Colossians 3:1-12
David A. Davis
August 4, 2019
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It never really dies, does it? Sin, I mean. It never really dies: my sin, your sin. That part of us which is so human, so distant from God. “Put it to death. Put to death…sin”, the Apostle Paul exhorts the Colossians, the church, you and me. Paul calls for the death of sin. But it never dies. We all know that. Preachers know that. Theologians know that. Paul knew that too. “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.” (Romans 7:15-16). If it were only that easy; the death of sin. You know it. I know it. Jesus knows it. God knows it. What it means human. What it must mean to be God. It’s the power, the mystery, the grace, the wonder of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ died for my sin and yet tomorrow, there I go. And Jesus still loves me. And Paul still exhorts me: “put sin to death.” Paul still calls for the death of sin.
Fresh out of seminary and only a few months into the weekly preaching role of ministry, a man old enough to be my grandfather told me I ought to be preaching about all these young people running around having sex. He wasn’t even a member of my congregation and we had just been introduced. I was 24 at the time. I wasn’t sure if he was including me in the demographic he was slamming but I was pretty sure he didn’t want me to not just preach about it but against it! When I came to Nassau Church 14 years later, and when I was still in the early days here, someone who was not pleased with my preaching came to see me. At one point the conversation took an unexpected turn when the person said, “When are you going to start preaching against the fornicators?” No one has ever asked me when I was going to start preaching against greed or anger or malice or lying.
“Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry)…you must rid of all such things: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another….” The Apostle Paul and those lists of his. “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” Paul’s lists. The fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians). The gifts of the Spirit (I Corinthians). Nothing can separate us from God’s love: “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation.” (Romans). No ever says the fruit of the Spirit is love and just stops. Or how about, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom….period”. Or I am persuaded that nothing can separate us from the one who loves us. Not death.” No one argues theologically or biblically that Paul’s lists are exhaustive and few people stop with just the first thing on the list accept when it comes to sin. No one considers Paul’s list’s prioritized or in order accept when it comes to sin.
Fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry)…you must rid of all such things: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another. The King James list is fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, and filthy communication, lying. One contemporary paraphrase lists sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like, grabbing whatever attracts your fancy, bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk, and lying to one another. Who would not be able to find themselves somewhere in that list? Not just with your old immature, unfaithful yet earthly yet to be dead to sin self but with your self-self. Your self yesterday, your self today, and yes, your self tomorrow. Because it never really dies, does it?
For Paul, the death of sin (or the lack of the death of sin) is a theological question whose answer is rooted in Christ and his righteousness. It leads to conversations with loaded terms like justification and sanctification, repentance and redemption. To read Paul is to read a complex and profound argument about God and Jesus and us. But the list itself isn’t all that complex nor profound. Fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry)…you must rid of all such things: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another. It’s no surprise that Paul puts human sexual behavior first on the list. Paul is human after all. The surprise, the shock is that Paul keeps going with the list. The surprise is that when Paul calls for the death of sin, he calls for the death of all of it. The surprise is that everyone of us makes the list, pretty much all the time. The surprise is that, at the end of the day, sin is sin without gradation and Paul calls for the death of all of it. Promiscuity and bad temper. Lust and irritability. Wanting what is not yours, blasphemy, malice and just being mean.
Christ is all and in all, Paul proclaims. All in all. Paul unpacks that best right here in Colossians. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross” (1:15ff). Christ is all and in all.
When Paul’s affirmation of Christ’s reign over creation comes alongside “there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free”, the church ought not to miss the notion that Christ is in places and persons one would never expect. All in all. Would that wide swath of the Christian Church that favors judgment over grace would remember Jesus is all and in all. When Paul’s affirmation of the “allness” of Jesus is paired with that list of sin, the follower of Jesus ought not forget that Christ is present in and relevant to your whole self, your life. There is no part of our lives and all of our brokenness that doesn’t matter to Christ. The biggest, most important, most precious aspects of who I am and the littlest, smallest details of how I live my life. All in all.
Slide up to the edge of your pew now because I am about to confess something to you. You know that intersection there on Nassau Street, the intersection at Washington Road with the Garden Theater, the Methodist Church, and Firestone Library. When you pass through that light, heading away from this church and toward Hoagie Haven, two lanes become one. If the person in the left lane is not turning left on to Vandeventer street, there is an awkward, rapid, unsafe merge. I drive that way pretty much every day. When I happen to be first in line waiting for the light to change, whether I am in the right lane or the left, for the longest time you would have thought I was at the starting line at the Indianapolis 500. I would gun it to win that race, that little game of chicken, looking over at my competitor only to see and hope that it wasn’t one of you. I asked Cathy one day, “is it me or are drivers getting more aggressive at that merge”? Then Jesus pointed out to me that speed racer here was probably the leader of the pack! Actually, that’s not language I use nor am I comfortable with the expression theologically, spiritually: “Jesus told me!” But my tongue is only partly in my cheek. Because I do think how I behave at the intersection matters….to God.
I fully understand that all sin, all behavior is not the same in terms of the consequences, impact, reality of life. For goodness sake early this morning in Dayton, Ohio there was a second mass shooting in 24 hours. It was the 250th mass shooting in the United States. 250th. I could just click on the sermon archive on the website for the way too many times I have preached about humanity’s sinful thirst for gun violence and the idolatry of the 2nd Amendment. Yes, there is sin and then there is sin. I get it. But here in Colossians, Paul is calling for the death of all it. So I take that to mean how I live my life, all of it, matters to God: promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like, grabbing whatever attracts your fancy, bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk, and lying to one another….and everything else.
A few weeks ago I read an essay in the USA TODAY entitled “At the Scene of a Fatal Car Crash, I saw Americans reveal their fundamental decency” You can guess the writers point. That in the worst of circumstances, people rise to their best. The writer described behaviors along the highway, the bridge collapse in Florida, and September 11th. Everyone, I think, understands the point, sees the point. But waiting for tragedy to expect decency seems like a strange bar to me. I don’t know whether that is a high bar or a low bar. When the Apostle Paul, the Gospel, and Jesus call for a life of more than human decency all the time. They call for the death of sin, all of it.
Everyone has someone in the family or someone they know that is a breakfast list maker. For the crowd that sits down to a breakfast every morning, some read the paper, some check their devices, some watch the news or sports center, some talk about the day with those they love, and someone is always making a “to do” list for the day. The list includes the big stuff and the little stuff like “pick up stamps or get milk or text dad.” Starting the day with some nourishment and your day planner.
Some nourishment and your day planner. Come to the table, to be fed and to take a look at your day, at your life, at your life in Christ…the one who invites you here. And today, this morning, at the Table, lift even the littlest of things to him. Because when you make that list, when you look at your day, your week, your month, when you look at you…Jesus cares about all of it. All of it matters to God.

Luke 11:1-13
Theresa Thames
July 28, 2019
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Psalm 84
Kelly Roman
July 21, 2019
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(Audio Only)

Colossians 1:1-14
Len Scales
July 14, 2019
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I heard there was a soccer game a week ago. A few faithful folks, who are also devoted soccer fans, came to worship last Sunday and discretely slipped out a little early to catch the full game. Sounds like it was worth it.

Megan Rapinoe, one of the co-captains of the US Women’s National Soccer Team closed out their World Champion ticker-tape parade in New York last Wednesday with a charge to everyone. She said, “We have to be better. We have to love more, hate less. We gotta listen more and talk less. We gotta know that this is everybody’s responsibility. Every single person here, every single person who’s not here, every single person who doesn’t want to be here. Every single person who agrees and doesn’t agree. It’s our responsibility to make this world a better place.”^[1]

There is truth here–about everyone in the entire human race’s responsibility. We all need to steward the gifts and opportunities we are given for the good of our communities and our world.

To be better. To make the world a better place, is to live into freedom. That at least is what our reading today from Colossians points to—for Jesus has rescued humanity and brought about redemption—freedom. The grace and reconciliation accomplished in Jesus is a truth Colossians lifts up over and over again. And, this freedom, is something the followers of Christ live into on a daily basis and work to establish in their own communities.

The Gospel promises freedom, both cosmic and everyday. And freedom is about the world being made whole, the world being a better place. Sometimes though that can sound like a pipe dream.

It is easy to feel paralyzed and inept in the face of the powers and principalities. Those that separate families, create cultures that open children to abuse, and leave those in need without access to adequate hygiene.^[2] And the powers that forty-one million Americans live below the federal poverty line.^[3] And the power that the environment suffers continuing to heighten forced migration.^[4] All of that is happening and more. And, yet. Yet, love, hope, and joy remain too.

Colossians helps remind followers of Jesus of hope—both cosmic and everyday.^[5] The truth of God’s power and the goodness of the Gospel—that Jesus brings freedom and redemption. And the truth that as we respond, we have the power to cultivate this cosmic hope in our daily actions within our communities. We have the opportunity to work for hope.

Even in the midst of chaos and the oppression in our world, I step back and consider:

• The 56 youth and adults from Nassau who returned yesterday from serving and learning in Appalachia. They built relationships and made homes warmer, safer, drier. There is hope in the tangible—new staircases and siding, and in the less quantifiable—relationships with friends, loving adults, and strangers becoming neighbors.
• LALDEF (The Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund)’s new bond and deportation fund to help families retrain legal services was announced this week. The Mission & Outreach Committee at Nassau helped seed the new endeavor. There is hope in the tireless effort LALDEF makes to advocate for the civil rights of Latin Americans and promote cross-cultural understanding in Mercer County.
• Five Nassau members traveling to Malawi this summer with Villages in Partnership on Medical and Friendship trips. They will visit and befriend our mission partners in one of the most impoverished countries in the world. They will see hope in how Villages in Partnership approaches six critical needs for human development: food, water, education, medical care, infrastructure, and economic opportunity.

 

With those things in mind, I remember and have hope that the poverty and pain of the present are not the only reality and they do not have the final word.

When I consider the opportunities yet to come this summer to fill 200 backpacks for Westminster Presbyterian Church in Trenton; or to join Witherspoon Presbyterian Church in the summer read on Radical Reconciliation; or the dozens and dozens of you that will make meatloaves, bake cookies, and show up for Loaves and Fishes in August. It is there, in these ways sponsored by the congregation and the many, many ways I hear stories of how you serve in your specific neighborhoods and workplaces and school systems that I see the fruit you bear and there is hope.

Working for hope is a prayerful endeavor. Rooted in the love Christ, growing with the power of the Holy Spirit, fed by the nourishment of the community. It is sustained beyond any one individual. It is in relationship with one another that we can acknowledge our limitations. On the days we struggle to hope, we can lean on our siblings and friends. And when they need a shoulder, we can pick up their load and help them carry on.

Praying for one another and for those in need in our world is not passive, it encompasses energy, imagination, intelligence, and love. It motivates us to extend with our actions the hope we know in Christ.

Friday evening, several hundred gathered in Hinds Plaza for Princeton’s Lights for Liberty vigil. A national evening of prayerful resistance of detention camps at our southern border, the deathly conditions many of our neighbors face, and the continued separation of families. Rev. Alexis Fuller-Wright of Christ Congregation gave the benediction for the vigil. She included a declaration about the moral fabric of our shared lives. Even when it is ripped, she prayed:

We will keep showing up to stitch it back together.

And we will keep showing up for as long as it takes.

We will keep stitching together what has been torn apart,

Because we are weavers of hope

Weavers of mercy

And weavers of justice.

 

So we pray, we stitch, we pray, we weave, we pray, we bake, we build, we give, we serve, we work.

We work for hope because there is freedom in Jesus Christ, and that freedom is for us and for all of creation. Amen.

^[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/07/10/megan-rapinoe-speech/?utm_term=.45f1912a4eec

^[2] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/migrant-kids-overcrowded-arizona-border-station-allege-sex-assault-retaliation-n1027886 and

^[3] https://ips-dc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/PPC-Exective-Summary.pdf

^[4] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/opinion/guatemala-migrants-climate-change.html

^[5] Eastman, Susan Grove. Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 3. “Exegetical Perspective” (Westminster John Knox Press, 2010) p.235-236.

 

 

 

Psalm 30
David A. Davis
July 7, 2019
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I will extol you, O Lord. I will celebrate, I will rise up, I will rejoice, I will be glad, in you.  In you I seek comfort and assurance and encouragement and rest. I yearn for my restless heart to find rest in Thee, O God. You lift me up when I feel down. You help me dust off and keep going when I have fallen, made a mistake, or disappointed myself and others. Your fresh forgiveness meets me every time I, like everybody else, has fallen short of your glory. Your Spirit tells me over and over again to not focus on the negative, or the naysayers, or those forces and movements so against your Kingdom, so contrary to the gospel, so inconsistent with the teaching of Jesus. You squelch the celebrations that seem to taunt my life in you and you never stop telling me, convincing me that love wins.

Yes, I cry to you for help. Please, please, always turn an ear to listen to me. Lean over to hear me. Reach toward me to hold me. Do not withhold your steadfast love from me, even for a second, O Lord. I have cried to you for help and you healed me. In your righteousness, in your goodness, in your graciousness, in your love, Holy One, you have delivered me. Saved me. Loved me. Accepted me. You have taken my restless heart and allowed me to find rest in Thee. You have brought me up from the lowest places, you have brought me home from the farthest places, you have allowed your light to shine on me even in the darkest places. Even when my spirits, my life, my outlook was going down, down, down; going way down where the struggles of so many are legion, you were there for me. You helped me. You restored me. You gave me a taste, a glimpse of life in you, again and again.

You have been a rock of refuge for me. You have been a firm foundation to steady me in my walk with you. You have been a warm embrace to hold me tight. You have been a beauty for my delight. You have been an everlasting grasp that will not let me go. O Holy God, you have restored my soul, over and over and over again.

All of you, God’s people, all of you walking along the Way, all of you who gather in God’s name, all of you who are making a go of it best you can, baby step by baby step, in the life of faith to which God has called….you sing! You be thankful! Express your gratitude and praise to the name of, in the name of the God of heaven and earth! Praise the name of the Lord! And be thankful. Be….thankful!

Yes, there are moments when God must get angry. God must get made at me. Everyone else does once in a while. Why not God? There are those moments, those fleeting, passing times in life, those times every now and then when God gets angry at you, at me, at the world. But God’s love, God’s mercy, God’s favor is for the long haul. God’s love, not anger shall carry you all the days of your life. God’s grace will be with you all of your days up to, including, and through your death. God’s favor is for more than a lifetime. It’s forever. Yes, God may get mad, God may get angry, God may at times be disappointed, and God know tears of sadness and grief as well. After all, God knows what it means to lose a child. God…angry? Ok. But in God, with God, you and God? There is nothing ever to fear. Ever.

Weeping may linger for the night, for a long dark night. Grief, sadness, struggle, suffering. Sometimes the hardest nights can last almost forever. No one can lie about that. No one can deny that. Ask anyone who has cried themselves to sleep at night. But with the rising sun comes morning joy. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not in 24 hours, but the unshakeable hope of resurrection, new life, and grace unbound. That’s morning joy. Joy that comes like the promise of a new day. Joy that comes when the slightest glimmer of hope starts to catch. Joy that still upends life and world when there was nothing left in the tank, nothing left to give, nothing left to draw upon. Then, maybe with just a flicker, just the slightest sure sign, a kind word of love, a tear harvesting “I’m sorry”, an assuring “I’m still here” from a loved one, from a friend, from God. Morning joy shows up. Not always with a bang, not always like a stunning sunrise, but just with God being there with us….still.  Weeping may linger for the night but joy comes with the morning.

When things are going well, when I’m on top of the world, when I am absolutely killing it; and feeling it, and rocking it, I puff out my chest and lift my snooty, spiritual nose and say, “I shall never be moved. God is good! God’s love and grace shine on me, baby! I must be doing something right, thank you God! Instead of giving you thanks, I was taking you for granted. Instead of acknowledging you humbly and deeply, I was shining my own bootstraps. There is a difference between gratitude and arrogance. There is a difference between righteousness and self-righteousness. There is a difference between trying to live a Christian life and deciding you’re leading a better Christian life, a more faithful Christian life, the best Christian life. I guess I can’t blame you for looking the other way, for turning away from my distasteful, full of myself, pious prosperity. It was like you turned away and everything started to crumble, to fall to pieces. I mean it happens to everyone at some point. Struggle, challenge, pain, illness. Last time I checked we all die at some point.

I cried to you, O God. I still cried out to you. I was still able to tell you. What good will come if I get pulled always the down to the pit. Is there anything to gain from my own suffering? Do the powers and principalities of this world ever proclaim your praise? Does the force of darkness every have a word of gratitude for you? All that is at work to pull me away from you and push me down, does any of that contribute to a symphony of praise that lifts your name on high? Does death ever sing “Alleluia”? Does death every proclaim “Christ is Risen?” Hear, O Lord and be gracious to me! O Lord be my helper? Don’t leave me now! Don’t turn your back on me now! Don’t’ look away now! Because I am still your instrument of praise. I am still, as you have told me, wonderfully and beautifully made. I am still, and always will be, your child, O Lord, My God. Just like a learned when I was a very young child; it’s still true. “I’m gonna sing, sing, sing. I’m gonna shout, shout, shout. I’m gonna sing, I’m gonna shout praise the Lord.” I’m still a child; a child of God, a child of yours.

You alone have turned my mourning, my sadness, my lamenting, my wearied soul, you alone have turned it into dancing. Now I’m not very good at that; dancing I mean. Oh, I don’t mind dancing. I don’t embarrass myself or anything. I just don’t do it often enough, so I’m not very good at it. I do not offer myself before you enough in unbridled joy. So whenever I do, it’s like I have to learn all over again what it means to give myself completely to you, to empty myself before you, to collapse into a puddle of gratitude….to dance before the Lord. But still, you remove the weight of sin and repentance, sin and repentance, you tell me to stop beating myself up, running myself down, always convinced in your eyes, that I am never good enough. You replace all of that, all of my utterly human, understandable thoughts and conclusions about myself, my discipleship, my faith, you take all that away and clothe me in joy. Cover me in joy. Dress me in my Sunday best, spanking fresh, birthday suit of joy. I’ve got joy, joy, you, down in my heart. Yeah, yeah right, we sing it. Joy to the world, blah, blah, blah. Yup, every year. I get all of that. But Lord Jesus, Precious Savior still my refuge, I’m talking about joy, your joy to me. Me. You, joy, and me! You offer me joy, head to toe.

No, it’s not all the time and it’s not every time.  It’s not every day; maybe not even most days. But there are glimpses, sneak peaks, flashing indescribable moments. Oh, there not all religious, spiritual, or even particular holy. The joy of life can be pretty gritty. Clothed in joy is like being stopped right in your tracks with an awareness of how you have blessed me. Clothed in joy is being full confident that what is most important is more than the task set before me. Clothed in joy is going to bed at night fully and forever confident of your love for me. Clothed in joy is remembering the times when  I couldn’t fix it, I couldn’t make it right, I couldn’t….and somewhere you gave me the nudge of “It’s okay, I got this.” Happiness is great. Maybe a bit overrated. I never understood those bible translations that talk about “Happy” rather than “blessed”. As if Jesus would ever say, “Happy are those who mourn”. Happy rather than blessed. What a mistake. Yes, I want to be happy God, but joy, being clothed in joy. That’s about being blessed and I’ll always take more of that.

Because when I experience those clothed in joy moments? I want to give you thanks O Lord my God forever. Joy births gratitude. Gratitude to you. I want to be ever more grateful, more thankful to you, Holy One. That’s how I want to live my life. That’s how I want to live and how I want to die. Thankful. Because when you clothe me in joy, you touch me all the way, deep inside my soul, you come all the way down, to me, just to me. And then that happens, my soul, my being, my spirit, me….. I cannot just be silent. I absolutely have to offer you the deepest, fullest, earth-shattering, ear splitting praise. The praise of my life.

Praise. Gratitude. Thanksgiving to you for my life as your child, as a follower of Jesus, and the knowledge that I now and forever belong not to myself, but to you, to my Savior Jesus the Christ.

Joy gives birth to gratitude. I will always take more of that.

Thanksgiving. Gratitude. Praise.

It’s the prayer from my soul.

 

 

 

Luke 7: 11-17[i]
Lauren J. McFeaters
June 30, 2019
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Have you been to New Orleans? There’s the French Quarter, the Garden District, Jackson Square, and Preservation Hall. There’s City Park and the National WWII Museum. There’s Lake Pontchartrain and the Mahalia Jackson Theater. There’s the food – the Po-Boys and Gumbo, Crawfish Etouffee and Jambalaya. There’s crazy cocktails and the world’s best café au lait.

And then, there are the cemeteries. Lots of them. They’re named St. Louis and Cypress Grove, Gates of Prayer and Greenwood, Holt, Lafayette, and Lake Lawn. So many cemeteries in so little space. And because the city lies at sea level, all the graves are in above-the-ground crypts, surrounded by stone statuary.

In New Orleans, one of the most notable facets of culture is how you get to the cemetery. You get there with Jazz.

The Jazz Funeral is unique to New Orleans. Its origins date back centuries to Nigeria and West Africa, and it begins at church. After worship, outside on the steps, the casket is slid inside a glass-sided hearse, flowers go on top. A solemn brass band leads the procession and the mourners walk behind.

Slowly, very slowly the procession shuffles toward the cemetery. Dirges are played: Nearer My God to Thee and Just a Closer Walk with Thee.[ii] You know it:

Just a closer walk with Thee
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea
Daily walking close to Thee
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be [iii]

Arriving at grave site, the words of committal are said, the pall bearers lift the casket and slide it into the mausoleum.

And then….Nothing. Silence. Silence. Nothing bur silence. And then….KAPOW! Celebration jazz fills the air. Shouts of joy are raised. Hoots and hollers. The suffering of the deceased are over. Glory Alleluia! The brass lifts up When the Saints Go Marching In. The festivities begin.

It’s the defining moment; a holy moment; a Spirit-filled moment when

• Misery moves to joy.
• Past moves to future.
• Shuffling becomes swing.
• Heads lift to sky and a crowd struts forward,
• Singing with ecstasy, waving umbrellas, dancing everything back to life.[iv]

There’s no disrespect. It’s all tribute. Tribute and care; honor and compassion.

As we travel with Jesus today, we meet him at a defining moment of his ministry. He’s been baptized and tempted. He’s called his disciples. He’s been teaching and preaching and evangelizing. And now he begins a powerful chapter of healing and restoration; dancing everything back to life. Jesus meets a funeral procession; a solemn, mourning people shuffling to the cemetery. Dirges are wailed. Laments are moaned.

And today’s funeral procession has a focus, not on a dead man, but on his devastated mother. This woman, known only as the Widow of Nain, is found in no other biblical account. Her sorrow is gripping. Here’s a widow without her only son, left in a man’s world. It’s a picture of destitution. Her future without her son’s support and security, is grim; her circumstances dire. She’s left in total dependence upon the crowd around her. [v]

And yet, when Jesus witnesses her heartache, he has, not pity or kindness or sympathy. He has compassion.

“Do not weep,” he says. Compassion.

“Do not cry,” he murmurs. Compassion.

The biblical word for compassion comes from the Greek word) splagcna, literally meaning: to have tender mercy straight from the bowels; to have affection from the gut; to have heart from the innards. Jesus’ compassion is a tender mercy straight from the gut.

The root of compassion comes straight from the very pit of our being. That plummeting in our guts when you hear really shocking news, when we witness injustice, when we experience something so terribly unexpected that our hearts drops into your stomach.

Jesus was sucker punched by the Widow of Nain, so much so that power came forth as he touched the dead man’s body and breath filled the dead man’s lungs:  “Young man. I say to you. Rise!” “Young man. I say to you. Rise!”

That’s the root of Jesus’ closer walk with the Widow of Nain: his compassion is more than an understanding look, his concern more than a sympathetic word, [vi] his consideration more than complacent pity.

For Christians, our acts of compassion must be in service to the broken and despairing. Our acts of concern are jazzed on behalf of the bereaved and confused. If we let it, our acts of consideration can completely undermine antagonism and resentment. Acts of compassion can absolutely weaken hatred and cut through fear. They become the indispensable way to rid the world of numbness and detachment. Compassion, through our Savior, is perhaps the only thing that can save us from ourselves.[vii]

The Widow of Nain doesn’t ask Jesus to raise her son. She doesn’t fall on her knees and beg for her son’s life. All she does is weep. There are no words about faith, or gratitude, or praise; just a mother’s tears.[viii]

We’re a church with a lot of tears. We’re moved by many things. We cry easily. Especially when we witness acts forgiveness, see the depth of relationships, the bravery of children, the generosity of older adults.

This week at Vacation Bible School I witnessed a lot of generosity and compassion. Sweet and seemingly simple things like the holding of a hand, the wiping away of a tear, the affirmation of a, “Job well done,” the promise of “Let’s try that again.”

One thing that moved me most was the line of children who came to the Bible Verse Station. This was simply a lectern with stamps and ink pads, and each time a camper came to the station, they would take their turn, stand at the station, say aloud their Daily Memory Verse, open their booklet, and to receive a stamp. By the end of the week their booklets are filled with color and drawings and stamps.

Day One “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)

Day Two “Nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:38)

Day Three “Rejoice always. Pray continuously.”

(1 Thessalonians 5:16–17)

Day 4 “People will come from east and west, north and south, and sit down to eat in God’s kingdom.” (Luke 13:29)

Some of the 114 children at VBS were from our church. Half were not. Three-year-old’s to rising six graders. When they came to the lectern there was hesitation, shyness, and caution. For many kids it was the first verses of scripture they had embraced and owned. For others they came with laughter and liveliness shouting and twirling their verses.

For one little boy, his chin down to his chest I asked if might repeat his verse again because I couldn’t hear him.

“Hey buddy,” I said. “Can you look up a bit so I can hear? I really want to hear what you have to say.”

Very, very slowly he raised his chin, looked left and right, up and down, then found my eyes.

I bend down a bit closer and he mouthed, “Nothing.” The word  “Nothing.”

I asked, “Nothing?”

And then he whispered, “Nothing.”

Very long pause.

“Do you have nothing?” I asked.

“No,” he said, “I have, ‘Nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus.’”

Silence.

I was sucked punched. How did he know I needed compassion that day. I needed healing. Slow and hesitant, he smiled. And we stared at one another. We stared, with a compassion for one another. Then he beamed and I beamed. And I took his booklet and stamped it with as many colors and stamps as I could find.

This sweet little boy preaches the Gospel News for us all. No matter how shy or how cautious we are, .no matter how worried or anxious, detached or depressed, hopeless or helpless; no matter how many secrets we keep, “Nothing. Nothing. Nothing…can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus.”

 It’s pure joy deep from the gut. It’s good news we all need to hear.

This little boy from VBS calls us to action, a kind of whispering compassion that comes deep from the gut.

When our Lord restores to a widow her son, he restores her world.

When our Lord guides a church to practice compassion, he restores our world.

That’s what the kingdom of God does: Restores us. Raises us. Resurrects us.    Thanks be to God.

 

ENDNOTES

[i]  Luke 7: 11-17 Soon afterwards Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. As Jesus approached the gate of the town, a young man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then Jesus came forward and touched the bier, [That is the frame on which the young man’s body is laid.] and the bearers stood still. And Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!”

The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave the young man to his mother. Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen among us!” and

“God has looked favorably on his people!” This word about Jesus spread throughout Judea and

all the surrounding country.

[ii] “Multi-Cultural Traditions: The Jazz Funeral.” Originally printed in The Soul of New Orleans. www.neworleansonline.com.

[iii]  Just a Closer Walk With Thee (anonymous)

I am weak but Thou art strong
Jesus keep me from all wrong
I’ll be satisfied as long
As I walk, let me walk close to Thee

Just a closer walk with Thee
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea
Daily walking close to Thee
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be

When my feeble life is o’er
Time for me will be no more
Guide me gently, safely o’er
To Thy kingdom’s shore, to Thy shore Refrain

[iv] Mary LaCoste. “New Orleans jazz funerals — A joyous tradition.” The Louisiana Weekly, www.louisianaweekly.com, September 22, 2014.

[v] Beverly R. Gaventa Charles B. Cousar, J. Clinton McCann, Jr., James D. Newsome. Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, Year C. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994, 379-80.

[vi] Ibid.

[vii] Walter Brueggemann. The Prophetic Imagination. New York: Fortress Press, 1978, 91.

[viii] Kim Buchanan. Sermon: From Procession to Party. Luke 7:11-17. Day1: A Ministry for the Alliance of Christian Media, Atlanta, Georgia, June 10, 2007.

 

 

1 Kings 19:1-15
David A. Davis
June 23, 2019
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Before the wind, before the earthquake, before the fire, Elijah the prophet was fed by ravens who brought him bread and meat in the morning and the evening. Elijah had declared to King Ahab that the Lord God of Israel would bring neither dew nor rain to the land and the Word of the Lord told Elijah to go east of the Jordan to be fed by ravens.

Before the wind, before the earthquake, before the fire, Elijah was fed by the widow of Zarephath from supplies the Lord promised would never run out. When the widow’s son became ill and there was no breath left in him, Elijah cried out to the Lord to let this child live. Life came into the widow’s child again.

Before the wind, before the earthquake, before the fire Elijah had a confrontation with King Ahab of biblical proportion. Some will remember Elijah’s memorable speech at Mount Carmel to Ahab and the prophets of Baal: “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow God, but if Baal, then follow Baal?’ Elijah won that contest of prophets in a big way with the fire of the Lord coming down from heaven and all the people who saw it falling on their faces and confessing “The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God!”

Before the wind, before the earthquake, before the fire, the Lord sent rain again to the land. Elijah told King Ahab to harness his chariot before the rain came so he could return to Jezreel. The bible says that the hand of the Lord was upon Elijah and he “girded up his loins and ran in front of Ahab” the whole way to Jezreel, about 17 miles through heavy rain. Ahab told Queen Jezebel all that the prophet Elijah had done. The queen, not being very happy to hear the news, sent a messenger to Elijah telling him she was going to kill him. Elijah, was afraid and fled for his life. He fled to Beersheba.

Before the wind, before the earthquake, before the fire, Elijah went a day’s journey out into the wilderness. In that region of the world, the wilderness is actually a vast mountainous desert. Sitting under a lone broom tree, he told the Lord he was ready to die. As Elijah slept, an angel of the Lord told him to get up and eat. The Lord provided a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. The angel came a second time and told Elijah to eat and drink again because the upcoming journey would be too much for him. Elijah did eat and drink again and then journeyed on that strength for forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. There at Mt Horeb, Elijah came to cave and he spent the night there.

Before the wind, before the earthquake, before the fire, Elijah was in that cave. In the cave, the word of the Lord came to Elijah, saying “What are you doing…..here?”  Here? Here in a cave. What are you doing….here?

There’s something about the cave; the cave at Mt. Horeb, the Mount of God. Something about how Elijah could go from that adrenaline-pumping, fists-pumping, legs-pumping, rain-soaked, celebrating life, loving life run to a cave on Mt Horeb in just a few verses. The details of how Elijah got to Horeb make it pretty clear. But the “how” is not as intriguing as the “why”. Why it all turned so quickly, why he went from a prophet’s mountaintop to a long dark night of the soul in a cave.

There aren’t all that many caves in the bible. One would think there would have been more caves in scripture, a lot more caves. Most the time, when one comes upon a reference to a cave it is a reference to a burial ground; like when Abraham was looking to bury Sarah or when Jesus came to the cave where Lazarus was buried. Caves were intended for the dead, so perhaps Elijah’s destination there at Mt. Horeb is a logical one after he sat down under the broom tree asking the Lord to take away his life.

But there are a few other caves in the bible. Here, in I Kings, Elijah tells Obadiah that he hid the prophets of the Lord in caves, fifty to a cave, to protect them from Queen Jezebel. In Genesis, after Lot had fled from Sodom and Gomorrah, after his wife had looked back, Lot lived in a cave with his two daughters because he was afraid. There is a story that tells of the five kings of the Amorites who fled to a cave in fear after Joshua and his forces had defeated their coalition. It was a poor decision, the result of which is described in brutal detail in the 10^th chapter of the Book of Joshua. Perhaps the most famous biblical cave not intended for burial was the cave where David went to hide from Saul who was trying kill him. David went to the cave fearing for his life. The cave actually became the site where David and Saul were reconciled to one another. Saul accidently found David in the cave when he stepped into the cave as the bible puts it, “to relieve himself”. Hiding in fear. Fearing for your life. When it comes to the biblical cave, you either go there to be buried or because you are scared to death.

“What are you doing… here,  Elijah?” The question didn’t come right as Elijah hit the road fearing for his life. The question didn’t come from the Lord when Elijah tells the Lord that he has had enough and admits he would rather die. The question came when Elijah goes to the cave. The question came before Elijah’s plea; “I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” The question came before the wind and the earthquake and the fire. The question came before and it came after the wind, the earthquake, and the fire. “What are you doing here. HERE. Here in a fortress of fear and death? What are you doing… here, Elijah?”

The thing about prophets is that they know the tradition. A prophet knows about the voice of the Lord. A prophet knows. Many preachers and scholars point out that Elijah the prophet would have expected God to show up in the wind, or the earthquake, or the fire. If that’s true, the prophet must have also been expecting the voice of the Lord to say “Do not be afraid” or “Fear not”?  That’s a far more common happening in the tradition when the voice of the Lord or an angel speaks. “Do not be afraid…Fear not”. Elijah must have thought God would at least address his fear. After the wind, after the earthquake, after the fire, “Do not be afraid”?  No, for Elijah it was crickets. Sheer silence. After the wind, after the earthquake, after the fire….silence. And when the still small spoke?  “What are you doing…here.” Then in a rather undramatic way, with absolutely no dramatic flare, the voice of the Lord tells the mighty prophet to go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. Go back…get out of… here.

The headline this week caught my eye: Governor signs bill that allows Presbyterian Church to have it’s own police force. Well, it’s a particular Presbyterian Church; the Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The church is part of the Presbyterian Church in America. The PCA, not our denomination, the PC(USA). The article described Briarwood as a Presbyterian mega-church. I never thought I would hear those two words put together: Presbyterian and mega-church. They have something like 4,000 members and a private school. The pastor of the church compared the church police force to a college campus police and that it was needed for safety and protection.

A local op-ed writer in Birmingham points out that the church could easily hire security guards like many mosques and synagogues have around the country rather asking the state to pass a law allowing it to create its own church-run police department. The writer points out for the uninformed reader that the PCA denomination does not permit women to be ordained as ministers or elders. They are also vehemently anti-LGBTQ and hold to a view of marriage that is known as “complimentarism” which is all about men being in charge and women being submissive.

The meeting that marked the beginning of the Presbyterian Church, when the vote to split from the then southern Presbyterian Church in the United States was taken, the meeting was held at Briarwood in Birmingham. Generalized history would tell that the PCA split away because the PC(USA) was too liberal and didn’t believe in the inerrancy and infallibility of scripture. The op-ed writer points out that a more nuanced view of history understands there was more to it. There is always more to it when someone tosses out “too liberal” and claims a higher view of the authority of scripture with words like “inerrant and infallible”. The vote to leave the PC(USA) was also motivated by race and the pastors and congregations that did not want to allow African Americans in their worship services. The PC(USA) was protecting pastors from being fired from churches who tried to get of pastors who dared to preach against segregated churches. Significant numbers of those voting to establish the PCA denomination wanted to continue to bar African Americans from coming in the door of their church. That meeting at Briarwood was in 1973.

Researching local news reports, police and 911 call records, the journalist found that the only incident at the church or school in recent years was a mentally ill person being removed from the property. “Briarwood Presbyterian Church”, the essay concludes,  “is an institution of worship that advocates an unabashed anti-equality, conservative, fundamentalist point of view. Who would give this church its own police force?” Good question. My question is what are they so afraid of?

When Elijah was hunkering down in that cave of death, the voice of the Lord doesn’t even acknowledge his fear. That’s because there is no place for such fear, or hunkering down, or a  siege mentality, and hiding in caves for those who know themselves to be the people of God; the people of the living, life-giving, life-sustaining, death-stomping, resurrecting, grace-defining, salvation-authoring God. When it comes to one of those life changing encounters with God, one of those tablet-smashing, golden-calf-burning, how-long-will-you-go-limping-between-two-opinions, your-god-or-my-God, choose-this-day-whom-you- will-serve, you-can’t-serve-two-gods kind of encounter with God? One of those do-justice, love-kindness, walk-humbly-with-your-God, the-first-will-be-last-and-the-last-first, if-you-want-to-be-the-greatest-you-have-to-be-a-servant, do-unto-the-least-of-these, follow-me,  kind of heart-to-heart with God? One of those I-will-show-you-a-still-more-excellent-way, be-steadfast, immovable-always-excelling-in-the-work-of-the-Lord, lift-your-drooping-hands-and-strengthen-your-weak-knees, nothing-will-separate-us-from-the-love-of-God-in-Chris-Jesus-our-Lord kind of gut-check encounters with God? When it comes one of those life-changing, life-sustaining, life-giving, what-are- doing… here  kind of encounter with the Lord God Almighty, you can’t stick your head in a cave.

Of course, you have fears and I have fears, some of them for very legitimate reasons. But when it comes to the church, there is no reason for the people of God to fear when Jesus Christ is still head of the church. Rather than clinging to a fear-based siege mentality when it comes to non-believers and other faith groups and folks who hold to different theological perspectives the church ought to be living out words of the Apostles Paul, “there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is longer male and female, for all are one in Christ Jesus.” Rather than fretting with a hand wringing theology of scarcity, the church ought to pray without ceasing while working all the harder to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless and welcome the stranger and care for sick, choosing to live out Jesus’ words and seeing his face in the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the prisoner, all the while embodying a theology of God’s abundance.

Rather than fanning the flames of fear that some kind of privileged status of Christianity in the nation is being threatened and there is some ridiculous war on Christmas, the church ought to chose to reclaim the invitation of the preacher in Hebrews that when you show radical hospitality you may just be entertaining angels unaware. Rather than using the argument that someone’s same-gendered marriage somehow threatens another’s heterosexual marriage and turning religious liberty into a weapon to roll back civil liberties and justify flat out bigotry and discrimination, the church ought to be lining the streets of every Pride Parade singing “they will know we are Christians by our love.”

Rather than continuing to predict its own doom because the rising generations aren’t like the last ones, and denominational, congregational life will never look like 1955 again, the church ought to chose to live in grace-filled, life-giving, joy-overflowing congregations that embodied the prophet’s counter-cultural, fear-denying vision that “you shall go out in joy and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song and all the trees of the field shall clap their hand.”  Rather than cowering before statistics and trends and demographics, the church ought to stop feeling sorry for itself and glorifying the past and choose to live like God makes all things new, and in the promise of God our best days are yet to come, joyfully reflecting the word of the Lord in the Apocalypse to John, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

What are you doing……here, Elijah? There are not all that many caves in scripture because why would the people of God go….there?

 

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