Peace! Be Still.

Peace! Be Still.

a sermon based on Mark 4:35-41

given at Palm Bay, FL on June 24, 2012

by Rev. Scott Elliott

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and in the 1970’s (as some of you may recall) the Oakland A’s baseball team was all the rage. They had mod uniforms, a quirky and cantankerous owner and they were winning a lot of games and a world series.

Growing up we didn’t have a lot of money, but as a young teen my father somehow scored some tickets and thankfully took me with him to a game at the Oakland Colosseum.

I remember walking out into the stands and being in awe of the green, green grass on a clear blue sky, summer day, and the hundreds of people nearby and the tens of thousands more below us and around us.

But most of all, I was thrilled to see players from my baseball cards out on the field. Players with great names like Blue Moon Odem, Rollie Fingers and Campy Campaneris. It really was a delightful experience in my life.

Not long after, I returned to that stadium at night. I had the chance to go to a Billy Graham Crusade. The church youth group went up on a bus from San Jose and we had a different sort of experience of a lifetime.

Under the bright lights much of the green grass was hidden by a huge stage that served as the center piece for amazing music and beautiful sights, and eventually Billy Graham and his powerful moving voice and words echoed ‘round the whole place.

I remember the altar call too, people going forward in what must have been the thousands. Called, as I remember, to end the fear that dying without Jesus in your heart – as they put in back then – might bring.

I didn’t go forward, as I had no such fear. I knew God as love even back then and I knew love would do no harm to me or others at death.

The God of love, I have long found, to be the source of peace and calmness.

Looking back, The Billy Graham Crusade did not seem to me to be so much about peace and being still, but mostly a night for the senses. I don’t recall what the whole sermon was on, but I do recall being uplifted by all of that sensual stuff.

Toward the end there was what I see now as a sad part, a message on “fearing” as the call to come to Jesus, was something like, “Be a Christian to be saved from the chaos and evil of a fiery hell at death.” All the pleasantness that preceded the call seemed to be aimed at, and overwhelmed by, fear as the primary motive for claiming the Christian Way.

Whether it was intentional or not, fear, not love, became the message we were sent out with. I found this troubling even back then.

So, I was quite curious last week when I was looking for a sermon illustration on fear for today and I came across a story under the heading of “fear” about a young man who had gone up during an altar call at a Billy Graham Crusade.

The story goes that after a Crusade service a pastor boarded the bus back home and sat next to that born again young man. The pastor spoke to him about what new life in Christ would mean and that he could now be free from all fear of death.

Then “[t]he young man turned and looked the [pastor] in the eye and said,‘I have never been much afraid of death, But I will tell you what I am afraid of– I’m afraid I will waste my life.’ [The] Pastor [replied], ‘I believe that fear is deep within each of us. It has been put there by our Creator. No one wishes to waste [their] life.’” 1

Fear of death. Fear of things unknown after death. Fear of a wasted life. Fear of a number of things in life. From childhood through adulthood, humans face a lot of fearful things. Life can seem at times chaotic with even evil lurking about, and we can be scared.

Modern western culture tends to symbolize fear and evil and chaos with fire, which may be why hell and the devil are related to flames. In the Ancient Near East water was understood like that. Bodies of water were places of death and fear. They symbolized chaos and evil. 2 Bodies of water were to be feared as sources of flood and places to drown if caught out in them.

We can hear water as a source of chaos in the Bible. In fact, on the very first page of our Bibles the creation story has such an image. Genesis one was written while the Hebrew people were experiencing fearful times during the utter chaos and evil of captivity by Babylon.

And so God in Genesis, as you may recall, creates the world, all of creation, from the chaos of the “deep” (water). God does this with Words.

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. (Gen 1:1-4 NRS)

Darkness and water are tamed; chaos is controlled by Words spoken from God. Light is separated from darkness. We may not be able on our own to still the rough waters of life but God can. Indeed from them God can transform and create.

We can hear bodies of water symbolizing chaos and evil in other Bible stories.

The parting of the Red Sea so that Moses and the Hebrews could escape is a famous example. Evil and chaos stand in the way of the Hebrews fleeing Egypt. Moses and the Hebrews are trapped. They are in a fearful spot and what happens? God parts the water and chaos and evil are overcome and so God’s faithful are let though to the other side, right? They are safe.

We see this again when Joshua parts the Jordan and the faithful walk to the Promised Land. Through God, chaos and evil – fear – can be overcome.

In Psalm 107 there are actually some verses (28-30) that sound a lot like the Lectionary story we just heard read about Jesus calming the sea. The Psalm discussing an experience of a frightening storm while on ship at sea, notes that the men on board:

…cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out from their distress; he made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad because they had quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.

Note that the last word is “haven,” a place of safety. The Hebrew scriptures remember that God can calm chaos, stop evil and end fear. God will get us to safety, transform the storm to a place of no harm.

From the start of the Bible and well through it, God can be heard to control chaos and evil represented by bodies of water, and in so doing God transforms fearful situations to peace and stillness – God can even transform it to something creatively good. Simply put through God, chaos and evil – fear – can be overcome. “Have faith, trust God, wait and peace will happen,” these stories seem to say.

Today’s Lectionary reading from Mark can be heard as just such a story, with just such a message. Christ, like God in Genesis, can control chaos, evil and fear with Words. Listen to the story again and see if you can hear it that way, understanding water as a symbol of chaos and/or evil:

…when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.

This is a story about Jesus that academics call a “nature miracle story.” It’s one where Jesus is reported to have done something supernatural that controls the elements. He quiets the sea and the storm that is disturbing it.

There are basically three ways to consider such stories of Jesus. We can believe that they actually occurred, believe they did not occur, or we can believe whether they occurred or not they have meaning and then consider what that meaning might be.

Marcus Borg cutting to the chase suggests that we consider nature miracle stories as parables and concludes, “believe whatever you want about whether they happened the way they are told – now let’s talk about what these stories mean” he writes. 3.

So taking a cue from Marcus Borg: what does this story mean? Jesus gets in a boat with seasoned fishermen. They know boats and storms and the sea, that’s a big part of their job. Jesus has been working all day on the side of the lake where Jews live and he lays down to rest and sleep as the seasoned sailors try to follow Jesus’ command and cross to the side where Gentiles live.

Jesus wants to take his ministry of love to a wider circle of people. In this case the Gentiles. The Gentiles were considered unclean. They were to many “the other.” Jesus is going to reach out to them and – to use a fire-related metaphor from modern western culture – all hell breaks loose on the way.

Only this is not a western culture story, it’s from the ancient Near East and so a major storm at sea breaks loose and it is a doozy. On the way to bringing Jesus’ message of love to those beyond the usual circle of neighbors, to the others, it gets a bit rough.

Dr. Borg describes the roughness and Jesus’ actions like this:

The story is filled with fear, It is night, dark. The disciples are on the sea and a storm comes up. Waves crash into their boat and threaten to swamp it. Fearing they are in mortal danger, they cry out to Jesus who is asleep in the stern: “Do you not care that we are perishing?”

Awakened, Jesus rebuked the wind and silenced the sea. Then he addressed the disciples: “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” Fear and lack of faith go together; so also faith and courage go together. 4

Individually, together as community and even corporately as the entire human race, we face chaos and evil. We do. They can come at us and frighten us in a thousand different ways, as health issues, bullies, angry people, lost jobs, budget worries, debt collectors, threats to our home or our nation, terrorist attacks, war. Sadly the list can go on and on, and it can be scary.

This story of Jesus rebuking and calming the sea (chaos and evil) teaches us at least three things. One is that when Jesus himself headed out with his followers to embrace and bring in those the culture saw as others, a storm ensued.

Following Jesus’ wide love to new places rocks the boat and we have two choices, lack of faith – and the panic and fear that come with it in crisis; or we can have faith and turn to Christ who is always near and who, through faith, brings not just courage, but peace and stillness..

And note that Jesus does not speak harmful words to the source of the chaos or evil, he tells it to be still, but commits no violence toward it, rather he utters God’s desire for all of creation: “Peace.”

Peace is Christ’s desire for us … and this is the hardest part, it is also Christ’s desire for that which tosses us about, whether it be a bully, an angry person or an enemy. “Peace! Be still!” needs to be the Christ in us response to chaos and evil and fear. It is what Jesus would do.

Another teaching is that no matter how experienced we are – and no matter if we are one person, a church community or a country – the sea of life at one time or another is going to generate a storm greater than we can control and it will threaten us. And we have the same two choices, fear and lack of faith; or with faith and courage, turn to Christ who is always near and who, through faith, brings peace and stillness.

The third teaching is that, if Jesus wishes only peace upon even that which is chaos and evil, then no matter what we have done in life God in the end will give us only that, will desire for us and everyone else that peace … PEACE!

God’s never about creating fire that burns us or water that threatens us.

God is always, always about peace. PEACE!

And so is Jesus.

We can hear that in the story today.

What I heard as Billy Graham’s ending message all those years ago – “choose Jesus to avoid fear from hell and judgment by God at death” – is contradicted by this story. When you have Christ in your boat – as it were – you have the opposite of fear, you have faith. Moreover you have Love which only desires peace, even for the source of storms, chaos and evil.

What the young man said on the bus in the story I told at the start of the sermon makes a lot of sense. It’s the essence of today’s story. We can waste our life hiding from or worrying about the big storms of chaos and evil or threats of them, or we can turn to Christ who’s in the boat with us and have faith and live life as Jesus taught it, to strive first for the kingdom of God and righteousness, to aim for peace through love for all.

A life of love lived toward peace with faith in Christ is never a wasted life.

It is life as God wishes us to live it.

AMEN.

ENDNOTES

1. Green, Michael, (ed) Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, 148-149.

2.__________________

3. Borg, p 42

4. Ibid, 45

COPYRIGHT Scott Elliott © 2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

 

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Weed Seeds

Weed Seeds

a sermon based on Mark 4:26-34

given at Palm Bay, FL on June 17, 2012

by Rev. Scott Elliott

Today’s reading has Jesus once again using farming and growing metaphors and a bit of playfulness.

It will not surprise most of you that I have a bit word play too, a few puns that relate to growing and farming.

I read this garden, pun filled, lover’s letter posted on line that I thought might make you smile. It begins: “Do you carrot all for me? My heart beets for you, With your turnip nose. And your radish face. You are a peach. If we cantaloupe, Lettuce marry. Weed make a swell pear.”

One thing I’d add would be a final question “Will you Peas belong to me?” And just one more thing (I promise) I might also think about adding: P.S. “Don’t squash my hopes and dreams now, bee my honey, deer.” 1

Today’s text has Jesus discussing the Kingdom of God, heaven in parables. When we hear heaven or the kingdom of God we invariably think of the resting place for our souls and those who have left us.

It’s usually a good and comforting thing to think of heaven in our heads as relegated to an everlasting home with God for our departed beloved and others who have gone before us.

We often understand it as the sweet by and by. Some even think of it as a place with pearly gates, golden avenues and angels sitting about on clouds singing soothing songs .

Usually we also tend to understand heaven as having some exclusivity.

Some think it is only for the good, or at least the “not bad.”

Others make it even more restrictive. Heaven is, for some, a place reserved only for those who believe as they do. Even still, most of us think our dear ones and ourselves go to heaven regardless of conditions others may claim exist.

One way or another generally speaking we tend to think of heaven as a non-earthly thing for people who are no longer of this world, so it can be a bit jarring to read or hear, as we did this morning, Jesus’ accounts about the kingdom of God, of heaven.

We often discuss the wonderful story in Matthew 25 where Jesus indicates that those who inherit the kingdom are those who tend to the least, in that parable Jesus makes no mention of a precondition of certain beliefs. That’s counter to what most of us probably learned in Sunday School.

And in today’s lesson from Mark, perhaps even more remarkably, Jesus doesn’t even suggest it is place reserved for the dead.

It’s something that can be here and now.

And it’s both small and a miracle and requires human action, as well as God’s involvement.

As we heard, Jesus teaches in the reading that “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.”

Human action takes a little seed and scatters it. And then we sleep and rise and it sprouts and we don’t really know how.

And actually when it comes to seeds sprouting in our garden there’s nothing we can really do about it, right? I mean gardeners and farmers toss in the seed with some water and fertilizer and then sit back and wait and most of the time the wonderful miracle of a sprout and growth occur.

And it’s true – as Jesus points out – we really don’t know how that life bursts forth.

Heaven is like that. Humans plant the seed and then they have to be patient. “Sleep and rise night and day” is a 1st Century Jewish image for reckoning time that Mark recalls Jesus using. 2

“The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.”

We take the seed of love and we put it out there, plant it, and let God work the sprouting and growing miracles. And we do that here on earth, now, for and with and through God who we live and move and have our being in.

Jesus notes that after the sprout and growth, “The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.

The when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.” The harvest is all people who have grown and ripened into the loving plants started from the seeds.

The ripe and harvested grow ready to go and do more of the sowing and the reaping spreading of Love.

The kingdom of God, according to Jesus’ first parable in the lesson, is like this cycle of planting where we sow and be patient and let God do God’s work; reaping the ever-growing, ever- spreading, planted love that we are to take in and take out and spread far and wide.

Even if we cannot see the kingdom of God or comprehend if yet fully, it is here.

The Feasting of the Word commentary put is like this:

What strikes the reader is how religious believers and certain strands of Christian theology have stressed that the kingdom of God comes primarily in the judgment of the world’s wickedness … But here there is not hint of God’s anger, nor any suggestion of the kingdom of God coming with an apocalyptic ending in which everyone will get what is coming to them. Rather the mystery of the kingdom is that it is here and not here. 3.

That’s the first parable of the secret growing seed.

Jesus then give us this other parable to chew on, the parable of the mustard seed.

Parables are metaphoric and so they are a lot like a work of art in that they represent or symbolize things in life, and the viewer or hearer can understand it (like art) as many faceted with layers of meaning. Each time you come to it you might find new meaning. Jesus uses the stories to tease our minds to consider the layers and layers of meaning.

The first question in the mustard seed parable being “What is heaven like?” What can it be compared to. Here’s the angles Jesus wants us to explore: “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

Back in Jesus’ day a mustard seed was used as a symbol for the very smallest of things. 4

Not only that, but, mustard seeds were not supposed to be sown. You didn’t put them in your garden on purpose. They were an unclean thing, that did not belong in the garden or your tilled rows in the field. 5.

Mustard was wild, weed-like, and so mustard was not only pervasive and available, but free.

And it had many uses for everyday folks back then, from food spice to multiple medicinal uses. It was very useful. 6.

And I love that in Jesus’ telling it is a place where – when grown – other creatures can find comfort. It’s good for all creation.

But you know what? Far from being the huge majestic tree we might imagine representing heaven and God’s kingdom, it turns out (in Jesus’ telling) not like some heavenly tree we’d conjure up in landscaping beside the pearly gates. Jesus tells us it is sown, it grows up and it becomes like the greatest of all … shrubs.

Jesus has, as I’ve mention before, a sense of humor. We imagine heaven as mighty and far from us. We do.

But in Jesus’ teachings the kingdom of God is not what we imagine.

It is what it is.

A seed of a weed that grows and helps with all sorts of need.

Let me say that again … A seed of a weed that grows and helps with all sorts of need.

It’s there for us and for creation right before our very noses (as it were).

The kingdom of God can be compared to a tiny unclean seed, something common and seemingly unremarkable, something you might not even want on your property. In such seed there lies dormant, the very kingdom of God … heaven!

Jesus and his followers were considered outcasts, small seemingly unremarkable things, to his culture. Existing on the very fringes, they were expendable, someone Rome could care less about.

Jesus and his followers were weed seeds.

But as we heard the kingdom of heaven’s potential is IN such small seemingly unremarkable to, and unwanted by, the culture; weed seeds.

The mustard bush doesn’t grow from earthly powers’ seeds, it doesn’t get intentionally sown by kings or only grow in emperors’ gardens.

In Jesus’ parable today, Heaven is not about golden palaces and golden temples, or special seeds farmers and gardeners grow for royalty.

It’s about God’s weed seeds. That’s Jesus followers. That’s us.

This is a story that Jesus tells to pump up his followers. It means that following his Way, planting his seeds is full of promise.

The Interpretation: Mark commentary notes it like this: “ the function of this story is encouragement, the issue is hope, and the mode of teaching is metaphor… ” 8

In the first parable heaven is like the seed, the Word – Love – being scattered by us and nurtured by God. Our job is to spread it, the love seeds, all around.

Simply put, heaven on earth is not worrying about golden streets and harps when we die, but, it’s about love on earth. It’s about us being full of compassion and caring. It’s about wanting to stop oppression and make sure the hungry get fed and the sick tended to.

The seeds of that love will sprout and grow. We just gotta sow ‘em and let God – love – do its stuff.

In the second parable, heaven is like a specific type of seed. It’s not like a mighty redwood or a tall cypress or a strong oak.

It’s like a weed seed.

It’s small and unappreciated by earthly power, but it’s tenacious, useful to humans and creation and it grows much bigger and more valuable than its tiny beginning and cultural value suggests. “Small beginnings can yield great outcomes.” 7.

Jesus’ followers may only be like free weed seeds but they are the ones God needs. Let me say that again as well … Jesus’ followers may only be like free weed seeds but they are the ones God needs.

At the end of the day, Jesus’ followers are to be evasive tenacious useful plants started from a tiny free little weed seed from God called Love.

Out of what may seem like the most insignificant to the world beginnings, you and me, the nobodies to the powerful, God works.

See, to God – this is important – to God, we are not insignificant. We matter.

I received an e-mail at the start of last week that proves this point. A couple that frequently visited our church over a year ago wrote that although they had moved they wanted to wish us blessings as I go on sabbatical and noted “You really touched both of us on our spiritual paths. We truly miss attending your church … [and] pray we are able to find a church that is as open as your church.”

Yesterday I got a note from a local pastor who saw the Circles of Life: Living in Harmony with Creation summer camp poster I have been posting on my Facebook, and she wrote: “Wow. This a wonderful way to do VBS. I am again very impressed with you and your church.”

Those are just a few examples and I’ve named others recently too.

This church, with the seeds of love you are spreading, matters!

Love sprouts and grows and ripens in and through us and it spreads throughout the world. That’s an awesome thing. It’s a thing full of promise.

Since about now with all this talk about mustard I know that some of you are getting hungry and may relish a finish to this sermon. So let me help us all catch up by saying: simply put, heaven is like mustard, in that it freely spices up life with love. On earth. Now.

Hot dog! That’s good news.

So go spread love around everywhere and watch it grow like a glorious plant from God!

It’s good for us.

It’s good for creation.

It’s the seeds of heaven growing on earth.

AMEN.

ENDNOTES

1. I found this set of puns posted by someone called “Hmm” at http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091105204025AAeqrBc

2. Wray, Judith, Feasting on the Word, 143.

3. Saliers, Don, Feasting on the Word, 142.

4 See, Hultgren, Arland, The Parables of Jesus, 391.

5. Patterson, Stephen, The God of Jesus, 137.

6. Ibid., 137-138.

7. Williamson, Lamar, Interpretation: Mark, 99.

8. Wray, Judith, 145.

COPYRIGHT Scott Elliott © 2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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Crazy Love: God’s Dream

Crazy Love, God’s Dream

a sermon based on Mark 3:20-35

given at Palm Bay, FL on June 10, 2012

by Rev. Scott Elliott

I was reading a silly note about some of the little everyday things that can make you crazy, like:

The last two ice cubes that won’t pop out of the tray; or

Trying on sunglasses with those plastic tags that get in the way;

Elevators that stop, open at a floor and no one gets in;

Buying something new that’s flawed and not only having to return it but trying to put it back in the package the same way you got it;

Trying to read and follow instructions in a put it together yourself desk kit;

Drivers who fail to use that very simple device in cars that signals lane changes and turns

Little things in life sometimes makes us crazy.

It may seem odd but all this love and open embrace stuff we do at church sometimes seems to others crazy, to make US seem crazy.

I mention all this crazy talk, because today’s reading has this very surprising recording of Jesus’ behavior being remembered as people thinking he was more than little bit crazy. We are told “People were saying ‘He has gone out of his mind.’” And they were serious.

Think about that. The Bible reports people, including his family and respected religious leaders thought Jesus was literally out of his mind. The Greek word translated as “out of his mind” is “existemi … [it] actually means insane and witless.” 2

Jesus is not just thought to be a bit off, but way off. Over the years some have looked to the gospel accounts and suggested they find evidence of psychological trouble, they claim Jesus hallucinated, heard voices, got overly angry, kept his identity secret and was estranged from family and that those “facts” can be heard to add up to his being understood as mentally ill. 3

Despite the fact that much of the evidence may be metaphor and was what we would call, hearsay upon hearsay recorded a generation after Jesus lived, Rev. Robin Meyers notes that:

This did not stop a whole gaggle of authors from engaging in such speculation. They referred to Jesus as “ecstatic” (euphemism for out of touch with reality), a “degenerate” with a “fixed delusional system,” “demented,” a “religious paranoid,” a “megalomaniac,” and, of course, a “paranoid schizophrenic,” just to name a few. One Danish author went so far as to conclude that Jesus was an epileptic who had a petit mal in Gethsemane and a grand mal at the cleansing of the Temple … Did Jesus hear voices because he was schizophrenic? Was this a messiah complex before we had a name for it? 4 -(Writes Rev. Meyers.)

People are willing to research and write that Jesus’ conduct evidences that he suffered from some sort of psychological trouble, while ironically Adolf Eichmann the Nazi leader directly responsible for the Holocaust was examined before his trial and a psychiatrist found him to be perfectly sane. 5 He apparently led a normal day-to-day life other than striving to create hell on earth.

Eichmann was, by worldly standards, sane.

But Jesus, who strove to create heaven on earth is the one modern authors have speculated was insane.

And remember it’s not just modern authors, the Lectionary reading today is believed to be a historically accurate, to the extent it remembers Jesus was thought to be insane. Adherents to faith, you see, typically do not make up unflattering facts about those they revere. 6.

Every so often it comes up in pastoring that the Bible indicates some, even his family, thought that Jesus was insane. People are often surprised. I mean this is the man we all want to emulate. What would Jesus do? That common question asked before deciding what to do does not usually factor in that he was thought by a number of people in his day to be insane.

Jesus was not insane. But clearly some thought he was.

Some even said he was doing the devil’s work, “He has Beelzebul and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons!” some respectable scribes claimed.

And it’s Jesus’ mom and his family (very important figures in the church) who are worried about Jesus being out of his mind and in need of restraint in the lesson today.

As I said, Jesus was not out of his mind. He was not insane. He was certainly not demon possessed. But what on earth was he doing that made some folks claim he was?

Well chapters 2 and 3 of the Gospel of Mark, where today’s reading comes from, sets out a list of conflicts Jesus runs into.

He forgives a fellow and folks think that such forgiveness is blasphemy (2:1-12).

He includes the marginalized and outcasts at his table and into his community and people squawk about letting in the impure and unclean (13-17).

He doesn’t follow religious rules and traditions as other religious folks do and more complaints ensue (18-28).

And this conflict stuff culminates in chapter 3 with the claims we have been considering; that what Jesus was doing was crazy and the devil’s work. It culminates at the end of Mark with Jesus being crucified.

Jesus defends his ministry against such claims with simple logic that basically it’s crazy to think that Satan works against himself.

And also that every sin can be forgiven but one, blasphemies against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven.

This does not mean cussing out the Holy Spirit. This is intended by Mark to mean one thing only, it refers to those who don’t get that Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit and doing God’s work. Marcus Borg puts it like this:

Mark’s context is clear: if you do not perceive the presence of God’s Spirit in Jesus, if you think whatever was in him came from somewhere else, your life will not change. This passage is not about getting into heaven. Rather not discerning the Spirit in Jesus is to stay the way you are and to fail to participate in the dream of God. 7 … Marcus Borg.

The dream of God. I like that phrase. But here’s the thing, in Jesus’ day it ran counter to not only what the earthly kingdom wanted, but it conflicted with many everyday people’s view of stuff too. Jesus gets called crazy and eventually killed for bringing that dream – the dream of God – to the real world.

Forgiving and accepting people and bucking religious rules that are not love-centered leads to trouble, sane people thought it was crazy back then, some today think it’s crazy today too.

That big rainbow we like to look at looks pretty, but when we decide, as Jesus did, that all colors of humankind are equal and loved and even forgiven, it shakes things up.

Equal means equal.

And Jesus set out to re-order the inequalities of his culture of the world. Tax collectors, criminals, disabled, women, men, rich, poor, Gentile, Jew get into his community. Indeed in the early church we learn that even non-heterosexuals are sought and loved and baptized and brought in to the church.

This rainbow-of-people-community Jesus and his followers and the early church embraced and sent into the world to forgive and be forgiven, to love and be loved, to bring peace about, mattered. All of them, equally.

In short, Jesus set out, and spent the later part of his life, knocking down any and all barriers in order to bring into his community all manner of people as equals to be respected, cared for and loved.

And Jesus did this to save each person and all the world from their lesser way of being.

This teaching and practice of Jesus was followed by the early church. We can see this in New Testament writings. For example in the Book of Acts Peter – and by extension all Christians – are commanded by God to call no one profane or unclean (Acts 10:28). We are further commanded in 1 John that “those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.” (1 John 4:21).

So, according to the Bible it is impossible for Christians to love God unless we love others. (1 John 4:20). If that is true, and a part of the early church’s purpose, why would we as church now not welcome, love and honor ALL too, just as they are?

And by “all” I mean all. This includes accepting equally into and a part of the community: folks from other religions, atheists, straights, LGBTQ, liberals, conservatives, old, young, singles, families, children, unbaptized, talk show hosts, criminals, Greeks, Jews, slave, free, males and females. “Red, Yellow, Black and White all are precious in God’s sight.” You name it, they are in because they are loved and they matter to God.

That’s Jesus’ Way. Objectively speaking it really was Jesus’ and the early church’s Way to remove barriers to being accepted and loved. Jesus’ had this idea that amounted to having no strings attached to love. No barriers. It sounded crazy to some people back then, it sounds crazy to some people today.

Think about it.

What would church look like if there was not one barrier?

What would it be like if all types of folks gathered with mutual respect to bring more love into the world to help save it and one another? To follow Jesus’ way?

And by “saved” I do not mean in an afterlife but in the now-ness of life on earth presently and into the future.

I’ll bet a great many Christians would welcome the chance to be told it is a good thing to no longer exclude any neighbors and truly welcome all – just as they are – into church and loving relationship with God.

Seriously! What if church were the locale or the facilitator – like Jesus was – of a real melting pot for peace. Where to, paraphrase Paul, in Christ there is no longer any difference.

What if in that melting pot we just loved Love (by whatever name people are comfortable calling it ) and we loved our neighbors too?

Love does not care what we call it only that we Love it and love too, so why should I, or us, or church, or you care what we call love as long as we believe in love and loving?

What if together the melting pot of all who gather in the name of Love, we took care of the poor, the sick, the stranger and the imprisoned?

And sought justice and loved kindness and were just humble about the Love we love?

And what if we all blessed the peacemakers?

And when we prayed or mediated about love and justice and peace, and we sang and basked in the glory of the oneness that we are?

I think if we did all that, we’d have what Jesus called the kingdom of heaven breaking in.

People thought that was a crazy idea when Jesus started the Way to such a breaking in of heaven.

Forgiving and accepting people and bucking religious rules that are not love-centered leads to trouble. Some people think it’s crazy.

That big rainbow we like to look at looks pretty, but, when we decide, as Jesus did, that all colors of humankind are equal and loved and even forgiven, it will shake things up. It will also bring heaven to earth.

Like Jesus we are not crazy and we are not doing Beelzebul’s bidding. What we are doing is our best to follow God’s dream in the manner Jesus taught. It’s a dream where the world experiences through us God as love that has no barriers, no strings – or as the Bible repeatedly puts it: the God of steadfast love that endures forever.

AMEN.

ENDNOTES

1. I got much of this list out of Tibballs, Geoff, (ed) The Mammoth Book of Jokes, 194.

2. Meyers, Robin (2012-01-12). The Underground Church: Reclaiming the Subversive Way of Jesus (p. 26). John Wiley and Sons. Kindle Edition.

3. Ibid. 29 (citing Emil Rasmussen, author of Jesus: A Comparative Study in Psychopathology, cited in Don Havis, “An Inquiry into the Mental Health of Jesus: Was He Crazy?” San Francisco Atheists [blog] (July 1, 2003) http://sfatheists .blogspot.com/2003/07/inquiry-into-mental-health-of-jesus.html.

4. Ibid at 28.

5. Ibid at 30 (quoting Thomas Merton “A Devout Meditation in Memory of Adolf Eichmann.”)

6. Ibid. At 27. Robin Meyers writes “Scholars rightly surmise that when something is preserved about Jesus in the gospels that is not a compliment (or is counterintuitive), then it is more likely to be authentic.”

7. Borg, Marcus, The Gospel of Mark, p 34.

COPYRIGHT Scott Elliott © 2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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Whom Shall I Send, and Who Will Go?

Whom Shall I Send, and Who Will Go?

a sermon based on Isaiah 6:1-8

given at Palm Bay, FL on June 3, 2012

by Rev. Scott Elliott

A Palm Bay family took a child who was visiting from Tampa to church one Sunday morning.

The child had never been to church before and on the way home the family asked her what she thought of the service. She said she liked it very much, but was confused as to why the West Coast was left out.

The family had no idea what she meant until she explained that the minister never mentioned the West Coast when he talked about the Father, Son and Whole East Coast.

Today is Trinity Sunday and if you think the young girl was confused, the Trinity doctrine can be perplexing to just about anyone with or without misunderstood words.

So I tend to take at least a little bit of time on Trinity Sunday to let you know that the Trinity is an ancient lawyer-made concept originally intended to help explain how Christians are monotheistic even though they speak of experiences of God in different roles of the Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost, or in more modern words the Creator, Christ and Spirit.

The idea of using the image of the Trinity to explain things was created by a lawyer-theologian named Tertullian around the third century. People were saying Christians worshiped three separate gods and he went about to prove them wrong relying heavily on logic not literal words of the Bible.

See, “the Trinity” is not literally referred to in the Bible. It’s an image, a model, a symbol, a metaphor, created for understanding facets of God.

Tertullian in essence argued that Christians understand the one God as having different personas– a Latin term for actors’ masks. 1 .

The idea being that we experience God in the world in different roles; just like people experience humans in different roles.

For example, as you know, three of my roles in the world are handsome husband, best dad ever, and very wise and witty pastor.

God can be understood in different roles too (only no exaggeration is needed) As Marcus Borg puts it: To speak of God and three persons is to say that God is known to us wearing three different ‘masks’ – in other words three different roles. 2

In the Bible God’s roles in our lives are named in many different ways Lord, Savior, Provider, Midwife, Love, I Am … the list goes on and on. But, Jesus liked to call God “Abba,” a word meaning dad and Father, and so the named role of Father has become central to our faith.

We also understand Jesus himself as Son of God or Christ (God incarnate on earth) and so Christ or Son is a role we also focus on.

Finally, the Spirit plays a big role in the New Testament as a way Jesus and his followers experience God moving and motivating creation.

Father, Son and Spirit are the three primary ways of naming the roles God was experienced by early Christians and were rolled into Tertullian’s, label “Trinity,” a word that means trio or three.

So today we can hear this to mean that God can be understood to have three major roles in our lives, Creator, Christ and Spirit. Those are three roles played out by one God in creation.

That’s the original intent of the Trinity, to name the roles of God we see in our religion played out on the world’s stage.

But over time the Trinity model has grown to be quite confusing in doctrinal arguments, and you are welcome to consider it more complexly if you want or you can set it aside and leave it for others if it does not work for you.

As I said it is not in the Bible, it’s a model made to help understand God, if it doesn’t help don’t fret. It’s not something you have to “get” any further than knowing today is a day we celebrate the roles God plays in our lives.

Now, although, the Trinity is not literally in the Bible, references to God in a triad can be found. God is referred to as Father, Son and Holy Ghost. And sometimes all three appear in texts and these are usually the texts that come up in the Lectionary for Trinity Sunday.

Jesus had not yet been born when today’s text from Isaiah was written and so he is not literally referenced in it. But the text refers to God not only as “us” (originally in reference to an earlier belief in a Divine Council), but it sets out the very familiar triad phrase “Holy, holy, holy” so Christians have long sort of retro-fitted the Trinity into this Isaiah text.

And actually metaphorically we can hear the three roles of God as Creator, Christ and Spirit in the text.

The lesson today is well known; and it sounds fantastical to our ears. It can even sound incomprehensible so some explanation is needed.

Isaiah the prophet is in the temple, a place where heaven and earth are understood to come together, and he paints a portrait for us of how he experienced God during worship. 3.

God is Mysterious, mighty and fantastical. A mystery beyond comprehension surrounded by celestial beings. A seraph is a name that means “burning one,” which we might think of today as a bright angel.

These angels sing out the magnificent chorus “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

And just as I mentioned last week that the Pentecost story is about a theophany, a God appearance, in flames. In this story God is also experienced like fire, smoke fills the place after the song is heard. Speaking of the celestial beings we are told

…one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

And Isaiah’s response in the face of all of this Holiness and Power and Mystery, God’s presence, is to note a humbling sense of smallness and unworthiness. Isaiah says: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

Unclean lips in this text refers to being a part of humanity’s falsehoods and deceit. But Isaiah, even feeling unworthy notices nonetheless that he is allowed in God’s presence, and he experiences one of the seraphim approach and burn away his sense of unworthiness as a human:

…one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.”

Isaiah experiences having his sense of uncleanliness sterilized by fire sent from of God– in a very real sense like the fire sent on Pentecost in last week’s lesson. God transforms Isaiah from his sense of unworth. And once Isaiah gets that he is worthy, that God forgives his sins and unworthiness, he immediately experiences God calling him to do God’s work in the world.

Isaiah writes: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, “Here am I; send me!’”

“Here am I; send me!” Those are the words God longs to hear from us. Because every day and every moment God the Creator is calling through the Spirit, that Holy tasks on earth get done through Christ, God incarnate through humans. That’s us.

Small and fragile, flawed and unworthy as we may seem, God’s got a different view. God sees us as worthy and so constantly asks “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

And coming to church and worshiping is just like going to the Temple as Isaiah does in the story today, it’s a place we experience – today and everyday – heaven and earth coming together.

It is here that we are to get our sense of worth straightened out, to have whatever is holding us back, singed away by fire (God) in coals carried by God’s messengers to us, to each one of us AND to us as a church.

And once we set aside the inhibitions of lack of worth to do God’s work we start hearing and believing the angels’ song that “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts” and that “the whole earth is full of [God’s] glory” and that God loves and forgives us.

Right? We get that God is Holy and creation is awesome and that we are loved and forgiven.

But we cannot stop there! We have to listen and also hear the Creator calling through the Spirit that Holy tasks on earth get done through Christ, God incarnate through humans.

And we are to not only realize God calls out to us, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” but we are to stand on tiptoe and raise our hands high – regardless of size of our bank accounts or stature or smarts or what anyone thinks of us – hoping we will get called on as we blurt out “Here am I; send me!”

Isaiah does this and he goes as he is sent to do God’s work. You see, following God is not a spectator sport. Isaiah doesn’t just gawk at the awesomeness of God and creation and accept love and forgiveness, he jumps in and gets involved.

And God sends him out to do Holy things– and let me tell you just because it’s God’s work, and God is doing the sending, does not make it easy. It’s not. Isaiah gets that, he goes regardless .

This is Isaiah’s call story.

And it’s ours too.

Not just as individuals, but also as community.

We can think of a million reasons not to answer God’s call to us as to worth: We aren’t ready. We’ve never done it. We failed before. We are not smart enough. We are too old. We are too young. We are too weak. We are too new. People will reject us. We’ll look funny. There’s not enough time. Other people are hard to work with. There’s not enough members. There’s not enough money. There are lots of reasons not to answer God’s call.

But reason’s not to answer God, don’t cut it. If God’s calling it can be done, and so the only right answer is “Here am I; send me!”

I personally came to this church to work as an assistant pastor mostly in new and old programs with children, youth and families and such. I did not come here with any intention whatsoever to lead this church as a solo pastor.

And when the long-time, much beloved, senior pastor got sick and left with no notice, you can be sure I did not feel worthy to take over this church. I was a year and half out of seminary and at the time was not thinking about leading alone a very active, dynamic-awesome-doing-a-lot-of-God’s-work church in Florida.

But God made it clear to me in very Spiritual ways that I was to stay, that I had worth. In short, the Triune God called out to me for a need at this church and said “Whom shall I send and who will go for me?” and I knew I needed to raise my hand and … I did.

Before I was even formally called to be the solo pastor I was informed of the projection that we only had enough monetary resources left to make it about a year. That was in 2008, over four years ago.

This church had at best a projection of one year’s worth of resources and a newbie pastor and we all joined hands and raised them high and were sent forth by God. We understood this is a very special vibrant love-centered church, and we understood God as holy, holy, holy and all of earth as full of God’s glory.

And together, in what might sound like a not-so-worthy state under any business model, we heard God telling us we could, and should, and must, go forward together – that there was a need for radical love for those whom other churches rejected and radical love needed for youth and children and others in need, the least amongst us. And we felt a need and a call to allow and provide open thinking and progressive theology a home, in a very love-centered community smack dab in the Bible Belt.

We could have turned inward and just hunkered down licking our wounds but we didn’t. We heard the great Creator call out through the Spirit moving amongst us “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And Christ within us caused us all – not just me, all of us– to shout out “Here am I; send me!” Send us!

And by God, God sent us and we have done amazing things. We made cuts to our budget, saved a bunch of money, cutting power bills and other costs, and we moved forward with one pastor and eventually a half-time music director.

And we dug deep and we gave what we could not to just get by and survive but to thrive, and God sent us gifts from saints who have left us, and here we are a thriving church that has become – and is making itself known – in the community (far and wide) as the church that acts like Jesus did with open arms for all, that cares and works for good, a church that matters very much.

I heard that last weekend at the Pridefest and I heard it at the Beachfest. People came to our booths because they wanted to learn about the church that loves, like Jesus did and does.

I hear that from visitors too and in calls and e-mails and facebook notes, about this being-like-Jesus stuff. And I have to tell you I am so pleased that we are not just known as such, but have earned that reputation.

A freelance reporter came to me at Beachfest wanting to do an article on our garden that feeds the poor.

You heard me read a letter two weeks ago from Bob Barnes about how he tells other religious communities about how we are a model, about how we have helped feed our neighborhood children at Riviera Elementary School.

The singing duo Jason and DeMarco are impressed with this church and its love-center. They have even published our “open and affirming” statement on the internet as a model for how churches should welcome others.

Jesus’ love that we preach and teach and share here creates not just a safe haven for those made by God whom other churches wrongfully shoo away or worse belittle and bully; we preach and we teach and we actually really truly believe that we are to be Love in the world, God’s agents, even if we are flawed … even if we continue to only be able to see that we have enough money to make it a year, or whatever.

There’s concern right now – as there has been since long before we answered the call to do this work together (you and me) – a concern that there is not enough money to last more a year and half or two. It’s an understandable concern. A few weeks ago a new team at the church met, the Finance Ideas Team (F–I–T.).

The F–I–T team met and split in two. The original F–I–T team plans to scour the budget to see if any further cuts can be found and recommended to the church council, and when, and if, such cuts should be considered.

The rest of the team moved over to Stewardship and is working on coming up with ideas on how to increase our income from members, non-members, the public and any other lawful source.

People on both these teams are working hard for this church and care deeply about this community and God and helping others.

They are on the teams saying “Here am I Lord send me to do these difficult cut ideas and raise money ideas work.” And it’s work that has to be done.

Why? Because this church is an awesome place that needs to go on and on and on.

It’s a church that transforms lives.

It’s a church full of great leadership.

It’s a church that is a good steward of resources.

And it’s a church that hears the great Creator call out through the Spirit moving amongst us “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And Christ within us causes us to respond “Here am I; send me!”

Isaiah found out that following God is not a spectator sport. People of God have to risk giving love and resources. It’s a commitment to call out “Here am I; send me!”

But let me tell you, as difficult as it has been since I stepped in over four years ago to be the sole pastor, I have been sustained by you all hearing the call and sticking with it though thick and thin. Your call empowers my call, we empower each other to do this awesome work God has privileged us with a call to do.

As a part of this – if we believe that this place matters– then we need to be thinking how can we amp up our involvement in the church? I think we all get that this is not a theatre where we pay a few bucks to experience a performance on Sundays. It’s a temple very much like Isaiah was in. It’s a Holy, holy, holy place where earth and heaven come together and we experience God’s presence, feel our worth, hear God’s call to do worthy things, and answer the call.

That’s how it works. We have to participate in God’s amazing presence in the earth full of Glory. We have to support this church and its missions and ministries.

How? By coming here often. By bringing others. By telling people about it. By volunteering. By generously funding the church (we get no outside funding to run this place).

We must continue to do what we can to support this awesome community, if we don’t the day will come when we won’t have enough to make it another year. That’s the truth. So the needs of the church should cause us to not only hear God’s call but say “Here am I: send me.” And then we must do what needs to be done.

Once we like this place and what it does, how it brings heaven and earth together and love about in the world, then we need to “buy in” as best we can. Church is not a spectator sport. We have survived long past the first year when we projected running out of money in a year, by keeping that in mind; by doing our best; by being love in a world that needs more love. We’ve done this through our gifts of presence, prayer, support, time and money.

I love knowing God in all three persons, Creator, Christ, and Spirit fills this place to the brim, and calls and moves us to be a church of radical love.

I love that we continue to be instruments of God willing to take risks and be love, Christ in the world.

May we all hear God’s call today and tomorrow and answer it gladly, standing on tip-toe saying “Here am I; send me!” Send us.

AMEN.

ENDNOTES

1. Marcus, Borg The God We Never Knew, San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco (1997), 98. Prof. Borg asserts that the “persons” of the Trinity in the ancient Greek and Latin texts refers to masks worn by actors to “correspond to roles,” not to individual persons. “To speak of God and three persons is to say that God is known to us wearing three different ‘masks’ – in other words three different roles.”

2. Ibid.

3. Feasting on the Word Year B, Vol 3, p 29.

COPYRIGHT Scott Elliott © 2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

 

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