Complicated

Pentecost 16B, 9/13/15
Mark 8:27-38

God of Peter and Andrew, Mary and Martha, guide us as you guided the first disciples. Help us to know you better, and give us the strength and courage to follow where you lead. Show us the best way to be your followers in this day and age. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.  

People are complicated. Aren’t they? It’s impossible to describe any human being with just a single adjective. We all have endearing qualities and we all do things that drive people crazy.

If you don’t believe that, just ask your loved ones – they’ll tell you.

People are complicated.

Take Bill Cosby, for example.

He broke countless stereotypes and was a great role model for a generation of young Americans. He made people’s lives better by making them laugh.

But according to recent allegations, he was also apparently an adulterer. He may have assaulted and even raped a few dozen women.

People are complicated.

If you were in worship about a month and a half ago, you heard me preach on the apostle Paul. In my opinion, Paul was both the best thing and the worst thing to happen to Christianity.

Because of the writings of Paul, Christians over the years have been able to justify slavery and sexism and homophobia.

But without Paul, Christianity would never have expanded past a small handful of followers of Jesus gathered in Jerusalem.

People are complicated.

Take Peter in today’s reading from Mark.

When Jesus asks, “who do you say that I am?” Peter responds enthusiastically, in faith, with a strong answer about the power of Jesus.

“You are the Messiah!” he boldly proclaims.

Peter recognizes Jesus as God’s chosen one, the person who will restore wholeness to the people of God.

Peter is right.

But Peter doesn’t completely understand what being the Messiah will entail.

Jesus starts to tell the disciples what the role of the Messiah actually will be. Jesus says he’ll have to suffer and die, and Peter doesn’t like it. He pulls Jesus aside and says “dude, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Those things will never happen to you.”

And Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind on human things, not on divine things.”

From faithful follower to the tool of the devil in a few short verses. What happened? How could Peter be both so right, and so wrong?

Peter is complicated, and so is his relationship with Jesus.

Peter went on to become the leader of the church in Jerusalem. He is the one who stood in front of huge crowds on the day of Pentecost and announced the arrival of the Holy Spirit among God’s people.

Peter also denied knowing Jesus immediately before the crucifixion. He tried to talk Jesus out of dying for our sins – tried to thwart the very purpose for which Jesus had come to earth.

Peter was a faithful follower, but he wasn’t perfect.

Faithful, but not perfect.

Do you know the feeling?

There can be a lot of pressure in society to behave or believe in certain ways.

How should a person of faith respond to current events, to stress, to the needs of loved ones, to job changes, to the media?

What would Jesus do?

We want to do the right thing, we might feel a need to be perfect, because if we aren’t, then we get accused of hypocrisy.

We try to be faithful in our actions. But it’s hard to get everything right.

Here’s something to consider.

Jesus is complicated, too.

Jesus is human and divine,         son of God and son of man,       alpha and omega,      beginning and end.

Jesus isn’t this monolithic unchanging person whose every action can be predicted and anticipated.

In last week’s Gospel lesson, we heard Jesus change his mind.

A woman came to Jesus asking for healing. He said no.

And she said, come on, you can do better than that. I know that there’s enough grace to go around.

And he said, wow, you’re right.

The woman’s request made Jesus change his mind, and he did end up performing the healing she had asked for.

Jesus is complicated.

Peter’s mistake came in thinking that he knew Jesus completely.

He got part of the question right – who do you say that I am?
You are the Messiah.

And so Peter assumed that he knew everything about Jesus, because he knew this one big important thing.

But Peter was wrong.

Peter thought – as did most Jews around the turn of the millennium – that the Messiah would be a political hero who would take over Israel, throw out the occupying military forces, and restore a united kingdom like the one that had existed under king David.

         Jesus had other ideas.

Jesus knew that the true, deep need of people wasn’t for a military hero.

Our need was for a spiritual hero, someone who could reach into the very essence of our beings and say, “you matter. You are worthy. You were created in the image of God. You are not perfect, but God loves you anyway. So keep on trying to be the person who God created you to be.”

Jesus is the kind of Messiah who can save us not just from the powers and principalities of the world around us, but from the powers and voices within ourselves that hold us back from living full, rich, abundant lives.

Because people are complicated.

You are complicated.

And Jesus gets it.

So Jesus is the kind of Messiah who can respond to every level of need and insecurity and doubt that we carry with us.

         Jesus can help us be faithful, even when we aren’t perfect.

When Peter said to Jesus, “you don’t need to suffer and die,” Jesus scolded him, because Peter had stopped getting to know Jesus.

Peter had learned just enough about Jesus to think that he knew him, and then he didn’t try to grow the relationship any further.

But there’s always more to learn about another person.

There’s always more to learn about Jesus.

And so Peter had to be put in his place, so that he would go back and try to build up the relationship again. Peter needed to be told, “you don’t understand it all. Keep on learning.”

There’s a quote that I like – I can’t remember where I first heard it – but it goes like this:

A god you could understand would be less than yourself.

In other words, God will never be fully understood by humans. And that’s a good thing. Because if we ever understood all there was to know about God, well then, we would be greater than God. And if that happened, then in essence, there would be no God at all.

A god you could understand would be less than yourself.

Jesus was fully human.

He was complicated and complex, he had personality quirks and endearing traits, just like everyone here.

Jesus was fully divine.

Jesus was the embodiment of God. There are some things about Jesus that no human will ever completely comprehend.

So the best that we can do is to keep following Jesus.

We can engage in relationship with this strange human-divine Messiah and try to grow closer to God in the process.

Jesus tells us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow.

In practical terms, this means we leave our assumptions behind.

Unlike Peter, we don’t tell Jesus what to do, and we don’t tell God where to go.

         Our job is to follow, not to lead.

If we step out ahead of Jesus, we might hear those words, get behind me, Satan!

They are words of caution. Don’t get ahead of Jesus.

Instead, learn how to follow.

Learn how to trust that God will lead us along the right pathways.

It isn’t simple.

And it isn’t easy.

And we are bound to make mistakes along the way.

But that’s OK. You know, God was able to use Peter for some pretty amazing things, even after today’s argument with Jesus.

Peter learned how to follow.

People are complicated.

Jesus is complicated.

And following Jesus is complicated.

The life of discipleship is not a straight trajectory but a windy path.

By listening to Jesus, by building up our relationship with God, and by continually seeking to learn more about faith, we can stay on that path even on the hairpin curves. That is the life of faith to which Jesus calls Peter today, and that is the life of faith that Jesus will lead us down.

May God, who has given us ears to hear this call, give us the will to follow. Amen.

Simple Wisdom

Pentecost 12B, 8/16/15
Proverbs 9:1-6

Holy Wisdom, let us listen to your voice as you call out to us, and help us to walk in the way of insight. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve heard several people say that they don’t really know what they believe.

Some of us aren’t sure how we feel about God, or the Trinity, or the resurrection, or the virgin birth, or various other primary tenets of the Christian faith.

Guess what?

It’s OK.

You don’t have to have all the answers to be part of this community of faith.

In fact, you don’t even have to be confident about your own personal faith in order to be part of this community.    You     and your doubts     and your questions     are welcomed here.

All that we ask is that you come along for the journey, and that you share your questions – other people might learn something from the questions that you bring to the table.

About a year and a half ago, as part of a confirmation class, another pastor and I had an entire session when we answered the questions of students and their parents. Any question at all was fair game, for either of us.

Some of the questions were predictable – what made you want to become a pastor?

Some of the questions were lighthearted – have you ever gone fishing?

And some of the questions made it hard for us to keep a straight face. When did you memorize the Bible?

Seriously. I appreciate that our confirmation students thought that we had the Bible memorized, but really, I don’t. I’ve read the whole thing, and studied it, even translated some parts of it from the original language, but memorized? I don’t think so.

There are parts of the Bible that I don’t know well, or even at all, and that’s OK. I don’t have to know everything in order to be a pastor.

And you don’t have to know everything in order to be a worshipper.

Today’s first reading includes an invitation to follow in the way of Wisdom.

You that are simple, turn in here!

Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.

Wisdom makes the invitation not to people who are already wise, or to people who have lots of knowledge or life experience.

Wisdom invites the simple people to come, be part of her community.

There are no prerequisite classes for walking into Wisdom’s house.

You don’t have to know certain things about God, understand anything about church history, or have verses of the Bible memorized.

During worship every week, we speak an affirmation of faith together, confessing things about God that Christians over time have determined to be true. But you don’t even have to be confortable saying the creed or any other affirmation of faith in order to belong here.

Just take a step.

That’s all that matters.

Step out onto the path of Wisdom, and you’ll learn what you need to know as you go along.

If you worry that you’re not good enough or don’t know enough, you’ll never take that first step. So put your worries aside and simply follow. Listen to the voice of Wisdom calling out to you. 

This doesn’t mean that we should follow blindly, of course.

We’re not asked to leave reason at the door.

It is Wisdom that’s calling after all – we are still supposed to use our brains as we travel through our journey of faith.

When we listen to Wisdom’s voice, we should be learning things about ourselves and the world around us. Wisdom is what helps us make decisions in our daily lives, and also what helps us see the big picture of human history, and where we fit into that picture.

There’s a new book by a Christian author named Brian McLaren, called We Make the Road by Walking.

That’s what the life of faith is like. There’s no pre-planned route for how things are supposed to go in your relationship with God and God’s people. With each step we take, we are drawing a piece of our own map, our own path of faith.

Brian McLaren writes in the preface to his book,

“You are not finished yet. You are ‘in the making.’” (page xi)

Each one of us is a work in progress.

By listening to the voice of Wisdom, and by following where she leads, we keep taking steps toward becoming the person that God created us to be.

Brian McLaren goes on to write, “faith was never intended to be a destination, a status, a holding tank, or a warehouse. Instead, it was to be a road, a path,

a way out of old and destructive patterns into new and creative ones. As a

road or way, it is always being extended into the future.” (page xii)

Now, I’ll be honest with you. I haven’t read the whole book. I’ve only seen reviews and read the preface, because that’s available online.

But I think that Brian McLaren makes a great point when he reminds us that we have never arrived in our journey of faith.

In other words, if you are waiting until you know enough about Communion before you start to receive – if you are waiting until you know enough about Lutheranism before you join this congregation – if you are waiting until you know enough about the Bible to become a Sunday School teacher – you will be waiting for a very long time.

         You will never know enough to satisfy your own prerequisites.

But what you already know, is enough for God to work with.

Wisdom calls you into her house no matter how much previous knowledge or faith or certitude you bring with you.

And, by the way, do you know who this Wisdom is?

Wisdom is God, calling out to you.

Earlier in the book of Proverbs, we are told that God created the world through Wisdom. Wisdom is one face, one aspect of the divine.  

When you follow the voice of Wisdom into her house, you follow the guidance of God into Christian community.

You don’t need to be whole and complete to walk through these doors.

But we do hope that as you continue to walk through these doors time and time again, and as you participate in worship and serve with outreach ministries and learn from Bible and book studies, we hope that Wisdom will keep guiding you along the path and forming you into the person that she created you to be.

One retired seminary professor puts it this way:

The slogan “God loves us unconditionally” is only half right.  God loves us with the expectation and hope that love will transform us into believing and righteous people.

(Ralph W. Klein, http://fontes.lstc.edu/~rklein/Documents/PentecostB.htm#Pent11)

According to today’s reading, you can replace “love” in that last sentence with “guidance” or “wisdom.” God guides us with the expectation and hope that Wisdom will transform us into believing and righteous people.

Because God loves us, God offers us the gift of Wisdom. Her voice calls us to be the best that we can be, and to do our best for the sake of other people and all of creation.

With each step you take in response to God’s Wisdom, you are making a decision – a decision to keep following and learning in faith, or a decision to stop and fall back into the ways of ignorance.

The next passage in the book of Proverbs, right after the one we heard today, is about the way of folly.

Folly cries out to passersby just like Wisdom does, and she also invites people into her home for a meal. But Folly’s meal is secret and stolen, and her path will lead to destruction. That’s what the next few verses go on to describe.

Unlike Folly, Wisdom is good for you. Even if you don’t have much in the way of knowledge or understanding, you can still follow the path of Wisdom.

God can still reach you, give you faith, use you for good works, and enrich your life even if you don’t understand how it works. All you have to do is listen to the voice of Wisdom calling, and ignore the voice of Folly.

Let me share a great example of what it’s like to step out in faith, even if you don’t know very much about where you’re going or why.

         How many of you have seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?

Towards the end of that film, Harrison Ford – Indiana Jones – is trying to reach the Holy Grail. He can see the door that he needs to go in, but all he can see in front of him is this deep crevice in the rock, that is way too wide to jump across. So, he steps out in faith. And he finds himself supported by a bridge that was invisible until he was standing on it.

That’s sort of like what Wisdom’s path is like. You don’t always know where it is, or even what is going to meet you along your journey, but as long as you try to follow where Wisdom leads, you’ll be supported.

You don’t have to have all the answers. Just listen to Wisdom’s voice.

You that are simple, turn in here!

Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.

Amen. 

Unity

Pentecost 10B, 8/2/15
Ephesians 4:1-16

God our provider, like the crowds that followed Jesus, we do not always hear your word or know how to receive your blessings. Help us today to hear the message you have for us, and give us grace to respond. Amen.

OK, folks, time to grab a pencil.

I’m going to do something today that I hardly ever do, so you’d better write this down.

I’m going to preach on a reading from one of Paul’s letters.

For those of you who don’t know, the apostle Paul was the person to credit – or to blame – for the spread of early Christianity throughout the Roman Empire.

Paul wrote about half of the books in the New Testament, depending on how reliable you think some of the claims of authorship might be.

That is to say, it’s entirely possible that the apostle Paul didn’t actually write some of the books that are attributed to him, since the style is way different from his other writings. But, in the absence of an alternate author, for the sake of today’s message, we’re going to call the author of all of those books “Paul.”

Everything in the New Testament from Romans through Philemon was supposedly written by Paul.

Now, Paul wrote some truly wonderful things, like the words that we say as we celebrate Communion every week, and the passage from Romans about nothing being able to separate us from the love of God, and today’s reading from Ephesians.

But Paul also wrote some things that I really don’t like, such as that passage about women being subject to their husbands, and the one about slaves being content with their place, and women being silent in churches.

In my opinion, Paul was both the best and worst thing to happen to Christianity.

Without Paul, the momentum of the followers of Jesus probably would have fizzled and died. At best, they would have remained as a tiny sect in Israel that everyone else would have seen as quirky but harmless.

Because of Paul, the message of Jesus spread throughout the Roman empire, and eventually became the religion of the Roman empire, and then spread to every region of the world.

But also because of Paul, women have been treated as less than equal – that wasn’t a message that Jesus preached, that only comes from Paul.

Hierarchies and systems of power have been justified by Paul’s writings, including the institution of slavery in various forms over the centuries.

         Because of Paul, some terrible things have been done in the name of Jesus.

But here we are.

Today we have a reading the letter to the church in Ephesus, written by the apostle Paul or by someone writing in his name.

This reading has a lot of good things in it.

So even though Paul makes me queasy sometimes, I’m going to preach today on the reading from his letter.

We heard from the letter to the Ephesians, “lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” (Eph 4:1)

As followers of Jesus, we have been called by God, just like the disciples were. The disciples did some great work with Jesus, and Christians have been doing important things ever since then.

So what is the calling to which we have been called?

Paul goes on to describe how we are supposed to act – which in essence describes our calling.

Live with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Eph 4:2-3)

Your pride, your ego, your schedule, your goals are not the most important things in life. What matters most is to love other people and do everything in your power to live in unity with them.

Humility, gentleness, and patience are more important than pride, arrogance, and anxiety.

This seems like common sense, right? We know that humility is better than pride, and patience is better than anxiety.

But you don’t have to look very far to find people in the world arguing about whose ideas or products or political ideals are the best.

That’s not the calling we have as Christians. Our calling is to live in unity with other people, not in contention with them.

There is one body and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. (Eph 4:4-6)

         The word one shows up seven times in this sentence.

         I think Paul is trying to send the church a message.

In spite of everything that makes us different from each other – our age, race, sex, finances, interests, hobbies, family situation – even though we could come up with countless ways to differentiate ourselves from other people, there is only one defining feature that matters to our lives of faith.

There is one God.

One faith.

One baptism.

One body of Christ, and each one of us is a part of that body.

We have more to draw us together than to separate us.

We need to live in harmony with others, in fact, because all of us are members of the body of Christ, and Christ’s body cannot be divided.

But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. (Eph 4:7)

We may be united as the one body of Christ, but that doesn’t mean we are identical to one another. God gives us each abilities to do different things.

The gifts God gave were that some people would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. (Eph 4:11-12)

No matter what our particular gifts or talents are, the purpose of those gifts is the same. We are given special talents and abilities so that we can serve the broader community. Everything that we have, and everything that we do, is for the sake of the one body of Christ.

If you were here last week, you got a preview of this theme.

In the story of the feeding of the 5000, we learned that God can do amazing things with whatever we bring to the table – but God expects us to bring everything we have to the table.

The boy in that story offered up his whole lunch for the crowd to share, and Jesus multiplied the loaves and fish into a hugely abundant amount of food, with 12 baskets of leftovers!

         But the point is that the boy gave it all.

He gave everything he had for the common good, trusting that Jesus would know best what to do with it.

Today’s message is similar, but it’s a little more personal.

God doesn’t just want your lunch.

God wants your whole life.

Everything that you have, and everything that you are, everything that is important to you – give all your time, talents, possessions and abilities over to God.

That is the calling to which we have been called.

Paul’s message is a call to utter selflessness, for the sake of the common good.

Live according to your calling, Paul tells us, the calling of living in unity with all of God’s people, which is to say, with all people.

         Build up other people. Honor and respect their gifts.

Be humble about your own.

Unity is more important than divisions

The unity of Christians reflects the unity of God.

Which means that I should probably stop complaining about some of the things that Paul wrote in those other letters, the things that I disagree with.

I have a responsibility to work to be united with Paul, even when I disagree with his theology. Our shared faith binds us together more strongly than anything else can pull us apart.

Even though Paul makes me queasy sometimes, I need to recognize his gifts and the way that he tried his very best to live out the calling to which God had called him.

Paul had a lot of good things to say to the early church.

Paul even has a few good things to say to us today.

Live out your life knowing that God has called you to do specific work in this world, and has given you unique gifts with which to carry out that work.

Remember that all people were created in the image of God, and together we make up the body of Christ. Even though none of us is identical, we are all united by virtue of being children of God.

Don’t let petty divisions separate you from other Christians.

And ultimately, all divisions between Christians are petty.

Unity in Christ is more important than our own egos or agendas or denominational identities.

That’s basically what Paul is saying in his letter to the Ephesians.

That’s the take-away message today.

Love one another, serve one another, be united with each other… and rejoice, because God has chosen us to be the hands and feet of Christ in this world.

Thanks be to God. Amen.