Thursday, September 16, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Why are We So Foolish? Some Thoughts after the Sermon on Sunday
If you weren't there at worship this past Sunday, September 12, you missed something. You missed a good service overall, but you really missed Rev. Allen's sermon about the foolish and the wise bridesmaids (the parable Jesus told in the Gospel of Matthew about "being ready" for the bridegroom). There is that sobering part of the story when the foolish bridesmaids who have not prepared realize they have no oil to keep their lamps burning, but it is too late for the wise bridesmaids to help them. It is too late. Like it was too late for Egypt on the night of the Passover. Like it was too late for Judah in the days of Jeremiah, when God delivered them into the hands of the Babylonians.
But, as Rev. Allen illustrated from her own experience and as scripture reveals over and over, God is the only one has the right to define "when it is too late," and thank God he is very gracious in how he does that in our lives and in human history! But, as Rev. Allen also illustrated in her sermon, that doesn't do away with the deep truth that there will be a time when "it will be too late." And, who knows when that time will come in our individual lives and in our communal lives.
In real human life and in the real walk of faith, we receive grace when we know that though there are many gracious warnings and interventions on our behalf, we also know not to presume on grace. In Romans 2 Paul talks about those of us who don't seem to understand that God's kindness and forebearance and forgiveness is meant to lead us to repentance, and not meant to lead us to presume that we can continue defying God's will for our lives and somehow always get another free pass whenever we need it. We live in a real world, with a real Creator, who has put real minds and hearts within us. God seeks communion with us, and we are miraculously able to commune with our Creator in a special way since we do have minds and hearts to think and feel and plan and hope and love and believe. But, we are also able to reject communion with our Creator. We are also able to turn away from God's efforts to reach us, and rely solely on our own wisdom or the wisdom of the world.
The more we carve out a path in life by rejecting God's will for us, the harder it gets to get out of that destructive path. That path becomes a "rut." After a while, it becomes natural to fall back into that rut and just coast along towards another destructive episode. When I get in a "rut" like this, I am unlikely to see it because it is the course of life I have carved out for myself and it only seems natural for me to follow along this path. The strange thing is for those of us that are religious people, we seem to be able to stay in our "rut" while giving lip service to our need to find a better way. Our religion can do that for us. Help keep us on a false path. That is, our religion can do that for us if we fail to seek God in the depths of our lives. Our religion can become nothing more than a bunch of sayings in our heads that reassure us that we are o.k. when we are not. And, at times, our religion can become a bunch of sayings in our heads that disturb and make us feel we are not alright when we are.
We have limped along for too long by relying on "our religion." It is time to rely on the Living God. We need a direct experience with a power that we cannot fool, or else we will continuously fool ourselves. Does your religion have this power, or is it just a fairly refined and socially acceptable way of "fooling yourself?"
But, as Rev. Allen illustrated from her own experience and as scripture reveals over and over, God is the only one has the right to define "when it is too late," and thank God he is very gracious in how he does that in our lives and in human history! But, as Rev. Allen also illustrated in her sermon, that doesn't do away with the deep truth that there will be a time when "it will be too late." And, who knows when that time will come in our individual lives and in our communal lives.
In real human life and in the real walk of faith, we receive grace when we know that though there are many gracious warnings and interventions on our behalf, we also know not to presume on grace. In Romans 2 Paul talks about those of us who don't seem to understand that God's kindness and forebearance and forgiveness is meant to lead us to repentance, and not meant to lead us to presume that we can continue defying God's will for our lives and somehow always get another free pass whenever we need it. We live in a real world, with a real Creator, who has put real minds and hearts within us. God seeks communion with us, and we are miraculously able to commune with our Creator in a special way since we do have minds and hearts to think and feel and plan and hope and love and believe. But, we are also able to reject communion with our Creator. We are also able to turn away from God's efforts to reach us, and rely solely on our own wisdom or the wisdom of the world.
The more we carve out a path in life by rejecting God's will for us, the harder it gets to get out of that destructive path. That path becomes a "rut." After a while, it becomes natural to fall back into that rut and just coast along towards another destructive episode. When I get in a "rut" like this, I am unlikely to see it because it is the course of life I have carved out for myself and it only seems natural for me to follow along this path. The strange thing is for those of us that are religious people, we seem to be able to stay in our "rut" while giving lip service to our need to find a better way. Our religion can do that for us. Help keep us on a false path. That is, our religion can do that for us if we fail to seek God in the depths of our lives. Our religion can become nothing more than a bunch of sayings in our heads that reassure us that we are o.k. when we are not. And, at times, our religion can become a bunch of sayings in our heads that disturb and make us feel we are not alright when we are.
We have limped along for too long by relying on "our religion." It is time to rely on the Living God. We need a direct experience with a power that we cannot fool, or else we will continuously fool ourselves. Does your religion have this power, or is it just a fairly refined and socially acceptable way of "fooling yourself?"
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Thinking about the Bible
Scripture: Can we really separate the wheat from the chaff?
I have been "getting back to the Bible" lately in reading sections of scripture I had not read in years, and even focusing on parts of scripture that seem to have no redeeming value. I have to admit that I was more able to read it all, reconcile or explain its strange parts, when I was in my 20's than I am when I am nearing 50.
And, I am starting, for the first time in my life to have some real sympathy for Marcion, the 2nd century heretic who tossed out the majority of scripture and only kept the parts he felt really came from the Spirit of God. But, once you do something like that you have become the authority, so I certainly am not attracted to the way of Marcion. Especially since he ended up tossing out some of the best of scripture by throwing out the whole Old Testament! And, he carved up our New Testament books pretty thoroughly as well. He loved the Gospel of John and his version of Paul's letters.
I am also reminded of Thomas Jefferson who cut out the parts of the New Testament he didn't like and had a cut and paste version of the New Testament to guide him.
So, here I am, a Protestant, following in the path of Luther, and somehow continuing to affirm that we are better off standing under the authority of scripture than we are standing under the authority of Bishops. Well,I guess I am following in the path of Luther, though the traditional Quaker way continues to make more and more sense to me. The early Quakers, starting with George Fox, immersed themselves in scripture reading, but always affirmed that scripture is a dead letter unless illuminated by the Spirit of God in the reader's/hearer's heart. Without an experience of God that illuminates the vital core of scripture, I don't see how anyone can make good sense of it either. And, yes, when that illumination is there, a person can begin to understand that the wheat and the chaff are bound together, indissolubly. And, you can't separate the wheat from the chaff; you can only take them together and wait on the hidden presence of God to be revealed. Marcion and Thomas Jefferson took it upon themselves to separate the wheat from the chaff. And, they ended up with a Bible that doesn't track reality. The Bible we have in the Church reflects reality in all its brokenness and incomprehensibility. But, it doesn't just reflect on the darkness of reality. It also reflects the mysterious presence of One who created and sustains and works in the hiddenness to redeem reality. But, finding that presence in the Holy Scripture is not like finding your parents in a photo album. God never stopped for any photo shoots, not even in the life and death of Jesus.
I have been "getting back to the Bible" lately in reading sections of scripture I had not read in years, and even focusing on parts of scripture that seem to have no redeeming value. I have to admit that I was more able to read it all, reconcile or explain its strange parts, when I was in my 20's than I am when I am nearing 50.
And, I am starting, for the first time in my life to have some real sympathy for Marcion, the 2nd century heretic who tossed out the majority of scripture and only kept the parts he felt really came from the Spirit of God. But, once you do something like that you have become the authority, so I certainly am not attracted to the way of Marcion. Especially since he ended up tossing out some of the best of scripture by throwing out the whole Old Testament! And, he carved up our New Testament books pretty thoroughly as well. He loved the Gospel of John and his version of Paul's letters.
I am also reminded of Thomas Jefferson who cut out the parts of the New Testament he didn't like and had a cut and paste version of the New Testament to guide him.
So, here I am, a Protestant, following in the path of Luther, and somehow continuing to affirm that we are better off standing under the authority of scripture than we are standing under the authority of Bishops. Well,I guess I am following in the path of Luther, though the traditional Quaker way continues to make more and more sense to me. The early Quakers, starting with George Fox, immersed themselves in scripture reading, but always affirmed that scripture is a dead letter unless illuminated by the Spirit of God in the reader's/hearer's heart. Without an experience of God that illuminates the vital core of scripture, I don't see how anyone can make good sense of it either. And, yes, when that illumination is there, a person can begin to understand that the wheat and the chaff are bound together, indissolubly. And, you can't separate the wheat from the chaff; you can only take them together and wait on the hidden presence of God to be revealed. Marcion and Thomas Jefferson took it upon themselves to separate the wheat from the chaff. And, they ended up with a Bible that doesn't track reality. The Bible we have in the Church reflects reality in all its brokenness and incomprehensibility. But, it doesn't just reflect on the darkness of reality. It also reflects the mysterious presence of One who created and sustains and works in the hiddenness to redeem reality. But, finding that presence in the Holy Scripture is not like finding your parents in a photo album. God never stopped for any photo shoots, not even in the life and death of Jesus.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Invitation to Central United Methodist Annual Picnic at Washington Pres. Church on Sept. 12, 4 p.m.
The members of Central United Methodist Church have invited us to join them for their annual church picnic on September 12 at 4 p.m. The picnic will not be held on the grounds of Central United Methodist but on the grounds of Washington Presbyterian Church, 7405 Washington Pike. Washington Presbyterian has lots of room, a great pavillion, etc. for outdoor gatherings.
For those of you who read this blog, mapquest the Washington Pres. Church address, get directions and tell others how to get there. Or, call Bob Crawford who has been out there many times. If you need a ride or know anyone who needs a ride, please call me, 805-3618. Also, email or call me to let me know if you plan to attend. We don't need to bring any food, but we do need to let members of Central United Meth. know how many of us will be there.
Last year we joined together with this church for Ash Wednesday and Maundy Thursday, and will be doing so again this coming year. They have been good neighbors to us since we have moved into the Broadway neighborhood.
For those of you who read this blog, mapquest the Washington Pres. Church address, get directions and tell others how to get there. Or, call Bob Crawford who has been out there many times. If you need a ride or know anyone who needs a ride, please call me, 805-3618. Also, email or call me to let me know if you plan to attend. We don't need to bring any food, but we do need to let members of Central United Meth. know how many of us will be there.
Last year we joined together with this church for Ash Wednesday and Maundy Thursday, and will be doing so again this coming year. They have been good neighbors to us since we have moved into the Broadway neighborhood.
Rebuilding Our Lives
Monday, September 6, 2010
Rebuilding Our Lives
It seems to me that we have been given the chance of rebuilding our lives as human beings. I like the Psalm that says: "Unless the Lord builds the house, the labor is in vain." That makes me think about how much help is needed in rebuilding a human life. "Unless the Lord builds the house, the labor is in vain." Somehow we need to find our way to resources beyond what we have in our little thoughts and feelings. We need more than that to rebuild our lives.
The very hopeful thing spiritually is that in faith a person can really go back and look at the foundation of his or her life. Faith gives us access to the depths of life, and enables us to rebuild. Our little thoughts and feelings can be transformed into very powerful thoughts and feelings.
Rebuilding can be a difficult work. Because when you rebuild, you have to tear down and clean out before you can put the new structure in. As we were working to renovate our old church building, we discovered termite damage in the wood structure around the lower level of the building. Fortunately, there were no active termites, since we had treated the entire area when we first moved into this old buiding a year earlier. But, because of the damage, we had to tear out the old wood structure of two entire rooms before we could rebuild. But, now that area is rebuilt.
Our lives can be like this. If we really get in there and inspect them, we may find some damage to the structure of our lives. We may even find forces active in breaking down the foundation of our lives. For years and years at the old church building, nobody inspected to see what the condition of things was. All the while, the termites were doing their destructive work. And, then upstairs in the building, a similar process was going on with damage from moisture from roof problems. Ignorance may be bliss, but the problem with ignorance is that it is out of touch with reality. When we aren't in touch with reality, we cannot act to shape reality or reshape it by our work.
In our lives, we probably need the most help in discovering the reality we are in. We need God's illumination in our souls to be able to see who we are, acknowledge where we have been, and grow into a hope for what we can be. But, we first have to go down to that basement of our lives and find out how the structure is. If termites are active down there, they will continue doing their damage until we get down there and do something to stop it. And, if we do stop it, then there is still a damaged foundation which has to be rebuilt.
I am talking figuratively, and I'll say a few things literally to make sure I'm being clear. If the foundation of your life - your own emotional life, your spiritual life - is in turmoil, then there have been destructive forces at work in your past or there are destructive forces at work in your present. Symptoms of these destructive forces are the presence of negative, self-destructive thoughts within. You may have aided or be aiding these destructive forces through alcohol or drug abuse or drawing near to destructive persons or by nurturing self-condemnatory thought patterns. Or, you may be increasing your trouble, because you just plain won't take responsibility for the trouble you're in. And, you may just have some trouble, because life has handed you some hard luck.
Whatever it is, you are responsible for your life. I'm going to say that again: whether you have done it to yourself or someone else has done it to you or some force in the physical world, like disease has done it to you, it is your life and you are responsible for it. That means, it is yours to work with, to bear and to do the best you can with. And, we can help each other bear this responsibility.
In contemporary thought, people are obsessed with blaming - they want to affix blame. But, it doesn't help. What is really missing in our world is people being willing to take responsibility. People who take responsibility for situations, take an active role in working towards resolving problems and building towards a better life and future. In a family, if something goes wrong or one member is having trouble, everyone feels a certain responsibility to act. Sure, the one who is having trouble has the primary responsibility, but others look at the other's trouble as partly their responsibility too and don't sit around blaming. Taking responsibility is a practical, objective way of approaching life and its challenges. This is the way of going down to the basement, seeing what the damage is, assessing it objectively and saying: "Let's get to work on it." That's how you fix things. Not by simply wishing you didn't have a problem, or not by complaining about your trouble - but, by looking at it for what it is, and figuring out how to get to work on it.
Rebuilding is difficult work. But, when you get something rebuilt, it is an even greater joy than building it from scratch. Because, you have the sense that something very precious has been saved and transformed. Even the mess that we are at times remains a precious human mess that is worth saving and rebuilding.
Rebuilding Our Lives
It seems to me that we have been given the chance of rebuilding our lives as human beings. I like the Psalm that says: "Unless the Lord builds the house, the labor is in vain." That makes me think about how much help is needed in rebuilding a human life. "Unless the Lord builds the house, the labor is in vain." Somehow we need to find our way to resources beyond what we have in our little thoughts and feelings. We need more than that to rebuild our lives.
The very hopeful thing spiritually is that in faith a person can really go back and look at the foundation of his or her life. Faith gives us access to the depths of life, and enables us to rebuild. Our little thoughts and feelings can be transformed into very powerful thoughts and feelings.
Rebuilding can be a difficult work. Because when you rebuild, you have to tear down and clean out before you can put the new structure in. As we were working to renovate our old church building, we discovered termite damage in the wood structure around the lower level of the building. Fortunately, there were no active termites, since we had treated the entire area when we first moved into this old buiding a year earlier. But, because of the damage, we had to tear out the old wood structure of two entire rooms before we could rebuild. But, now that area is rebuilt.
Our lives can be like this. If we really get in there and inspect them, we may find some damage to the structure of our lives. We may even find forces active in breaking down the foundation of our lives. For years and years at the old church building, nobody inspected to see what the condition of things was. All the while, the termites were doing their destructive work. And, then upstairs in the building, a similar process was going on with damage from moisture from roof problems. Ignorance may be bliss, but the problem with ignorance is that it is out of touch with reality. When we aren't in touch with reality, we cannot act to shape reality or reshape it by our work.
In our lives, we probably need the most help in discovering the reality we are in. We need God's illumination in our souls to be able to see who we are, acknowledge where we have been, and grow into a hope for what we can be. But, we first have to go down to that basement of our lives and find out how the structure is. If termites are active down there, they will continue doing their damage until we get down there and do something to stop it. And, if we do stop it, then there is still a damaged foundation which has to be rebuilt.
I am talking figuratively, and I'll say a few things literally to make sure I'm being clear. If the foundation of your life - your own emotional life, your spiritual life - is in turmoil, then there have been destructive forces at work in your past or there are destructive forces at work in your present. Symptoms of these destructive forces are the presence of negative, self-destructive thoughts within. You may have aided or be aiding these destructive forces through alcohol or drug abuse or drawing near to destructive persons or by nurturing self-condemnatory thought patterns. Or, you may be increasing your trouble, because you just plain won't take responsibility for the trouble you're in. And, you may just have some trouble, because life has handed you some hard luck.
Whatever it is, you are responsible for your life. I'm going to say that again: whether you have done it to yourself or someone else has done it to you or some force in the physical world, like disease has done it to you, it is your life and you are responsible for it. That means, it is yours to work with, to bear and to do the best you can with. And, we can help each other bear this responsibility.
In contemporary thought, people are obsessed with blaming - they want to affix blame. But, it doesn't help. What is really missing in our world is people being willing to take responsibility. People who take responsibility for situations, take an active role in working towards resolving problems and building towards a better life and future. In a family, if something goes wrong or one member is having trouble, everyone feels a certain responsibility to act. Sure, the one who is having trouble has the primary responsibility, but others look at the other's trouble as partly their responsibility too and don't sit around blaming. Taking responsibility is a practical, objective way of approaching life and its challenges. This is the way of going down to the basement, seeing what the damage is, assessing it objectively and saying: "Let's get to work on it." That's how you fix things. Not by simply wishing you didn't have a problem, or not by complaining about your trouble - but, by looking at it for what it is, and figuring out how to get to work on it.
Rebuilding is difficult work. But, when you get something rebuilt, it is an even greater joy than building it from scratch. Because, you have the sense that something very precious has been saved and transformed. Even the mess that we are at times remains a precious human mess that is worth saving and rebuilding.
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