Monthly Archives: March 2010

This and That

Posted on by
Reply

This is a potpourri of items that aren’t necessarily related but needed to be posted.

Don’t Call Me!

No doubt you know about the “do not call” list. This was the result of legislation passed a number of years ago to keep marketers from calling you at any time of the day. A site was created where you can register your phone numbers in a database so that telemarketers cannot call you (https://www.donotcall.gov/).

But there is a proverbial catch to all of this; it does not eliminate all telemarketing calls. Political organizations and charitable organizations can still call you. (This isn’t the first time I have pointed this out – see “Will the Future Be Any Different than The Past?”) Now, it is one thing to receive a phone call from either of these two groups; it is an entirely different matter to receive a “robo-call” from them.

And, I don’t know about you but those are the type of phone calls that I have been receiving; computer-generated calls from a toll-free number without identification. It would seem that some charitable organizations have out-sourced their attempts to seek donations for their causes.

I have to question this approach. It makes sense to turn over the rather mundane aspect of fund-raising to someone who knows what they are doing but how much of what is gained through these methods actually goes to the charity and how much goes to the telemarketer? I find this approach both amazing and stupid. And if the public sentiment that I see on the various web pages where you identify these phone numbers is accurate, the amount of giving goes down because the people have stated that they will not give to these organizations.

It is a blatant plug but that is why I prefer UMCOR (the United Methodist Committee on Relief); all donations to UMCOR go to the project identified with the giving. Overhead costs are absorbed in church apportionments (and I will discuss that in a moment).

The other thing that I find amazing is the number of people who do not understand that these calls are perfectly acceptable. They presume that because they are on the “do not call” list that they will get no telemarketing phone calls. But the law that was passed exempts political organizations, charitable organizations, and bill collectors from this prohibition. For each of those groups, you have to let them know individually that you do not wish to be called.

But shouldn’t those who signed up have known this when they signed up; I don’t believe that it was in the fine print. Could it be that our educational system didn’t do the job that it was supposed to do?

Our Educational System

There is a lot of talk going on about reforming education. That’s nothing new; I have been doing so for most of the time that I have been blogging and writing. Maybe episodes like the above episode with robo-calls from charitable organizations will be the impetus for true reform, for including critical thinking and analysis in the educational process.

But somehow I don’t think so. If I understand what is happening right now, school reform simply means creating charter schools. A charter school appears to be a formerly public school that will now be run by a private organization. Taxpayer dollars are still being used to fund the school but taxpayer input into the management of the school will be lessened.

If a private organization is going to run a school, shouldn’t they be charging tuition and other fees? And, as we have learned (or I hope we have learned) from the healthcare debate, a private organization’s interest and focus is solely on the bottom line. Keeping people healthy does not seem to be of any interest to the healthcare industry so why would those involved in some sort of educational industry be interested in education?

If the complaint is about the amount of money that is spent on schools today, shouldn’t we also be asking how much money actually makes it to the classroom? How much money raised through taxes actually is used by the school for the improvement of teaching and how much is spent on various forms of overhead?

Now, I know that there are many teachers who have no business being in the classroom; that’s nothing new. But one of the hallmarks of a good teacher is continued time in the classroom and any system that focuses on the bottom line will do whatever it can to reduce the number of teachers who have been in the classroom for many years in favor of beginning teachers whose salaries will be markedly lower.

I am not saying that there aren’t teachers who have been in the classroom for many years but are only there because they have tenure and nothing except retirement will get them out. Tenure was never meant to protect the incompetent or lazy; it was meant to give teachers the freedom to be creative and innovative.

But schools are no longer creative and innovative. With the call for accountability becoming louder and louder with each passing day, schools are more attuned to keeping the citizens quiet and happy. Creativity and innovation don’t do that; having students succeed does. But the success of the students is manipulated for the present; if we test the students later or against a larger population, we find that they aren’t succeeding.

Charter schools won’t fix the problem because the problem is in the process, not in the building. We, as parents and taxpayers, are demanding something now that can only be delivered over time. But we have created a culture that expects results now and we are being fooled by our own expectations.

In essence, we want our children to win the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the Fields Medal and the Priestley Medal now, even if each medal requires years of work, thought, and effort. We do not realize that if we prepare our children so that they can work towards achieving that goal, we will have done a great deal towards helping them reach that goal. It won’t mean a whole lot in the long run if we expect to reach the pinnacle now without preparing the path for our children.

Last Thoughts

This is also educational in nature but directed towards the church but not necessarily Sunday School type education. And it is not necessarily limited to those among the readers who are United Methodists by birth or affirmation. But I phrased the question in terms of United Methodism.

1. Who owns your church?

2. What are apportionments? What priority does your church give to its apportionments?

3. Does your church pay its bills first and then its apportionments? Or does it pay its apportionments first and then the other bills? Does the order in which they are paid matter?

Now, let me say that I believe I know the answers to these questions but I am not sure that I like the answers that I might get when I ask people of the United Methodist Churches in this area.

This isn’t about economics or logic; it is about where the heart of the church lies. My own church has adopted the policy (though I think reluctantly) to set asides 10% of each Sunday’s offering for the apportionments. It is a policy that I have advocated for the past ten years, in part because I have seen it work in other churches. And one church that accepted the premise that doing so puts your heart into your finances was able to pay its apportionments in full before the end of the year and they did so without fund-raising or special appeals. But one church, more concerned with the building than the heart, will probably officially die at Annual Conference in June.

I have some other items that I will be posting, most notably on the issue of academic freedom. I also will be preaching at Ridges/Roxbury UMC and the United Methodist Church of  Springdale (both in the Stamford, CT) area this coming Sunday (the sermon is entitled “Coming Home” and should be posted by Sunday morning).  The service at the Ridges/Roxbury church is at 9 and the service at the Springdale church is at 10:30.  You are welcome to attend.

————————————-

To Return Again

Posted on by
1

This is the message that I presented at Walker Valley United Methodist Church for the 4th Sunday in Lent, 25 March 2001.  The Scriptures for this Sunday were Joshua 5: 9 – 12, 2 Corinthians 5: 16 – 21, and Luke 15: 1 – 3, 11 – 32.

————————————————————————————–

I want to thank my brother for sending me the following notes about the transition from college life to the "real world". Of course, when he sent them to me, he wasn’t aware that I was thinking about using them; in fact, neither was I.

You know that you are no longer in college when:

  1. Your salary is less than your tuition.
  2. "Extended childhood" only really pertained to your salary, which is a little less than your allowance used to be.
  3. Your potted plants stay alive.
  4. You have to file your own taxes.
  5. You have to pay your own credit card bill.
  6. Mac & Cheese no longer counts as a well-balanced meal.
  7. You haven’t seen a soap opera in over a year.
  8. 8:00 AM is not early.
  9. You hear your favorite song on the elevator at work.
  10. You carry an umbrella.
  11. You start watching the weather channel.
  12. Jeans & baseball caps aren’t staples in your wardrobe.
  13. The only times you see your jeans and T-shirts is Friday through Sunday.
  14. You go from 130 days of vacation time to 7.
  15. You stop confusing 401K plan with 10K run.
  16. Your car insurance goes down.
  17. You refer to college students as kids.
  18. You’re on the computer more than you are on the telephone.
  19. You find that brief cases are more acceptable than the once staple backpack.
  20. The friends you’re making now just don’t seem to measure up.

Remember those first heady days when you were on your own, no longer living at home or in a situation where some sergeant was telling you what time to get up? Remember when you found out just how "free" your life would be now that you were independent? There are always times in our lives when we really want to be independent. That was the case when the youngest son in the Gospel reading for today. The time had come when he sought to be independent, to go out on his own and lead his own life, rather than working for his father and, undoubtedly, his older brother.

There is a natural progression in life from dependence on others to independence and onto interdependence. Newborn babies are very dependent on others for their survival; children and youth need a nurturing environment in which to develop and mature; adults who are sick or infirm depend on others for their care and support. There is nothing inherently wrong with being dependent on others in the appropriate circumstances. When the Israelites complained to Moses about starving in the wilderness in Exodus 16, they were recognizing their almost total dependence upon God to provide for them as they left Egypt. We as Christians must also recognize our appropriate dependence upon others and God.

But against that background of a time and a place for dependence is the natural desire to seek independence. The Israelites wished to "cut the apron strings"; one way to see the story of the prodigal son is his desire to be "his own person." But the transition from dependence to independence can be difficult — as we can recall for our own lives and as the parents of young adults or teenagers.

As the Israelites strained to find their own identity and established a certain degree of independence, there grew a tension between their reliance on their own devices and a continuing on-going reliance on God. We see this struggle in the early biblical narratives. This was often a struggle which led the Israelites and which leads us away from a vital relationship with God. Time and time again, we read in the Bible the tragic consequences of a people whose search for independence leaves God behind.

The prodigal son had sought his independence from his father. But he quickly found that the joy of life independent faded and that he was forced to do things simply to survive. Jesus saw the inevitable course of sin in our lives and projected it into the sad conclusion of the prodigal son’s adventure: an inner disintegration, outer misery, and total reunion.

But God never intended for us to be either totally dependent or totally independent. And he certainly never intended for us to be left alone, lost in the world. He wanted us to discover our interdependence. Our identity is found we recognize our connection with and to God. This shows both our dependence and independence. This is shown in Joshua 3 where the Israelites prepared to enter into the Promised Land. It is shown in Joshua 5: 1 – 8 where they reasserted their religious and national identity. In Joshua 5: 9 God announces the rolling "away from you the disgrace of Egypt." The Passover celebration (verses 10 – 11) recalls the Source of their interdependence. Eating the produce of the land (in verse 12) is symbolic of their ability to provide for essential needs while depending upon God for the conditions that make the crops grow. It is at this point that the manna from heaven, the source of energy throughout the Exodus, stops. This was a sign to the Israelites that they had achieved independence.

The interdependence of God and the Israelites is illustrated in the next section of Joshua with the Battle of Jericho. Victory requires the cooperation of the Israelites and their God. This is probably one of the reasons that Jesus told the parable of the Prodigal Son.

In verses 1 – 3 of the Gospel reading for today we see the tragedy of the cold people of God, of those who had forgotten their relationship with God and with their neighbors. The description of the older brother shows a picture of how Jesus feels about church people who claim to know God and want to be like him; yet, turn away from the poor and the outcast, the misfits who come from the darkness of sin into the circle of fellowship and love of the church.

Look further at the picture of this older brother in verse 28 when his younger brother has returned and the rejoicing has begun. The elder brother hears the merrymaking while still hard at work in the field. Upon hearing of the "good" news of his brother’s return, he gets angry and refused to go in and join in the celebration. Even after his father came out and asked him to join, he refused choosing to sulk in the fields.

How unattractive this older brother seems to be, so filled with hate and resentment. Wouldn’t you hate to be cooped up all day with in a bass boat or at work with him. It may have been that his younger brother desired to leave home.

Yes, he was the dutiful son, doing what was asked of him. But it was always in terms of what he wanted and what he was going to get. He could not see his duty had to be for others first, to help others find Christ and salvation.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians "We no longer regard anyone from a human point of view." When we recognize that, in Christ, God suffered and died for all people, we cannot look at anyone in a demeaning way. We cannot devalue any person for any reason. We cannot see people as objects to be used or as annoyances to be eliminated. Because of the Cross and the resurrection, we come to see the high value God places on all of us. We are given God’s point of view. When we see God’s point of view, we see that no one is disposable. Just like the prodigal son, all are welcome in God’s house.

Lent is a time of renewal. As we get closer and closer to Easter and the resurrection, we are asked to examine our relationship with God. We are asked to examine our relationship with others. If we return again to God’s house, we will experience, as Paul wrote, a new creation: everything old has passed away; see everything has become new!"

What is the value of the future?

Posted on by
1

Here are my thoughts for the 3rd Sunday in Lent, 7 March 2010.  The Scriptures for this Sunday were Isaiah 55: 1- 9, 1 Corinthians 10: 1- 13, and Luke 13: 1 – 9.

What value do we place on the future? I would say that we don’t place any value on it. After all, it is only something “out there” with no physical capabilities. And we know that the future changes and it is never what it might be.

But it isn’t so much that we place some sort of value on the future as it is we place too much value on the present. And we do everything we can to hold onto what we have now. And as the past months have shown, when the future does become a reality, it is something that we are neither prepared for or what we thought it might be.

Jesus tells the story about a man with a fig tree that had yet to produce any fruit. And a fig tree, or for that matter, any fruit tree that does not produce fruit is a useless tree. Oh, it does provide shade on a hot, sunny day and it does offer a place where the birds can build a nest but that’s not why we planted the tree. So, a fruit tree that does not produce fruit should be cut down. It isn’t just the owner of the vineyard in the Gospel reading who feels that way; it is the way we, as a society, feel today.

If you are not producing something of value now, then you should be just cast aside. Look at our schools. Several years ago, Congress passed the “No Child Left Behind” law as a means of determining the accountability of our schools. Now, more and more people are suddenly realizing what many of us knew several years ago, the law does not work. You cannot measure the success of any school by a single year’s test scores; the true measure of success is several years down the road and unless you cultivate the “soil”, i.e. the school environment, it will never produce the “fruit”. But when we see a school in trouble, society’s answer is to blame the teachers and fire them, dismantle the school, and create some sort of private school that will do a better job.

But if you spend time looking at what they are doing in these charter schools, you will see that (and again, this is something that I know that I have said time and time again) they are teaching the students the answers to the test. We see the scores go up but when the students are tested later, they don’t know the answers.

We fear the future more than we value it. It is an unknown that we are unwilling to face. So we live in the moment rather than for tomorrow. We need to hear the words of Isaiah from today’s Old Testament reading – we need to eat what is good instead of constantly eating junk food. But a lot of people aren’t going to get to those words in the passage; they will stop and turn away when Isaiah offers food and drink for free. We rebel at the idea that everyone gets the best food and the best drink. We cannot stand the thought that everyone will have the best because we really don’t care for others; all that we care about is ourselves.

We cannot see that unless we change our ways, unless we repent and begin anew, then we are going to be like those who Isaiah complains about, like those who Paul complains about and those whom Jesus flat out says will die.

When I looked at the translation of Isaiah from The Message, it included verses 10 & 11 –

Just as rain and snow descend from the skies
and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth,
Doing their work of making things grow and blossom,
producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry,
So will the words that come out of my mouth
not come back empty-handed.
They’ll do the work I sent them to do,
they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.

We should not begin to think that we will think like God, for such thoughts are beyond our capability (verses 8 & 9) but we can hear the words that he speaks to us and it will be the words that change this world. The words were spoken to us, first by Jesus, then by the disciples and Paul, and then by everyone who has heard them down through the ages.

Yes, the words have changed over the years but we have the words before us and we can do great things with what those words mean, provided that we place some value on the future. If we do not care for the fig tree, it will not yield fruit. If we do not place a more intrinsic value on education, it will not bear fruit. If we do not begin to put value on the message of the Gospel, to heal the sick, to feed the poor, to free the oppressed, then there will be no value in our lives even if we, individually and/or collectively, are well-fed, healthy, and not oppressed.

It is time to take care of the fig tree. We are faced with a health care crisis in this country and it is one that will not be solved by any plan that does not put the people first. If the decision is made to let companies, driven by the bottom line of profit, make the decisions about health care then the fig tree will die.

We are faced with innumerable people in this world who are faced with little or no health care, inadequate or limited food supplies, inadequate or limited shelter. We know from history that nations have gone to war for these reasons and yet we are more willing to fight wars than provide health care, food, and shelter.

We profess outrage at the idea of abortion and say that “thou shall not murder” but are quite willing to let the state or federal government execute someone. We are quite willing to invade the bedroom and scream at what we see as sexual immorality but we will not invade the boardroom and scream at greed and avarice. (Yes, I know there is no degree of sin and sexual immorality is just as sinful as greed and avarice but who is hurt more by the actions of two people – two people in their bedroom or two bankers keeping all the money that they scammed from countless numbers of people.)

But, whether you read the words of Paul, Isaiah, or Jesus, you hear the same thing. There is an opportunity today to change the direction, to change the outcome, to change the world. Seek the Lord and abandon your previous thoughts and ways, Isaiah said. Do not test the Lord and he will not test you said Paul.

And “unless you repent, you will perish as the others did” said Christ. There is a value to the future; it is what lies before us and it contains so much more than we can imagine. But if we are caught up in the moment called now, we cannot get there. If we put all of our value in the present, there can be no value in the future.

We have a choice and we need to make that choice right now.

The Fruits of the Vineyard

Posted on by
1

This is the message that I presented at Tompkins Corners United Methodist Church for the 3rd Sunday in Lent, 14 March 2004.  The Scriptures for this Sunday were Isaiah 55: 1- 9, 1 Corinthians 10: 1- 13, and Luke 13: 1 – 9

————————————————————————————–

In light of the number of times that I have moved, it is very hard for me to say that I have an ancestral home. Oh, I have seen the house where my parents were living when I was born and I have gone by some of the places where I have lived in the past. Interestingly enough, there are no plaques on the door or signs in the yard that say “Tony Mitchell lived here from time to time.” Of all the places that are a part of my live, the closest I have to an ancestral home is my grandmother’s house in St. Louis, MO.

It is a place where my memories began, though in the pictures of a two-year old. And, unless the current owners have done something, there is a cast of one of my feet on a concrete slab in the backyard. Pictures over the span of time from 1950 to 2000 show the cumulative effect of a grandmother who loved flowers. When the property was first bought in the late 1940’s, it was over ten miles from downtown St. Louis and in the midst of the Missouri truck farms. Of course, in 2000, it was still ten miles from downtown St. Louis but the truck farms were gone, replaced by apartments, houses, malls, and interstate highways.

But my grandmother’s flowers remained. And the last time I looked, the grape arbor was still standing in the backyard. This particular arbor served more as a boundary between her property and the next door neighbor than it did as a source of grapes. Any grapes that we collected off the vines were small and almost tasteless. To be honest, I can never recall any great moments harvesting grapes in all the time that we visited my grandmother. But it was decorative and it served a purpose, so it stood as a place for grandchildren to play.

Since we never cared for the grapevine, we never got any grapes. The vineyard owner in the Gospel reading today is complaining that the fig tree is not producing any fruit. And he tells the gardener that if it doesn’t start producing soon, it will be chopped down.

Fig trees served as shade for the weary traveler. But it doesn’t do any good for a fig tree to be shady if it is not producing fruit. Figs are sweet and nourishing. And the seeds from the fruit are the source of future trees. So a fig tree that does nothing but shade the weary traveler is actually worthless, for it cannot provide for the future.

And fig trees also played another role. In this parable, as well as a similar reference in Mark (Mark 11: 14), the fig tree is a reference to the nation of Israel. The prophet Hosea uses the images of the fruit of the fig tree as a reference to God’s delight in Israel’s choice to follow the covenant made on Mount Sinai. But Hosea follows that with a description of God’s anger when the nation decides to follow other gods.

It is God’s anger that is the common thread of the three readings for today. But it is not the anger of God that we sometimes think it is. Even today, long after the Biblical times, we still think in terms of blaming the victims. If someone did something wrong, it was clearly because they were sinners of the greatest kind.

The people following Jesus that day asked Him if those killed in the political murders or natural disasters died because of their sins. To this Jesus replies with an emphatic “No!” But Jesus also added that unless one repented, unless one changed his or her way of living, then they would perish just as those who died did.

The danger is that we become like the Corinthians, safe in our belief that our actions protect us from sin. The Corinthians felt that because they had been baptized into Christ and partook of the communion that this protected them. But Paul is quick to point out that the Israelites in the desert also had their sacraments. Paul felt that by the crossing of the Red Sea and the direction provided by the pillar of fire and cloud that they were baptized into Moses and the covenant solidified on Mount Sinai. The Israelites had their own food and drink provided by God, just as the bread and juice that we use in our communion were provided by Jesus. But that covenant and those sacraments did not prevent them from sinning against God. Those who wandered in the desert died in the desert because they were not willing to completely follow God.

Paul is quick to compare the sins of the Corinthians to those of the Israelites in the desert. Remember that while Moses was with God on Mount Sinai, the people reverted to their old ways of worship and behavior. The description of these sins and actions were written as a warning of what would happen should future generations get too complacent. Paul’s warning is “if you think you are standing, be careful that you do not fall.”

Those are also Isaiah’s words and the words of invitation for today. “Come to the feast,” God calls to us, “Come to the waters!” Those in need of grace and God’s mercy are invited to receive it now. And that is the catch; for Isaiah is quick to warn us to “Seek the Lord while He may be found.”

We cannot assume that God’s invitation is ours to accept later, when it is more convenient for us. We cannot continue a life of foolishness, wasting our resources and abilities on trivial things when the most valuable thing that we will ever have is given to us today.

Jesus’ warning about the future of the fig tree is a warning to us. The fig tree will grow if it is nurtured and cared for but if it is ignored or it is assumed that it will grow on its own, it will die. Our faith will grow if it is nurtured, if it is in an environment of support. And the faith of others will grow because we are there to provide that environment of support.

When John Wesley began what has now become known as the Methodist Revival, he himself struggled with two questions: What was the nature of salvation and what was the role of the church in dealing with society’s problems.

In Wesley’s time, England was undergoing a series of rapid changes, changes that we would later call the Industrial Revolution. But though some gained from the results of this revolution, many did not. Pay was low, healthcare was limited if not non-existent, and there was no such thing as a retirement plan. You started working when you could, and for some that meant as young as ten, and you worked until the day you died. Your workday was sunup to sundown and your workweek was six days a week, with only Sunday off. You dared not take a day because you might get fired. If you owed someone, you were likely to be thrown into a debtor’s prison until your family could raise the money to pay off the debt. Welfare, as it were, was dependent on the whim of the rich and the patience of the poor. Alcoholism and drug abuse was not uncommon.

Against this background, the church supported the idea that being poor was a sin and if you were poor you were a sinner and to be pitied, laughed at for your lot in life. It was not an environment that brought people to Christ; it was an environment that could lead to social unrest.

As Jesus had done, so too did Wesley contend that the poor were not sinners because of their poverty nor should society ignore them. Through the Methodist Revival, the first Sunday school was started. It was not the Sunday school that we ourselves went to but rather the first organized educational system in England. Because they were working the rest of the week, Sunday was the only day that many children and adults had a chance to go to school. The first sustained efforts to deal with alcohol and drug abuse came because of the work of Wesley and his followers. And because Wesley and his followers sought to create an environment of growth and sustenance, there was not the social unrest and violent revolution that plagued France at the same time.

Sin is not a product of one’s status in life nor is it because of who someone is or where he or she was born. Unfortunately we tend to think so, even in our enlightened society of today. We cannot lead lives which say to someone that we are better simply because we have chosen to follow Christ, for choosing to follow Christ does not exempt us from the problems of the world.

We cannot make deals with God and expect them to hold. C. S. Lewis wrote

People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, “If you keep a lot of rules, I’ll reward you, and if you don’t I’ll do the other thing.” I do not think that is the best way of looking at it. I would much rather say that every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a Heaven creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is Heaven: that is, it is joy, and peace, and knowledge, and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other. (From Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis)

Lent is a time of repentance, a time of change. It is a time to change our lives and how we think. We come to the table today, knowing that when the Israelites grumbled about the lack of food, God provided food for them. When the Israelites grumbled about the lack of water, God provided water. The bread that we eat today and the juice that we drink are reminders of God’s grace and His willingness to provide when His people were in need.

The bread that we eat to date is also a reminder that Christ died for us so that we could live. The juice that we drink is also a reminder that Christ shed His blood for us so that our sins would be forgiven. These acts liberate us.

As we come to the table today, we come knowing that the very act of communion serves to liberate us from this world of sin and death.

As we walk away from the communion table today, we are a liberated people. But with our liberation comes a responsibility. The challenge is to accept this liberation and turn away from the false idols that we think protect us from pain and suffering. The challenge is to accept the liberation given through communion and cast away the idea that somehow we, individually, can control our lives and avoid the sufferings that plague others.

The owner of the vineyard gave the gardener a year to bring the fig tree back to life. Our own sense of liberation will quickly die if we do not work to sustain our faith. Others will not know the sense of liberation that we have today unless we reach out. The fruits of the vineyard will not grow in an environment that does not provide for growth; the fruits of the vineyard will not be harvested unless there is an effort to do the harvesting.

 

The Price We Pay

Posted on by
Reply

This is the message that I presented at Walker Valley United Methodist Church for the 3rd Sunday in Lent, 18 March 2001.  The Scriptures for this Sunday were Isaiah 55: 1- 9, 1 Corinthians 10: 1- 13, and Luke 13: 1 – 9

————————————————————————————–

The events of the last week, the fall of the tech stocks on the NASDAQ and the beginning of “March Madness”, bring a striking counterpart to the scripture lessons for today.

The rapid drop in the price of many tech stocks and the demise of companies whose names end in “.com” again show us that you cannot always get something for nothing and that when one seeks quick riches without little effort, the results may not be what they seem.

The opening weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament also reminds us that thinking that we are safe and secure doesn’t always guarantee that we will be. Just ask Iowa State, Virginia, Ohio State, or Wisconsin what safety they had with the seeding they received before the basketball tournament started.

In this day and time we try to find our security in the acquisition of possessions and status. This is not a new phenomenon by any means. Isaiah was speaking out against the consumer mentality of his people when he said, “Why spend money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy?” (Isaiah 55: 2) To gain security, meaningful relationships and a purpose in life would seem to be the major tasks of today’s society. But we are quickly learning, as the fall in stock prices might reflect, that these things are not available at any price. How timely is Isaiah’s call to “listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.” (Isaiah 55: 2) Isaiah’s call to the people of Israel, held in bondage in Babylon, was to return to their ancient faith in God, where true happiness and security could be found.

Paul was warning the Corinthians not to get complacent with their spiritual security. Some of the Corinthians were so confident that they were spiritually secure that they were cautious about how they lived. Sure, they performed the proper rituals. They had all been baptized and regularly took communion. They had a theology that made them feel nice about themselves and safe and self-satisfied. But in this cozy world that they had constructed for themselves, they forgot to heed the lessons of the past where in similar situations, their ancestors had fallen by the wayside. Paul pointed out that even with their religious experience, they still fell away from God and met an unfortunate end.

Paul wrote “These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us . . . . So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.” (1 Corinthians 10: 11 – 12)  Paul is saying that we should not forget the blunders of the people of the past who were sure of their standing but still failed.

Being a Christian is more than simply doing certain things and saying certain things; it is about how one lives. If you knew that you had only one more year to live, what changes would you make in your life? Would your values suddenly change? Would you begin to think about spiritual things. Would you turn to Jesus for salvation? If, as a Christian, you knew you had one more year to bear spiritual fruit, where would you begin? If, as a church, we knew we had but one year to get serious about serving God, where would we start?

When we look at the story in Luke, we read about the mercy of God. The parable of the fig tree points out the patience and forbearance of God. So long as time shall last, God will stand with arms outstretched will to receive all those who would repent of their sins.

During this season of Lent, we are asked to consider where we have been and where we are going. In a world where we seek security and safety, we quickly find that security and safety are not always easily bought. But we also know that God’s mercy is free and that our salvation was bought and paid for on the cross at Calvary. We are called this day to rediscover that God’s love is available to us and that the safety and security that we so desperately seek is available in our relationship to God.

Verses 8 and 9 of Isaiah 55 may have a double meaning for us today. On the one hand, “my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my way” (Isaiah 55: 8) draws the prophetic contrast between God’s perfection and the imperfect Israelites, who had fallen short of God’s intent.

But these verses also challenge us to seek a better, higher way, something like this: “My thoughts, ways, and even heaven are far beyond your limited understanding: To acknowledge that fact does not condemn us but is the key to ultimate redemption. If you want to get out of Babylon, look up to my thoughts and my ways.”

We can never buy the safety and security that will insure us happiness and we have to be careful to avoid a comfort zone of ritual and words that only gives us a false sense of security. Only by establishing or renewing our relationship with God can we truly gain security and safety. The good news this day is that the security and safety doesn’t cost us anything because it was paid for by Christ at Calvary.

 

A Vision of Our Future

Posted on by
Reply

Here are my thoughts for the 2nd Sunday in Lent. The Scriptures for this Sunday were Genesis 15: 1 – 12, 17 – 18; Philippians 3: 17 – 4: 1; and Luke 13: 31 – 35.

———————————————————————————————

I started this piece last Wednesday, before the snow fell (see the “The Great 2010 Snowstorm”) and the earthquakes rocked Chile and Japan. For some, such occurrences, along with the earthquake in Haiti, would be sure signs that the “End Times” were now. But this is not an “End Times” piece. As those who have read my posts well know, I have never accepted that idea or that scenario.

But it is a vision piece and it goes to what John the Seer actually saw in his vision so many years ago on the island of Patmos. It is not a vision of death and destruction that many say is the essence of the Seer’s revelation but a vision of hope that there can be a better tomorrow, that there is a promise for us all. It is a vision that comes from looking around at this world and saying, as Robert Kennedy did so many times during his Presidential campaign of 1968, “some see things as they are and ask why; I see things that never were and ask why not.”

Why, for example, do we spend billions on war and violence but only millions on feeding people and caring for people? Why do we not work to stop violence in this world, both overseas and at home, by building better schools and making sure that everyone has something to eat and has the proper healthcare? Why must we continue to accept the notion that violence is always the answer to violence?

Why is it that we speak as if we were Christian but yet our lives, our words, our deeds say otherwise? Are we so afraid of what might happen if everyone were truly equal that we will do anything to maintain the status quo?

The other day, a friend of mine asked why I was a liberal. I suppose that I could have given some sort of snappy answer like I do when I am asked about the title of my blog (where is your heart, anyway?). But I put my choice in terms of how I grew up and what I saw across the country while I was growing up.

Now, it should be pointed out that my parents were and are conservative but my decision to be a liberal is not a product of some sort of youthful rebellion. The one thing that my parents gave me, even in junior high and high school, was a certain degree of independence (with a clear understanding that I accepted the consequences of my actions). And because I had that independence, I perhaps saw things differently from my classmates in junior high and high school.

I may not have asked the question when I was in the 7th grade at Bellingrath Junior High School in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1962 but I did begin to ask later why it was that I had to buy my textbooks that year from a book store instead of having my teachers give them to me as had been the case the first six years of school or the rest of my junior high and high school studies. And while I didn’t have to buy my books when I was a junior and senior in high school (1966 – 68) in Memphis, Tennessee, why did the high school band only get $50.00 a year for instruments, music, equipment, and uniforms. I didn’t have to pay for my uniform when I marched in the William C. Hinckley High School Band and it cost a lot more than the uniform I wore marching for Nicholas Blackwell High School in Bartlett, Tennessee.

If you understand the times and the places, then you have the answer to my questions. And you have to ask how is it that, we who profess to live in a nation founded on the concept of equality and liberty, would enact laws that take away those very concepts? How is it that we, as a society and individually, feel threatened by the concept that everyone should have health care and earn not a minimum wage but a living wage? How is that we, as a society and individually, feel threaten by the notion that we are the same in God’s eyes when we believe that there are differences because of sexuality, race, economic status, or country of origin? Why is it that we feel that today is as good as it will ever be and that yesterday was better and tomorrow is to be feared? Could it be that we are not prepared to ask the questions or hear the answers?

And while I was asking questions about why the color of one’s skin or the economic status of one’s family are barriers to progress in this country and this world, I also began ask questions about my faith and what part my faith can have in changing the vision of the future. My affirmation as a Christian and as a Methodist challenges me to put my faith in action, to do more than just say the “right words” on Sunday and leave my faith in the sanctuary when I leave at the end of the service. And yet, even today, when it is so clear what the meaning of Christianity is, there are those who do not even what their vision of Christianity to be questioned. For they are ill-prepared to answer such questions; they are ill-prepared to deal with a vision that is radically different from what they see today. And their only answer is to deny others the right to question; to accept as truth their words and their thoughts.

But when you read the Gospel and you hear what Jesus did, He challenged the people to question the vision of the future as it was presented to them. And he did more than challenge the people, He gave them a new vision.

Abram was offered a vision of the future, a vision that matched the stars in the sky. But for that vision to be fulfilled, it required that Abram moved from Ur to the Promised Land and that he accept the covenant with God. If Abram had not made that move, then our story could not have been told. Jesus knew what was literally around the corner but He also knew that if He didn’t make that journey, nothing would happen, His mission, His life would fail. And if His mission failed, then we would have never had the opportunity to have a vision of hope and promise.

This is not to say that this earth will not end as so many people proclaim that it will, in death and total destruction. But it will not be God’s wrath that will bring down this earth; it will be our own self-centeredness, our own arrogance, and our own ignorance.

There is an interesting difference in the earthquakes that struck Chile and Haiti last week. Understand that the Richter scale that is used to describe the strength of an earthquake is logarithmic; that means that a one-unit increase in measurement (say from 6 to 7) is a 10-fold increase in strength. A two-unit increase (from 6 to 8) is a 100-fold increase in strength.

So, the Chilean earthquake was far more powerful than the Haitian earthquake. But there was more damage and destruction in Haiti because the structures were not built to withstand any earthquake, let alone the one that actually struck. Because Chile has a history of being struck by very powerful earthquakes, the majority of structures are build with that in mind. The same can be said about the buildings in California; building that sustained the most damage in the last couple of earthquakes that struck the Golden State were probably not built to code.

We have written Haiti off as a poor country and we are not willing to put our time, energy, or money into this country, even though its geological history told us that an earthquake similar to the one that struck last month would actually occur. Our own arrogance and indifference to the people of Haiti is as much to blame for the death and destruction that struck that country as anything else. How we deal with what happens next, be it Haiti, Chile, or somewhere else, will speak volumes about our vision of the future.

Paul reminds us that those whose vision is only their world will find, in the end, only destruction. If I am who I say I am and I do nothing to end the hunger and the poverty and the oppression; if I do nothing to stop the violence and the oppression that is so much a part of this world, then I am a liar and a hypocrite. And I if use my faith and my religion for my own benefit and not for the benefit of others, then I can only expect what Jesus promised in Matthew 25 and Luke 16: 19 – 31.

Those whose vision is Christ will find the glory that was promised in the original Gospel message and throughout the words and letters of those who spread the word from the Galilee to the rest of the world. Those who left the Galilee had no idea what lie before them but they understood the message that had been given to them and what it could me to all the people. They began that journey on and with faith.

Ours is a journey done in faith, not necessarily in fact. It is done, not with a vision of today, but with a view far beyond tomorrow. It is a transforming journey where we cast aside that which we were and are in favor of the new life, the life proclaimed in Christ.

We have been given two visions of the future. One ends in death and destruction, not caused by God’s wrath but by our own indifference and unwillingness. The other vision offers hope and a promise for a new tomorrow; it can be reality if we are willing to accept the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. We have the opportunity today to accept Christ as our Savior and begin that transformation. Each of us has the opportunity to see the vision of the future. The question will be what vision do we want to see?