Blame Game

John 9:1-41

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The earthquake came without warning creating a crushing tsunami that engulfed the city.  More than 100,000 people perished.  Many wondered, “Was God angry?  Was this His will?  Was this His judgment on a sinful world?  The city was Lisbon, Portugal.  The date: November 1, 1755, All Saint’s Day in the Roman Catholic Church.

            Three centuries pass and another earthquake creates another crushing tsunami and again well more than 100,000 die.  In hardest hit Banda Aceh, Indonesia, Muslim clerics wondered if Allah caused this disaster because people were shirking their daily prayers and following a materialistic lifestyle.  In Israel, Shepardic chief rabbi Shlomo Amar said, “this is an expression of God’s wrath with the world.  The world is being punished for wrongdoing-be it people’s needless hatred of each other, lack of charity, moral decline.”  In Sri Lanka Buddhist survivors recalled the story of a tsunami that flooded that island kingdom 2,200 years ago when a king killed a Buddhist monk in a fit of anger.  They wonder which political leader angered the sea gods this time.  For some Hindus it was a matter of bad karma, the result of sins committed in previous lifetimes.[1] 

Assigning blame, finding fault is an instinctive human response.  Even though the explanations do not really change anything, the dead remain dead and the survivors continue their struggle, the reasons are still important because they make the world understandable and so more predictable.  They bring, we think, order out of the chaos.  If you know why a bad thing happened, you can change your behavior and so control your future.

That’s why everyone got so bent out of shape when Jesus assigned no blame for the personal tragedy of a man born blind. If you cannot find fault and assign blame, then this kind of thing could happen to anyone, could happen to you, and that’s too scary to think about.

  Jesus was not some much about looking backward as he is about looking forward.  His question was not, “Why did this happen?”  His question is, “What are you going to do about it now?  Before we think about our response, let us pray:

Lord, it is never a question of “if” we must go through some dark valley.  It is always a matter of “when”, because everyone who lives and breathes and moves will sometime bump into something that hurts.  If it hurts bad enough we lift our eyes to the heavens and ask “why?”  “What did I do to deserve this?”  If possible, help us to understand.  If not, help us to move forward and ask, “what now?” Grant us the eyes and hears to hear and the faith to respond.  Amen.

            “As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth, and his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”[2]  The question is as old as time.  People always want to assign blame. For the disciples, this was a spiritual law of Physics, “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”[3]  Every effect has a cause, so someone who suffers some affliction or loss must have done something to deserve it.

            Even though the Book of Job refuted this understanding it remained a popular because it was so simple.  It was an A=B formula.  All you needed was one side of the equation to figure out the other.  Since the disciples could see the man was blind they concluded some sin caused this effect.  Their only question was who did wrong, the victim or his parents?  Who do we blame?

            Jesus response is tricky and easy to misunderstand.  Your Bible says, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”[4]  On the surface Jesus’ answer seems to shift the blame from the man or his parents to God.  It appears as if God made him blind so that Jesus could come along later and make him see.  If that’s the way we read it, God appears cruel and a little bit of a show-off.  This man should suffer this infirmity for years so that he could be a pawn in Jesus’ magic act?

            Whenever I encounter one of these difficult verses, I go back to the original language.  I knew Seminary would pay off some day.  The critical Greek word is spelled iota, nu, alpha and pronounced “ina”.   It is translated as “so that”.  It is a purpose clause that points to the reason for something happening.

            Many translators think the word points backward to the question “why” and comes up with God as the answer.  But, others believe it points forward to the question “what now?”  If that is the case it might better be translated, “So that the work of God might be displayed in his life, we must do the work of him who sent me.” One scholar put this way,  “God had not made the man blind in order to show his glory; rather, God has sent Jesus to do works of healing in order to show his glory.”[5]            

            This man could have been born blind for any number of medical reasons. “What now” matters much more than the endless question “why”? For the man born blind “what now” was answered when Jesus spat in some dirt and made a poultice of mud, placed it on his eyes and said, “I am the light of the world.”[6] When this man born blind washed the mud off in the pool of Siloam he could see for the first time in his life.

            What follows is a sad commentary on the human condition, because no one, not the neighbors, or religious leaders or even his family rejoice or give thanks for this miracle.  No one shouts “Alleluia” or “Praise the Lord”.

            Why?  Why was no one particularly happy with this miracle?

            For the Pharisees the answer is simple.  Jesus healed this man on the Sabbath and he did it after they had told him not to.  Today many look at this kind of thing as rigid fundamentalism, as blind adherence to outdated religious rules and so smugly reject the notion that we should be bound by any of these rules at all.  For many, the Ten Commandments have been whittled down to two or three suggestions that are not too hard to keep.

            For the Pharisees these commandments were important because they believed they came from God and they also protected the identity of the Jewish people.  Remember, they were living under Roman rule, so the temptation was strong for people to go along to get along.  Give up kosher and the Sabbath and you might stand a better chance for promotion in the Roman Civil service.

            That’s why the Pharisees were so strong on the Sabbath.  This was one of the distinctive characteristics of Judaism.  It marked and shaped their identity.  So, they concluded this healing could not have come from God, because God would not break his own commandment to honor the Sabbath day.[7]

            Others did not rejoice in the miracle because they did not believe in miracles.  The supernatural challenged everything they believed about a natural world they could understand through empirical observation and carefully crafted formulas.  They liked the idea of cause and effect, but had a hard time believing Jesus could cause such an effect, because he looked like one of them, and since they could not do such a thing concluded he could not as well.  So the man must not really have been blind.  He must have been faking it these last thirty years.

            While everyone was debating the theological nuances of this event, the man who could now see stared in awe at his hands, the sky, and the faces he recognized only by the sound of their voice. His wonder was interrupted when it finally occurred to someone that they ought to ask the man who was at the center of it all.  Leave it to some know-it-all to interrupt a perfectly good argument in order ask a question and try to figure what is really going on?

            “What do you say about Jesus?  It was your eyes he opened.”  The man thought he must be a prophet.  When they pushed him further by saying he didn’t understand the theological implications of such a statement, he responded, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.  If this man were not from God he could have done nothing.”[8]

            In other words, the know-it-alls turned out to know nothing-at-all.  This was beyond their experience and so it made no sense to them.  Rather than admit they might not understand the cause for every effect, they tried to bend the facts to fit their assumptions.

            So, it did not occur to the Pharisees that they might not understand all that God intended for the Sabbath; that its purpose is for healing and wholeness.  It did not occur to those who confined their understanding of the world to the things they could see and touch and explain that there may be truths beyond their senses.  There might be effects for which they could see no cause.   Life may not be as simple as they’d like to think.  There may be events beyond our understanding, some tragedies for which we will never see a reason.  Rather than dwell on this endless question, “Why”, maybe we ought to ask  “What now?”

            One who understood this better than most was a boy who grew up not far from here.  Mattie Stepanek was diagnosed very early in his life with a particularly aggressive form of muscular dystrophy.  He struggled always with the physical disability this disease caused.  He faced the loss of three siblings who died from this same illness and so prophesied his end as well.  Wise beyond his years Mattie channeled his suffering through poetry, publishing five books before his death at the age of fourteen.  His mother Jennie shared with me a prayer he called “An Examination of Faith” written when he was only five years old of five, Mattie struggled with this question of “why” and concluded with “what now?”

Dear God,

When Mommy told me that

The little baby growing in Margie

Died last night,

I was surprised and angry.

I prayed to You, God.

I prayed every night an

I prayed every day and

We all prayed that this

Sweet little baby would live.

When Mommy told me that

The baby died, I said,

“Then our prayers didn’t work!”

God didn’t listen! God didn’t

Make a miracle for the baby!”

Mommy said that You

Always listen to our prayers,

But sometimes Your Answer

Is not what we were wishing for.

And “prayers” are not “wishes.”

She said that maybe letting

The baby come into Heaven

As such a tiny angel was a miracle.

There are miracles every single day

Except we don’t always notice them,

Because we were hoping or wanting for

Something different that what we got.

So God,

Thank You for all the miracles

You give to us each day.

And thank You for listening

To all of our prayers.

And even though I am sad about

Margie’s baby, I am not angry with You.

Amen.[9]

           

           

             

           

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[1] Broadway, Bill:  Divining a Reason for Devastation.  Washington Post, January 8, 2005.  B-9.

[2] John 9:1

[3] Conservation of Momentum

[4] John 9:3

[5] Burge, Gary:  The NIV Application Bible: John. Zondervan Publishing, Grand Rapids Michigan. 2000. pg 273.

[6] John 9:5-6

[7] Exodus 20:8

[8] John 9:17, 30, 33

[9] Stepanek, Mattie J.T. – “Hope through Heartsongs”. Hyperion. N.Y. 2000. pg 25.

Three Strikes and Still not Out!

John 4:1-15

March 23, 2014

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            There’s an old preacher’s story about the day Ted Williams the late great baseball player and Sam Snead the best golfer of that era played a round of golf together.  Before they teed up they got into a discussion about which sport was harder.  Sam thought golf was more difficult.  Ted responded, “How can golf be harder?  The ball just sits there on a tee waiting to be hit.  Everyone is quiet as a church, and only when you are ready do you swing at it.  In baseball everyone is yelling and the pitcher is throwing a ninety mile an hour fast ball at you and it moves all over the place.  Baseball is much more difficult than golf.

            With that, Ted reared back and sliced his ball deep into the woods.  Sam said, “In golf, you have to play your foul balls.”  

In our story today Jesus encountered a woman handicapped by circumstances beyond her control.  Worse than that she had gotten herself deep in the woods.  She was ready to just give up when Jesus offered her another opportunity to take another swing at life, to begin again.  He does the same for us if we let him.  Before this game begins, let us pray:

Lord, in a world filled with distraction and diversion, talking about you often replaces the more intimate moments when we actually talk to you.  We argue about the finer points of theology, but miss the big picture.  Help us to worship you now in spirit and in truth so that we may receive what you so eagerly long to give – living water that wells up into eternal life.  Open our eyes that we may see, our ears that we may hear, and our hearts that we may receive.  Amen.

During the coming summer months, in every state in the union, and in many other countries as well, boys and girls from 6 to 60 will gather in fields and playgrounds and stadiums.  Their purpose: to smash a small white ball with a stick of wood, and then run around a pre-designated course, ending eventually in the same spot where they began.  This is called fun.  It is also called baseball.

            Baseball has been in the news a lot lately.  Those who watch the news have seen sports reporters in short sleeve shirts deliver their stories standing on emerald green grass at a Florida field.  It is a sign of hope.  Spring is coming.

            I think it is no accident that so many Americans enjoy playing and watching this game because it reflects the way many of us look at life.  Let me explain.

            We come into this world and for the first few years’ life is pretty easy.  We are nestled in the warmth and security of a home.  Meals are regular and all we need do is look cute and learn a few social customs that our parents try very hard to teach. 

            Then one day a big yellow bus stops in front of our door and hauls us off to the minor leagues to learn the needed skills and knowledge to insure our latter success.  Some of us spend a dozen years in the minors, some fourteen; some sixteen, and some seem to stick around in this league forever.

            Finally, with great pomp and circumstance we are called up from the minors and thrust into the major league.  We are given a bat and told to go up to the plate.  Then, to add to the pressure you are told that you only get so many chances so don’t mess up.  This is usually cloaked in phrases like, “You only go around once in life”, so don’t blow this interview or you’ll never get a good job, or a promotion.  You’ll never get ahead in this world.  You’ll be stuck on the bench consigned watch while the rest of the world takes the field.

            Some of us march up to the plate and on the first swing crack a homerun.  You’ve known people like that.  They are just naturally successful at whatever they do.  Where you have to work and sweat to get the job done, they seem accomplish the same task with ease.

            Others make it to first or second or third.  Others ground out.  There are many and varied degrees of success.

            Some, for all their concentration and effort and sincerity just can’t hit the ball at all.  They try again and again and again, but to no avail.  They strike out so plop down into an easy chair and stare at the T.V. sure that there will be no more chances.

            I think most of us have felt like that at one time or another.  We’ve had that Charlie Brown feeling as he stares down at the plate muttering, “How could I strike out?  I tried so hard!”

            Sometimes, out of our disappointment make excuses, “If only I were smarter, stronger, prettier, things would be different.  If only I had more money, if only I were taller, if only I weren’t so tall.”  There’s no real comfort in these, but they do allow us to return to the bench and not feel quite so bad about our failures.  They also keep us from getting back in the game.  We tell ourselves, “Why try?  I’m not good enough.”

            When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, she already had three strikes against her.  Two were chalked up against her the day she was born, and one was all her own doing, so she had all but given up.

            Strike one.  She was by birth a Samaritan.  To understand what that meant, you would have to be born black in Mississippi during the days of Jim Crow.  You would have had to suffer the indignity of riding in the back of the bus and drinking from separate water fountains. You would have to hear the name of your race spit out as a curse. That’s what it meant to be a Samaritan.

            Strike two.  She was born a she, a woman in a patriarchal society.  At that time a woman had no vote and no say in the temple or synagogue or politic.  At that time it was forbidden for a Rabbi to speak with a woman in public and some even refused to speak to their wives, though I’m not so sure theology was always the reason for that.

            This is why the woman at the well was so surprised when Jesus spoke to her at all.  She was a second-class citizen and knew it.

            These first two strikes were called against her for reasons of he birth and birth alone.  She started life two steps back.

The third strike was all on her.  Jesus said, “Go call your husband.”  She answered, “I have no husband.”  Jesus said, “That’s right.  You’ve had five husbands and the man you are with now is not your husband.”[1] That’s why she was at the well in the heat of the day. The rest of the women in the village would have nothing to do with her.  They let her know in no uncertain terms that she was not welcome to join them in their early morning water run.

So, her reputation preceded her wherever she went. Gossip is the serpent’s whisper that hisses behind your back. So, she was left on the bench when the rest of the team took the field. 

No one chose her when teams were chosen because they had already judged her incapable of fully participating in the game.

Three strikes and you’re out, out of luck and out of chances.  No discussion and no arguing with the umpire will ever change the rules of the game.

Alone and forgotten under a hot Palestinian sun, she lowered her jug into the well and slowly pulled it up.  When she finally set it on the ledge, she looked up she saw Jesus looking at her and he asked her for a drink.  It was a little thing, but the impact was immediate.  Here was Jesus, a man, a Jew, a Rabbi, and he asked her for a favor, put her in a superior position.  The woman knew something was wrong with this picture.

“How is it that you a Jew ask a drink of me, a woman from Samaria?”[2]  We see a little bit later, Jesus’ disciples were just as astonished.[3]  This kind of thing was just not done.  Cultural conventions are there for a reason.  They provide structure and order so that you don’t have to think about things too much. You don’t have to get to know people to understand them.  Instead you size them up quickly by race and gender, by wardrobe and speech and then burn a brand on the forehead and consign them to the appropriate shelf.

Jesus would have none of that because he forgot to bring his label maker to Bethlehem.  All he can do then is look people in the eye and into their hearts.  He could see whom this woman was and knew what she had done, but when Jesus plays this game he doesn’t call you out after the third strike and send you to the bench.

Instead, he does what no umpire ever does.  He reached around this woman and held his hands on here hands and says, “Let’s try it again, only this time watch me.”

That’s the offer he made when he said to her, “The water I give will become a well spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”[4]

Jesus later describes that water this way, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, 'Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.' " The Bible says he meant this as a metaphor for the Spirit.”[5]

Jesus said to this woman whose soul was cracked and parched as dry as this sun baked land, “Come to me and you won’t be thirsty any more. You will receive new life an eternal life, life in the spirit.”

Now, Bible scholars will break this phrase down into little pieces.  They will cross-reference each word and parse the Greek to figure out exactly what this life in the Spirit means.  What I’d like you do today is watch what this new life in the Spirit did for this woman at the well.

When she received this living water she leaves her water jug at the well, the one that held ordinary water because Jesus was right.  The water he gave came gushing up out of her.  The last we see of her she’s up off the bench and running to town as fast as she can to tell the exact same people who rejected her that she has met the Messiah.  Something has so changed in her life that she is eager to get back in the game.  That’s what most of us are looking for. 

Another great spiritual coach put it this way.  “It ain’t over till it’s over.”[6]  So get up there and take another swing.

How many stories do we find in the gospel like that?

Jesus kneels down next to a woman facing an angry crowd filled with righteous indignation over her sin of adultery, doodles their sins in the dust and says, “Whoever is without sin, let him cast the first stone.”  When they fade into the shadows of regret he turns to the woman and says, “Go and sin no more.”[7]  Take another swing.  Stand up and try again.  Only this time let the spirit guide you.

Zacheus and the Prodigal son, Mary Magdalene and this Samaritan woman and many in this sanctuary all tell the same story.  When they thought they had struck out in life and began shuffling back to the dugout to sit on the bench and watch life go by, Jesus called them back and said, “Let’s give it another try”, and then encircled them with his arms and said, “This time try to do it like this.  Watch me.”

The world is filled with strikeout victims, with people who expect to be benched because they didn’t measure up.  It is filled with people who through no fault of their own were born into situation and circumstance that never gave them a chance.  It is filled with people who because the choices they made, swing and miss and miss again. It is filled with people who have given in and given up.

To each and everyone Jesus says, “Let’s give this another try.  This time, watch me.”  Let each of us “look to Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith.”[8]

Lord, all of us know what it means to swing and miss.  All of us have found ourselves in the rough trying to hack our way out.  Sometimes we are tempted to give in and give up.  Meet us where we are, we pray, as you met that long ago woman where she was. Pick us up so that we may try again and keep our eyes upon you.  Grant us the same living water that leads to eternal life.  Amen.

           

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[1] John 4:16-17

[2] John  4:9

[3] John 4:27

[4] John 4:14

[5] John 7:37-39

[6] Jogi Berra

[7] John 8:1-11

[8] Hebrews 12:2

Make Time for the Children

Mark 9:33-37

Mark 10:13-16

March 16, 2014

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            I’ve asked this question over the years. On Tuesday I asked our program staff,  “If you could recapture one quality you had as a child, but lost as an adult, what would that one quality be?  Here are some of their responses.

            One said, “I wish I could regain that absolute sense of trust that children have in others.  That simple faith has faded, but I wish I could have it back.”  Another said, “I wish I could recapture that sense of unbridled enthusiasm for life.  Children shed all inhibitions when they play and become lost in the moment. They are completely engrossed in what they are doing.  I am always thinking about what I have to do next. Life is an endless “to do” list.”  Another added, “Wonder! Children look at the world through eyes of wonder.  They are amazed at simple things like the hatching of a baby chick; they are awed by the blare of a fire engine siren. Nothing surprises me anymore. Life has become ‘been there - done that.’”  “Innocence,” cited one more, “to face life once more without a sense of jaded cynicism.”

            What childhood quality would you like to embrace once more?  Trust? Wonder? Enthusiasm? Innocence?  For many of us these are distant memories.  The world has been hard and harsh; so in defense we gradually protect our hearts with a wall because someone has betrayed us.   We look at life through dark  glasses because we have lost the ability to be dazzled.  In other words we have lost our connection with what some psychologists call, “the inner child.”

            Jesus understood the magnitude of that loss because he saw a quality in children that is essential to our salvation. He said,  “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Mark 10:15) There is some kind of  “child-like” character which is key to our relationship with God. There is something children have, that we often lack, which forms the bridge between ourselves and God.  Before we go back to the days of our youth to search for that quality; let us go before the Lord in prayer:

            God, we come to you as your children who have lost the wonder of child-hood.  Faith has faded and trust tainted with a sense of jaded cynicism. Lord, help us to recapture that childhood sense of utter dependence upon you.  Restore within us the wonder of our youth.  Grant us, once more that sense of enthusiasm that we once had.  Help us to receive your kingdom as a child.  Amen.

            The scene has been painted a hundred times.  It hangs in a thousand churches.  Jesus is sitting on a rock, and he is covered with children-climbing, laughing, smiling children.  His hands rest upon their heads in the form of a blessing and he is also smiling. The scene is touching, nearly sentimental; and it almost didn’t happen.

            Parents then, as parents do today, brought their children to Jesus.  For they recognized in Jesus the presence of God; and they believed God would make all the difference in the lives of those children.  They believed that a child who grows in faith will grow in self-confidence.  They believed that a child who grows in the love of God will learn to love deeply.  They believed that God will hold every child given to him in the palm of his hand.  That is why they brought their children to Jesus.  That is why parents bring their children to Jesus today. That is the meaning of the waters of baptism.  That is the purpose of our Sunday School program which flows from those waters.

            In this passage conflict emerged between those who saw children as being a bother and Jesus who saw children as being a blessing.  When the children began to climb upon his lap and pull at his beard, the disciples stepped in to shoo the kids away.  Now, I am sure that Peter and James and John loved kids as much as anyone.  The New Testament does not portray them as Scrooges.

            I don’t think the disciples were like that; I think they just came from the old school that said, “Children should be seen and not heard.”  I think they believed that these kids were encroaching on the dignity of Jesus.  They were concerned about appearances and Jesus’ public image.  They wanted people to see Jesus as serious.  Rolling around on the grass with a bunch of frolicking kids did not fit into that image.  It made Jesus look like a favorite uncle.  To their way of thinking, all of this cavorting was just not “solemn”  which they equated with “spiritual”.

            So, worship for them was whispers not laughter, frowns and not smiles, stilted and not stirring.  That view of worship has followed many disciples of Jesus to this day.

            My father told me the story of the Session of a church they attended in Florida.  The congregation is in the midst of a large retirement community, so most of the members are collecting social security checks.  He said the one recurring theme of every Session meeting bemoaned the absence of young people.  The elders thought the health and vitality of their congregation was measured by either the absence or the addition of young families.

            So, they strategized and studied on this question, “How do we get families with children to come?”  They fixed the immediate and obvious problems.  They created a nursery and a small Sunday School program.  They started a Vacation Bible School program to reach out into the community.  But, there was a deeper problem that was not so easily fixed.

            This problem surfaced the day a young single mother brought her brood to church.  She had four kids, two years apart from the baby to the six year old. No one told her about the nursery hidden upstairs, so she just marched her family in and sat down.  Now, my Father said, “the kids weren’t bad or even disruptive, but they were kids - a little bit fidgety in a new and strange place.  It was obvious that she was doing her best to pay attention to God and her four kids.  Sometimes, the kids took precedence.”

            After worship my Dad said he made a bee-line to the mother to welcome her to their church, but he didn’t make it in time.  Immediately ahead of him was one of the other elders and he was criticizing her for bringing her kids into the worship service.  He told her that they had ruined “his” worship service.  The damage was done.  She never came back.  But, at the very next Session meeting that same critical elder was bemoaning the lack of children in their congregation.  He wanted children; but he wanted them to be seen and not heard.

            Now, before we focus on the speck in the eye of that elder to the south we need to look at the log in our own eye as well. (Matthew 7:3) Our church is blessed with many wonderful children. It is not children we lack; it is people who are willing to spend an hour a week in a Sunday School class or at a youth meeting that we are wanting.

We reveal our real attitudes toward our kids, the values that we really hold, in the time and effort we are willing to commit to them.  If our desire is to just drop them off in a Sunday School class, or at a youth meeting, or at a children’s choir, but we are unwilling to pitch in and help - then were are not much different from that southern elder or from the disciples who want “children to be seen and not heard.” If  we believe that we did our duty when we were younger or that we are absolved from responsibility because we do not have children, then we miss the point that Jesus made when he said, “Let the children come unto me, do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.”(Mark 10:14)  “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me and receives Him who sent me.” (Mark 9:37)

            When we do volunteer and become involved in the lives of the children of our congregration, we often receive as much as we share.  We learn to see the world once more through fresh eyes.

            A child spontaneously enjoys life, but we don’t...not very often.  The poet T.S. Eliot sums up our condition with this verse:

Where is the Life we have lost in living?

            Where is the Wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

            Where is the Knowledge we have lost in information?

            The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries,

            Bring us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.”

            What child-like quality does Jesus yearn to see in us?  Is it wonder and awe, enthusiasm and spontaneity, innocence and faith?  Perhaps he desires to see all of these;  but more  important is that utter lack of pretense that is found in the humility of a child.

            These verses follow Jesus’ introduction to the cross.  Jesus, for the first time, tells us explicitly that those who would be his disciples must learn to depend not upon their own wisdom, wealth, or good look; but to depend upon the power of God that is revealed to us through the cross.  Peter misses the point and contradicts Jesus, telling him he is wrong. (Mark 8:33)  James and John miss the point and get into an argument about who shall be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  They didn’t understand that the power of the cross is unlike power as we usually understand it. The power of the cross is not measured in kilotons, or platoons; it is not measured in wealth or worldly influence.  The cross does not force, but persuades; it does not mandate but bids us to follow and to lay our burdens down.

            What children know, what we sometimes forget; is that when you are hurt you run home.   Dr. Robert Cleveland Holland, one of my mentors told this story:

“One day this summer in front of our cottage, three children were playing together who often do -- two brothers, four and six, and a little girl who is about seven.  One of the boys was Superman- he had the big ‘S’ on his chest, and the blue satin cape.  Superman fell on the sidewalk and hurt himself.  Without a sound Superman picked himself up and ran down the walk to where his mother was supposed to be.  She wasn’t in the yard, so Superman looked out back but she wasn’t in the back, so he looked on the sun porch, and there she was. Having found her, then, only then, did Superman begin to cry as he showed her his ravaged knee.  I thought to myself, what a pantomime of trust.  Even Superman comes running, believing, relying on, trusting his mother.”

            That is the one child-like quality that is essential for salvation.  We do not enter the kingdom of God, Jesus said, “unless we receive it as a little child”.  As long as we try to pretend that we are super men and women; as long as we maintain the facade that we are in control; as long as we lean on our own understanding, we will not trust in the Lord with all of our heart, and he will not make straight our paths. (Proverbs 3:5)

            Children know automatically that they do not understand everything, and that there is much yet to learn.  Children know that they are not in control.  Children have sense enough to run home when they fall down.  That is what we often forget, and that is what we need to learn.

                        That’s the lesson we learn from children.  They are ready to be filled, they are eager to be filled; but we so often are too filled with ourselves to let God in.  So, this morning I am inviting you to empty your life of those feelings of self-importance, to lay down the regrets you carry from yesterday and the worries you hold for tomorrow, and let yourself be filled with Christ.  That is the key to God’s kingdom.

Let us pray;

God, our Father, help us to truly be Your children.  Help us, where we need it, to become like children in our approach to life and to our faith.  We ask now that if there is anyone here who needs to be renewed in Jesus Christ that Your Spirit will touch that person’s life right now, and that the change will take place.  We pray in Christ name.

Wrestling with Angels

Genesis 32:22-31

March 2, 2014

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            In the book of Ecclesiastes the writer observed, “Then I saw that all the toil and all skill in work come from a man’s envy of his neighbor.  This also is vanity and striving after the wind.”[1]  His attitude is either fairly cynical or it is right on the mark.  It all depends on the way you look at life.  Do people spend most of their time striving after the things they see in their neighbor’s homes?  Does envy really drive most people to pursue greater wealth, and power and prestige?   Do we really just strive after the wind? Is that all we are about?  Is there something or someone higher for which we might reach?

            There’s an old saying that warns, “When climbing the ladder of success, make sure it’s leaning in the right direction.”

            In our scripture today, Jacob finally realized his ladder had been leaning the wrong way and he had been “striving after the wind”.  He wants to make things right with his long lost brother, and he wants to make thing right with God.  Changing directions like that can be a struggle and it can even leave you scared and a bit scarred, but there is blessing to be found at the end of the striving.  That’s where Jacob went.  That’s where were going.  Let us pray:

            Lord, each and every one of us has faced our own spiritual struggles.  Doubts have troubled our minds and regrets have stung the soul. So much of our lives consist in striving for things that will not last.  Grant in this time O Lord, a greater understanding to answer the doubts, forgiveness to salve the soul, and wisdom to lean our ladders in the right direction.  This we pray through Jesus, through whom we all may see your face.  Amen.

            A lot of families have a guy like this.  He’s a hustler, a wheeler-dealer, and a con artist.  He’s the one who shows up at the reunions every year with a new scheme, the inside track, and a great deal.  Lend him a thousand bucks, and he swears he’ll return it ten-fold, but if you do you’ll never see that money again. He’ll think nothing of using members of his own family to get what he wants.

            Jacob was that guy.  He was shrewd and without scruples.  He’d even hustle his own father and brother to get what he wanted.  Jacob was the consummate bargainer.  Everything had a price.

            But, one day he went too far, the deal went sour.  He tricked his half-starved brother Esau into selling his birthright for a bowl of porridge and he tricked his half-blind father into bestowing the blessing that belonged to Esau, and when his older brother found out, when his bigger stronger and angrier brother found out, Jacob quickly concluded that retreat was the better part of valor.  His mother told him to head for the hills and she would send for him when Esau cooled off.[2]

            That was twenty years ago, and Jacob still had not heard from mom.  Esau evidently knew how to hold a grudge.  Jacob had not wasted those years.  He had grown wealthy in his own right and taken a few wives, but he continued in his hustling wheeling dealing ways, cheating his own uncle along the way. 

            I think he would have continued to strive after the wind had God not intervened.  With one of those graphic images for which Genesis is so well known, Jacob had a dream about a ladder different from the one he had been climbing.  This ladder led up to heaven.  On that ladder angels were ascending and descending.  We even sing of this event in that old Bible School song, “We are climbing Jacob’s Ladder”.

 But, in this vision at no time does Jacob or any other human being climb this ladder.  We don’t climb Jacob’s ladder up to heaven.  Instead, it is used by the angels of God as an image of God’s ministry coming down to people.  The ladder is about God coming down to meet us where we are.  In that sense it is a little bit like that babe born in a manger in Bethlehem.

            When Jacob woke from his dream, he came to the startling conclusion, “The Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”[3]  With that revelation Jacob knew that his life must change.  He realized his ladder had been leaning in the wrong direction.  He could not continue striving after the wind while knowing that God was in this place.  He could not live the way he had been living with the knowledge that the Lord is in this place. The Lord changes everything.

 After that vision, Jacob set up an altar of stone and named the place, Beth-el, which means House of God.  He also began the custom of tithing, of giving a tenth of all he had to God, so you can thank him for that.[4]  It is a spiritual discipline many believers follow to this day.

            Life went on after that.  He married Leah and Rachel and built up his herds, but beneath the surface of his success and in the background was that pinprick reminder that he is where he is because he did he did his father wrong and because he betrayed his brother.  He cannot live where God is and ignore the sin he committed.  It whispered to him in the wind of the night – Esau.  He could not live where God is and not be reconciled with his brother.  When you know that God is in this place you must do what you can to live at peace with others.

            This soul struggle went on for some time, because reconciliation does not come without risk, and Jacob considered carefully the cost.  Mom had still not sent word that Esau had cooled off.  He had no idea how he would be received, but still he had to go.  If he was ever going to find peace, he had to go.

            So, off he went with his family and flocks and servants.  The closer he came to Esau, the more his fears grew.  When Esau heard Jacob was coming he went out to meet him and brought four hundred of his best men to boot.  Whether this would be war or welcome, Jacob did not know.

            On the night before this fateful meeting this question of war or welcome rattled around Jacob’s mind. He could not sleep so he wandered across the Jabbok River.  The Bible says, “Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.”[5]  Who this man was, the Bible at this point does not say.  The prophet Hosea later identified this man as an angel, and that the angel represented God, so Jacob’s struggle was really with the Lord.[6]

            If that is the case, if Jacob’s struggle was really with God, then there is a theological dilemma here, because Jacob wins the fight.  The name that Jacob received from God as a kind of reward or trophy for this contest is “Israel”, which is translated here as “striving with God and prevailed.”[7]

            The question many have is how can a man fight against God and win.  Most of us believe like that old Broadway show proclaims, “You’re arms are too short to box with God.”  Does this story mean that in this case mean that at the end of the game the score was Jacob – 1, God- 0?

            Well, it depends on what your definition of victory is.  What was Jacob really striving for here?  He’s looking to make peace with his brother and as a consequence he’s also trying to “see the face of God”.  He is trying to come closer to God.  He is seeking the blessing of God and the best pathway to do that was to repent and confess his sin and seek forgiveness and reconciliation with is brother.  That is what Jacob wants and it is what God had seeking all along. 

            The Lord wanted Jacob to face his own sin.  God wanted him to seek reconciliation with his brother.  The Lord wanted him to know that he was in this place.  If through struggle Jacob wins this reconciliation and comes to know God more deeply, God does not lose.  Jacob’s will has not prevailed; it has only finally blended with and meshed with the will of God.  In this case Jacob’s victory was God’s victory.  So the score was really Jacob -1 and God 1.

            Ellie Wiesel, made this observation about Jacob: “In the good and evil that made up Jacob there were two factors of nobility that saved him.  The first was his awareness that life has a divine meaning above its material fact.  The second quality revealed in his wrestling with God was his determination.”

            Another preacher put it this way, “There are some things worth fighting for.  Caught in the grip of judgment, Jacob’s prevailing desire was not for escape.  He would hold on until something decisive happened.  He would not let the experience go until he had wrung a blessing from it.  Those who are shallow may ignore their sins; the coward may try to evade their consequence, but Jacob was neither shallow or a coward.”[8]

            In the relationship between God and humanity, between brothers and sisters, little has really changed since the time of Jacob.  There are those who are shallow and those who are cowards and those who strive after the wind.  Then there are those who are willing to struggle, to wrestle with their past, seek reconciliation in the present, so that one day they might also see the face of God.

            In a few moments we will celebrate the Sacrament of Holy Communion.  This ritual was given to us by Jesus to remind us of that time when it was possible to see the face of God in him.  As we hold the bread and cup in our hands, we are called to reflect upon those times when we have fallen short of the glory of God, and acknowledge those times when we still strive after the wind, and seek reconciliation with a brother a father a friend whom we have hurt. 

            This can be a true spiritual struggle, but when the dawn breaks we are also promised a blessing from God we can find nowhere else.  So, take the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation.  Through them, you may catch a glimpse of the face of God.

           

           

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[1] Ecclesiastes 4:4

[2] Genesis 27:44

[3] Genesis 28:16

[4] Genesis 28:22

[5] Genesis 32:24

[6] Hosea 12:3-4

[7] Genesis 32:28

[8] Buttrick, George:  Geneis – Interpreter’s Bible. Pg 724.