Now almost six years into my retirement from being a full-time pastor, what do I miss most about that wonderful calling? It’s not easy to give just one item. But the answer I most give, when asked by others or myself, is funerals. By that, I mean more than just the funeral event, though I certainly mean that, too. I miss being called to be with dear people when their loved one is moving close to death. I miss walking with the grieving family in planning the funeral, talking about the grieving process, selecting scriptures and hymns, and sitting in silence. I miss standing at a graveside and saying those final, solemn words of blessing and committal. And I miss the funeral services. A funeral service for a believer is a powerful witness to many realities, the resurrection of Jesus at the head of the list. Every funeral service is a reality check for the living.

 

In my retirement, I still get to participate in these life passages on occasion, but not with the frequency I once did, and not as the called pastor I once was. Now when my presence is requested, I consider it a high honor.

 

Hence, when appropriate, I go to funerals and sometimes I watch funerals of national significance on television. I still brief the obituaries in our local newspaper and the New York Times every day. On August 31 and September, 1 I watched the funerals of two great Americans: Aretha Franklin and John McCain.

 

In life and in their farewell services, Franklin and McCain were vastly different. One black, one white. One female, one male. One an entertainer, one a politician. One from a family headed by a pastor, one from a two-generation Navy family. Their services reflected some of those differences.

 

The funeral service for Aretha was in the sanctuary in Detroit where her father had once pastored. John had two services, one in a Baptist church in Phoenix and one, the one I focus on here, in the National Cathedral in Washington, D. C. Aretha’s lasted over seven hours (I didn’t watch all of it, but much of it). John’s lasted about two and a half hours. Both had many eulogists. Both had glorious music, but oh so different. One reflected the black Christian tradition and one reflected the mostly white Episcopal tradition. Not only in length, the services were very different in just about every way. Yet both were genuine, both were real and fitting.

 

One had a former president of the United States speak, the other had two former presidents speak and another present. Of note is that McCain personally invited the two men that beat him in his two tries to serve in the highest office in the land to speak. Both George W. Bush and Barack Obama spoke with dignity and grace. I find it encouraging to watch former presidents of both parties and their spouses to be so at ease together on occasions that transcend partisan politics. The cameras caught Bush handing a mint or candy to Michelle Obama in a smooth no-look way, then gently breaking into a grin as she received it in a no-look way.

 

As I preached in a local church yesterday, I felt as if it were the third worship service I had attended in the same number of days, one in Detroit, one in Washington, D. C., and one in Rochester. One was black Baptist, one was national Episcopalian, and one was Presbyterian. I appreciated the unique authenticity of each tradition. In the Presbyterian one, there was a goodbye to a dear couple that, after 21 years in that congregation, are moving to Florida. It wasn’t a funeral, but it was a kind of farewell, with some laugher, some tears, and touching words of tribute and celebration.

 

Increasingly, Americans are choosing to stay away from churches. I understand some of the reasons—some of those reasons are solid and have my respect—but I long for those people to return or come for the first time. To come before there is a funeral that demands their attention. To come and find life in the midst of broken and flawed people.

 

The three services of the weekend past, two for great Americans and one at a local church, remind me of what gathered worship means to me. Farewell and Godspeed, Queen Aretha and Senator McCain. Thanks for your considerable contributions to the common good of our nation and our world. And safe traveling to your new home in Florida, Lew and Judy. Thanks for your service to Parkminster Church.

 

And soon I begin preparing to preach in another gathering of saints on Sunday coming.

On a family trip to southern California to celebrate our 50^th anniversary, Rachel and I, with family, went to Disneyland, after an absence of 20 years or so.

 

I was eight, almost nine, went Disneyland opened. While there were amusement parks back then, there was nothing like Disneyland. Walt Disney envisioned something new—a multi-themed park that would equally appeal to all ages. There was considerable doubt that his vision would work. That doubt was quickly answered as thousands poured into Disneyland on July 17, 1955, and thousands have been pouring in every day since.

 

Because I was born and reared in southern California, I got to go there many times. Our relatives from all over the country began booking trips to visit us for one main reason: to visit Disneyland. In a sense I grew up with Disneyland. Multiple trips a year were common, always with relatives eager to visit “the happiest place on earth.” And no one was ever disappointed.

 

An unforgettable moment happened when I was 10 or 11. My aunt took my cousin and me for the day—no out of town relatives this time. We were sitting at an outdoor restaurant in Adventureland having lunch. One of the old topless cars that slowly cruised Main Street came around the bend, where it shouldn’t have been. In the raised back seat was Walt Disney himself, smiling and waving to everyone in sight. I smiled and waved back at Walt Disney. This happened to literally thousands of people, as Walt loved to walk and ride through Disneyland, enjoying it as much as any child ever did.

 

I think my lifelong fascination with Abe Lincoln began when “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln,” the first audio-animatronic Disney creation, came permanently to Disneyland from the New York World’s Fair. I went to it again last week—and wasn’t disappointed. From Disney’s major contributions to that World’s Fair also came “It’s a Small World,” which has never enthralled me, perhaps putting me in a small minority. I didn’t go to it last week.

 

How has Disneyland aged? Very nicely, indeed. Many new rides and attractions have come in these 63 years, including the four thrilling “mountain” rides. We went on three of them; the Matterhorn bobsleds were closed for routine maintenance. The original borders been expanded as much as possible. Many of the restaurants and concessions have changed sponsorship. Yet the old park feels much the same and works exceedingly well. Adventureland feels much the same, but with new rides. New Orleans Square has been a fine addition. Frontierland is very much as I first experienced it, but with major additions. Fantasyland blends the original children’s story rides with many new touches. Tomorrowland has been most changed, because the envisioned tomorrow arrived earlier than expected. While I love Space Mountain, Tomorrowland is my least favorite land. My favorites are Adventureland, New Orleans Square, and Frontierland because they are so evocative and faithful to what they were designed to do.

 

Disneyland seems smaller now, even though it has grown. The trees and shrubs have matured, making some walkways narrower. The many additions and improvements have enhanced the experience. The original A-E ride tickets gave way to one admission pass to all rides. The original parking lot has become the California Adventure Park. I miss the tram rides in that original parking lot, but California Adventure is a great addition.

 

After we watched the fireworks show above Snow White’s Castle, we were walking behind a little girl in full Minnie Mouse outfit, head to toe. Next to her was her mother, in full Muslim garb, clothed head to toe in modesty, at the end of what was a very warm day and night in Anaheim. I saw more of the world at Disneyland than I remember as a child. I heard any number of languages being spoken. Yes, Disneyland is aging well.

 

When one is in Disneyland Park (now the official name), one is in the only Disney park anywhere that Walt Disney actually walked in and enjoyed. That is reason enough to visit it whenever the opportunity arises. You don’t need to go on the rides to enjoy the ride.

 

In talking about my sense of American patriotism, rather than American nationalism, a friend suggested that I sounded like a globalist. My friend was right: I am a globalist for the very best reasons. I draw a distinction between patriotism and nationalism. Patriotism, I believe, is a healthy love of one’s country, a love that is willing to appreciate all that is good while also critiquing and challenging all that is not good. For instance, I love my native land’s lofty ideals about human equality and freedom, yet I struggle with my country’s long practice of human slavery and its continuing racist tendencies.

 

A nationalist, on the other hand, as I see it, tends to elevate one’s nation above all others and see it as better than others and worthy of uncritical allegiance. As a follower of Jesus, I cannot give that kind of allegiance to any nation.

 

What, then, is a globalist? Simply, as I understand it, it is putting the welfare of all peoples above any national, sectarian, or partisan interest. Here are a few of the biblical passages that inform my convictions.

 

Genesis 12:3 (repeated in various ways in Genesis 18:18, 22:18, and 26:4) “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” To put it far too briefly, Israel’s original calling was to share the good news God had revealed to it and be a blessing to all nations. The prophet Jonah embodied Israel’s long tendency to mistrust the other, the foreigner. Even when Jonah finally obeyed, his heart wasn’t in it and he stewed and sulked when God was merciful to Nineveh. So many of the writings of the Old Testament prophets call Israel to task for becoming in-grown, insular, fearful of the outsider, and poor representatives of God. Isaiah 56:7 says, “…for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

 

John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” John 3:16 is one of the most memorized verses in the Bible, and rightly so. Let’s believe it and live accordingly.

 

Acts 17:26 “From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live….” Blood donor workers and blood donors know that blood types do not recognize skin color or national origin. While there is tremendous diversity in the human family, reflecting the creative genius of God, all human beings are related and made of the same stuff.

 

Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The newly risen Lord makes clear the global mission of the new Church. This is echoed in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

 

 

Revelation 7:9 “After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.” We look forward to the day when this description will be our reality. “Come, Lord Jesus.”

 

[This sermon was proclaimed on June, 24, 2018, at Community of the Savior, Rochester NY.] The texts are 1 Samuel 17:32-49 and Mark 4:35-41.

 

I don’t like the sport of boxing. It is often so brutal and barbaric. I like baseball. It is played on a grassy field, with a diamond in the center. No one is trying to hurt anyone else. The goal is to get home safely. If there is a fight, fifty players go the center of the diamond and act like they’re fighting, while doing no harm. It is a slow and measured game. You can read a good portion of “War and Peace” between the moments of action.

 

I don’t like boxing. But I will grant it this: it pits two opponents in a roped square; just the two of them, trying to knock the brains of each other out. There is one boxing match that I vividly remember, though it wasn’t on TV (pay TV hadn’t been invented). It was February of 1964. I was a high school senior. In one corner was Sonny Liston, in the other a young blade named Cassius Clay. He had won the gold medal in the previous Olympics, but as a light heavyweight. He would later change his name to Muhammed Ali. That night he was fighting as a heavyweight. Liston was a true heavyweight: thick body like an oak tree with brutal Goliath-like strength. Liston was beaten repeatedly in childhood by his father. He was illiterate and turned to crime, spending five years in prison, where he became a fearsome fighter. He was the heavyweight champion of the world and virtually no one gave young Clay a chance, except young Clay.

 

Clay approached the fight in an unexpected way. Instead of facing Liston toe to toe and seeing which could punch harder, he danced around the ring. Liston was befuddled. Clay’s hands were as fast as Steph Curry’s with a basketball and his feet a good match for Derek Haugh’s, or a Rockette’s, or Fred Astaire’s. He danced around Liston and about the sixth round began landing quick punches. By the seventh round it was over. Liston couldn’t find Clay enough to hit him and didn’t know what hit him.

 

That may sound a lot like the match between David and Goliath. Indeed, David was the underdog in this match. Goliath was a giant. Listen to how “The Message” sets up this match:

“The Philistines were on one hill, the Israelites on the opposing hill, with the valley between them. A giant nearly ten feet tall stepped out from the Philistine line into the open, Goliath….. He had a bronze helmet on his head and was dressed in armor—126 pounds of it! He wore bronze shin guards and carried a bronze sword. His spear was like a fence rail—the spear tip alone weighed over fifteen pounds. His shield bearer walked ahead of him.  Goliath stood there and called out to the Israelite troops, ‘Why bother using your whole army? Am I not Philistine enough for you? And you’re all committed to Saul, aren’t you? So pick your best fighter and pit him against me. If he gets the upper hand and kills me, the Philistines will all become your slaves. But if I get the upper hand and kill him, you’ll all become our slaves and serve us. I challenge the troops of Israel this day. Give me a man. Let us fight it out together!’ When Saul and his troops heard the Philistine’s challenge, they were terrified and lost all hope.  Enter David.”

 

Enter David. Malcolm Gladwell in his book, “David and Goliath,” does some of the best interpreting of this story that I have ever encountered. Gladwell argues that David was not so much of an underdog once he acted out of who he was and his strength. When David made his courageous offer, Saul resorted to standard thinking. He put his own armor on David, which was too large for David. Saul was assuming that David was stand toe to toe against Goliath. David knew better; he knew his own strength was not in a brawny muscle match with the giant. Being a shepherd, David developed other skills. He had a sling and could use it with precision. Being a shepherd meant being on duty all the time, but with long times of inaction as the sheep grazed and rested. Kind of like watching a baseball game, with generous pauses between flash points of movement. He used those times to hone his skill. Did you ever skim smooth stones over the smooth surface of a pond? With some practice, one can get a smooth stone to skip 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 times. It takes practice. David practiced. A smooth stone in his sling was a powerful weapon. Sharp slingers could take a bird in flight. Or a mountain lion. Or a bear. Yes, archeologists tell us that there were bears and lions in that region in that time. “Lions and tigers and bears, oh, my!”

 

In a face to face matchup with Goliath, David stood no chance. He would have been a serious underdog. Think the Orioles winning this fall’s world series. But standing at a distance from Goliath, armed with only a sling and some smooth stones, the odds just shifted. Goliath couldn’t match David’s quickness and mobility. He couldn’t run. He had trouble turning his head. His sword and spear and javelin were useless. All it took was David acting out his skill set. All it took was one smooth stone rightly slung.

 

But there was something more going on in this. “But David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied… for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.’” David never saw this as his personal battle. He understood himself to be the Lord’s agent. David was utterly dependent on God, while Goliath was dependent on his size, his armor, and his weapons.

 

We have this marvelous intersection of David’s well-honed skill and complete dependence upon God. Frederick Buechner said, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” I paraphrase Buechner’s insight: The place God calls us to serve is where our God-giftedness meets a challenge beyond ourselves.

 

The disciples are in a boat. A storm suddenly arises, as is common on Galilee. And Jesus is sound asleep. I am often hard on the disciples: they were slow to learn and quick to complain. The disciples do the right thing this time—they wake Jesus up. “…and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’” Good for them. They go to the right one. Their dependence is rightly placed. Jesus doesn’t disappoint them. “He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’” Literally, he said something like this to the storm: “Muzzle yourself. Stifle yourself. Shut up.” The storm had no choice but to obey the Lord heaven and earth, the Lord of nature. There are times, I admit, when it seems as if Jesus is sleeping. I can’t explain that. But ultimately, I know that he is awake and working.

 

Make no mistake, Jesus comes to us in meekness and often weakness, as he did to them. Yet out of his meekness and human weakness, his voice stills storms, then and now. He comes not as a mighty Roman centurion or a regal Roman emperor. He comes as servant. And he reveals almighty God to us. Hans Urs von Balthasar, a Roman Catholic theologian, said, “… under the disfigurement of an ugly crucifixion and death, the Christ upon the cross is paradoxically the clearest revelation of who God is.” Brute strength is overrated, in every realm of life. God works in our weakness. God worked most crucially in Jesus’ weakness.

 

We serve the crucified one. That is right where we should be. Jesus shows us the way of meekness and even weakness, that God’s strength may be evident. The Church must beware of grabbing for temporal or political power, no matter how enticing.

• If any political power offers us privilege, let the Church say No.
• If any government tempts us with proximity to political power, let the Church says No.
• If any Goliath calls us to battle on his terms, let the Church say No; The Battle is the Lord’s.
• If any storm threatens to sink our boat, let the Church wake up Jesus and listen for his voice. It is for him to still the storm.

 

With David facing a formidable foe, with the disciples facing a bracing storm, our help is in the Lord. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” That is who we are called to be.

 

 

 

 

 

On June 14, 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions quoted Romans 13:1 in support of the current practice of the Trump administration that takes children from their parents for illegal entrance into our country on the southern border. That night, Stephen Colbert on the CBS Late Show answered Sessions by quoting Romans 13:9-10.

 

I have long studied this passage in Romans 13 and offer some thoughts and insights. These are brief rather than exhaustive, informed by years of study and by New Testament scholars and commentaries.

 

Context:

Author: The Apostle Paul. We know that Paul had been a Pharisaical Jew of impeccable credentials whose life had been turned upside down when the Risen Christ revealed himself to him (Philippians 3:4-11). We also know that Paul was a Roman citizen (Acts 22:22-29). Hence, he was a man of privilege, education, and standing. Interestingly, after his conversion he became the apostle to the Gentiles, the outsiders to the people of Israel.

Recipients: The church in Rome, which Paul neither founded nor oversaw, although he was familiar with it and its people, as is evident in Romans 16, where he greets at least 26 people.

Date: About 57 CE. Probably written from Corinth.

 

Reading in context. Ideally, one should read the entire letter to the Romans in one sitting or several sittings close together. Next, one should read Romans 12:1-15:13 in slower fashion. This is one rather lengthy teaching about how the early Christians, comprised of Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus, were to live out their faith both in the Church and in the world. Then one should look for parallel passages in the New Testament about how Christians relate to the civil government.

 

Simply to lift Romans 13:1 out as a reason for Christians to obey a civil government is “cherry-picking.” That is, it is irresponsible exegesis.

 

Here is the passage under consideration:

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. ² Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. ³ For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. ⁴ For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. ⁵ Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.

⁶ This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. ⁷ Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

⁸ Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. ⁹ The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰ Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

 

Content:

No letter so richly reveals Paul’s understanding of the Gospel of God’s grace through Jesus. Paul has become convinced that that Gospel breaks down the wall that long stood between Jews (insiders) and Gentiles (outsiders). In Christ, Jews and Gentiles become one Church, one community of grace. Salvation is by grace alone, not by works, and through Christ, by the Spirit, is available to Jews and Gentiles without distinction.

 

The Roman Empire was virtually global and without a rival in that time. Israel/Palestine was ruled by regents appointed by Rome (the Herods, for instance). The emperor when Paul wrote Romans was Nero, but he was early in his reign. He had not yet become the monstrous leader that he would soon enough become (and bring untold suffering to followers of Jesus).

 

The Roman Emperor was revered and worshiped as a god. Roman law demanded that on certain days, at least annually, everyone in the empire would go to designated places to make their sacrifices of worship to the emperor. His title was Caesar, which literally meant “lord.” Therefore, followers of Jesus, called to name Jesus alone as lord, had to break the civil law if they were faithful to Jesus as the only Caesar, the only Lord. Hence, those early Christians were law-breakers for the very best reason. Any Roman law that conflicted with God’s law was not to be obeyed. Yet they were called to submit to the governing authorities.

 

How is that conflict resolved? There is one New Testament Greek word for “obey” and another for “submit.” Romans 13:1 calls for submitting, that is recognizing the temporal authority of the civil government, even if at times not obeying it. We see that played out in the Acts of the Apostles: “But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than any human authority.’” (Acts 5:29.) There is a reason that the church leaders in Acts (and. indeed, the whole New Testament) are in and out of jail virtually all the time. They refused to give absolute allegiance to any civil authorities. Indeed, Jesus was crucified at the hands of religious and government leaders, always a toxic mixture.

 

Yet they were urged to pay taxes, which is a recognition of the civil government, a way of submitting to that government, even though they would not always obey that government. When the government put them in jail, they didn’t flee, but went to jail, a way of submitting to that government, even though they would not always obey that government.

 

Romans 13 is not a blanket teaching for obeying the civil government. It is a call to participate in the civil order (even when the civil order wasn’t or isn’t civil).

 

There are two long traditions in the history of the Church that square with Romans 13:1-7. One is participating in the civil order, by citizenship for all and, for some, by serving in the government. The other is what we often call “civil disobedience,” that is, peacefully resisting any government law or order that violates the faith. In that tradition, notable to Americans is Martin Luther King, Jr. He consistently disobeyed civil government when it conflicted with his understanding of God’s law. He consistently was arrested and jailed. When he was released, he continued speaking prophetically, and often paying a price for it. If his method was non-violence, it was often met with violence from the civil authorities. He and his co-workers were regularly roughed up and sometimes beaten for participating in the long tradition of civil disobedience. King has become the great model for this tradition in the United States, but he is but one of an unnumbered multitude that have done the same thing, before him and after him.

 

While in a Birmingham AL jail, King wrote one of his most moving and prophetic letters, addressed to the white pastors of Birmingham that stood with the civil government in wanting to slow down or stop the movement for civil rights. Every American should read it on occasion.

 

Back to Paul’s letter to the Romans in general, and chapter 13 in particular, no simple exegetical cherry-picking without regard to context and content that attempts to speak to the horrendous situation of the American executive branch separating children from their parents can stand as responsible and faithful to the letter and spirit of the New Testament. The kingdom of God always demands greater loyalty and allegiance than any civil government.

 

Application for today:

We must be careful to understand both the original context and content rather than simply lifting words, inspired by God, nearly 2,000 years ago and placing them on our time and context. Still, these words from Romans 13 are the word of the living God and speak to us today as they did to the Church in Rome in the 1^st century. But the contexts for then and now are decidedly different. The life settings of Christians living in 1^st century Rome and 21^st century Americans are decidedly different.

 

Stephen Colbert, in his response to Mr. Sessions’s misquoting of Romans 13:1, moved further into the chapter to find these words: “Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” That teaching is consistent with the entire pattern of Jesus’ ministry and New Testament teaching.

 

In attempting to defend Sessions’s remarks, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the Bible has much to say about “enforcing the law.” Not in Romans 13. It would be interesting to hear more from Ms. Sanders on where and what the Bible says about enforcing the law.

 

People of good will and informed patriotism may disagree about issues related to the securing of our southern border, about how we treat immigrants and refugees, and about how we apply laws concerning such people. But any attempt to bolster one’s views with Biblical teaching should take a longer look at what the Bible says about God’s law and civil law, about the treatment of immigrants and refugees, about the treatment of the poor, the weak, the widow and the orphan, and about family.

 

[Much of the background material above is from the introduction to Romans in “How to Read the Bible Book by Book,” by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart.]

 

 

 

What two presidents, one former and one current, might have said this week.

 

President Bill Clinton, when asked by Craig Melvin of NBC about the #MeToo movement and Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky while Clinton was president, might have said something like this:

 

“Craig, I welcome the #MeToo movement. Men in power have for too long used their power and privilege to treat women in inappropriate ways for their own pleasure. I am guilty. I did that while I was president with a White House intern. It was irresponsible and reprehensible behavior. My actions caused great pain and embarrassment to my wife and daughter. I broke faith and it caused me great anguish. To add to that, I then lied directly to the American people. It also negatively affected my ability to govern and brought about my impeachment. I am sorry for my role in that.

 

“Craig, I am deeply sorry. In the two decades since I have sought spiritual and practical counsel and believe that I have made good strides to being a better person. My family has forgiven me. I believe that God has forgiven me. But I still bear the pain and embarrassment for what I did.

 

“You asked if I have apologized directly to Ms. Lewinsky. I tried to do so in a public way years ago, but I have not done so directly. I believe it would cause more pain to my wife and daughter if I spoke to Ms. Lewinsky, and perhaps even to her. But if she is listening, I will use this opportunity to say again how sorry I am for my behavior that involved her and brought her pain. I was in the wrong. There is no one to blame for that but myself.

 

“Craig, perhaps you can understand how I would like that terrible chapter in my life to be over. It is painful that you brought it up now. I hope that you having done so now will serve in a redemptive way.”

 

President Trump, upon hearing that many of the Philadelphia Eagles would not show up for the White House ceremony celebrating their Super Bowl victory last February, might have said something like this:

 

“I have been informed that many of the Philadelphia Eagles do not plan to attend the scheduled White House celebration of their stirring Super Bowl victory. I understand that they are troubled by what I have said about NFL players that have chosen to kneel during the playing of the national anthem before games and the recent action of NFL owners about the anthem.

 

“This saddens me. As president, it is my oath and solemn duty to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. That document ensures the right to free speech. While I wish they would see it otherwise, it is their right to kneel, or sit, remain in their locker rooms, or stand and raise a fist in protest during the playing of the national anthem. Some Americans see that as disrespectful of our flag and our military, but I have been told that those are not their concerns. Their concern is the unfair and unjust treatment that African-Americans still receive in our nation, often at the hands of law enforcement officers, which is a valid concern.

 

“I am a white person of privilege. Perhaps this is a time for me to learn from them. If the Eagles would be willing, I would welcome the opportunity to meet with them and hear their concerns directly, whether at the White House or a place of their choosing. I have been elected to be president of all Americans, not just privileged white Americans. I hope their decision will now serve in a redemptive way.”

 

Clinton and Trump might have said words something like those, but they didn’t.

 

3June               Parkminster

 

Seven-year-old Brian Mulroney won the day for me at the royal wedding in Windsor a few weeks ago. I can’t resist watching a wedding in which the groom is named Harry, Prince Harry in this case. So much about that wedding was remarkable, not least the inspiring sermon on the power of God’s love by presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in America, Michael Curry. And the magnificent rendition of B. B. King’s “Stand by Me” by the Kingdom gospel choir. But the moment locked in my memory was of Brian Mulroney, one of the two boys who held the lengthy train of Meghan Markle’s wedding dress. The camera caught his face as the trumpets began to signal the entrance of the bride, his eyes open like saucers, his mouth wide open, front teeth missing, the awe-filled look on Brian’s face was priceless. As a seven-year-old, all I can remember is wanting to be a major league baseball player.

 

There are moments in life than stun us. They are not frequent. My guess is that the most attentive of us have only a limited number of them. Those not paying attention to the wonder of life may end up without any, not because they don’t happen, but simply because they are not being attentive to God.

 

I had one a few summers ago in Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies. We had had a full day of sightseeing, including a number of sightings of brown and black bears, hidden waterfalls, and majestic mountains and glaciers. It was about 10pm and four of us were playing cards at an outdoor picnic table, it still being very light outside in that northern place. Others were chatting quietly, and some reading. Tired though we were, it was too beautiful to be inside. The gentle sound of a fast-moving creek was just behind a line of cabins. Suddenly a hush overtook the grassy area. We sensed that something had caught peoples’ attention. We put down our cards and silently watched several large elks meander across the grassy space, not thirty feet from us. The elk were oblivious to us, but we were mesmerized by them: their beauty, their size, their graceful slow gate. We were stunned into silence before magnificent creatures. We weren’t expecting it.

There are moments in life than stun and silence us. We can’t make them happen; we can’t manufacture them. These moments are best when they are unplanned by us. Isaiah had one. “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple.” Isaiah didn’t plan this. It just happened in his very presence. Now give him credit: he was in a place where God might do something spectacular once in a while, but God isn’t limited to temples and sanctuaries. All of nature is God’s canvas. John Calvin said that. Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote of such moments:

Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;…”  

 

Isaiah’s stunning moment leads to a response that teaches us how to respond to God in moments both ordinary and extraordinary. First, there is the overwhelming sense of humility before the glory of God. Isaiah doesn’t speak first, but listens. A strange heavenly creature breaks the silence. “’Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.’  The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’” In the presence of the Holy One, Isaiah is acutely aware of his unholiness. In the presence of perfection, Isaiah is acutely aware of his imperfections. In the presence of infinite glory, Isaiah is acutely aware of his finite gravity.

 

Second, God responds in abundant forgiveness. “Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’” God loves to forgive. Our need to ask isn’t so much to activate God’s forgiveness, but to put us in the place where we are open to receiving what God so graciously gives us in Christ.

 

Third, Isaiah places himself at God’s disposal: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’” Isaiah gets this right. Our response to need shouldn’t be, “I’ll go; I’ll fix it,” but “here am I, Lord; now direct me; send me; show me how you want me to serve.”

 

John has a similar experience, as God pulls back the curtain and reveals more of his Christly glory. But this Jesus doesn’t look like the one hung on the walls of Sunday school rooms. “The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.  His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing water.  In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.”

How does John respond to such a vision of Jesus? “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.” There are moments that stun us into silence before the Holy One. John doesn’t get himself up; Jesus reaches down and lifts him. Jesus reminds John that Jesus holds the keys: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

 

Annie Dillard, in “Teaching a Stone to Talk,” reminds us that something like that which happened to Isaiah in the temple and to John on the Lord’s Day might just happen some Sunday morning where we worship. “Why do people in church seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute? … It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping God may wake someday and take offense, or the waking God may draw us to where we can never return.” Or it might happen in a beautiful natural setting. Or it might happen in the ordinary stuff of daily life. Let’s be attentive to God, wherever we are, whatever we are doing. A moment that stuns us into silence before the grandeur and glory of God may be just a moment away.

 

 

 

 

 

The National Football League (NFL) owners, apart from the involvement of the players, made a terrible decision in May. In the 2016 season, quarterback Colin Kaepernick began sitting or kneeling during the playing of the national anthem before games. He did it not as a protest against the flag or the anthem or the military, but as a peaceful protest to how African-Americans were being treated in our country. The statistics about mistreatment of blacks are alarming. Other players, both on his team and other teams, began doing the same thing. Many of them are black, but some are white. It was peaceful protesting against injustices toward minority citizens in our country, putting it in the mainstream of American history and tradition, and capturing the attention of the nation.

 

Though Kaepernick has had a good career start, taking his team to the Super Bowl once, and is relatively young and amazingly gifted, he was cut from his team and no team signed him to play in 2017, even though many teams need good quarterbacks. Last fall, in one of his campaign rallies, President Trump took the matter on, calling for NFL owners to fire players on their teams that didn’t stand for the national anthem. He used colorful and inappropriate language in doing so. It was shameful pandering by the president to a partisan crowd.

 

True patriotism cannot be commanded or demanded by government or business. True patriotism, as opposed to a shallow wrapped-in-the-flag patriotism, must come willingly and voluntarily from the citizenry. Attempting to enforce patriotism by mandating that players stand respectfully for the national anthem, or else stay in the locker room until the anthem is completed, is a violation of the word and spirit of the Constitution of the United States.

 

Some have argued that owners of the teams pay the players and, hence, can mandate such behavior. The owners pay the players to play a game. Whether the players stand or kneel for the national anthem has nothing to do with their fitness and readiness to play a game. The owners cannot mandate true patriotism. Our constitution is better than that and protects the rights of its citizens. The first amendment is clear: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Kaepernick and other athletes are within their constitutional rights if and when they publicly kneel for the playing a song that isn’t even mentioned in the constitution.

 

It has also been suggested that Kaepernick can find other ways to voice his concerns. He is more than generous. Last January Kaepernick has completed his pledge to donate $1 million to charities that serve oppressed communities across the nation. He is putting his money where his heart is. I, a white person, am fully supportive of Kaepernick and those that stand and kneel with him. They love their country enough not to overlook its flaws. They stand in the spirit of the founders of our country, who rebelled and protested against injustices in their time. But in the main, those founders were blind, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, to the racism of their time. Is there any better way to honor their courage and sacrifice than by calling out and protesting the racial injustices that still exist among us?

 

In mid-April, 2018, two young black men went into a Starbucks in Philadelphia, waiting to meet someone. One asked to use the men’s room and was told he could not because he hadn’t purchased anything. Within a few minutes, police arrived, handcuffed the men, and removed them.

 

In full disclosure, I don’t drink coffee, but I occasionally go to various Starbucks coffee shops to meet friends that like their coffee. Sometimes I order a hot chocolate; sometimes I order nothing. While waiting for a friend (I often arrive a few minutes early), I may sit down and use my tablet, which is common in these shops. I may use the men’s room. I have never been hassled for not buying a Starbucks product while I sat catching up on email or using the men’s room. But, then, I am a white man. Is this white privilege? That may seem to be stretching too far, but I think as a white man I usually get the benefit of the doubt. I don’t get stopped by police, when driving legally, for driving a newer car and asked to present my ID and registration. Blacks commonly have that happen. I don’t get suspicious looks in public settings. Blacks commonly have that happen in white majority settings.

 

Some think the long night of racism in country has ended. After all, we had a black president for eight years, elected by healthy majorities twice. And we may forget that the validity of his American birth was questioned for most of those eight years by whites, including the current president.

 

Later in April it was revealed that a fraternity of white students at Syracuse University, which is in upstate New York—hardly the deep south—engaged in vicious and demeaning anti-black and anti-Semitic language, caught on video. Then there was another neo-Nazi rally in Newman, Georgia, with white supremacists spewing their anti-black, anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant hatred in a public square. I wonder how many white supremacist rallies are occurring that don’t make the news.

 

Those that think racism is over in the United States simply aren’t paying attention or are ignoring the facts. Our current president showed his colors in his feeble response to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville VA last year. Our current president showed his colors when in his campaign he pretended that he couldn’t remember who David Duke was. By the way, the boastfully racist David Duke eagerly supported and supports Trump. Our current president showed his colors when in his campaign he smeared Mexicans and Muslims. The leader of any organization sets a tone for that organization, sometimes very subtly.

 

Back to Starbucks, I am encouraged by the swift and unqualified apology issued by Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson. It included his desire and offer to meet with those two men face-to-face. Johnson has also announced that all Starbucks cafes will be closed for a portion of a day in May, for all Starbucks employees to have deeper training from a blue-ribbon panel on multi-cultural and racial prejudicial concerns. Some say that one afternoon of training will not be enough. Of course not, but I am impressed by such an action. Perhaps it will be a new beginning in the right direction in a time when hate crimes are on the increase.

 

Also in April, on the 26th, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration opened in Montgomery, Alabama, in the very heart of Dixie. Envisioned and constructed by Bryan Stevenson (one of my American heroes) and the Equal Justice Initiative, these twin buildings will help our country remember the siege of the lynching of black people following the Civil War, mainly in the south, but in all regions of our country, for over two generations. I hope to visit these memorials in 2019. It will not be enjoyable, but sobering. With our glorious Declaration of Independence and lofty founding values, our country participated in racial brutality for over two centuries in allowing slavery to be legal and acceptable, with much of the Church assenting. After the emancipation proclamation of President Lincoln and constitutional amendments following to ensure equality, we continued to allow African-Americans to suffer unjustly and be lynched in the thousands. We continue to see black Americans incarcerated at far high rates than white Americans.

 

The vision of the United States being a nation in which all people are equal, in which the law mandates that equality, and the government at all levels ensures that equality under the law, still exists and still falls short of the goal. And we still have a considerable journey before us in being that nation.

[This sermon was proclaimed at the Community of the Savior, Rochester, NY, on April 22, 2018, based on Acts 4:5-12, 1 John 3:16-24, and John 10:11-18.]

 

About two weeks ago, Late Night TV host Seth Meyers told about the sudden arrival of his new baby. As he and his wife, Alexi Ashe, were walking in the hallway of their New York City apartment building, to get in an Uber waiting at the curb to whisk them to the hospital, Alexi said she couldn’t wait—the baby was coming quickly. Seth called 911 and said, “My wife is about to have a baby; my wife is having a baby; my wife just had a baby.” Sure enough, the baby came before they left the building. (I hope someone told the Uber driver.)

 

We might wish the journey to spiritual maturity was so speedily done. But, in fairness, Alexi had been carrying that baby for nine months. And now that the baby is born, the life transition for the baby’s parents is hardly over. Sometime over two years from now that baby might just be potty trained. And then come school costs, dental work, and clothing for well over a decade. It is a long and costly journey to maturity.

 

And we want to become spiritually mature in the snap of our fingers. It just doesn’t work that way. Take Peter. We know so much about the apostle Peter, largely because of his mishaps and failures. Trying to walk on water. Denying three times that he knew Jesus. That Peter. Now in the book of Acts Peter is a towering figure.

 

In Acts 4 he and John are dragged before the authorities, both civil government and religious (that can be a toxic combination!), and asked to explain how a sick man was healed. Peter speaks up—no surprise there—filled with the Holy Spirit: “…if we have been brought to trial today for helping a sick man, put under investigation regarding this healing, I’ll be completely frank with you—we have nothing to hide. By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the One you killed on a cross, the One God raised from the dead, by means of his name this man stands before you healthy and whole. Salvation comes no other way; no other name has been or will be given to us by which we can be saved, only this one.” (Acts 4:9-12, “The Message.”)

 

Such inspired boldness and such clarity. All because the disciples reached out to a man in need and helped him. They didn’t heal him. They helped him and God healed him. Those words of Peter are sometimes used to make the Good News may sound exclusive; Peter is speaking in the public square, not the church, giving all the glory to God and inviting hostile authorities to consider Jesus. This is more of an inclusive message, by pointing everyone to Jesus. And it all happened because of an act of kindness, a good deed done.

 

Bible trivia question: in what book of the New Testament does the word love occur most? How many said 1 Corinthians? The answer is 1 John, which is just five short chapters. Yet it contains the word love more than any other NT book. And the word used throughout is agape, the Greek word that connotes God’s unique love, which is love marked by self-giving and serving without regard to getting anything back. John, Peter’s partner in this, writes about love in action. “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” Just about everything John writes about love in this little letter is about love in action. “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another” 

 

That leads right to gospel passage this morning, from John. The passage is the second half of Jesus teaching and self-identification as the good shepherd. How does the good shepherd do his ministry? “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep…. I am the good shepherd…. And I lay down my life for the sheep…. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” God’s love is expressed in action; in giving and doing. Jesus comes not just preaching and teaching about love, but living it in the costliest way: laying down his very life for those he loves.

 

God’s love is more a verb than a noun. It is a way of living, a way of giving, a way of serving. In my early years as a pastor, the common goal was to build an attractional church, one that would draw people in with its wonderful facilities and programs. That worked for a while in the mid to late 20^th century. When people moved to a new location, they would have a list: find new a doctor and dentist, find a market, and find a church. When people were looking for churches, the attractional model was somewhat effective. Things have changed. Finding a church is missing from most people’s lists now. Churches have lost much of the credibility that was once given them. Now, churches are commonly seen as judgmental, legalistic, and exclusive. People are not looking for churches in great numbers. They are often looking for genuine community and they see the church as not offering it. They might more likely find it in an exercise group or a book group. Instead of the attractional model, much thinking has shifted to a missional model. Which gets us back to the time of the New Testament, when believers did not have attractive buildings and cutting edge programs for babies, children, youth, young adults, middle adults, and older adults. Rather, they had a mission to live and share the Good News of Jesus. In the Book of Acts, that was constantly getting them in trouble, getting them dragged before the temporal authorities. But that didn’t bother them. They took it as an honor so to live and give witness to Jesus, who modeled missional living.

 

There have been too many arguments about faith vs. works or good deeds. Let’s end this. They go hand in hand. Or better, one should lead directly to the other. As a child I memorized Ephesians 2:8-9 about how good works cannot save us. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” That shouldn’t be memorized unless verse 10 is included in the package: “for we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” Good works is to be our way of life. Helping the hopeless. Lifting the lowly. Nourishing the needy.

 

There was a powerful image of this way of living in the news five days ago. Southwest flight 1380 had left New York and was just reaching cruising altitude, when the left engine malfunctioned. A part flew free and broke the window of row 14. The woman in the window seat, Jennifer Riordan, was quickly being sucked through the window. Oxygen masks lowered and the crew gave instructions in calm voice. The pilot, Tammie Jo Shultz, aware of the gravity of the emergency, took over in calm confidence and brought that plane to a safe landing at the Philadelphia Airport. But it would be 20 minutes before that landing.

 

From row 8, a firefighter named Andrew Needum left his family to help Riordan. Andrew was flying home to Texas with his wife, two young children, and his parents. Quickly, almost without words, the grandparents took care of the children, aged 8 and 6, freeing both parents. Stephanie Needum knew that a mother and young daughter were right behind her. She went to them and helped the young mother keep her daughter safe. Andrew and another passenger, Tim McGinty, left their oxygen masks and went to row 14 and pulled Riordan back into the plane, at some risk to their own lives. A retired nurse, Peggy Phillips, left her oxygen mask and ministered CPR to Riordan until the plane landed. Riordan could not be saved, but everyone else on the plane was. Needum told the press that he felt God had him on that flight for a reason. That is a good way to live; wherever we are, whatever we are doing, let’s be looking for how we may serve others, especially those in need. Their need is reason enough for us to be there, demonstrating the love of God in action.

 

This brings to mind the United flight 1549, which lost all engine power after takeoff on January 15, 2009, and landed safely on the Hudson River. That pilot, Chesley Sullenberger III, known as Sully, commented on this week’s heroic landing with these words: “These kinds of events are life-changing for everybody on the airplane. They divide one’s life into before and after.”

 

When Jesus laid down his life for us, it created a before and after life-changing experience. This afterlife doesn’t begin when we die, but when we let Jesus be our good shepherd. And here is what the afterlife is like: “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”