Hoping with Sleeves Rolled Up
October 18, 2009
October 18, 2009
Rev. Susan Gilbert Zencka
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church
Texts: Deuteronomy 30:11-30; Mark 8:27-38
The three rules of real estate are said to be “location, location, location” -- and the three rules of understanding the Bible could equally well be the same, although we'd likely say it as “context, context, context”. In trying to understand the Bible, those actually could be three different rules: we want to understand the literary context of a passage – what is happening around a certain passage? What, in particular, is going on in the passages immediately before and after a given passage? Second, what is the historical context? What was going on in the lives of the people in the story, and the people who first heard this story? And third, what is our own context? Unfortunately, we don't always have the time to address these thoroughly within a Sunday morning sermon, especially if we're working with two texts. So let's try to hit the highlights.
Both of these passages occur at crossroads within their contexts.
Starting with the passage in Deuteronomy – the literary context is that Deuteronomy is said to be “the last will and testament of Moses.” It is the last of the five books of the Torah, that were traditionally said to be written by Moses, although we have come to understand that they were the product of a much larger process. But, the first five books in the Bible are in many ways the story of Moses: Genesis is the prequel, starting with the creation of the world, it describes the formation of the people of Israel and takes their story up to their being in Egypt. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are all about the deliverance of the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt, their wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, their being given the Ten Commandments and the law, and their coming to the edge of the Promised Land. These are stories that told the people of Israel who they were: they are foundational identity stories.
Modern Biblical scholarship believes that the book of Deuteronomy was compiled during or shortly after the exile in Babylon – which was, after the Exodus, the other definitive event in the history of Israel (much as the Civil War could be said to be the second key piece in our national history after the struggle for independence). The exile describes the time in the 6th century before the Common Era when Israel was conquered by Babylon and most of its leadership exiled to Babylon. The exile ended when Persia conquered Babylon and the Persian king allowed the Hebrew people to return home. The exile created a huge theological crisis for the people who understood themselves as the chosen people of God: why did such a thing happen to us? It's an essential human question, the one that Rabbi Harold Kushner addressed in his first book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. And the answer provided by the book of Deuteronomy is, it must have been something we did, or failed to do. Of course, we know that many things happen that aren't so easily explained, but the book of Deuteronomy is offering the natural consequences view that good follows good – when we make good choices, good things happen. And indeed, often life is such that natural consequences are the rule. When we study hard, we do better on the test; when we make healthful choices, we're more likely to have healthy results; when we are kind to others, kindness is often returned. The modern summary of the book of Deuteronomy could be “what goes around, comes around.” And this morning's passage comes when the Hebrew people are on the threshold of the Promised Land, and is the thesis statement of the book: I have set before you today blessings and curses, life and death; choose life and you and your descendants will live long in the land that you are about to enter. And first comes the assurance that “surely this commandment that I am giving you is not too hard for you.” And its summary, in verse 16 is that we are to love God and walk in his ways.
But Jesus acknowledges in our other passage that God's way is, at least, counter-intuitive. Caesarea Philippi was a far outpost in Galilee – it is well north of the Sea of Galilee, near the headwaters of the River Jordan. We visited Caesarea Philippi on our pilgrimage last summer – it is in the Golan Heights, near modern Syria. In ancient times, Caesarea Philippi, built as a tribute to Caesar, who in Roman political theology was said to be divine, it was a place of competing deities and idolatry, to say the least. There are remnants, still, of the many chapels built to various deities: to Zeus, to Pan, to Caesar, to the nymphs of Pan. It was a busy bustling religious marketplace in the Roman Empire, a place where the power of the Roman state and the values of Roman culture would have been dominant. Now that we understand where it takes place, let's read the passage. [Read Mark 8:27-38.]
Jesus challenges his disciples, not only in this place of political and religious alternative world views, but the text tells us that it was “on the way” that they had the conversation: it was not in a secluded quiet time, but in the hustle and bustle of their travels and work. Once we understand the setting of the passage, it is a reminder to us that we, too, have to decide who and what we worship, not only when we're at church, but when we are “on the way” in our own lives – in our work life, in our family life, in the ways we spend our time and our money. What we worship is shown by our choices in our real lives.
This passage is a crossroads in the Gospel of Mark – from this passage on, Jesus is headed toward Jerusalem, and the confrontation with religious and political authorities that will call for his death. He knows that who he is will inevitably result in this conflict. This passage is a theme passage for the Gospel of Mark, just as the reading from Deuteronomy was a theme passage for that book. In this passage, Jesus asks the disciples, while they are on the way. It is worth remembering that the early disciples were known as People of the Way. Christianity was known as a way of living. And while on the way, Jesus asked the disciples – the word for ask comes up in Mark 25 times. In the Gospel of Luke which is much longer than Mark, it comes up 17 times, and in the other, also longer, Gospels, it comes up even less. Mark is telling us, time and time again, that life will challenge us often as to where we stand.
Both these passages are asking for clarity of purpose from God's people – know who you are and what you stand for. And both passages remind us that our faith is not just a matter of the head and heart, but a matter of how we live. And Jesus is very clear that the way of God is counter-intuitive: he tells Peter, first, that he isn't thinking in the divine way but in the human way; and then he explains that God's way demands sacrifice. He says that those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for the sake of Jesus and the Gospel will save it. It's important to remember here, that just as for Deuteronomy, this Gospel was written in a time other than the time in which the story was set. The Gospel of Mark was written during the Jewish revolt against Rome in 66-70 of the Common Era. It was written as a polemic, to remind early Christians of the non-violent, anti-imperial ethics of Jesus, and to remind them that ordinary people make a difference. One of the commentaries on Mark's Gospel summarizes his perspective as “If you want to follow Jesus, you'd better look good on wood.” His point is that following God's way in our world will inevitably lead you into conflict with the world. The values of the Bible are not the values of our culture any more than Rome – our culture promotes consumerism and individualism, with the philosophy that personal and economic power are the way to happiness. Our career status and economic security are the ways we define ourselves, and advertising asks us again and again what our possessions say about us?
Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People, says in a more recent book, Living a Life That Matters, that like most people he lives in two worlds: “Much of the time I live in the world of work and commerce: eating, working and paying the bills. It is a world that honors people for being attractive and successful. It reveres winners and scorns losers, as reflected...in the billboard at the Atlanta Olympic Games a few years ago, 'You don't win the silver medal, you lose the gold.' As in most contests, there many more losers than winners, so most of the citizens of that world spend a lot of time worrying that they don't measure up.” Kushner goes on to say, “But, fortunately, there is another world, a world where even before I entered it professionally, I have spent some of my time. As a religiously committed person, I live in the world of faith, the world of the spirit. In that world you win through sacrifice and self-restraint. You win by helping your neighbor and sharing with him rather than finding his weakness and defeating him. And in the world of the spirit, there are many more winners than losers.”
It's hard to live counter-culturally. The values of the culture come automatically – the values of God have to be learned and repeatedly discerned. For me, this is a huge reason that I have immersed myself in communities of faith since I was in early high school. Being in a community of people who share the same desire to live God's way is enormously helpful. Being in a community is also the only way to live this counter-cultural way, because an essential value of this way of life in the interdependence of community – the world of the spirit is an anti-individualistic world. It is a world that teaches that happiness doesn't come from how much you get but by how generously you give. It is a world that teaches that people are not important because of the power they have over people but because of their willingness to serve others. The Bible teaches that we are hard-wired to find happiness not by seeking our own happiness but by seeking the welfare of others. This is counter-cultural and counter-intuitive. But it's true.
Now, the Bible doesn't teach that you never take care of yourself – Jesus often went away from the crowds who wanted him in order to rest, or eat with his friends, or pray. We can't adequately take care of others if we run ourselves into the ground. The Bible is not a manual for co-dependency. But it IS a manual for interdependency – it teaches that we are created for community and will not find our deepest meaning and joy on our own. Day after day, we're confronted with the choice: do we want to find blessings for ourselves? Or do we want to be a blessing for others? God has wired us so that we find our deepest joy by being a blessing for others.
This community is at a crossroads. Through the giving of those who came before us we have a beautiful and inspiring building, and a heritage of being a community that invests in the larger community. But for a few years we have not given enough financially to meet our day-to-day needs. Our Session has reconfigured the staff, combining jobs where necessary. When I came, we had two people doing the work that Susan Barrett does now. The Session has also increased the hours of the office manager in order to support the staff, and especially the members of this church, so that volunteers can be supported in their ministry. The Session has kept the budget as lean as possible.
But we need our members to dig deeper financially, and also to give of your time. Like most organizations, too much of our work is done by too few of the members. Our church is limited only by what we are willing to give to it, in time, effort, and money. If we want to be a vital mission-oriented ministry that changes our own lives and creates real change around us, that takes commitment. If we are content to be a chapel, taking care of our own minimal needs – Sunday worship, baptisms, weddings and funerals, then we can probably do that without making any significant changes. But if we are going to raise a new generation of people who are committed to God and God's world, if we are going to be a church that matters to Stevens Point, if we are going to be a place where we can say our own lives are fed and find meaning, then we are going to have to invest more of ourselves and our money.
Carl and I face the same issues that all of us do. We have a son in college and a son who has recently graduated but doesn't have a job with health insurance yet. And we have a son who is further into a career with benefits – woohoo! We have bills, and have 3 appliances on their last legs. I worry about my retirement income. We have a good life, and have health insurance, but we have to think carefully about whether or not to visit the doctor or get a medical test. We were able to get a new car last year when the old one died, but we'll be paying for it for a while, and were grateful for Chrysler's no-interest loan. We are luckier than a lot of people in that most weeks we can go grocery shopping without keeping a running total in our heads while we shop. Neither of us are real fashion plates, but we have warm clothes that fit, and can buy a cd or a book when we want to.
We have to think carefully about our giving. Like all of you, the money we give to Frame is money that's not available for something else. I wish we gave more. We're not yet up to giving 10% of our income away and I'd like to get there. We do probably about half of our giving to Frame, and give to some other organizations regularly, including the national church's mission fund. We love this church, and believe in it. So last year we increased our giving by 20%, and this year we are increasing by significantly more.
In order to cover our operating budget, our members and friends need to give significantly more than we have. Some people would say that's unrealistic in the current economic climate. Maybe so. But I hope we can do it. David Orr wrote in a recent article on climate change, “Optimism is the recognition that the odds are in your favor; hope is the faith that things will work out whatever the odds. Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up. Hopeful people are actively engaged in defying or changing the odds. Optimism leans back, puts its feet up, and wears a confident look knowing that the deck is stacked. I know of no good reason for anyone to be optimistic about the human future, but I know a lot of reasons to be hopeful.” The same could be said of Frame – there is no good reason to be optimistic about our future. The economic situation is bad and we are asking people to give more. People are very busy, and we are asking you to get more involved. But I know a lot of reasons to be hopeful – we've had over 50 new members join in the past three years and have 5 people in our current new member class. Our young families are our most rapidly growing congregation segment. We have a dedicated staff who believes in this church. The kind of people that Frame attracts are the kind of people who want to make a difference in the world. I believe in our church, I believe in our members, and I believe that we can dig deep enough to make a difference for Frame and that this kind of giving will make a difference in our own lives.
We, like the Israelites across from the promised land, like Jesus in this passage, are at a crossroads. The choices we make will determine the future of Frame, and our own sense of meaning and joy. We can take care of ourselves, come to church for our own sense of being blessed, and be satisfied. OR we can live larger than that -- we can choose to put the purpose and meaning of our lives beyond ourselves, and in the process become a blessing to others now and in future generations. Increase your giving, make a commitment to a committee or a project in the church, and let God use your giving to make a difference in you. Let's hope together for a better world, and let's hope with our sleeves rolled up. Amen.
Rev. Susan Gilbert Zencka
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church
Texts: Deuteronomy 30:11-30; Mark 8:27-38
The three rules of real estate are said to be “location, location, location” -- and the three rules of understanding the Bible could equally well be the same, although we'd likely say it as “context, context, context”. In trying to understand the Bible, those actually could be three different rules: we want to understand the literary context of a passage – what is happening around a certain passage? What, in particular, is going on in the passages immediately before and after a given passage? Second, what is the historical context? What was going on in the lives of the people in the story, and the people who first heard this story? And third, what is our own context? Unfortunately, we don't always have the time to address these thoroughly within a Sunday morning sermon, especially if we're working with two texts. So let's try to hit the highlights.
Both of these passages occur at crossroads within their contexts.
Starting with the passage in Deuteronomy – the literary context is that Deuteronomy is said to be “the last will and testament of Moses.” It is the last of the five books of the Torah, that were traditionally said to be written by Moses, although we have come to understand that they were the product of a much larger process. But, the first five books in the Bible are in many ways the story of Moses: Genesis is the prequel, starting with the creation of the world, it describes the formation of the people of Israel and takes their story up to their being in Egypt. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are all about the deliverance of the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt, their wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, their being given the Ten Commandments and the law, and their coming to the edge of the Promised Land. These are stories that told the people of Israel who they were: they are foundational identity stories.
Modern Biblical scholarship believes that the book of Deuteronomy was compiled during or shortly after the exile in Babylon – which was, after the Exodus, the other definitive event in the history of Israel (much as the Civil War could be said to be the second key piece in our national history after the struggle for independence). The exile describes the time in the 6th century before the Common Era when Israel was conquered by Babylon and most of its leadership exiled to Babylon. The exile ended when Persia conquered Babylon and the Persian king allowed the Hebrew people to return home. The exile created a huge theological crisis for the people who understood themselves as the chosen people of God: why did such a thing happen to us? It's an essential human question, the one that Rabbi Harold Kushner addressed in his first book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. And the answer provided by the book of Deuteronomy is, it must have been something we did, or failed to do. Of course, we know that many things happen that aren't so easily explained, but the book of Deuteronomy is offering the natural consequences view that good follows good – when we make good choices, good things happen. And indeed, often life is such that natural consequences are the rule. When we study hard, we do better on the test; when we make healthful choices, we're more likely to have healthy results; when we are kind to others, kindness is often returned. The modern summary of the book of Deuteronomy could be “what goes around, comes around.” And this morning's passage comes when the Hebrew people are on the threshold of the Promised Land, and is the thesis statement of the book: I have set before you today blessings and curses, life and death; choose life and you and your descendants will live long in the land that you are about to enter. And first comes the assurance that “surely this commandment that I am giving you is not too hard for you.” And its summary, in verse 16 is that we are to love God and walk in his ways.
But Jesus acknowledges in our other passage that God's way is, at least, counter-intuitive. Caesarea Philippi was a far outpost in Galilee – it is well north of the Sea of Galilee, near the headwaters of the River Jordan. We visited Caesarea Philippi on our pilgrimage last summer – it is in the Golan Heights, near modern Syria. In ancient times, Caesarea Philippi, built as a tribute to Caesar, who in Roman political theology was said to be divine, it was a place of competing deities and idolatry, to say the least. There are remnants, still, of the many chapels built to various deities: to Zeus, to Pan, to Caesar, to the nymphs of Pan. It was a busy bustling religious marketplace in the Roman Empire, a place where the power of the Roman state and the values of Roman culture would have been dominant. Now that we understand where it takes place, let's read the passage. [Read Mark 8:27-38.]
Jesus challenges his disciples, not only in this place of political and religious alternative world views, but the text tells us that it was “on the way” that they had the conversation: it was not in a secluded quiet time, but in the hustle and bustle of their travels and work. Once we understand the setting of the passage, it is a reminder to us that we, too, have to decide who and what we worship, not only when we're at church, but when we are “on the way” in our own lives – in our work life, in our family life, in the ways we spend our time and our money. What we worship is shown by our choices in our real lives.
This passage is a crossroads in the Gospel of Mark – from this passage on, Jesus is headed toward Jerusalem, and the confrontation with religious and political authorities that will call for his death. He knows that who he is will inevitably result in this conflict. This passage is a theme passage for the Gospel of Mark, just as the reading from Deuteronomy was a theme passage for that book. In this passage, Jesus asks the disciples, while they are on the way. It is worth remembering that the early disciples were known as People of the Way. Christianity was known as a way of living. And while on the way, Jesus asked the disciples – the word for ask comes up in Mark 25 times. In the Gospel of Luke which is much longer than Mark, it comes up 17 times, and in the other, also longer, Gospels, it comes up even less. Mark is telling us, time and time again, that life will challenge us often as to where we stand.
Both these passages are asking for clarity of purpose from God's people – know who you are and what you stand for. And both passages remind us that our faith is not just a matter of the head and heart, but a matter of how we live. And Jesus is very clear that the way of God is counter-intuitive: he tells Peter, first, that he isn't thinking in the divine way but in the human way; and then he explains that God's way demands sacrifice. He says that those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for the sake of Jesus and the Gospel will save it. It's important to remember here, that just as for Deuteronomy, this Gospel was written in a time other than the time in which the story was set. The Gospel of Mark was written during the Jewish revolt against Rome in 66-70 of the Common Era. It was written as a polemic, to remind early Christians of the non-violent, anti-imperial ethics of Jesus, and to remind them that ordinary people make a difference. One of the commentaries on Mark's Gospel summarizes his perspective as “If you want to follow Jesus, you'd better look good on wood.” His point is that following God's way in our world will inevitably lead you into conflict with the world. The values of the Bible are not the values of our culture any more than Rome – our culture promotes consumerism and individualism, with the philosophy that personal and economic power are the way to happiness. Our career status and economic security are the ways we define ourselves, and advertising asks us again and again what our possessions say about us?
Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People, says in a more recent book, Living a Life That Matters, that like most people he lives in two worlds: “Much of the time I live in the world of work and commerce: eating, working and paying the bills. It is a world that honors people for being attractive and successful. It reveres winners and scorns losers, as reflected...in the billboard at the Atlanta Olympic Games a few years ago, 'You don't win the silver medal, you lose the gold.' As in most contests, there many more losers than winners, so most of the citizens of that world spend a lot of time worrying that they don't measure up.” Kushner goes on to say, “But, fortunately, there is another world, a world where even before I entered it professionally, I have spent some of my time. As a religiously committed person, I live in the world of faith, the world of the spirit. In that world you win through sacrifice and self-restraint. You win by helping your neighbor and sharing with him rather than finding his weakness and defeating him. And in the world of the spirit, there are many more winners than losers.”
It's hard to live counter-culturally. The values of the culture come automatically – the values of God have to be learned and repeatedly discerned. For me, this is a huge reason that I have immersed myself in communities of faith since I was in early high school. Being in a community of people who share the same desire to live God's way is enormously helpful. Being in a community is also the only way to live this counter-cultural way, because an essential value of this way of life in the interdependence of community – the world of the spirit is an anti-individualistic world. It is a world that teaches that happiness doesn't come from how much you get but by how generously you give. It is a world that teaches that people are not important because of the power they have over people but because of their willingness to serve others. The Bible teaches that we are hard-wired to find happiness not by seeking our own happiness but by seeking the welfare of others. This is counter-cultural and counter-intuitive. But it's true.
Now, the Bible doesn't teach that you never take care of yourself – Jesus often went away from the crowds who wanted him in order to rest, or eat with his friends, or pray. We can't adequately take care of others if we run ourselves into the ground. The Bible is not a manual for co-dependency. But it IS a manual for interdependency – it teaches that we are created for community and will not find our deepest meaning and joy on our own. Day after day, we're confronted with the choice: do we want to find blessings for ourselves? Or do we want to be a blessing for others? God has wired us so that we find our deepest joy by being a blessing for others.
This community is at a crossroads. Through the giving of those who came before us we have a beautiful and inspiring building, and a heritage of being a community that invests in the larger community. But for a few years we have not given enough financially to meet our day-to-day needs. Our Session has reconfigured the staff, combining jobs where necessary. When I came, we had two people doing the work that Susan Barrett does now. The Session has also increased the hours of the office manager in order to support the staff, and especially the members of this church, so that volunteers can be supported in their ministry. The Session has kept the budget as lean as possible.
But we need our members to dig deeper financially, and also to give of your time. Like most organizations, too much of our work is done by too few of the members. Our church is limited only by what we are willing to give to it, in time, effort, and money. If we want to be a vital mission-oriented ministry that changes our own lives and creates real change around us, that takes commitment. If we are content to be a chapel, taking care of our own minimal needs – Sunday worship, baptisms, weddings and funerals, then we can probably do that without making any significant changes. But if we are going to raise a new generation of people who are committed to God and God's world, if we are going to be a church that matters to Stevens Point, if we are going to be a place where we can say our own lives are fed and find meaning, then we are going to have to invest more of ourselves and our money.
Carl and I face the same issues that all of us do. We have a son in college and a son who has recently graduated but doesn't have a job with health insurance yet. And we have a son who is further into a career with benefits – woohoo! We have bills, and have 3 appliances on their last legs. I worry about my retirement income. We have a good life, and have health insurance, but we have to think carefully about whether or not to visit the doctor or get a medical test. We were able to get a new car last year when the old one died, but we'll be paying for it for a while, and were grateful for Chrysler's no-interest loan. We are luckier than a lot of people in that most weeks we can go grocery shopping without keeping a running total in our heads while we shop. Neither of us are real fashion plates, but we have warm clothes that fit, and can buy a cd or a book when we want to.
We have to think carefully about our giving. Like all of you, the money we give to Frame is money that's not available for something else. I wish we gave more. We're not yet up to giving 10% of our income away and I'd like to get there. We do probably about half of our giving to Frame, and give to some other organizations regularly, including the national church's mission fund. We love this church, and believe in it. So last year we increased our giving by 20%, and this year we are increasing by significantly more.
In order to cover our operating budget, our members and friends need to give significantly more than we have. Some people would say that's unrealistic in the current economic climate. Maybe so. But I hope we can do it. David Orr wrote in a recent article on climate change, “Optimism is the recognition that the odds are in your favor; hope is the faith that things will work out whatever the odds. Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up. Hopeful people are actively engaged in defying or changing the odds. Optimism leans back, puts its feet up, and wears a confident look knowing that the deck is stacked. I know of no good reason for anyone to be optimistic about the human future, but I know a lot of reasons to be hopeful.” The same could be said of Frame – there is no good reason to be optimistic about our future. The economic situation is bad and we are asking people to give more. People are very busy, and we are asking you to get more involved. But I know a lot of reasons to be hopeful – we've had over 50 new members join in the past three years and have 5 people in our current new member class. Our young families are our most rapidly growing congregation segment. We have a dedicated staff who believes in this church. The kind of people that Frame attracts are the kind of people who want to make a difference in the world. I believe in our church, I believe in our members, and I believe that we can dig deep enough to make a difference for Frame and that this kind of giving will make a difference in our own lives.
We, like the Israelites across from the promised land, like Jesus in this passage, are at a crossroads. The choices we make will determine the future of Frame, and our own sense of meaning and joy. We can take care of ourselves, come to church for our own sense of being blessed, and be satisfied. OR we can live larger than that -- we can choose to put the purpose and meaning of our lives beyond ourselves, and in the process become a blessing to others now and in future generations. Increase your giving, make a commitment to a committee or a project in the church, and let God use your giving to make a difference in you. Let's hope together for a better world, and let's hope with our sleeves rolled up. Amen.