Gifts and Glory
January 24, 2010
Rev. Susan Gilbert Zencka
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church
Texts: 1 Corinthians 12:4-26, Luke 4:14-30
I heard an interesting story this week– Dan and Diane Dieterich described how several years ago, they went to Disneyworld in Florida. Dan was not, apparently, content to merely watch the fun, but wanted to participate. So he dressed all in white, and carried in a small hand puppet – a black bear named Billy Bear. Billy was somewhat shy and tended to hide in the crook of Dan’s arm, but every so often, especially when he heard small children, he would peer out, over Dan’s arm, and look at the kids, sometimes even waving, as his courage grew. The children loved it. Some of them found the larger animals somewhat intimidating – Goofy is something like 7 feet tall – but Billy Bear was more accessible, and inviting.
So when Dan and Diane got home, Dan thought the good folks at Disney might like this idea – after all, it’s a way to broaden the reach of the Disney critters – so he wrote them a letter describing his experience. In due time, he heard from Disney – actually, from their Legal Department, who explained that the Magic Kingdom has a team of ‘imagineers’ who are responsible for all the good ideas, and that they didn’t need any help from Dan. And they returned a copy of his letter, keeping the original. The Magic Kingdom is apparently not intended to be participative.
Not so the Kingdom of God. The Spirit of God invites all people to participate in the ongoing work of creation. Today’s Gospel story tells us that Jesus returned (he had been in the wilderness for some time after his baptism), filled with the power of the Spirit. And as he ministered throughout Galilee, word spread about him. So he came to Nazareth, where he had grown up – at that time, not much of a town. And he went to the synagogue, as was his custom. He had apparently visited and taught in many synagogues, and had developed quite a positive reputation.
He read a portion of Isaiah saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” And after he had read these words, and rolled up the scroll, he announced, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” This was quite an announcement. The things that Jesus had listed – good news for poor, blind regaining sight, freedom for oppressed – were all signs of the arrival of the messiah, who would usher in a new era, in which God’s people would live in shalom – harmonious, healthy relationships with the earth, with each other, and with God. It would be the reign of God’s glory – the world as God intends it to be: people dwelling within the abundance of God’s creation, caring for one another, and enjoying the beauty and goodness of life. This messianic age is often referred to by Jesus as “the Kingdom of God” and although he announces its presence, as we look around the world it doesn’t seem that the lion is lying with the lamb, that swords have been turned to plowshares, and that justice has rolled down like a mighty river.
This is why the Kingdom of God is understood by modern theologians to be both “already and not yet”. The simplest explanation I’ve ever read came from Dallas Willard, a professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California, who explains that a kingdom is where the king’s rule is effective. Where God’s will is being done, we see the kingdom – so that over the last 12 days in Haiti, as the governments of the world have come together, setting aside national rivalries, in the common human interest of helping people in distress – there we have glimpsed the shalom of God. And it has resulted in miracles: over 130 people rescued from the rubble, many of them well after the time they should have died. Celebrities from film, music and sports gathered to answer the phone on Friday as some of their colleagues from all over the world sang in tribute to and in compassion for the people of Haiti. Another glimpse of the kingdom – people whose business is fame just answering the phone so that folks could give money to help.
Sometimes the signs are subtle – Friday night our seven confirmation students went to Wausau to visit Mt. Sinai Synagogue on their Community Shabbat night – when they have a service especially to give non-Jews an experience of Jewish worship. We weren’t the only ones there. There were folks from 1st Presbyterian in Wausau, Woodlands in Plover, several UCC churches including one as far north as Land O Lakes – so many different churches, young people and adults, coming to learn more about how others worship God. It was a generous invitation, a respectful and interested group – it was a Kingdom moment.
Last fall, during our Stewardship Drive, over 60% of our members increased their giving to God’s work being done through Frame Church, and the increases averaged over 15%. In a terrible economic climate when some are without work, and others are having pay cuts, and everyone Is experiencing some level of uncertainty over 60% of our members chose to increase their investment in the work of God, instead of consolidating their personal security. It’s choosing priorities that are not consistent with our consumer culture – it’s a vote for the Kingdom.
Nonetheless, the Kingdom is not yet – and no one needs me to give examples of that. The Kingdom is already, but not yet.
John Stendahl in an article in The Christian Century (January 7-14, 1998, p. 13) presents this analogy: “When the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in the midst of the Civil War, the slaves who lived within the realm of the Confederacy remained in bondage. Many did not know about the proclamation when it went into effect. Its authority was denied and nullified by local and regional power. Yet Lincoln, in both his words and his claim to authority over the whole of the split and rebellious Union, contended that the proclamation was nonetheless true and real. And so this flawed and partial emancipation became the herald of a fuller freedom, a fulfillment yet unreached.”
The Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t just for the North but was for the entire United States – but until people chose to participate in it, its potential was not fulfilled. So too, God’s Kingdom, God’s promises, God’s love are not just for Israel, are not just for the Church, but are for the world…and until the world participates in that reality, it is not fulfilled. Unlike the Magic Kingdom, the Kingdom of God is participatory, and welcomes the imaginative efforts of all God’s children throughout the world. There are no official imagineers.
How can it be that God’s love and God’s kingdom are for the whole world when Israel is the chosen people, and the Church is the Body of Christ? Aren’t these in some special relationship with God? Yes, Israel and the Church are in a special relationship with God – a relationship of participation and responsibility, and it is a relationship for the sake of the whole world. The church (and Israel even earlier) have been called to embody the shalom of God, to make the kingdom visible in such a compelling way that others will want to live God’s dream, too.
Again and again, the people of God have tried to make their calling one of privilege rather than responsibility. One of the best examples in Scripture is the book of Jonah – the prophet Jonah was called to go preach a message of repentance to the people of Ninevah, a large city, in what is now Iraq and was then Assyria. It is near the modern city of Mosul. It was a major city in a country that was an enemy to Israel. And so Jonah did not want to go preach there – when God finally made Jonah an offer he couldn’t refuse, Jonah explained that he hadn’t wanted to preach repentance to the folks in Ninevah because he knew that God would forgive them. He wanted God’s love to be just for the people of Israel, but God wanted to reach out beyond.
And that is what makes the people in Nazareth so angry, after Jesus has finished preaching. Jesus knows that they want him to do some of the miracles they have heard that he’s done elsewhere. They don’t understand that he has come to enlist them to work for the kingdom....not to do it for them. The church today sometimes runs into the same problem – people think the church is a kind of benefits organization, to take care of its members, when it is there to recruit us into participating in the mission of God for the world – it is the way Jesus reaches into the world today. And so in Nazareth when they ask Jesus, “Aren’t you going to do some of those miracles for us?” he reminds them that when the prophets Elijah and Elisha did miracles, they weren’t done for the people in Israel or Judea – during a drought when people were hungry, Elijah didn’t feed someone in Israel, but instead fed a widow in Zaraphath near Sidon – in modern Lebanon. It was Gentile territory. And the miracle that Elisha did was even more striking – he cured a Syrian general of leprosy – a Syrian general who has an Israeli slave, which means he has been in battle against Israel. This would be the equivalent of a church worker today caring for Osama bin Laden instead of a church member. Jesus is not gently teaching that the promises and love of God are for all – he is provocative about it, in saying that God has long been reaching out to their enemies. And they want to throw him off a cliff but he walks away from them.
And when Paul writes to the Corinthians – the people at the church in Corinth – he is writing to help them live out God’s way in the world – he is providing practical advice to the church – how to manage relationships, who to include in the meals that are part of each week’s worship, how to work out leadership. Paul is helping them to be a sign of the Kingdom – by living and worshipping together in radical mutuality, rich and poor together sharing equally, extending hospitality to all (welcoming others as God has welcomed us all). The Church isn’t a refuge, it’s a model. And so Paul is telling the people that the gifts and abilities they each have aren’t for their own glory, but are for the good of the whole church, so that God’s glory might be seen in their living out the way of shalom – of interdependence, hospitality, sharing, worshiping God and caring for each other and those around them. Obviously, such a way of life will bless them, too, but it’s not about them, it’s about living in the world according to the way God designed the world – for it’s not only the church that is an interrelated system, fitting together like a body. The world is designed this way too – and when we live in the world according to the design of the world, life is generated. And when we work against the natural systems, life is thwarted.
A lovely example of this was in Time magazine a couple of weeks ago. For a while, people have been saying that one of the ways we can help reduce the carbon output is to eat less meat, particularly beef, because the production of beef generates massive amounts of carbon. Well, it turns out that’s only true when we don’t let cattle live the way they naturally live best – when we crowd hundreds of thousands of cattle into a single feedlot, and feed them grain (when they naturally eat grass), then there is massive carbon generated not only in the feedlot, but in the production and shipping of the grain.
However, when cattle are grass-fed, there are a number of differences in the farming. First of all, grass grows well on its own, with just sunlight – it doesn’t need massive amounts of pesticides and fertilizers, thus groundwaters are not damaged. As they eat, cows trample decaying matter into the soil, which helps keep CO2 underground and out of the air. The cows’ food (grass) and fertilizer (manure) are grown on-site, preventing the oil usage and pollution incurred in transportation. Grass-fed cows also produce less methane, because their systems are designed for eating grass. Grass-fed cattle actually can help reverse climate change. And, as a bonus for humans, grass-fed beef is lower in saturated fat and higher in omega-3’s. Better for us, better for the cows, better for the earth. It’s an example of the shalom that emerges when we live in right relationships.
In today’s New York Times Nicholas Kristof tells the story of a family who found out that giving away half their house gave much more to themselves – while at a stoplight, the teenaged daughter saw a Mercedes, and nearby, a homeless man. She pointed out that if the car owner had less car, the man could have something to eat. The mother said, foolishly it turns out, “What do you want to do, sell our house?” Teenagers stlll dream, and the daughter thought that made a lot of sense. She finally persuaded the family to sell their large home, the home that the parents thought was needed, and to give half the proceeds away – they sent the money to Africa. What they found in their new, smaller home was that they couldn’t each retreat to solo space – and so they’re spending more time together, and have developed a family richness that they never dreamed would accompany their giving away half the house. It’s an amazing story, and a great example of how God’s crazy world works.
See http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/opinion/24kristof.html?ref=opinion for the story.
When we let the imagineers of the world tell us that the only way that all can be fed is through genetically-modified crops and giant feedlots, the kingdom slips from view. When we wonder whether more international aid would make us safer than a bigger military budget the imagineers will tell us that it is impractical…and maybe it is, but think of the important things that have happened that started only as someone’s wild dream – slavery abolished, smallpox eliminated, humans traveling to the moon. When the imagineers are in charge, we get a lot that’s big and goofy. When we can imagine that our living makes a difference, and shalom is seen, we are changed and something new comes into view. Let’s believe in God’s dream, and live it into view. Amen.
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church
Texts: 1 Corinthians 12:4-26, Luke 4:14-30
I heard an interesting story this week– Dan and Diane Dieterich described how several years ago, they went to Disneyworld in Florida. Dan was not, apparently, content to merely watch the fun, but wanted to participate. So he dressed all in white, and carried in a small hand puppet – a black bear named Billy Bear. Billy was somewhat shy and tended to hide in the crook of Dan’s arm, but every so often, especially when he heard small children, he would peer out, over Dan’s arm, and look at the kids, sometimes even waving, as his courage grew. The children loved it. Some of them found the larger animals somewhat intimidating – Goofy is something like 7 feet tall – but Billy Bear was more accessible, and inviting.
So when Dan and Diane got home, Dan thought the good folks at Disney might like this idea – after all, it’s a way to broaden the reach of the Disney critters – so he wrote them a letter describing his experience. In due time, he heard from Disney – actually, from their Legal Department, who explained that the Magic Kingdom has a team of ‘imagineers’ who are responsible for all the good ideas, and that they didn’t need any help from Dan. And they returned a copy of his letter, keeping the original. The Magic Kingdom is apparently not intended to be participative.
Not so the Kingdom of God. The Spirit of God invites all people to participate in the ongoing work of creation. Today’s Gospel story tells us that Jesus returned (he had been in the wilderness for some time after his baptism), filled with the power of the Spirit. And as he ministered throughout Galilee, word spread about him. So he came to Nazareth, where he had grown up – at that time, not much of a town. And he went to the synagogue, as was his custom. He had apparently visited and taught in many synagogues, and had developed quite a positive reputation.
He read a portion of Isaiah saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” And after he had read these words, and rolled up the scroll, he announced, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” This was quite an announcement. The things that Jesus had listed – good news for poor, blind regaining sight, freedom for oppressed – were all signs of the arrival of the messiah, who would usher in a new era, in which God’s people would live in shalom – harmonious, healthy relationships with the earth, with each other, and with God. It would be the reign of God’s glory – the world as God intends it to be: people dwelling within the abundance of God’s creation, caring for one another, and enjoying the beauty and goodness of life. This messianic age is often referred to by Jesus as “the Kingdom of God” and although he announces its presence, as we look around the world it doesn’t seem that the lion is lying with the lamb, that swords have been turned to plowshares, and that justice has rolled down like a mighty river.
This is why the Kingdom of God is understood by modern theologians to be both “already and not yet”. The simplest explanation I’ve ever read came from Dallas Willard, a professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California, who explains that a kingdom is where the king’s rule is effective. Where God’s will is being done, we see the kingdom – so that over the last 12 days in Haiti, as the governments of the world have come together, setting aside national rivalries, in the common human interest of helping people in distress – there we have glimpsed the shalom of God. And it has resulted in miracles: over 130 people rescued from the rubble, many of them well after the time they should have died. Celebrities from film, music and sports gathered to answer the phone on Friday as some of their colleagues from all over the world sang in tribute to and in compassion for the people of Haiti. Another glimpse of the kingdom – people whose business is fame just answering the phone so that folks could give money to help.
Sometimes the signs are subtle – Friday night our seven confirmation students went to Wausau to visit Mt. Sinai Synagogue on their Community Shabbat night – when they have a service especially to give non-Jews an experience of Jewish worship. We weren’t the only ones there. There were folks from 1st Presbyterian in Wausau, Woodlands in Plover, several UCC churches including one as far north as Land O Lakes – so many different churches, young people and adults, coming to learn more about how others worship God. It was a generous invitation, a respectful and interested group – it was a Kingdom moment.
Last fall, during our Stewardship Drive, over 60% of our members increased their giving to God’s work being done through Frame Church, and the increases averaged over 15%. In a terrible economic climate when some are without work, and others are having pay cuts, and everyone Is experiencing some level of uncertainty over 60% of our members chose to increase their investment in the work of God, instead of consolidating their personal security. It’s choosing priorities that are not consistent with our consumer culture – it’s a vote for the Kingdom.
Nonetheless, the Kingdom is not yet – and no one needs me to give examples of that. The Kingdom is already, but not yet.
John Stendahl in an article in The Christian Century (January 7-14, 1998, p. 13) presents this analogy: “When the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in the midst of the Civil War, the slaves who lived within the realm of the Confederacy remained in bondage. Many did not know about the proclamation when it went into effect. Its authority was denied and nullified by local and regional power. Yet Lincoln, in both his words and his claim to authority over the whole of the split and rebellious Union, contended that the proclamation was nonetheless true and real. And so this flawed and partial emancipation became the herald of a fuller freedom, a fulfillment yet unreached.”
The Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t just for the North but was for the entire United States – but until people chose to participate in it, its potential was not fulfilled. So too, God’s Kingdom, God’s promises, God’s love are not just for Israel, are not just for the Church, but are for the world…and until the world participates in that reality, it is not fulfilled. Unlike the Magic Kingdom, the Kingdom of God is participatory, and welcomes the imaginative efforts of all God’s children throughout the world. There are no official imagineers.
How can it be that God’s love and God’s kingdom are for the whole world when Israel is the chosen people, and the Church is the Body of Christ? Aren’t these in some special relationship with God? Yes, Israel and the Church are in a special relationship with God – a relationship of participation and responsibility, and it is a relationship for the sake of the whole world. The church (and Israel even earlier) have been called to embody the shalom of God, to make the kingdom visible in such a compelling way that others will want to live God’s dream, too.
Again and again, the people of God have tried to make their calling one of privilege rather than responsibility. One of the best examples in Scripture is the book of Jonah – the prophet Jonah was called to go preach a message of repentance to the people of Ninevah, a large city, in what is now Iraq and was then Assyria. It is near the modern city of Mosul. It was a major city in a country that was an enemy to Israel. And so Jonah did not want to go preach there – when God finally made Jonah an offer he couldn’t refuse, Jonah explained that he hadn’t wanted to preach repentance to the folks in Ninevah because he knew that God would forgive them. He wanted God’s love to be just for the people of Israel, but God wanted to reach out beyond.
And that is what makes the people in Nazareth so angry, after Jesus has finished preaching. Jesus knows that they want him to do some of the miracles they have heard that he’s done elsewhere. They don’t understand that he has come to enlist them to work for the kingdom....not to do it for them. The church today sometimes runs into the same problem – people think the church is a kind of benefits organization, to take care of its members, when it is there to recruit us into participating in the mission of God for the world – it is the way Jesus reaches into the world today. And so in Nazareth when they ask Jesus, “Aren’t you going to do some of those miracles for us?” he reminds them that when the prophets Elijah and Elisha did miracles, they weren’t done for the people in Israel or Judea – during a drought when people were hungry, Elijah didn’t feed someone in Israel, but instead fed a widow in Zaraphath near Sidon – in modern Lebanon. It was Gentile territory. And the miracle that Elisha did was even more striking – he cured a Syrian general of leprosy – a Syrian general who has an Israeli slave, which means he has been in battle against Israel. This would be the equivalent of a church worker today caring for Osama bin Laden instead of a church member. Jesus is not gently teaching that the promises and love of God are for all – he is provocative about it, in saying that God has long been reaching out to their enemies. And they want to throw him off a cliff but he walks away from them.
And when Paul writes to the Corinthians – the people at the church in Corinth – he is writing to help them live out God’s way in the world – he is providing practical advice to the church – how to manage relationships, who to include in the meals that are part of each week’s worship, how to work out leadership. Paul is helping them to be a sign of the Kingdom – by living and worshipping together in radical mutuality, rich and poor together sharing equally, extending hospitality to all (welcoming others as God has welcomed us all). The Church isn’t a refuge, it’s a model. And so Paul is telling the people that the gifts and abilities they each have aren’t for their own glory, but are for the good of the whole church, so that God’s glory might be seen in their living out the way of shalom – of interdependence, hospitality, sharing, worshiping God and caring for each other and those around them. Obviously, such a way of life will bless them, too, but it’s not about them, it’s about living in the world according to the way God designed the world – for it’s not only the church that is an interrelated system, fitting together like a body. The world is designed this way too – and when we live in the world according to the design of the world, life is generated. And when we work against the natural systems, life is thwarted.
A lovely example of this was in Time magazine a couple of weeks ago. For a while, people have been saying that one of the ways we can help reduce the carbon output is to eat less meat, particularly beef, because the production of beef generates massive amounts of carbon. Well, it turns out that’s only true when we don’t let cattle live the way they naturally live best – when we crowd hundreds of thousands of cattle into a single feedlot, and feed them grain (when they naturally eat grass), then there is massive carbon generated not only in the feedlot, but in the production and shipping of the grain.
However, when cattle are grass-fed, there are a number of differences in the farming. First of all, grass grows well on its own, with just sunlight – it doesn’t need massive amounts of pesticides and fertilizers, thus groundwaters are not damaged. As they eat, cows trample decaying matter into the soil, which helps keep CO2 underground and out of the air. The cows’ food (grass) and fertilizer (manure) are grown on-site, preventing the oil usage and pollution incurred in transportation. Grass-fed cows also produce less methane, because their systems are designed for eating grass. Grass-fed cattle actually can help reverse climate change. And, as a bonus for humans, grass-fed beef is lower in saturated fat and higher in omega-3’s. Better for us, better for the cows, better for the earth. It’s an example of the shalom that emerges when we live in right relationships.
In today’s New York Times Nicholas Kristof tells the story of a family who found out that giving away half their house gave much more to themselves – while at a stoplight, the teenaged daughter saw a Mercedes, and nearby, a homeless man. She pointed out that if the car owner had less car, the man could have something to eat. The mother said, foolishly it turns out, “What do you want to do, sell our house?” Teenagers stlll dream, and the daughter thought that made a lot of sense. She finally persuaded the family to sell their large home, the home that the parents thought was needed, and to give half the proceeds away – they sent the money to Africa. What they found in their new, smaller home was that they couldn’t each retreat to solo space – and so they’re spending more time together, and have developed a family richness that they never dreamed would accompany their giving away half the house. It’s an amazing story, and a great example of how God’s crazy world works.
See http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/opinion/24kristof.html?ref=opinion for the story.
When we let the imagineers of the world tell us that the only way that all can be fed is through genetically-modified crops and giant feedlots, the kingdom slips from view. When we wonder whether more international aid would make us safer than a bigger military budget the imagineers will tell us that it is impractical…and maybe it is, but think of the important things that have happened that started only as someone’s wild dream – slavery abolished, smallpox eliminated, humans traveling to the moon. When the imagineers are in charge, we get a lot that’s big and goofy. When we can imagine that our living makes a difference, and shalom is seen, we are changed and something new comes into view. Let’s believe in God’s dream, and live it into view. Amen.