For Us/Against Us
September 27, 2009
Be astonished! Be astounded! For I am doing things among you that you would not believe if you were told. Habakkuk 1:5
Mark 9:38-50; Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22
As some of you know, I spent several days last week in Chattanooga helping my parents out following my dad’s hip surgery. I flew into Atlanta Wednesday evening and saw places that were under muddy waters from the storms that have devastated the area over the past several weeks.
You never know when the water is going to rise.
I went down to help my parents make some hard decisions that have become harder since my dad fell and broke his hip. Complicating matters, my parents’ basement had flooded with all the rain leaving my mother even more upset than she was already.
You never know when the water is going to rise.
On this weekend, three or was it four years ago, Tom Hull and I were on the Gulf Coast cleaning up after Katrina. Tens of thousands of people lost their homes; almost 1,000 lost their lives.
You never know when the water is going to rise.
In the past year, several members of this community have lost loved ones – to cancer, to complications following a fall, to a far-too-young heart attach.
You never know when the water is going to rise.
But then there is this water – waters of baptism, waters of righteousness like an ever-flowing stream, waters of justice rolling down.
Just as you never know when the water is going to rise, you also never know when righteousness and justice, when healing and wholeness, when salvation itself is going to rise as well.
And, as the stories we’ve just read so strongly suggest, you never know when a savior is going to rise up from the most unexpected places.
Esther, a Jewish woman who has married outside of her people into power, steps forward at risk to her own life to stop ethnic cleansing of her people.
Saviors come in strange and unexpected packages.
Theological orthodoxy is clearly neither sufficient or even necessary to saviors.
Gandhi was a savior who was far from orthodox in his Hindu faith, and certainly was not a Christian, though he was an admirer of Christ. According to a certain orthodox Christianity, Gandhi was bound to spend eternity in hell. According to Jesus, “if he is not against us, he is for us.”
Neither orthodox confessions of faith nor confessions of orthodox faith are necessary to participate in the salvation of the world.
Tich Naht Han was a savior who was also far from orthodox in his Buddhist faith. He was another admirer of Jesus, who helped bring peace to his war-torn land of Vietnam. Again, according to a certain orthodox Christianity, Han was bound to spend eternity in hell. According to Jesus, “if he is not against us, he is for us.”
Neither orthodox confessions of faith nor confessions of orthodox faith are necessary to participate in the salvation of the world.
This is not an expression of a certain kind of lazy liberalism, but rather a Biblically grounded statement about the nature of God and of salvation. God’s wildly inclusive love does not end at the edge of the church; indeed, it begins there anew and afresh to be received and experienced in an amazing variety of expressions. In God’s house there are many rooms, Jesus promised his followers.
While Jesus came preaching repentance and the nearness of God’s kingdom – in other words healing, wholeness, salvation – he did not come preaching an orthodox faith or requiring from those closest to him.
A few weeks back we read in Mark’s gospel the account of Jesus asking the disciples who they thought he was. When pressed, Peter offer the theologically, if not politically correct response: the messiah, the Christ of God. Clearly Peter expects the praise from the teacher due a good student who provides the right answers to the pop quiz. What does he get instead? Peter gets Jesus’ condemnation: “get thee behind me Satan.”
No, if you are going to understand the salvation offered by Jesus, if you are to receive it, you must take up your cross and follow.
In other words, the measure is faithfulness.
As Jesus’ story shows, if we are being faithful there will be scars.
In the early part of the 20th century, there was a period of religious fervor in England, and would-be saviors were arising left and right. During one revival meeting being led by the founder of the YMCA, a man entered the auditorium accompanied by a brass band and marched right down the center aisle to the stage. He stopped in front of the stage and proclaimed himself the messiah. The Y founder stilled the excited crowd, turned to the man with the band, and said simply, “show me your scars.”
Show me your scars.
This is no glorification of suffering but a pointing beyond the cross to the Kingdom and measuring the distance between the two in terms of the resistance encountered by those who follow the way of Jesus rather than the way of the powers that be in the world as it is.
Those who authentically live as bridges between the world as it is and the world that God is calling forth will bear the scars of that living.
Proclaiming a theologically orthodox faith requires little in the way of risk, but a faith that risks nothing saves nothing.
And when the water rises, we all want someone to take risks to save us.
The folks down South right now need some risktakers to come offering salvation. I promise you, they don’t care much about the orthodoxy of your faith, but I know from what I just saw over the past couple of days that they will greatly appreciate any contribution you can make to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance to help them dig out and rebuild. Sometimes we can be the hands of Christ in the world by opening up our checkbooks.
When the water rises, we all want someone to take risks to save us.
Folks in this community who have lost loved ones need a listening ear for that is salvation. I promise you, they don’t care much about the orthodoxy of your faith. Sometimes we can be the hands of Christ in the world by opening our ears.
Folks who need a helping hand, a listening ear, a strong back, a keen mind to chart a way toward the light in the midst of darkness, those needing a taste of salvation don’t care much about orthodoxy, but we can be Christ in the world by opening our hearts and risking them for the sake of the world.
"For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."
So, to extend our conversation this morning, have you ever been offered salvation from an unexpected source? Have you received unexpected grace from someone who was not against you even if you thought otherwise?
You never know when the water’s gonna rise.
You never know when it will rise up in your eyes
And pour down tears
That will glisten like your fears
That the sun will never shine, that things will never turn out fine
You never know.
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22
So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, "What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled."
Then Queen Esther answered, "If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me—that is my petition—and the lives of my people—that is my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king."
Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this?"
Esther said, "A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!" Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.
Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, "Look, the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, stand s at Haman's house, fifty cubits high." And the king said, "Hang him on that." So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated.
Mordecai recorded these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, enjoining them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same month, year by year, as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor.
________________________________________
Mark 9:38-50
John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us."
But Jesus said, "Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.
"If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
"For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."
Be astonished! Be astounded! For I am doing things among you that you would not believe if you were told. Habakkuk 1:5
Mark 9:38-50; Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22
As some of you know, I spent several days last week in Chattanooga helping my parents out following my dad’s hip surgery. I flew into Atlanta Wednesday evening and saw places that were under muddy waters from the storms that have devastated the area over the past several weeks.
You never know when the water is going to rise.
I went down to help my parents make some hard decisions that have become harder since my dad fell and broke his hip. Complicating matters, my parents’ basement had flooded with all the rain leaving my mother even more upset than she was already.
You never know when the water is going to rise.
On this weekend, three or was it four years ago, Tom Hull and I were on the Gulf Coast cleaning up after Katrina. Tens of thousands of people lost their homes; almost 1,000 lost their lives.
You never know when the water is going to rise.
In the past year, several members of this community have lost loved ones – to cancer, to complications following a fall, to a far-too-young heart attach.
You never know when the water is going to rise.
But then there is this water – waters of baptism, waters of righteousness like an ever-flowing stream, waters of justice rolling down.
Just as you never know when the water is going to rise, you also never know when righteousness and justice, when healing and wholeness, when salvation itself is going to rise as well.
And, as the stories we’ve just read so strongly suggest, you never know when a savior is going to rise up from the most unexpected places.
Esther, a Jewish woman who has married outside of her people into power, steps forward at risk to her own life to stop ethnic cleansing of her people.
Saviors come in strange and unexpected packages.
Theological orthodoxy is clearly neither sufficient or even necessary to saviors.
Gandhi was a savior who was far from orthodox in his Hindu faith, and certainly was not a Christian, though he was an admirer of Christ. According to a certain orthodox Christianity, Gandhi was bound to spend eternity in hell. According to Jesus, “if he is not against us, he is for us.”
Neither orthodox confessions of faith nor confessions of orthodox faith are necessary to participate in the salvation of the world.
Tich Naht Han was a savior who was also far from orthodox in his Buddhist faith. He was another admirer of Jesus, who helped bring peace to his war-torn land of Vietnam. Again, according to a certain orthodox Christianity, Han was bound to spend eternity in hell. According to Jesus, “if he is not against us, he is for us.”
Neither orthodox confessions of faith nor confessions of orthodox faith are necessary to participate in the salvation of the world.
This is not an expression of a certain kind of lazy liberalism, but rather a Biblically grounded statement about the nature of God and of salvation. God’s wildly inclusive love does not end at the edge of the church; indeed, it begins there anew and afresh to be received and experienced in an amazing variety of expressions. In God’s house there are many rooms, Jesus promised his followers.
While Jesus came preaching repentance and the nearness of God’s kingdom – in other words healing, wholeness, salvation – he did not come preaching an orthodox faith or requiring from those closest to him.
A few weeks back we read in Mark’s gospel the account of Jesus asking the disciples who they thought he was. When pressed, Peter offer the theologically, if not politically correct response: the messiah, the Christ of God. Clearly Peter expects the praise from the teacher due a good student who provides the right answers to the pop quiz. What does he get instead? Peter gets Jesus’ condemnation: “get thee behind me Satan.”
No, if you are going to understand the salvation offered by Jesus, if you are to receive it, you must take up your cross and follow.
In other words, the measure is faithfulness.
As Jesus’ story shows, if we are being faithful there will be scars.
In the early part of the 20th century, there was a period of religious fervor in England, and would-be saviors were arising left and right. During one revival meeting being led by the founder of the YMCA, a man entered the auditorium accompanied by a brass band and marched right down the center aisle to the stage. He stopped in front of the stage and proclaimed himself the messiah. The Y founder stilled the excited crowd, turned to the man with the band, and said simply, “show me your scars.”
Show me your scars.
This is no glorification of suffering but a pointing beyond the cross to the Kingdom and measuring the distance between the two in terms of the resistance encountered by those who follow the way of Jesus rather than the way of the powers that be in the world as it is.
Those who authentically live as bridges between the world as it is and the world that God is calling forth will bear the scars of that living.
Proclaiming a theologically orthodox faith requires little in the way of risk, but a faith that risks nothing saves nothing.
And when the water rises, we all want someone to take risks to save us.
The folks down South right now need some risktakers to come offering salvation. I promise you, they don’t care much about the orthodoxy of your faith, but I know from what I just saw over the past couple of days that they will greatly appreciate any contribution you can make to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance to help them dig out and rebuild. Sometimes we can be the hands of Christ in the world by opening up our checkbooks.
When the water rises, we all want someone to take risks to save us.
Folks in this community who have lost loved ones need a listening ear for that is salvation. I promise you, they don’t care much about the orthodoxy of your faith. Sometimes we can be the hands of Christ in the world by opening our ears.
Folks who need a helping hand, a listening ear, a strong back, a keen mind to chart a way toward the light in the midst of darkness, those needing a taste of salvation don’t care much about orthodoxy, but we can be Christ in the world by opening our hearts and risking them for the sake of the world.
"For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."
So, to extend our conversation this morning, have you ever been offered salvation from an unexpected source? Have you received unexpected grace from someone who was not against you even if you thought otherwise?
You never know when the water’s gonna rise.
You never know when it will rise up in your eyes
And pour down tears
That will glisten like your fears
That the sun will never shine, that things will never turn out fine
You never know.
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22
So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, "What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled."
Then Queen Esther answered, "If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me—that is my petition—and the lives of my people—that is my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king."
Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this?"
Esther said, "A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!" Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.
Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, "Look, the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, stand s at Haman's house, fifty cubits high." And the king said, "Hang him on that." So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated.
Mordecai recorded these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, enjoining them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same month, year by year, as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor.
________________________________________
Mark 9:38-50
John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us."
But Jesus said, "Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.
"If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
"For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."
posted by David Ensign at
8:52 AM
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