"Faithing" the Faith

Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.”

Well, by now you have to know what is coming next.  How about a couple of jokes about eternal life:

When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandpa did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.

I just read a list of “The 100 Things To Do Before You Die” and was very surprised that “Yell for help” wasn’t one of them.

And the Lord said unto John, “Come forth and receive eternal life,” but John came fifth and all he got was a toaster.

Two men waiting at the pearly gates struck up a conversation.  “How did you die?” the first man asked the second.  “I froze to death,” the second replied.  “Did it hurt?” asked the first man.  “It was uncomfortable at first, but eventually you get numb and drift off into a peaceful sleep.”  “And how did you die?” the second man asked.  “Well,” said the first, “I suspected my wife was cheating on me so one day I came home when she didn’t expect.  She acted like nothing was going on so I ran all around the house like a crazy man looking for her lover.  As I sprinted up the attic stairs I had a massive heart attack and died.”  “That is so ironic”, said the second man.  “Why do you say that?” asked the first.  “Well,” he replied, “If only you had stopped to look in the freezer we would both still be alive!”

Jesus said, “Whoever believes has eternal life.”

I wonder how many people associate believing first with an intellectual acceptance of certain ideas about God, Jesus, and the bible and second with the veracity and passion with which you proclaim those ideas through your words and deeds.  It is as if we think believing is a checklist of statements to be marked off as “Yes”, “No”, or “Undecided”:

ü Do you believe God exists?

ü Do you believe God created everything?

ü Do you believe that the Earth belongs to God?

ü Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God?

ü Do you believe in the Virgin Birth?

ü Do you believe Jesus walked on water?

ü Do you believe in the Resurrection?

ü Do you believe Jesus is the way, the life, and the truth?

It is as if the more statements you can mark as “Yes” the higher you score on ‘believing’.  And, based on today’s reading from John, it appears there is a threshold of believing that merits eternal life.  Believe enough and you are in.  Fall short and…well who knows, but most likely it won’t be pretty or pleasant. 

Is this a fair way to understand what Jesus is saying?

Let’s consider the context of his bold proclamation.  He has just performed one of the seven signs John records to reveal who Jesus is.  This sign involves feeding the multitude and the discourse that follows.  Today’s reading is punctuated by dissent.  The people who participated in the feeding are not arguing it did not occur.  They dispute Jesus’ interpretation of what it means.  They have known him since he was a child and while they must wonder how he is able to do the miraculous things he is doing, they cannot accept that Jesus is God’s Bread come down from heaven. 

Notice how Jesus responds.  He does not say, “Whoever has belief has eternal life.”  If he had said this, it would have made believing to be a noun, an objective, concrete checklist to which either you subscribe or you reject.  Rather than this, Jesus says, “Whoever believes has eternal life.”  Here, believe is used as a verb.  It may seem to be little more than semantics, but the difference is huge.

On the blog Progressive Involvement, John Petty suggests this translation for today’s verse:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, the one faithing has life eternal.”

He adds,

[The Greek word used here] means “to faith.”  It is a verb… and “faith” used as a verb sounds odd in English.  Nevertheless the phrase should be translated as “the one faithing.”  Here, faith is understood to mean a radical trust, an orientation of one’s entire self, not merely a head-trip of “believing” the right things.

For Jesus, radical trust and orienting of faithing are centered around participating in the Eucharist.  It becomes the means by which we participate in the Heavenly Banquet, not only for eternity, but also here and now.  The Eucharistic meal shared in the midst of a Eucharistic community is both a foretaste of a life to come as well as a means of receiving the life Christ for this present moment.

Think of a couple is preparing for their wedding.  They meet with the caterer and with the person who will bake their cake.  It is common practice today for these people to prepare a sample of the food or the cake the couple wants served at the reception.  “It is delicious,” the couple says.  “We can’t wait until our family and friends get to try it.  They are going to love it.”  This foretaste of the wedding banquet helps build excitement for the actual event.   It energizes the couple to endure the grueling details to which they must tend.

This, in some respects, is what we do as we gather here today.  We are deepening our relationship with God and with one another as we share in foretaste of a meal yet to come.  We are not here to rehearse and support ideas and concepts about the faith.  We are here to act out the faith.  The goal is not that we think of ourselves as Christians in the sense of a noun, but Christians in the sense of a verb.  We become people who are “Christ-liking” in the world.  And the food we eat helps us to live this way.

If every person who ever told me they didn’t have to be in church to worship God – they can do it in the woods, at the beach, on the golf course, fill in the blank – showed up here this morning, well, suffice it to say chances are slim you would get to sit in your favorite pew.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I think it is important to be spiritually open and alive wherever you are.  And for many, it is probably true that the lion’s share of their spiritual fulfillment comes from places other than church.  Heck, for some who are deeply involved in the life of the church, attending a Sunday service can be more draining than filling (feel free to seek out the Junior Warden if you need confirmation about this and make sure to tell him about a light bulb that needs replaced).

But for Jesus there is something essential about participating in a Eucharistic community.  It is part-and-parcel of faithing.  Yes, you can be faithing while fishing from a boat all by yourself, but apparently it is Jesus’ vision that we gather together regularly, support one another no matter what, challenge one another when necessary, engage the hard work of reconciliation when broken, and give thanks as a body always.  And all of this occurs within the context of Jesus being present in Bread and Wine.

Some of you folks new to St. Paul’s never had the opportunity to know Art Bunton – a grizzly old curmudgeon of a faithful servant to God if ever there was one.  More than once after a sparsely attended service, Art corralled me in the Parish Hall and said, “Where is everyone?  You need to preach to these people that they ought to be in church every Sunday” to which I would respond, “And what good would that do because these are the people who are already here?”  I can’t help shake the feeling that today’s sermon “preaches the choir” – that it is a message you already are heeding. 

If this is the case, then I encourage you to take with you these thoughts on which to meditate:

Do you think of belief as being a noun or as a verb?  What do you think it means to be “faithing” the faith?  Do you berate yourself for having honest intellectual doubts?  If so, how does this affect your ability to be “faithing” the faith?  How are you like “one who is faithing”?

 

"Did You 'Get' Communion?"

Jesus said, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life.”

Well, lets get this sermon off to a good start with a couple of jokes about communion:

Did you hear about the business that is marketing new low-fat communion bread?  They call it, “I Can’t Believe Its Not Jesus!”

The new rector of a lethargic congregation announced he intended to replace communion wine with prune juice.  When a warden asked why the change, the priest replied, “If the Holy Spirit won’t move this parish… the prune juice will!”

A seminarian was giving a children’s sermon and wanted focus on the meaning of the Eucharist.  “The Bible,” she said, “talks about Holy Communion as being a ‘joyful feast’.  ‘Joyful’ means happy”, she said.  “And a ‘feast’ is a meal.   So when we celebrate the Eucharist we are having a happy meal.  Now, who can tell me what goes into a happy meal?”  A little boy’s hand shot up, “A cheeseburger, fries, soft drink, and toy surprise.”

Today’s gospel reading picks up just after last Sunday’s reading where Jesus feed 5,000 people with five leaves of bread and two fish.  Jesus and his disciples leave that place and travel by boat to another spot along the Sea of Galilee.  In the morning, the people realize Jesus is gone and set off to find him.  Today’s reading is the beginning of the conversation Jesus has with them once they locate where he is.

One thing is clear from the outset.  While Jesus and the crowd are talking about the same thing – bread – they are talking about it in two completely different ways.  The people are interested in bread as food whereas Jesus is focused on bread as spiritual nourishment. 

If you recall last week’s reading, Jesus leaves the multitude when he perceives they want to make him king for feeding them.  King is a very different role from messiah, isn’t it!  At a surface level, the sign of the feeding is just that – a meal – but there is so much more depth to it than just that.  Jesus wants to help the multitude explore the depths, but how?  How can he do it?  He challenges them to think about food that perishes and about food that does not.  He points to the bread he gave them to eat and then proclaims that he is the Bread of Life. 

This tension between the surface aspects of the faith and the depths is ever present.  I encountered it yet again at the closing Eucharist of General Convention in Salt Lake City.  Several thousand people attended the service.  Ninety loaves of bread and a case and a half of wine were consecrated.  When it came time to receive communion over a hundred Eucharistic ministers fanned out around the cavernous space.  Each section of people was directed to one station or another. 

On this particular day I was sitting at the end of a row of chairs, about three rows from the end of a section.  People in the fifteen rows or so ahead of me went forward to receive communion – one row after another – and then returned to their seats.  When it was my turn I went forward – along with the other people in my row – and received first the bread and then the wine.  I returned to my place, allowed the others to file in, and then took my end seat.

I had a lot on my mind as I sat there.  I was thinking about my travel arrangements and hoping I would not encounter any delays with my flight.  I was thinking about the work that awaited me back in Suffolk – e-mails pile up and my yard turned into a jungle.  At a deeper level, I was thinking about people I had hurt and people who had hurt me.  I fretted if I would ever know what peace and reconciliation look like.  All told, I was in a dreary mood as I offered up a prayer of ‘gratitude’ for the communion I had just received.

Just then a hand from behind me touched my shoulder and a volunteer in a red smock leaned over to say something in my ear.  I only caught the briefest of glimpse of her out of the corner of my eye.  She was about seventy and her voice had a beautiful, soothing, melodic quality to it.  She said only four words to me: “Did you get communion?”  And I responded with two words: “I did.”  With that, the encounter was over.  It didn’t last but a second or two.  I never even turned to see her face.

After no more than another second passed I began to wonder why she asked me that question.  The process of receiving communion was not complicated – one row follows another.  She didn’t check with the person sitting behind me or behind that person, nor did she approach anyone sitting in front of me.  Only me. 

Did I get communion?  I took the word “get” to mean “receive”, as in did I go forward to a communion station and receive the bread and the wine?  I had.  But, as I sat there in my fretful state it occurred to me there was a deeper level to “getting” communion.  Did I get that Jesus’ very Self had entered my life in a nourishing and life giving way?  Did I get that I am deeply loved by the One who created me, died for me, and redeemed me?  Did I get the peace that passes all understanding?  Did I understand that communion is a sign of all of this and more made real by receiving the bread and the wine?  Well, as I sat there in my brooding mood, I realized my unequivocal answer should have been, “No, I did not get (as in understand) communion.”

This whole process unfolded in no more than five seconds.  I wondered again who this woman was and why she singled out me.  Her voice had been so beautiful and pure.  I turned around and looked for her, and even though there were several volunteers wearing red smocks, none appeared to be right for the woman I saw only out of the corner of my eye.  Where did she come from?  Where did she go?  I don’t know, but even as I stand here in this pulpit, I can hear her voice as clear as I heard it in that moment: “Did you get communion?”

A month has passed since that service.  I can’t begin to tell you the hours I have spent thinking about, meditating on, and praying over that question. 

I have been pondering the nature of faith.  Some people have faith in every word the bible says.  They believe in a literal six days of creation, ark and flood, parting of the Red Sea, reluctant prophet being swallowed by a whale, and so on.  Their mantra is “The bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it.”  That is one kind of faith.

Then there are those who have faith God is watching over them.  Wasn’t it Stonewall Jackson who sat on his mount in the face of withering fire because there was nothing he could do to avoid the bullet ordained to strike him and no bullet not ordained by God would come near him?  Now that is a different kind of faith from believing every word of the bible.  It is a faith that trusts God no matter what.    

There is still another kind of faith.  It is the faith that believes what God says: before you were born I knew you, you are special, you are forgiven, you are loved.  It is the faith that responds the way Zacchaeus did when he scrambled down from the tree and hosted a meal for Jesus.  It is the faith exhibited by the woman caught in adultery who, once her accusers slinked away, put her hand in Jesus’, stood up, and walked in newness of life.  It is the faith of Paul who was struck blind in his self-righteousness so that he might see the world through the eyes of grace.  It is the faith that dispels brooding, dreary fretfulness.

I suspect that this is the deepest, most foundational, and most important level of bread that Jesus wants to give to us.  And I can say, based on my own experience and on the things that many, many good and godly people have shared with me, it is the level of faith where most of us struggle most of the time.  It is the bread we need, the bread we crave, and the bread that endures.  But most of the time it is a hunger so deep – and often so painful – that it becomes easier to work only for the bread that perishes – the toys and tastes and other temptations that provide a temporary way to ease the aching.  At least perishable bread soothes the craving for the time being.  But the hunger still remains until we “get” that Jesus is the Bread of Life.

At what level do you “get” communion?  Does it have more depth for you beyond coming to the rail and receiving bread and wine?  Beyond being a process, beyond being an obligation, even beyond being an act of devotion, do you “get” communion? 

 

A Season of Bread

At the end of July in Year B of the Lectionary Cycle of assigned readings we read the story of Jesus feeding the multitude.  And then, for the next four weeks we have gospel lessons on the meaning of the story, each with a more nuanced version of the “Bread of Life” than the week before.  So what better way to enter this season of bread then by telling you the six worst jokes about baked dough you will ever hear in your life!

Q:   Why doesn’t bread like hot weather?

A:   Because things get Toasty!

Q:   Why are bread jokes always funny?

A:   Because they never get mold!

Q:   What does bread do after it is done baking?

A:   It loafs around.

Q: What is bread’s favorite ride at the amusement park?

A: The roller toaster.

Q: Why did the loaf live at the zoo?

A: Because it was bread in captivity.

A passenger tries to sneak an elephant through airport security by sticking a slice of bread in each of its ears.  The security officer looks at him and says, “Good morning sir, anything to declare?”   The man answers, “No, nothing.”  “Well, what about that?” the office says, pointing to the elephant.  The passenger responds, “Look mister, what I put on my sandwich is not your concern!” 

We read just two verses from the Old Testament’s 2^nd Book of Kings in this morning’s first lesson.  They tell the story of one of the prophet Elisha’ early miracles after taking up the role of his mentor Elijah.  It comes at a time of widespread drought, famine, and scarcity.  People are hungry – really hungry – and there is little or nothing for them to eat.  Many blame the drought on Elisha, but the author of 2^nd Kings makes it clear the fault lies with the king and his idolatrous practices.

The account begins with an unnamed person coming from a place identified as Baal-shalishah to present Elisha with the offering of his first fruits.  Notice a couple of things about this introduction.  First, the person making the offering is not named.  He, like the overwhelming majority of faithful people down through the ages – including us – does what he does out of simple devotion to God.  He is not in it for the credit or for publicity. 

He is making what is known as a ‘first fruits’ offering.  This takes place at the beginning of the harvest and, as the name implies, involves produce and product from the initial crop.  Think about this for a second.  It has been a long time since the last harvest.  Whatever came from it either is running out or has long been gone.  The laws around the first fruits offering, found in Leviticus 23, make clear it is both a statement of faith and a test of faith.  It makes the statement that the earth and all that comes from it belong to God.  It tests if a person believes God will supply what you need.  It is the opposite of how many of us approach stewardship: I’ll take care of my needs first, then my wants, and then if I have anything left I might give some of it to God.

And more than being a challenge for today’s lay reader, the place where this person is from offers another important insight into this story.  Baal- shalishah.  The word Baal refers to the Canaanite god who is the focus of the king’s idolatrous worship.  Baal means “owner” or “master”.  This pagan worship is a direct challenge to the Hebrew belief that God alone is Sovereign.  To worship Baal as owner and master not only breaks the First Commandment, it is an act akin to returning to the slavery and bondage of Egypt, from which God delivered the people a few centuries earlier.  The word shalishah means “multiplicity”.  The name of the place where this man is from literally means “The master of multiplying”, referring both to food and to fertility.  It is quite a tribute to a pagan god.

Now scholars believe that before it was renamed for the pagan deity this town was called Beth-lehem – the birthplace of David.  The name Beth-lehem means “house of bread”.  Centuries later it will be the birthplace of the One who is the Bread of Life, but in Elisha’s day it is just one of many epicenters of political and theological upheaval.  By bringing his offering of first fruits to Elisha rather than to the corrupted priests at Gilgal, this person is registering his protect against the king and the bankrupt values of his day.

So he presents to Elisha, whom the text describes as “the man of God”, his first fruits offering of twenty loaves of bread and a sack of fresh grain.  Given that this represents 10% of all his harvest will produce, these meager amounts suggest the man is not well off.  But for Elisha, living in a time of drought and famine, twenty loaves and a sack of grain are a godsend that can provide for his needs for months and months. 

But notice what Elisha does.  Rather than keeping the offering for himself – something the Levitical code supports – he orders the food to be shared with everyone who is with him – a hundred people.  Now, what the man brought to Elisha could be divided among that number of folks, but it would not be much – perhaps just a bite or two per person.  In spite of protest, Elisha remains steadfast, insisting that God will ensure everyone gets enough and there will be some left over.  And this is just what happens.

Commenting on this story, Elna Solvang, an Associate Professor of Religion at Concordia College in Minnesota, writes:

A miracle occurs in this story: a sack of grain and twenty barley loaves feed one hundred people, with food remaining.  It is a miracle:

·   made possible by God’s abundant providing.

·   initiated by the generosity of an anonymous giver.

·   shared with others because of the recipient’s generosity.

·   in which all are included because of an administrator’s concern for equity.

·   through which the community shares in what is holy.

As I said earlier, over the next few weeks our readings will help us to explore the deeper spiritual meaning behind Jesus’ feeding miracle.  Paired with today’s Old Testament reading, we are invited to consider the human element of the story:

·   to ponder the role of Philip who cannot figure out how to muster the financial resources to buy food for so many people.

·   to ponder to role of Andrew who rounded up the boy with the fish and bread and brought him to Jesus, but had no clue how Jesus could do so much with so little.

·   and to ponder to role of the boy who gave the food he had so others might eat and then most likely went home to his family empty-handed.

What does it look like in your life to trust in God’s abundant providing?

What generous acts do you undertake, especially those acts that fall beyond the vision of others?

When you are blessed, how do you share that blessing with others?

What does it look like to ensure everyone receives God’s blessing in a way that is fair and equitable?

Can you think of a time or of times when you were a part of something like this and you recognized you were in a holy moment and place?

Did you happen to see yesterday’s Virginian-Pilot story about the Hampton Roads Food Bank, from which our Food Pantry purchases supplies?  It chronicled how the shelves go bare at this time of year because so many people are out of town during the summer and local food drives grind to a halt.  It had a picture of a woman pushing her cart past one empty bin after another.

During this Season of Bread I propose we initiate a food drive not for our Food Pantry, but for the Food Bank whose work and ministry benefits our pantry and so many others on a regular basis.  Each Sunday in August I invite you to bring half a dozen to a dozen non-perishable food items to church with you.  I will set out a table right here in front of the pulpit for them and we will ask God’s blessing on what we give at the Offertory.  You don’t have to spend much to make this happen.  A dollar per item will be more than enough.  Shop for bargains and think in terms of bulk quantities. 

Like our two bible readings this morning, our meager offering will seem to be little in the face of such insurmountable need.  And yet, offered humbly to God and through God’s blessing, we trust it will be more than sufficient.  And we also hope we will sense and share in something holy.  May God bless us spiritually and may God tend to the needs of the hungry during this Season of Bread.

On Crowds & Generous Leaders

“As Jesus went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.”

I am grateful this morning for two posts on the Episcopal Café blog site, one by David Sellery and the other by Andrew Gerns.  Both are priests in our church and their writings led me down several very fruitful paths of reflection on today’s gospel reading.

Sellery ponders the nature of crowds.  Way back in 1841, Charles McKay wrote an influential book titled The Madness of Crowds in which he famously stated, “[People], it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”  He blamed a crowd mentality on everything from financial bubbles to witch-hunts to the popular style of men’s beards.  Surely McKay was thinking about Beanie Babies when he wrote:

“We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first.”

McKay’s writings inspired other thinkers.  In his 1886 book, Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche observed that “insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.”  He, of course, provided the philosophical underpinning for Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.  Ralph Waldo Emerson was even more descriptive:

“Masses are rude, lame, unmade, pernicious in their demands and influence, and need not to be flattered, but to be schooled.  I wish not to concede anything to them, but to tame, drill, divide, and break them up, and draw individuals out of them.”

Apparently he had just finished shopping at Suffolk’s Wal-Mart. 

Given this mindset, we might expect that a sermon preached on today’s text a hundred and fifty years ago might emphasize how Jesus drew particular individuals out of the crowd, empowered them to be disciples, and basically dismissed the rest as a mob possessing heighten needs and unrealistic expectations, but having little or no value.  But this is not at all how Jesus treats the crowd in today’s reading, is it.  He has compassion for them.  He teaches them.  He touches them.  He heals them.  In short, he is a shepherd to them.  He values the crowd.

Francis Galton didn’t subscribe to this approach at first, but he came around.  In 1906 the British mathematician visited a local country fair where he observed a competition to judge the cut and dressed weight of fattened ox.  Over 800 people placed a wager.  Galton recognized that most were not experts and had no real insight on the matter.  Surely their wagers would be all over the map.  Galton saw this as a test of democracy.  He later wrote, “The average competitor was probably as well fitted for making a just estimate of the dressed weight of the ox, as an average voter is of judging the merits of most political issues on which he votes.”  What was the average person capable of doing?  For most, very little.  What could a group of individuals produce?  Not much, according to the prevailing thinking at the time.

After the competition was over and the prizes were given out, Galton secured all the tickets from the organizers and ran a series of statistical tests.  Sure, he reasoned, some intelligent wagers would come close to guessing the actual weight, but the presence of all the uniformed people had to skew the results.  Therefore he reasoned and the average of the guesses would be way off the mark.  Imagine Galton’s surprise when he discovered that the crowd’s average guess was 1,197 pounds, while the actual weight was 1,198 pounds.  Not one single individual wagered a guess closer to the actual weight than the collective wager produced by the whole!  This led Galton to conclude that crowds can have astonishing collective intelligence that far exceeds the cognitive capacity of individuals.

In 2004, wanting to set the record straight, James Surowieki published a book to challenge McKay’s now ancient work.  He gave it the title The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations.  In it he argues that groups often are able to make better decisions collectively than a single individual member is capable of doing.  Do you remember Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?  When phoning a friend, the correct answer was indentified 65% of the time.  In comparison, polling the audience produced the correct answer 98% of the time.

According to Surowieki, three conditions are necessary for a group to be intelligent: diversity, independence, and decentralization.  The best decisions, he says, are the product of disagreement and contest rather than compromise and consensus building.  This is an especially hard truth for faith communities such as ours because we value so highly ‘getting along’ with one another and we don’t want to risk hurt feelings by having actual differences of opinion on substantive matters.  Surowieki highlights another challenge we face: 

“Groups that are too much alike find it harder to keep learning, because each member is bringing less and less new information to the table.  Homogeneous groups are great at doing what they do well, but they become progressively less able to investigate alternatives.”

What we learn from all of this is the crowd has value.  It needs to be respected by its leader and nurtured.  And Andrew Gerns’ blog about generous leadership gives real insight into what this looks like.  Generosity, he says, is about more than money.  It is “a spiritual quality that trusts that God has given us the people we need, in the situation we have to do God’s work.”  It is a style of leadership, he says, that “both calls out and relies upon the vision of the people of God in community.”

What are the qualities of a generous leader?  Based on the writing of Tim Stephens, Gerns’ identifies the following; and as you listen, think how each might apply to Jesus and the leadership style he employs in his ministry with us:

·   Generous leaders want their people to succeed.

·   They are not competitive with their team.

·   The have an open-door policy and are generous with their time.

·   Generous leaders would rather err on the side of grace than be just or strict with policies.

·   They have an open hand.

·   They freely share what they are learning.

·   They love to give away credit to others even when they could rightly keep it for themselves.

·   Generous leaders care about their team.  They know about each team member’s goals and dreams, and diligently try to help them fulfill those desires.

The opposite of a generous leader is a selfish leader and it looks like this:

·   They keep the credit for themselves.

·   They circle all conversations back to themselves.

·   They hide competitive advantages from the team.

·   They are always looking to determine blame for mistakes (“Whose fault was this?” rather than “We made a mistake, let’s learn from it and keep going.”)

I am sure you have plenty of experience with both kinds of leaders.  I have and you don’t need to phone a friend to figure out which I preferred. 

In a 2002 article titled Love is the Killer App, Tim Saunders makes this startling statement:

The most powerful force in business isn’t greed, fear, or even the raw energy of unbridled competition.  The most powerful force in business is love.  It’s what will help your company grow and become stronger.  It’s what will propel your career forward.  It’s what will give you a sense of meaning and satisfaction in your work, which will help you do your best work.

Saunders says there are two reasons why leaders who love will succeed more than those who do not.  First, he says, there is an abundance of choice in today’s market.  “Choice,” he says, “spells doom for villains.  At a time when more of us have more options than ever, there’s no need to put up with a product or service that doesn’t deliver, a company that we don’t like, or a boss whom we don’t respect.”  The second reason he identifies is that you can no longer keep secret your inferior product, snotty company mindset, or boorish individual behavior.  Modern day communication means information is out there everywhere and people are acting more and more on what they know and learn from others.  They will not support what they do not respect.

In this morning’s gospel reading we find Jesus valuing the crowds that come to him, even at a time when he is seeking solitude and rest.  His life is dedicated to helping others succeed, to forming teams and communities that care for one another, to extend grace rather than shore up hard line rules and regulations, to give freely, to teach openly, to credit others when credit is do (think of how often he praises a person for his or her faith, openness, or generosity), and to empower disciples to carry on his work.  He is not a tyrant who capitalizes on a mob mentality to in order to manipulate others for his own benefit.  Rather, he gives of himself so that others might be healed and whole and able to give themselves to others in kind.

Milton Mayeroff, in his book On Caring, wrote that love “is the selfless promotion of the growth of the others.”  Isn’t this a description of how Jesus loves us!  Isn’t it a description of the love we have for a spouse, for our children, for our grandchildren, and for our aging parents!  Isn’t it the kind of love we seek to bring to this place and to our community!  May Christ who embodies this love give us grace and power to live it.

Plumb Lines & Redeeming Unmerited Suffering

Two construction workers are nailing siding to a house.  Neither is exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, if you get my meaning.  Every time the first worker reaches into his pouch and pulls out a nail, either he tosses it over his shoulder or nails it into the siding.  The second worker asks him, “Why are you throwing away all those good nails?”  The first carpenter explains himself: “If I pull a nail out of the pouch and it is pointed toward me, I throw it away because it is defective.  If it’s pointed toward the house, then I use it because it is good.”  “You idiot,” the other worker replies, “The nails pointing toward you aren’t defective!  They’re for use on the other side of the house.”

In the book of Hebrews we find a verse that sums up a theme running throughout Scripture: “Every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything” (3:4).  The root of the Greek word translated here as ‘builder’ means one who furnishes, equips, prepares, and/or makes ready.  The biblical motif of God as a builder points in two directions.  The first is related to God the creator of all things in heaven and earth while the second is more spiritual.  God builds up each one of us to be ambassadors for Christ.  God builds us to be citizens in the kingdom of God. 

In today’s Old Testament reading we learn that God the builder is also something of a building inspector who takes a look at what we are constructing with our lives and in our society in order to determine the quality of our work.  God the building inspector says to the prophet Amos, “I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people.”  A plumb line is a cord with a weighted piece of lead or stone at the end.  When held up, it will make a perfectly straight line against which a builder can check to make sure the verticality of a structure is true.  If it is not true – think of the leaning Tower of Pisa – eventually it will fail.  By setting a spiritual plumb line God sets out to assess the rule and reign of King Jeroboam. 

It is not a good sign when the Hebrew meaning of the king’s name is “he strives to oppress the people.”  Jeroboam first comes on the scene when King Solomon appoints him to head up a public works project.  He uses this position to orchestrate a failed conspiracy against Solomon and as a result has to flee to Egypt.  He returns to Israel after Solomon’s death and promptly divides the kingdom into ten northern tribes, which he ruled, against two southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin.  He erects as objects of worship golden cafes in key locations so that his northern tribes will not have to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem, which is located in the south.  During the course of his reign, Jeroboam launches continuous military attacks against Judah, thus keeping God’s people in a constant state of turmoil and civil war.

In today’s psalm reading, we are given beautiful images of what a plumb line will find in a well-constructed ‘house’: “kindness and truth, justice and peace.  Truth shall spring up from the waters of the earth, justice shall reign down from the heavens.”  The images of springs and rain in such an arid region suggest how precious and vital these qualities are and how necessary they are for people to live together in a godly way.  And, as the reading from Amos suggests, they are completely absent in Israel during the reign of Jeroboam.

So poor Amos has to do what prophets of God always have to do.  He has to confront the king and pronounce God’s judgment:

The wall that you have built is not plumb.  And because it is not upright it must come down.  The king will die by the sword and the people will be led into exile.  Only then can a new and a true wall be built. 

Speaking the truth to power has never been easy and it has never made one popular.  It is an occupation for which there cannot possibly be sufficient hazard pay.  Amos, to his credit, proclaims what God tells him to speak.

The notion of the prophet speaking God’s plumb line truth connects the Old Testament reading with today’s Gospel lesson.  John the Baptist speaks out publically against Herod’s marriage to Herodias.  Herod was already married when he fell in love with his brother’s wife, who also happened to be his niece.  So he divorces his wife and marries his niece, an act that infuriates his ex father-in-law and his brother.  The two join forces to march against Herod.  At one point the Emperor Tiberius has to send troops to intervene. 

These kinds of actions don’t happen in isolation, as if conducted on a chessboard, but rather disrupt the lives of everyday people who suffer mightily as a result.  Herod’s private affairs have public consequences and John holds him accountable.  He gives voice for God and for the masses when he speaks up and in so doing becomes the focal point of Herodias’ deep anger.

She allows pure hate to fester in her heart, awaiting the opportunity to strike.  It comes at a party, at an event that combines alcohol and sensuality.  Add power to this mix and hatred has all the elements it needs to act.  How dare the prophet hold a plumb line to their lives of royal privilege!  The end of John’s life is as quick as it is brutal and senseless.

Some of us gathered Tuesday night with several hundred other people from around Suffolk for a prayer vigil in response to the June 17^th shootings in Charleston.  Titled “From Hate to Healing”, it was a powerful event that we hope to build on as a racially diverse community of faithful people.  I was incredibly impressed with Alana Simmons, a Newport News resident, whose grandfather, the Rev. Daniel Simmons, was one of the nine people murdered by a young man an hour after they welcomed him into their Wednesday evening bible study. 

Alana spoke powerfully about how the victims’ families have been able to forgive the shooter.  She said that her grandfather would want his legacy to be one of love, not hate, and for that reason she cannot hate the person who perpetuated this horrific act.  Simmons has started a social media movement called the “Hate Won’t Win” Challenge.  It encourages people to post stories and photos of folks from different races doing something nice for each other.  It may sound like a small thing, but for me, it has served as a tool to be mindful to go the extra mile and then perhaps even another extra mile to show kindness to people different from me and to be grateful for the kindness they show to me.

At the prayer vigil we were reminded of a Gospel truth that emanates from the Cross – unmerited suffering is still redemptive.  I have not read enough about Dylann Roof to be able to speak to what he hoped to accomplish.  But surely he did not intend for hundreds of communities around our nation to hold vigils uniting people of different races in prayer.  Surely he did not intend to energize efforts aimed at racial reconciliation.  And surely, as he waved the Confederate Flag as a symbol of his view of white supremacy and racial hatred, he did not intend to accomplish in a matter of weeks what the citizens of South Carolina have not been able to do for generations.  What he did not intend was for God to hold a plumb line to his actions in order to redeem unmerited suffering.

But this is what God does because this is who God is.  Herod may have enjoyed his power and Jeroboam may have been able to run off Amos, but God is the one who holds the plumb line to measure our actions for kindness and truth, for justice and peace.  Nothing will move that line and nothing short of plumb will stand in the world that God is building. 

Today, Amos is remembered for his godly witness and John’s Advent call to repent prepares the way for us to receive the kingdom of God as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.  Their lives continue to matter.  They continue to inform.  They continue to inspire.  God has been honored by them and continues to work through them.  Jeroboam and Herod are little more than passing names in dry history papers or perhaps are referenced in archeological digs to note a period of time connected to unearthed broken artifacts.   

Long after we have forgotten Dylann Roof’s name, we will remember the Charleston 9 and we will remember how their families spoke words of forgiveness and healing.  We will remember how one cruel act of hatred brought together people of different races to embrace and affirm the value of kindness and truth, of justice and peace.  We will remember hatred unleashed does not rule our world and that, through the grace of God, unmerited suffering is still redemptive.