Finding the Good News - May 22, 2011

Finding the Good News

Rev. Lee Ann Bryce

Community Christian Church

May 22, 2011

For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. ²⁰If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. ²¹For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps. ²²“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” ²³When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. ²⁴He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. ²⁵For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.                                                I Peter 2:19-25

I have a long personal history with this passage.  I committed it to memory many years ago and at an earlier point in my life, found comfort in it.  Now, however, I honestly find it a difficult text on which to preach.  In this passage, many understand Peter’s purpose as encouraging people to endure suffering gracefully.  We all have suffering in our lives and sometimes, we can’t do much to change it.  And so our attitude toward that suffering can become very important.  If that’s your life experience, then maybe this is helpful advice. 

Or here’s another way to look at it.  Maybe we find in Peter’s words an affirmation of non-violent resistance.  Peter calls us to do as Christ did when we are threatened.  Jesus had the opportunity to resist his arrest and trial but there’s no indication he did.  When he was arrested in the garden and his disciple drew a sword to attack the guard, what did Jesus do?  He insisted the sword be laid down and he willingly gave himself over for arrest.  Peter is saying, we, too, should not answer threat with threat.

This language of endurance and perseverance in the face of hardship and persecution may be good advice in certain situations.  Peter’s words appear to be sincere counsel to those seeking to live as Christ lived.  Nonetheless, there is a potentially devastating message that can be taken from this text and we need to address that.  Let me be clear - God does not call us in order to suffer abuse, nor should we perpetuate situations that lead to our abuse.

And yet we have v. 19:  For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly.   And a bit later, If you endure when you do right, and suffer for it, you have God’s approval.  Think about it.  What does this say to the many people in our day who have suffered abuse – spouses, children, people with deep scars from years of harm committed against them (often by someone they loved)?  What does this say to people with fragile mental health who join the church in search of safety and solace?  Reading this text uncritically, with its injunction that God wants us to endure suffering, even if it is undeserved, can inflict more harm on already tender souls; it seems to say that suffering is somehow ordained by God and that anything but a submissive response to suffering is sinful. 

At the state women’s conference a few weeks ago, I happened to have a conversation with a woman who told me about an experience she’d had with a church.  A few years ago, she had sought counsel from her pastor regarding her abusive marriage.  She had made a heart-wrenching decision to leave her husband, to end the abuse she had suffered at his hands for years, and she went to talk it over with her pastor.  He told her in no uncertain terms that she should remain with her husband, despite the severe abuse that had become commonplace.  And the pastor to whom she spoke pointed to this very passage to say that she was to follow the example of Christ by enduring her suffering.  Divorce is sin, he said.  You will find favor with God if you remain in your marriage and endure your suffering. 

Most of us would agree that that pastor’s response was hurtful, and inappropriate; a misuse of scripture.  And yet it’s easy to see how he could look to this passage to support his position. 

Today’s passage comes from the Revised Common Lectionary, a 3 year cycle of assigned readings designated for each Sunday.  It is our church’s tradition to follow the lectionary and we usually do that.  The reading provided in today’s lectionary includes exactly the verses we read, I Peter 2:19-25.   (Technically, this is last week’s reading, but I was gone last week, so I delayed it a week.)  It’s funny, but when they assigned the verses for the day, the lectionary editors cut off a key verse that tells us to whom Peter is speaking.  It’s important information in order to understand any text, right?  Look at the verse that immediately precedes our passage.  Let me read it to you, then you can guess why they chose not to include it.  I Peter 2:18 reads:  “Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle, but also those who are harsh.” 

You can imagine why preachers are uncomfortable reading this verse in church, much less preaching from it.  It’s far easier to take the route of the lectionary editors and just leave out that little part about slaves obeying their masters!  Start in v. 19 and this passage is a little dicey, but if we start reading in v. 18 things get worse:  we hear Peter telling the most vulnerable members of his community, the slaves, to “suck it up.”  When we read in v. 18, that God wants slaves to obey their masters, we’re forced to admit that Peter apparently accepts the master-slave relationship.  All of the tap dancing in the world up here in the pulpit cannot change the fact that Peter says, Slaves obey your masters; not only the nice ones but also the abusive ones.  We can imagine what the life of a first century slave is like and Peter is telling them, not only to submit to their station but to the abuse that comes with it. 

Please tell me, what exactly is the good news in this text?  If this passage clearly supports the institution of slavery, and in addition, can be read to perpetuate the suffering of the abused, what do we do with it?  Can reading the Bible be hazardous to your health??

As a preacher, it seems to me that sometimes the most faithful thing I can do is to speak honestly about how difficult it is to reconcile parts of the Bible with what we know to be good news.  Today is one of those days.  We cannot read this text today, without admitting how early Christian acceptance of slavery legitimized it in our own nation.  Today we must speak plainly about how texts like this can harm those who have suffered abuse.  Today we must admit that the church has ignored this fact for far too long. 

Peter, as admirable and courageous as he was, was no more infallible or enlightened than we are.  He was a product of his own age and culture, just as we are.  To say this does not let Peter off the hook.  What he wrote here is a message of oppression, not of liberation.  But for us to acknowledge this fact is a form of confession.  If this great saint on whom the church is built wore blinders, what is it that we may be unwilling to see? 

And after speaking the truth about this passage, we can return to it to seek the good news in these verse.  Perhaps it is there – in the injunction to refrain from returning evil for evil; in the exhortation to meet inevitable suffering with the confidence that Christ knows what it is like; that Christ shares our suffering.  And with the assurance that we may return, again and again, to the “shepherd and guardian of our souls.”

There is good news here, hidden beneath all the cultural rubbish that is also there.  Sometimes finding the good news takes a little digging.  And sometimes it helps to take the nugget of truth that often can be found, even in difficult passages like this, and reframe it in terms that might be easier for us to relate to.

Hard Times

By Jamie Owens

Is the rain fallin’ from the sky keeping you from singing?

And is that tear fallin’ from your eye ‘cause the wind is stinging?

REFRAIN:

Well, don’t you fret now child, don’t you worry.

That rains to help you grow, so don’t try to hurry the storm along.

The hard times make you strong.

Don’t you know the seed could never grow if there were never showers?

And though the rain might bring a little pain, just look at all the flowers.  (refrain)

I’ve known how long a day can seem when storm clouds hide God’s face.

But if the rain dissolves your dream, just remember, amazing grace.

Don’t you know the sun is always there even when the rain falls?

And don’t you know the Son will always care when he hears your voice call?  (refrain)

Do You Think Ghandi is in Hell? 5/15/11 by Diane Ellis

The Scripture today is from John 10:1-10. Jesus is speaking and he says

 “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. ²The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

³The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” ⁶Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. ⁷So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.  

Thank you, God, for continuing to speak to us through Scripture.

When we read this passage, we most often focus on the comforting image of Jesus as the good shepherd, guiding us, protecting us, calling us by name. But what about that first part about people not entering by the gate being thieves and bandits? I’d like to focus on that message today.

What does it mean to you to be a Christian?  

I thought I’d start with an easy question this morning! I wonder if there was ever a time when that was an easy question? In the early days of the church, when followers of Jesus first began identifying themselves as something separate from Judaism, how do you think they defined themselves?

What do you think being a Christian meant to them?

Of course, a key component of their identification would have been a belief in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the one God, the God of Israel, right?  Perhaps they would have defined themselves in contrast to others in the community such as pagans and those who worshiped a variety of gods.

Would they all have agreed on other components of their identity as Christian or would there have been a variety of beliefs as there are today? Throughout the history of Christianity, faithful followers have been challenged with determining what are the correct beliefs to be held by a Christian. What is truth and what is heresy? There were no easy answers. And today, we still struggle with what it means to be a Christian.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus declares that he is the true gate to God, that he alone is the way to God. He calls those who try to enter by other means thieves and bandits.  When I read this first passage, I immediately begin to worry that this is a text that is being used to support messages of hate against Jews, Muslims, and others who are not Christian, who obviously do not come to God through the gate of Jesus Christ. Is Jesus or the author of this Gospel really characterizing all paths to God outside of a belief in Jesus as the Messiah as paths of thieves and bandits?

Do you, as a Christian, feel our way is the only way to God?

At seminary some of us recently participated in our first year evaluation to see if we should continue in our journey to ministry. It was an interesting process, with a group of three or four students meeting with two professors. We met individually and then as a group, each of us reading our statement of faith and discussing it with the other students. The three students in my group all affirmed our belief that Christianity is not the only path to God.

It recalled to me a conversation I had with a blind date years ago when we began talking about Christianity. I began to share my view of the validity of all paths and he became very angry and pointed out that duh, Christianity means you believe Christ is the only way! Needless to say, that relationship did not go any further. That was years ago, but I guess his challenge stayed in the back of my mind until the recent conversations at seminary.

Is the belief that Christianity is the only path to God so essential that without it one cannot really identify as a Christian?  That would make me very sad, because I sincerely don’t believe there is only one path to God. I don’t believe Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and Hindus are thieves and bandits, but what does this Bible passage mean?

I talked to a couple of other seminary students who went through the evaluation process with different professors and they also shared the belief in all paths being valid, but their professors challenged them to explain why they are at a Christian seminary studying to be Christian ministers. Some struggled to articulate an answer.

As we have all become aware, there are many definitions of what it means to be a Christian.

These days when someone asks me if I am a Christian, I hesitate because I am not sure what I am agreeing to. Was the Florida minister who burned the Koran one who believed he was doing God’s will by fighting thieves and bandits trying to come in the wrong gate to God’s love?

I was talking to my father about this sermon and he told me about a recent article in TIME magazine about Rob Bell, a popular Evangelical minister who has written a book called “Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.” Bell starts out his book by recounting an incident at an art exhibit at his church on the topic of peace.

He included a quote from Gandhi in the exhibit and later found a post-it note stuck next to the quote saying “Reality check: He’s in hell.”  Bell writes “Really? Gandhi’s in hell? He is? We have confirmation of this? Somebody knows this? Without a doubt?”

Can you read this Bible passage about Jesus being the only gate to God, and really imagine it is telling about a universe in which Gandhi is a thief and a bandit who ends up in hell?  

Bell suggests that maybe we need to move beyond the view that the people who believe in Jesus as the Son of God will go to heaven and those who don’t will go to hell. He proposes that maybe the redemptive work of Jesus was for everyone.

Looking at this first passage in its historical context and within the theme of the Gospel of John, it is clear the author is writing to reinforce the concept of Jesus’ divinity. John is the last of the Gospels to be written and the concept of Jesus’ divinity is more developed than it is in the earlier Gospels. The Gospel of John is meant to create a reader experience of a world that is centered in Christ. Throughout the book, there are references to Jesus declaring his role as a link between God and humanity, such as 

·         “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst” in chapter 6;

·         “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” in chapter 8; and

·         in John 14:16 “I am the way, and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.”

At the time it was most likely written, toward the end of the first century, there was growing conflict between Jews who believed in Jesus as the Messiah and Jews who did not. In this passage Jesus is probably speaking to the Jews mentioned in Chapter 9, including some of the Pharisees, after he healed the man blind from birth on the Sabbath. He is challenged about the fact that he disobeyed the law of the Sabbath and is presenting another vision of the path to God, outside of strict observance of the laws of the Torah. Jesus is the gate or the way to God.

Listeners are urged to follow Jesus (the good shepherd), and not the others (thieves and bandits), who are false shepherds.

                                   

In researching this text, I found lots of commentary, but most was focused on Jesus as the gate to God. None addressed the concept of who the thieves and bandits are, or the specific idea that those who are seeking God outside of Jesus are not going to succeed in their search.

I found an interesting article about Christianity from a Hindu perspective in which the author quotes part of a conversation between Mahatma Gandhi and English priest and close friend C.F. Andrews about conversion from one religion to another.

Andrews makes the case for people being able to change faith traditions as they desire. Gandhi, on the other hand, presents a different perspective. He says “Supposing a Christian came to me and said he was captivated by a reading of the Bhagavad gita and so wanted to declare himself a Hindu. I should say to him:  No. What the Bhagavad gita offers, the Bible also offers. You have not yet made the attempt to find it. Make the attempt and be a good Christian….. My position is that all the great religions are fundamentally equal. We must have innate respect for other religions as we have for our own.” Now that I liked. 

So what does this Scripture mean to us as Christians today? Who are the thieves and the bandits? 

How does your understanding of this text affect your feeling toward members of non-Christian faith traditions?    

Is it possible for you to hold your faith as truth and still respect a person with different beliefs who holds their faith as truth? Is it possible that we both have the truth?  

I really wanted to find an understanding of this passage that allows me to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus, and still respect those in other faith traditions who come to God through another gate. It has been a similar exercise as one I had last year in writing about the passage in Genesis 22 where Abraham is commanded to sacrifice his son Isaac. With both passages, I could not reconcile my values and beliefs as a Christian with what the Bible appeared to be saying.

With the Abraham and Isaac story, I finally came to agree with philosopher Emmanuel Kant’s comment that if we regard a given text as transmitted words of God or as divinely inspired, we find ourselves in the position of idolaters claiming to know God’s precise purpose. Sometimes we must simply acknowledge a wide spectrum of reading is possible. Once you exhaust the text, it no longer speaks or has meaning for new generations. Kant believed the Abraham-Isaac story is intentionally ambiguous and expects the reader to ponder its significance and question its intentions.

The ambiguity in the story compels the readers to make their own interpretive and moral decisions. God does not give simple assignments, Kant wrote. God expects us to study, to think, to pay attention, to engage in debate, and to work hard at understanding what God says and means.  

And so, who are the thieves and the bandits?    I still have no idea.

Do I think we should treat those who are not Christians as thieves and bandits because they don’t come through the gate of Jesus Christ on their way to God?   No.

Is my brain tired from struggling with this?   Yes.

I think I’ll just stop a while now and focus on the image of Jesus as my shepherd. I am safe and cared for. There is nothing to fear because I am being led by the good shepherd. 

Let us pray.

Eternal God of all Creation, thank you for being present in every moment of our lives.  Thank you for being there while we struggle to find meaning and truth in the Scripture that reflects our inward knowing of you as God. Be with as we continue to try to be good Christians, keeping your great commandments to love you above all else, and our neighbors as ourselves. Amen.

Dominion Not Domination - 5/1/11

Dominion not Domination

Rev. Lee Ann Bryce

Community Christian Church

May 1, 2011

So God created humankind^* in God’s image,
            in the image of God, God created them;^*
            male and female God created them.
²⁸God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ ²⁹God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. ³⁰And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. ³¹God saw everything that God had made, and indeed, it was very good.                                                        - Genesis 1:27-31a

So much of our thinking about how to be in relationship with the Earth comes from our fundamental beliefs about our place in the world.  Sometimes our own religion has etched into our minds the notion that the earth is ours to do with whatever we wish.  It’s an easy belief to fall into, because we’d like to think that we are at the top of the chain.  All that exists is for us—to feed us, to work for us, to make us money, and to make us happy.  Isn’t that what God said to humankind on that sixth day of creation?  Well…not exactly.

God’s words to humankind as recorded in Genesis were that humans would have dominion over the earth and its creatures.  Dominion is a word that seems to cause more trouble than it solves.  Dominion sounds a lot like another word - domination.  When we think of domination, we think of autocratic rule of one thing over something else.  But dominion has a different connotation. Dominion is the benevolent sovereignty of one thing over another. The similarity between these words is that both domination and dominion describe a type of power.  What makes them different is the motive behind the power. The motive in domination is for the ruler to get whatever (s)he wants. However, the motive in dominion is for the ruler to be entrusted with the best interest of the subject.

Consider two hypothetical stories to illustrate the contrast between domination and dominion as it pertains to care of the earth.  Though they are not actual accounts, scenes like this happen

all the time, all around the United States.  As the saying goes, I don’t know if it happened this way, but these stories are true.

Anna makes her living off the land.  She is a developer who buys 30 acres of densely forested land near a growing town and she hopes to make a profit.  Nothing wrong with that, that’s why most people are in business.  She thinks this will be a perfect place for a subdivision that will hold 75 new homes.  The contractors she hires come in with their big equipment and begin their work by cutting down trees.  When they finish the land is bare and unrecognizable.  The animals who live in this forest have to move to the surrounding forest where the species becomes overcrowded, and they begin to die of hunger.  Next the builders begin erecting the homes.  They use beautiful, desirable materials.  It’s true, they have to ship them halfway around world, but they’ll make their money back when they sell the homes.  They don’t know that, where the granite was mined in Asia, that land is now devoid of necessary minerals.  Then landscapers arrive to put in flowers and grass that are foreign to the local area.  To keep the lawns green requires thousands of gallons of water that in a few years will lower the water table in the surrounding farmland.  (With our wet spring, I know it seems crazy that anybody has to irrigate, but it does happen in many parts of the country!)  The developer Anna makes an enormous profit, but it’s at the expense of the land and animals locally and the earth and its peoples far away.

The second picture is of Jake.  He’s a farmer in a small community who, like Anna, also makes his living off the land, but in very different way than Anna.  Jake grows several crops on his 300 acres.  He knows he could be making more money than does, but he chooses instead to live in harmony with the land.  The animals are happy that Jake leaves several dozen acres forested to give them habitat and shade.  The crops grow from the clean, natural nutrients of the soil, without being sprayed down with pounds of fertilizers and pesticides.  Jake rotates the crops regularly so the soil stays rich in vitamins and minerals.  The air smells fresh and clean without fumes from gasoline engines.  Jake’s employees remain loyal throughout year to plow, plant, and harvest all naturally with only the help of animals and manual tools.  Jake could make a lot more money, but he considers the cost on the environment and he knows it would not be worth it.

This is domination versus dominion.  When we view God’s decree for dominion as dominating the earth and its creatures, then we think God has given us license to do whatever we want.  We believe that whatever we do with the land is God’s will, no matter what the cost is to the earth and the plants and the animals and the people.  It’s disturbing what this logic really says when we follow it to the extreme.  Pollution—God’s will.   Human caused lack of water—God’s will.  Chemicals that kill wildlife—God’s will.  Landfills seeping toxins—God’s will.  God put us in charge so whatever we do is ok, right?

But the beauty is that we don’t have to understand it that way.  When we view dominion for what it really is, we realize that God invites us to enter into a covenant in which we share dominion with God. God charges us with the great responsibility to care of everything God has created.  When we share dominion with God, we make decisions with the best interest of all creation in mind.  This means we won’t always be doing what we desire, but instead we’re doing what the earth needs, what the plants need, and what the animals need.  In this way, doing what is best for creation becomes God’s will.  And in the end, we realize that caring for the earth is what we desire, too.  Keeping the planet and its creatures healthy eventually leads to our best health, because we are all connected in a web of relationships.  What we do to the earth, we do to ourselves.

In your bulletin, you’ll find an insert titled, “My Commitment to Creation.”  It contains lots of ideas that can help us live in better harmony with God’s creation.  We’re all at different places in this journey.  At my best, I try to be mindful and I am faithful in some green lifestyle choices.  And I also know that there are many environmentally friendly practices I’m just not ready to do.  Maybe I’ll get here, maybe not.  I aspire to be a vegetarian, but I’m a long way from that.  I wish I could take a firm stand against using any pesticides in our lawn and garden care, but I still use them on occasion. 

I guess what I’m saying is that a faithful Christian response toward eco-justice is one of humility and patience.  None of us can do it all, but all of us can do something.  We can shift a behavior here and there.  We can try out a practice that seems really hard to do, just for a short time and see how we feel.  We may not be able to sell the car, but we can work up to it by observing one “lazy day” a month on which we resolve not to drive.  And instead, we walk or take public transit or carpool.  Living in harmony with the earth is not an “all or nothing” deal.  It’s about the willingness to continue to learn and to continue to make small, even incremental changes can make a huge difference – not only to the earth, but within our own hearts.

Let’s join together on this journey.  Together let us strive to partner with God, not in domination, but in dominion with all of creation.  Amen.

My Commitment to Creation

Ideas to consider:

·         Wash clothes in cold water to save on energy.

·         Use cloth napkins instead of paper ones.

·         Eat less meat.  Start by eliminating one meat based meal a week.

·         Plan for your household to observe one “lazy day” a month on which you walk, take public transit, or carpool rather than driving your car.

·         Conduct an energy audit of your home to evaluate your heating system’s efficiency and determine where heat loss may occur.  You can even perform your own home energy audit by going to the Department of Energy’s Website:  www.homeenergysaver.lbl.gov.

·         Run washing machine and dishwasher only when full.

·         When washing dishes by hand, don’t let the water run while rinsing.  Fill one sink with wash water and the other with rinse water.

·         Wash fruits and vegetables in a pan of water instead of running water from the tap.

·         Have your car tuned regularly and keep tires properly inflated. 

·         Carry a water bottle with you instead of buying water.

·         Eat locally and organically whenever possible.

·         Teach children to turn off faucets tightly after each use.

·         Turn off water while brushing your teeth.

·         Wash pets outdoors in an area of your lawn that needs water.

·         Reuse towels.

·         When washing your hands, don’t let the water run while you lather.

Remember:  you needn’t take an “all or nothing” approach. 

Work toward doing these things by gradually making changes in your life. 

Even a small change can make a significant difference. 

Start somewhere and see where the new direction takes you!