excuses. “But Jesus, if I’d known it was you; of course, I’d have visited and clothed and fed you.”  And with a tear in his eye, Jesus will say, “Just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me” (vs. 45).

But then another word will come, quiet, grace-filled, one we don’t deserve.  Luckey says the King will look at you and me and say:

  • “You who had full cupboards are the truly hungry; I will feed you.”
  • “You who are well-dressed are the truly naked; I will clothe you.”
  • “You who had lavish access to all the good things, you are truly in prison; I will set you free.”

The King will lift us up and give us back our lives.  We are judged on the basis of our deeds, but sentenced on the basis of Grace by a friend and savior who says, “Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing” (Luke 23:24).  We Geep are judged but loved by the lamb who takes away the sins of the world because we are not special.  We are not better or worse sinners than anyone else, and if we repent and ask, none of us are exempt from forgiveness or from needing it.

God will show us how meager our offerings and services have been.  God will show us the times we turned our backs on those in need and show us the ravaged earth we are leaving for our grandchildren.  God will give us that kind of hell because God cares that much.  But then if we are humbled and sincerely confess our sins of commission and omission, God will offer us back our lives.

God will say, “I love you still.  Go, do what you failed to do yesterday.  Reach out with your broken arms and feed those other broken souls across town or across class and racial boundaries, across political, ideological and religious divides.  Feed each other.  For I am still hungry and naked and in prison and a stranger, and what you do to the least of these, you do to me.”

“The Gospel According to Jobs and Jesus,” Matthew 25:14-30

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Values

I wrote the first draft of his post somewhere between Nassau and Miami on the final day of a 4-day cruise that took us and 2000 new friends to Key West and Nassau and back to Miami. Like life, our trip itinerary was subject to change without notice.  We were supposed go to Cozumel, Mexico, but Hurricane Rina rained on that parade.  So we did a big U-turn and joined 5 other huge cruise ships in Nassau to benefit the Bahamian economy.  Lots of American dollars intended for conversion to pesos went to Nassau instead.  $111 of ours was spent on a tour to the obscenely over-priced Atlantis resort to see how the other .5% lives.

The huge resort can’t be missed from the cruise ship dock, and we could have gotten there by cab or ferry for a few dollars.  But fear of coping with a strange city where they drive on the wrong side of the road, even if they do speak English, led me to pay the cruise line and local entrepreneurs to take us on a 10 minute ride, literally and figuratively.  One of the signature features of the Atlantis Resort is a 4740 square foot suite that is located in a bridge sixteen stories up than links two of the imposing twenty-three-story towers on what some marketing genius named Paradise Island.  The bridge suite rents for $25,000 per night (that’s not a typo—it’s 25K), and, in case you are interested in booking it, there’s a four night minimum stay required!  Staying there is not on my bucket list, but if anyone starts an Occupy Atlantis protest, it might be a good place to spend the winter.

The opulent wastefulness within sight of the hundreds of dirt poor native merchants selling cheap souvenirs along the cruise ship dock seemed to confirm the punch line of the parable of the talents which says, “to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have abundance, but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away” (Matt.25:29).  Never mind the obvious question/problem of how one can take away anything from those who have nothing, where’s the justice in that scenario?  And it gets worse from there.  The parable goes on to pass harsh judgment on the one-talent slave for his scarcity-inspired fear and condemns him as a “wicked, lazy worthless slave “ who is to be thrown into “the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (v. 30).

Granted, that’s a nasty slave owner speaking here, not Jesus (we hope).  Makes me wonder if this parable is about the Reign of God or of Warren Buffet, or could it be both?   Certainly the world rewards risk-takers and those able to think outside the box.  The late Steve Jobs had 313 Apple patents to his name when he died.  Jobs is an inspiring story, and the title of Chapter 1 of his new auto-biography explains much of his success–“From Abandoned to the Chosen One.” I haven’t read the book, but I’m guessing that attitude and gratitude that he was rescued to a new life by his adoptive parents (whom he calls his “real” parents) carried Steve Jobs through many failures and setbacks in his life.  His much quoted commencement speech from Stanford’s 2005 graduation, advising his audience to embrace their mortality and dare to look foolish, might describe the first two slaves in the parable of the talents.

The first two slaves dared to risk all they had in order to reap an impressive return on their investments.  And they are rewarded by their master with praise and a big promotion.  I admire people with that kind of chutzpah.  I’m more like the one-talent slave who digs a hole and buries the money to avoid the risk of losing all he had in an economic downturn.  I wonder how much of our current recession is caused by that kind of fearful scarcity mentality.  From small investors like me worried about shrinking retirement accounts to multi-billion dollar corporations that are hoarding their profits instead of reinvesting them in job-creating new projects, fear inspires more of the same.  Isn’t there the same amount of money out there somewhere now as there was in the boom years prior to 2008?  Most of it is just buried somewhere and not being circulated to create more jobs, services and products.

But the parable of the talents is about much more than economics.  Fear stifles faith and creativity in every aspect of our lives, from honest, intimate relationships to athletic and career achievements.  The slave with one talent buried it, and when asked why he says, “I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground” (v. 25).   Sounds a little like hiding one’s light under a bushel, doesn’t it?  But notice another word in that sentence that’s easy to overlook—the word “your.”  The talents don’t belong to the slaves but to the master, just as my house and car and other worldly goods don’t belong to me either.  There’s an old hymn that describes our role as stewards of God’s creation very well.  We often sing it to inspire more generous contributions in the offering plates, but it’s about all of our “possessions.”  “We give thee but thine own, what ‘ere the gift may be.  All that we have is thine alone, a gift O Lord from Thee.”

The good news is that we are all playing with house money.  We’ve got nothing to lose.  Not only is the deed to my house and my car and my 401K really not mine, neither is my life.  Some wag once said, “Don’t take yourself so seriously.  You’ll never get out of this life alive anyway.”  That wisdom needs to be filed next to “You can’t take it (and that means any of it) with you.”  Ever seen an armored car in a funeral procession?
Writer’s block is one familiar example of how fear stifles the talents God gave us.  I have a slogan on my writing desk that says, “Write as if no one will read it.”  That was inspired by the popular saying by William Purkey, “Dance like no one is watching, love like you’ll never be hurt, sing like no one is listening, and live like it’s heaven on earth.”  A brave honest student helped me break through my fear and publish my first book this spring.  She asked me if I had published anything.  I said, “No, but I have lots of good stuff in my files and my computer.”  Her poignant reply really hit home.  She said, “Oh, so you’re going to publish posthumously?”
We know the one-talent slave was afraid because Matthew tells us he was, but what about the first two?  We aren’t told they were fearful, but it’s pretty likely since none of us are immune from fear.  If those first two slaves were afraid, the difference is they acted in spite of the fear, much like the title of Susan Jeffers’ excellent book advises, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway.  It’s possible the first two slaves used their fear of the harsh master as motivation to risk losing what they had in order to reap a greater reward.  The third slave buried his talent for fear of losing it, and in the process guaranteed its potential was lost.
What dreams and goals do we have that are buried and abandoned by fear of failure?  “Oh, I can’t write that book, it might not sell?  I don’t dare speak that truth!  People might not like it!”  And by choosing not to try I guarantee failure.  It’s a self-fulfilling prophesy.  Jesus takes that to the nth degree when he says, “Those who try to save their lives will lose them, and those who lose their lives will save them” (Luke 17:33).   Faith by definition requires risk.  That’s why Paul says we are called to be “fools for Christ” (I Cor. 4:10).   I love the way Bette Midler preaches that truth in “The Rose.”

“ It’s the heart, afraid of breaking
That never learns to dance .
It’s the dream, afraid of waking
That never takes the chance.
It’s the one who won’t be taken
Who cannot seem to give .
And the soul, afraid of dying
That never learns to live.” (Amanda McBroom)

The lessons are the same from Midler, Jobs, and Jesus:
•    This life is finite.
•    We are all abandoned by all earthly things and allegiances.
•    Those who also know that we are chosen and adopted by God are able to live by faith and dare to live.

The parable says the third slave was cast into the outer darkness by his own lack of faith.  It doesn’t say he has to stay there forever.  Failure was his choice and so is learning to trust.

We all fall down, often.  The secret is learning what an old Japanese proverb teaches, “Fall Down seven times, Get up eight.”

“Just One of the Crowd,” Matthew 23:1-12

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Values

My son is an excellent athlete—a very good golfer, played on a high school state final four basketball team, skis well.  The irony is that I am the one who got him started in all those sports.  I taught him his first basic lessons.  So why is it that he is head and shoulders better than I in all things athletic and has been for many years?  When I asked him once why that was so, he just smiled and told me, “Dad, I just watched you and saw how not to do things.”  Fortunately, he also learned from my bad example how to be a more confident and relaxed father, husband, and overall good human being.  Apparently teaching by negative example can be a very effective educational methodology.  “Do as I say and not as I do”  becomes “Just do the opposite of what I  do and benefit from my boneheaded mistakes.”

In Matthew 23, Jesus uses the Scribes and Pharisees as examples of how not to be a faithful follower of God.  Jesus is teaching “the crowds” and his disciples, and he begins by saying, “The Scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it.”  So far that sounds like a pretty good recommendation, right?  Then comes the ‘but.’  “But do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach” (vs. 1-3).  Jesus then goes on to itemize a variety of prideful, egotistic behaviors these religious leaders engage in to support his argument that they don’t practice what they preach:  expecting others to live up to a higher standard than they do, showing off how religious they are by wearing prominently displayed religious symbols, doing good deeds not to help others but to earn brownie points with God, expecting the best seats of honor at church potlucks and luxury boxes at football games, I mean in the synagogues, always being greeted and treated with proper titles of honor.

It seems the Pharisees needed a shift to the educational philosophy that encourages teachers to move from being “the Sage on the stage to the guide on the side.”  Jesus says in verses 7 and 8, “they want to have people call them rabbi (teacher).  But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students.”  In other words, no matter what our income tax bracket or net worth or educational pedigree, we are all part of the crowd learning together from the one true Rabbi, Jesus.

That does not mean the Pharisees are evil personified.  Their daily religious rituals and the reminders of God’s law they wear are good spiritual disciplines, as far as they go.  The world would be a better place if all of us were more conscious all the time of God’s commandments instead of treating them as mere suggestions.  Christians can learn a valuable lesson from our Muslim friends who take time to pray five times every day wherever they happen to be.  As Jesus reminds us, the Pharisees, the teachers of God’s laws “sit on Moses’ seat,” i.e. we should listen to those who specialize in studying God’s word and learn from them.  But the lesson ends when their actions are inconsistent with their words.  Do as they say and not as they do.  Jesus delivers a not so gentle reminder that those who are privileged to be messengers of God’s word bear huge responsibility.  The Pharisees sometimes forgot that they, like Moses himself, were recipients of God’s law, not the giver or creator of that law.  Because the Scribes and Pharisees let their position of authority go to their heads, this text reminds us all again that “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

As always, the scriptures teach us more if we move from history lesson to current events, from pointing fingers at “them” to holding up a mirror in front of ourselves,.  Jesus makes it very clear that the Pharisees and Scribes don’t practice what they preach, but by verses 8-12 he does what some congregations describe as going “from preaching to meddling.”  He turns his teaching to the crowd and the disciples, and those with ears that work can hardly miss the point.  We are all students with one teacher and only one unfailing authority figure in our lives.  We are all called to be servants, not teachers or masters, and the take away line in verse 12 is, “All who exalt themselves will be humbled and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

This text is not a teacher evaluation for the Pharisees.  Its relevant question is to you and me: Do we practice what we preach?

  • We teach the Golden Rule and the love of neighbors as ourselves, but we pay our farmers not to grow wheat while thousands starve in Somalia.
  • We teach “thou shall not kill” but violence is epidemic in our society and we continue to develop more sophisticated and impersonal drones and other ways to eliminate our enemies.
  • We read over and over again in our Bibles that God wants us to care for the widows and orphans and strangers in our midst, but when it comes to welfare or health care reform or taxation, our first thoughts are often not “what is best for the weakest and most vulnerable members of our human family?”  Instead we ask, “What will this mean to my bottom line?”

I know because I say it too.  “I’ve paid my dues, worked my way through school, taken my job and my family responsibilities seriously.”  We’ve made it on our own, why can’t everybody else?  But have we “made it on our own?”  What do we take for granted that our parents and grandparents bequeathed to us – land, money, values and self-respect, a solid work ethic, a good education, a spiritual foundation.  Those are all things that many of the least fortunate people in our society and world have never had.  Competition can be good and build character and strength, but only in a fair game with a level playing field.  The danger with succeeding in any competitive venture is that we might begin to believe our own press clippings and think we deserve the seats of honor and special treatment for what we have achieved.  That’s why we only get 15 minutes of fame.  After that it starts to go to one’s head.

I learned a lot of valuable life lessons from my years as a Boy Scout—lessons that I only came to appreciate years later.  One of the most important is humility.  One of my best friends, Blaine Brunner, and I had a very serious but friendly competition to see which one of us could achieve our Eagle Scout badge first.  Eagle Scout is the highest rank in scouting and one that takes several years and a great deal of support and encouragement from family, community and scout leaders along the way.  Blaine and I ran a very close race through all of scouting’s ranks from Tenderfoot to 2nd Class, 1st Class, Star, and Life awards, always with our eye on the prize that took 21 merit badges in skills as diverse as cooking, swimming, hiking, and camping.  Fortunately, it turned out that we both completed our requirements at about the same time, and we were proud to receive our Eagle badges together during a Sunday morning worship service in our church.

The Eagle badge is a red, white and blue ribbon in the shape of a shield that has an eagle hanging below it.  The badge is worn by pinning it on the scout uniform over the left breast pocket.  Blaine and I wore those badges with great pride as long as we were in the scouting program.  When it came time to move on from scouting and our youth to the pursuits of young adulthood, my Eagle badge went into a shoe box along with other mementos of that part of my life.  I found that box while packing for a move several years later, and to my dismay discovered that the ribbon on my cherished Eagle Scout badge had been shredded by a mouse who needed material for her nest.  “All who exalt themselves will be humbled.”

This text fits well for Reformation Sunday, a time to reflect on the principles that inspired the Protestant Reformation nearly 500 years ago.  Humility is foundational to the Protestant Principle which reminds us that there is always room for improvement in the church and in us as individuals.  Protestantism began in large part as a protest against the Roman Catholic doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope and the abuse of that power.  That doctrine reminds me of the hilarious country song that says, “O Lord, it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way.  I can’t wait to look in the mirror, ‘cuz I get better lookin’ each day.”  The song gets better from there (you can Google it if you dare), but you get the point.  One of my favorite biblical summaries of what faithful living looks like is Micah’s response to the question, “What does the Lord require of you?”  He says it is “to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)  Humility is one the top 3 qualities of the Godly life.  Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Mt. 5: 5), is another familiar affirmation of the importance the Judeo-Christian tradition place on humility.

Most of us enjoy being around humble people much more than those insecure souls who feel the need to toot their own horns incessantly.  And yet, when Jesus says “the greatest among you will be your servant” we cringe a bit, don’t we?  When asked as a child what you wanted to be when you grow up, did anyone say, “Oh, I want to be a servant?”  Service sector jobs pay minimum wage because the ways of the world are not God’s ways.   The truth is that human beings and organizations like the church can never be satisfied with where we are or who we are.  We are either growing as life-long learners or we are falling behind the times.  We all have had teachers who have grown complacent and are recycling old knowledge and lesson plans instead of staying current with new ideas.

Clergy for nearly 400 years have been asked a question designed to remind us to stay humble during the United Methodist ordination service.  It is a question from one of our founders, John Wesley, which simply asks, “Are you going on to perfection?”   Not that we believe we achieve that state in this life; that would not be very humble.  The question is a clever reminder that life is a journey, not a destination; and so is faith and ministry.  Baptism, confirmation, ordination, graduation, marriage, a big promotion; none of the milestones in life’s journey mean we have arrived.  Those with the mind of a humble servant know that and live accordingly.

Another key doctrine of Protestantism is “The Priesthood of All Believers.”  Simply put, it means we are all one of the crowd.  No one is to be called holy or rabbi.  Lay persons have as much access to God as clergy and vice versa.  That’s the good news.  I don’t have to go through any fallible human intermediary to communicate with God.  The power of Being itself is ready and willing to listen to my joys and concerns 24/7, our fears and confessions, our hopes and dreams.  No busy signal, no maddening telephone answering system where the menu has recently changed, no elevator music or commercials to listen to while we’re on hold, no power outages or servers that are too busy, no “please try again later.”  Everyone in the crowd who wants it has instant access to God, and the only prerequisite is enough humility to admit we need God’s help.

The terminology from the Hebrew Scriptures that comes to my mind here is that of being “God’s Chosen People.”  We all like to be chosen, don’t we?  One of childhood’s most painful memories for most of us is not being popular or being chosen dead last when teams are picked for a game of soccer or baseball.  Perhaps no words are tougher to hear than, “go play right field.”   The scriptures tell us in both testaments that we are indeed “God’s chosen people.”  I Peter says, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, God’s own people” (2:9).  Does that not contradict the need to walk humbly with God or Jesus’ call to servanthood?  Not if we understand what it means to be one of God’s priests.  Being chosen by God is not a call to privilege but to service of God and humanity; to take up a cross and follow Christ.  The rest of I Peter 2:9 says we are “a people belonging to God (God’s very own possession) that we may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into God’s wonderful light.”  We are clearly chosen to toot God’s horn, not our own.

Yes, we are God’s Chosen ones, but we are chosen not to be served but to humbly and gladly serve.  We are all one of the crowd, listening to Jesus, the master teacher, learning together as fellow students to faithfully follow both his word and example.  Because Jesus is the only teacher who can honestly say, “Do as I say AND do as I do!”

“The Holy Hokey Pokey,” Deuteronomy 34:1-12

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Values

“Talk is cheap.”  “Walk the walk.”  “Play full out.”  These are modern vernacular for the words from Paul to the church at Thessalonica when he says, “So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves” (I Thess. 2:8).  One of my favorite proverbs along those lines is, “What you do speaks so loud I can’t hear what you say.”  In a similar vein, James 1:22 tells us to “be doers of the word and not hearers only.”  All of these words of wisdom point toward the qualities of integrity and intimacy necessary for faithful and fulfilled living.  Are our actions congruent with our words and the values we profess?  I love the impertinent question often quoted by former President Jimmy Carter, which is now the basis for a contemporary Christian song, “If you were arrested for being a Christian would there be enough evidence to convict you?”  When I’m brave enough, I ask that while looking in the mirror.

The Hebrew text for October 23 (Deut. 34:1-12) contains the last words of Deuteronomy and is therefore the conclusion of the entire Pentateuch.  We are at the end of the Exodus journey and the transition of leadership from Moses to his successor, Joshua.  The story relates Moses’ death on Mt. Nebo.  From that vantage point Moses was at long last able to check a big item off his Bucket List and see with his own eyes the land God has promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

There are lots of interesting facets to this story, and I’ve chosen three to reflect on:

  1.  God says to Moses (vs. 4-5), “’I have let you see it [the Promised Land], but you shall not cross over there.’  Then Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, at the Lord’s command.”
  2.  “Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated” (v. 7)
  3. “Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face” (v. 10).

 

1)  Why is Moses forbidden to enter the Promised Land?  If he is the greatest prophet ever in the history of Israel, why not let him achieve the ultimate goal for which he’s given his life?  To draw on another cliché, we might say, “There’s no I in Team.”  Sports teams and nations, communities, families – all win as a team and lose as a team.  It’s not just Moses; none of the Hebrews who left Egypt were permitted to enter the Promised Land because of their unfaithfulness.  (For more on that see the reflections on the Golden Calf, complaining, greed over the Manna from heaven, etc. that I posted on Exodus texts on Sept. 7 & 13).  It wasn’t because Moses refused to stop and ask for directions that it took the Hebrews forty years to make the 200-300 mile trip from Egypt to Jericho.  They had a heavenly GPS (aka a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night) to guide their journey.  It took four decades because God was waiting for the original crowd to expire so God could get a fresh start with Caleb and Joshua and a new generation.  (See Numbers 13:20-21 for Yahweh’s decree that none of those who “have tested me these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their ancestors.”)

I find it helpful to note here that big dreams and goals often take longer than a lifetime and more persistence and leadership than one person or generation can provide.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made that point powerfully on the night before he was assassinated.  In the final great speech he gave on April 3, 1968 in Memphis, Dr. King used this Biblical imagery to say he was blessed to have seen the Promised Land.  Even though he personally might not get there he was sure others would.

Even Jesus needed faithful followers to carry on the work of establishing the reign of God.  He commissioned his followers to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19).  He also promised the disciples, “You will do even greater things than I have done” (John 14:12).

Do we have dreams and visions today that are bigger than ourselves that stretch far beyond the horizons of our finite mortality?  A friend posted this simple but profound truth on Facebook the other day in the form of two circles side by side but separate from each other, one larger than the other.  In the larger circle are the words, “Where the Magic Happens.”  In the smaller one, “Your comfort zone.”

A recent New York Times op/ed piece by David Brooks, reflecting on the tremendous innovative talents of the late Steve Jobs, made the same point about dreamers and visionaries.  Brooks said we made fantastic innovative leaps in multiple areas of society in the first 70 years of the 20th century, but very few in the last 40 years.  In my grandparents’ lifetimes America went from horse and buggy to landing on the moon; from outhouses to air conditioned homes and cars.  Life expectancy increased from 47 to 77 years; communication technology moved from telegraph to telephone to television.

But in the last forty years, other than the explosion in information technology, there have been very few dramatic, life-changing advances.  Brooks quotes several authors, including Peter Thiel, who says, “we travel at the same speeds we did a half-century ago.  We rely on the same basic energy sources [which are still poisoning us and our planet, I might add].  Warren Buffett made a $49 billion investment in 2009.  It was in a railroad that carries coal.”  We have not cured or even seriously researched ways to prevent cancer.  Many of us are in denial about the environmental crisis.  Our cities and schools and, most embarrassingly, our churches are as segregated as ever.   The wars on poverty and drugs have been dismal failures.  The great American Dream of home ownership has turned into a foreclosure nightmare.  When it comes to for the least of our sisters and brothers, our health care system is among the worst in the industrialized world.  Any wonder we are seeing protestors taking to the streets of every American city?

 

2)  We desperately need dreamers and visionaries who are willing to commit their whole being to causes that transcend themselves and their mortality.  That brings us to verse 7 and Moses’ vitality.  For those who think their retirement years are an excuse to ignore the responsibilities of Christian discipleship, reread Deuteronomy 34:7. “Moses was 120 years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated.”  That last phrase is the fun part of that verse.  The Hebrew for “vigor not abating” means Moses did not need Viagra.  He was fertile, productive, and able to create new life?  Are we?  Or have we pawned our dreams for self-interest and survival?  And don’t get hung up on the numbers game in that verse.  No one really knows what these triple digit age numbers in the Hebrew texts mean.  Did Medicare really pay the maternity bills for Abraham and Sarah?  Was Methuselah really over 900 years old?  Probably not according to our calendar calculations.  The point is not Guinness World Records for aging.  The point is that these people lived productive lives until they died, and the challenge is for us to do the same.  What shall we do with those extra 30 years of life expectancy we now have to help create a better world for those that our Joshuas and Janets will lead into the future?

 

3)  Moses’ vigor and vitality leads to the claim in verse 10 that “Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.”  This may be one of those hyperbolic claims one often hears at funeral homes.  The ones that make me look in the casket to see if we’re talking about the same fallible human being I knew the deceased to be.  A good case can be made for Moses being the number 1 prophet.  Without Moses’ leadership, the Exodus, the formative event of Israel’s history might never have happened.  Moses is the George Washington of Israel, the Father of his country.  Without him the Judeo-Christian saga would have been a very short documentary instead of the on-going epic that shaped the course of human history.

I would argue that Moses’ influence and his vitality to the end of his life came from the passion and total commitment he put into his role in God’s drama of salvation history.  He gave his people and us not just God’s word but his own self.  Does that mean he was infallible or perfect?  Of course not.  Remember he once murdered an Egyptian when he allowed his passion to consume his better judgment (Exodus 2).  Moses was a fugitive from Egyptian justice when God recruited him via a burning bush (Ex. 3).  So don’t think we can use our own fallibility as an excuse for not responding to God’s call.  It won’t wash.

Then we have this strange phrase that the Lord knew Moses “face to face.”  Back in Exodus 33 Moses is told specifically that he cannot see God’s face because no mortal can do so and live.  How do we resolve such a seeming contradiction?   Most biblical problems, including this one, are created by interpreting the texts too literally.  Because we often return the favor of Genesis and create God in our own image, we picture God like us, in anthropomorphic terms.  But according to Jesus, “God is spirit” (John 4:24) and “No one has seen God” (John 1:18).

This text in Deuteronomy does not mean Moses saw God up close and personal and had an opportunity to snap a picture of Yahweh on his iPhone.  It does mean he had face time with God, intimacy, closeness.  That’s the spiritual connection that inspired and empowered Moses to faithfully lead an unruly band of stiff-necked, rebellious pilgrims from slavery and death to new life in the Promised Land.

We can have that same intimate, vigorous, passionate relationship with God too if we are willing to do the Holy Hokey Pokey and put our whole selves in.

“To Pay Taxes or Not, That is the Question,” Matthew 22:15-22

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Values

There’s an old joke where you ask someone, “Have you stopped beating your wife?”  There is no good way to answer that question.  In this Gospel text from Matthew 22 the Pharisees try to trap Jesus by asking him a trick question like that one.   They ask him, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”  The question is loaded because paying taxes to Rome was a hot political topic that provoked a revolt some 30 years later in 66 CE.  For Jesus to say “yes” would anger Jewish nationalists chaffing under Roman oppression.  To say “no” would be illegal and treasonous.  They have Jesus between a rock and hard place, or so they think.

I had not noticed that word “lawful” before in this text.  How many things can we think of that are perfectly lawful or legal but highly questionable ethically?  Owning human beings was lawful and quite profitable in this country and most of the world for centuries—including Biblical times—and human trafficking is an increasing problem to this day.  Denying women equal rights is still legal in much of the world and was in the U.S. for most of our history.  And if you or any women you know have bumped into any glass ceilings lately you know it still is in practice.  Those who benefited from sub-prime mortgages that helped create the economic mess we are in were well within the law because those with money and power make the rules we play by.

I like Mark’s version of this text better than Matthew’s.  Mark (12:15) adds a second question to the dialogue that raises the bar.  In Mark, after asking if it’s lawful to pay taxes the Pharisees also say, “Should we pay them, or should we not?”  That question pushes the stakes from a purely legal level to an ethical one.  Human laws, because they are created by fallible human beings, change with the swings of the political pendulum.  Think about prohibition or Blue Laws, for example.  Back in the 1972 when I was even more naïve than I am today I remember celebrating the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the existing capital punishment law was unconstitutional.  I thought, “Good, we can finally check that cause off the liberal agenda.”   But it only took 9 years for the political winds to shift again.  According to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections website, “After drafting a new law to reflect the strict criteria for the imposition of the death sentence, Ohio lawmakers enacted the current capital punishment statute, which took effect October 19, 1981.”  Human laws come and go, but God’s laws, the true standard of what we should and should not do, regardless of what the empire’s laws du jour say, is as constant as the rising and setting of the sun.

Jesus is not taken in by the Pharisee’s trickery.  The three synoptic gospels agree on this point, but they use different words to describe the situation, at least according to the NSRV translations.  Where Matthew says Jesus was “aware of their malice,” Mark uses “hypocrisy,” and Luke a bit milder term, “craftiness.”  Whatever the adjective, Jesus sees through the scam and trumps their cleverness with some of his own.  He asks to see a Roman coin.  He apparently doesn’t have one, but the Pharisees do; which makes a very subtle point we should not miss.  The inscription on the coin would have read, “Tiberius Caesar, the Majestic Son of God, the High Priest,” or “Tiberius Caesar, son of the Divine Augustus, the High Priest.”  Modest fellows, those emperors.  (For a similar dramatic encounter between divine and human authority, read Daniel 4 and the account of Daniel not so subtly reminding King Nebuchadnezzar of his rightful place in the divine pecking order.)

The point is that it would have been blasphemous for a good Jew to have these Roman coins in their possession.  The Romans provided a generic coin for the pious Jews who objected to these coins on religious principles.  So for these Pharisees to have one of these Roman coins in their possession immediately shows they have compromised their faith.   But, before we are too quick to cast stones at the Pharisees, let’s ask ourselves how we compromise our own values and faith?

  • What kind of deals do we make with our culture and popular society because it’s just easier to go along with the crowd than to stand up for what we believe?
  • Anyone have any stock in companies that are helping to destroy our environment or compound the epidemic of home foreclosures?  Do we even know where our pension money or mutual funds are invested?  Do we care as long as they are (or were) making money for us?
  • Do we pay taxes to support wars or other causes we don’t believe in?  Are we using our political power to try and change those practices?
  • Do we support companies that exploit women by using sex to sell everything from Audis to  Zest soap?  Do we watch violent TV programs or buy brutal video games for our children?  Are we addicted to watching overpaid athletes?
  • Do we buy lottery tickets when we know gambling preys on those who can least afford it?
  • Do we feed junk food to our kids because it’s easier than cooking a healthy meal?
  • Are we intimidated by friends or powerful lobbies to ignore the mayhem on our streets by not speaking out against the insane proliferation of hand guns in our society?
  • Do we turn a blind eye to unethical business practices for fear of losing a much-needed job?

The bottom line in the Gospel lesson and in all of those questions is, “Who really has ultimate authority over our lives?”  Is it the most high priests of wealth and power, or is it Almighty God, our creator and final judge of how we live our lives?

There’s a very short answer to this dilemma.  Jesus says, “Give the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (v. 21).  The trick of course is to figure out which is which, and the simple answer is nothing really belongs to Caesar or Uncle Sam or any earthly authority.  The Biblical position on that is crystal clear.  Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”  That pretty well covers it all.  Even Paul, a Roman citizen who is frequently cited (Romans 13:1) by advocates of total obedience to government authority, quotes that verse from the Psalms in I Corinthians 10:26.  Numerous other New Testament texts argue strongly for ultimate obedience to God when there is a conflict between divine and human authority (I Peter 1:1, Phil. 3:20).  Perhaps none is clearer than Acts 5:29 where Peter and other apostles are under arrest for teaching the Gospel and their defense is simply, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.”

Jesus is painfully clear on multiple occasions that God’s authority trumps any other competing allegiance life tempts us with–wealth, comfort, family, even honoring the dead:

  • “If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of me; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of me.” (Matt. 10:37)
  • “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:60)
  • “One thing you lack,” he said (to a rich young ruler who kept all the commandments). “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”  (Mark 10:21)
  • “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”  (Matt. 19:24)

The Pharisees would have been all too familiar with these radical teachings of Jesus.  In fact, some of them got the point when he said “Give the emperor what is the emperor’s and God what is God’s.”  At Jesus’ trial before Pilate one of the charges leveled at Jesus is that “We found this man perverting our nation, forbidding us to pay taxes to the emperor” (Luke 23:2).

No, Jesus didn’t say that exactly. But he does lay the burden of choosing between competing commitments squarely upon each of us.  Paying taxes as part of a democratic society is a necessary cost of doing business and creating an orderly civilization where together we can provide services for everyone better than individuals or families can do so themselves.  How would it look if we all had to build our own roads and other infrastructure or provide for education, law enforcement, emergency services, or defense?  As idealistic as it may sound, families and churches and other charitable organizations caring for all the poor and elderly and sick without a society-wide network of support is simply not practical in the complex world we live in where extended families are scattered and badly over-extended.  We all know very well that not all taxes are just or equitable or necessary – but most are, and our job as citizens and people of faith is to work within the political system, broken and imperfect as it is, to make human authority as much like God’s plan for humanity as we possibly can.

We pray it all the time, “Thy Kingdom Come on earth as it is in heaven.”  Jesus challenges us to put our allegiance where our mouths are and make choices in every area of our lives so we “Give to the emperor what is the emperor’s, and to God what is God’s.”