Being and Doing - 3/6/11

Doing and Being

The Rev. Lee Ann Bryce

Community Christian Church

March 6, 2011

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. ²And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. ³Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. ⁴Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” ⁵While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” ⁶When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. ⁷But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” ⁸And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.                                                                                                                                           -Matthew 17:1-8

Since we read our scripture for today at the very beginning of worship, I’d like to ask you to turn back in your bulletins to the call to worship and just re-read to yourself Matthew 17:1-8 so it will be fresh on your mind.

Had we continued reading in Matthew 17 the next verse wraps up this story of Jesus’ transfiguration.  It says, “As they were coming down the mountain Jesus ordered them, ‘Tell no one about this vision until after the Son of Man is raised from the dead.’”  In other words, maybe Jesus’ appearance didn’t literally change before their very eyes.  Something equally mysterious may have happened.  They might have together experienced a vision, a glimpse of a deeper reality.  People throughout the ages have seen visions and they still do today.  Maybe some of you have.  Teresa of Avila famously reported that Jesus came and stood before her in bodily form on many occasions over two years.  I know many people who have had mystical experiences of deep connection with the divine or communication with loved ones who have died, a flash of spiritual awakening.  These are not crazy people, mind you.  They are people who have had experiences that they cannot explain but that are very real and very meaningful to them.  Maybe Peter, James, and John saw something like this.

But think about it, we’ve all had the experience of seeing people change seemingly before our very eyes.  None of us like it when someone we love suddenly turns into a different person, and it happens all the time.  Everything’s going along just fine.  We’re in our routine, we know what to expect, and then all at once the little boy is a man.  His voice has changed.  He’s shaving.  He’s leaving for college.  Everything’s going along just fine and all at once our elderly mother breaks her hip or starts to lose her memory, and we have to stop and figure out who this new person is.

It’s hard to get a handle on exactly what happened in this story even though we have three versions of it.  An account of the transfiguration is found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  And I always have to chuckle when I read the part about how excited Peter gets.  He’s like a big puppy dog, Gee, this is great!  How about if I build three little houses for you guys!  In the presence of all this mystery, Peter responds with a call to action.  Don’t just stand there – do something! Overwhelmed and awed by such magnificence, Peter acts like many of us do when faced with a poignant, powerful moment, carpe diem!  C’mon, let’s make it a Kodak moment!  Preserve it for all posterity!  Let’s build some dwellings!  Grab a hammer and some nails and those boards over there!  James, John, don’t just stand there with your mouths hanging open.  Get busy!  Do something!

That’s how many of us think, isn’t it?  Busy!  Busy!  Do this!  Do that!  Gotta get to work!  Produce!  Achieve!  It’s not really our fault.  Our culture values doing on such a fundamental level.  It’s even built into our religion – we’ve all heard about the Protestant work ethic.  What we do is who we are.  And yet, it’s one of the most common laments I hear from people, parishioners and clergy alike.  We’re doing too much.  We’re tired.  We’ve bought into the myth that our identity is based on what we accomplish and if we don’t accomplish anything, then we don’t know who we are.

Actually, we don’t know who anyone is without an idea of what they do.  Get on any airplane and after exchanging names and where you’re from, the next question will most likely be, “What do you do?”  (Sometimes I actually prefer this to happen early on in the conversation because if I’ve been talking with someone for a while before they find out I’m a minister, I always see that same look of horror flash across their faces as they quickly think back on what they’ve said to me, hoping they didn’t use any bad words.  Of course, once they get to know me a little better, they realize they didn’t need to worry about that.)

Our doing is who we are.  And so it’s not surprising that Peter wanted to do something! But God, apparently is having none of it because as Peter is babbling along, the “voice from the cloud” interrupts to say, hush!  This is my Son.  Pay attention to him!  Did you get that, Peter?  Quit talking and doing, and for once in your life, simply pay attention.  Listen!

Of course, the Christian life appropriately includes a lot of doing.  Following Christ, on the one hand, means we serve, we love, we give.  But sometimes we get so wrapped up in all the doing, even the doing of good and honorable things that we lose the ability simply to be.  What’s the most popular hardback book ever sold in America (other than the Bible)?  The Purpose-Driven Life.  We want to know above all else what we’re supposed to do.  And surely there’s a time and place for that.  But we get so action-oriented that we often fail, like Peter, to be contemplative, spiritual, grounded and centered in the essential reality of God’s presence in our lives.  We neglect the importance of simply standing before and in awe of the mystery of God so that we can be people whose doing has meaning; so that we do what we do with purpose; so that we can sustain all the things we do. 

The trick, as with most things, is balance.  Knowing when to do and when and just to be.  Learning to take our work seriously, but not too seriously.  To let go of our need to control, to listen for the voice of God so that we’re not just running around like chickens with our heads cut off.  Instead, our holy doing can flow from a being that is formed in awe and wonder of God.

Lent, which begins this coming Wednesday, calls us to rediscover our spirituality, to be, to quit our frantic babbling, and to pay attention.  At our Ash Wednesday service in a few days, the ashes that will be placed on our forehead are a reminder of our mortality.  We will all die and when we understand that, we may be awakened to a deeper reality that we are more than our physical bodies.  We are the very children of God, forgiven, loved, and held.  And from that identity we are gifted, called, sent to do God’s work in the world.  If we don’t get the being part, then the doing will only be chaotic, frustrated attempts at self-justification or our doing will be grounded in fear and devoid of any joy.  If all your doing seems madness and pointless, learn again to behold the mystery, to enter a quiet place of awe. 

There will be more than ample opportunity for living out our call to action.  But in order to be able to do that, at least for now, at least during Lent, turn things around.  Instead of “Don’t just sit there, go out and do something,” say to yourself, “Don’t just go out and do something.  Sit there!”

Amen.

Considering Lillies - 2/27/11

Considering Lillies

Rev. Lee Ann Bryce

Community Christian Church

February 27, 2011

Today we return to the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew’s gospel.  Jesus continues to talk about the lifestyle of those who claim to belong to God’s kingdom on earth.  Today’s text deals primarily with how God’s people are to relate to money; to material things.

Before I begin reading the scripture, I want to ask you a question.  What do you worry about?  Are you someone who wakes up in the middle of the night with niggling thoughts running through your brain that you struggle to control?  Or do you drift off in daydreams about the things you’re afraid of?  You know, those old, familiar thoughts:  will I get laid off from my job?  Will I find a job?  How can I afford to make that pricey repair on my house?  What if my child continues to struggle?  What if that medical test comes back indicating a major health issue?  What if I don’t have enough funds to live on when I retire? 

Many of us have these kinds of worries.  Sometimes they even follow the same pattern.  How we choose to relate to the things that leave us anxious makes a difference in the quality of our lives.  As Christians, we seek to live to some extent as Jesus did.  Our worries can greatly impact our ability to live lives centered in the peace of Christ.

The good news is that in this passage, Jesus speaks precisely to this issue that almost everyone can identify with.  Matthew 6:-24-34:  (Text read while images are shown.)

“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? ²⁸And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ ³²For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

These words of Jesus may well have originally been directed specifically toward his disciples.  Remember, they had left homes and families to become, like Jesus, traveling teachers.  As those who had given up worldly possessions they may have been wavering in their faith.  Could they really meet the demands of the job to which Jesus had called them? 

These words, though originally addressed the disciples, are equally pertinent to us.  We should not understand this passage literally and legalistically.  To the disciples and to us, however, these verses represent a radical call to move away from our cultural values and toward a life of trust. 

Of course, trusting in God’s provision doesn’t mean that we give up on working or owning property.  Rather, we are to see that our life is not based on these things.  We are not called to carelessness or irresponsibility.  We’re not to become birds or lilies, but to consider God’s providence for all of creation – birds, wildflowers, human beings.  We are warned against a slavish, anxious, worried preoccupation with wealth as though money were one’s owner or master. 

And verse 34 comes across loud and clear:  So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.   Today’s trouble is enough for today.  In other words, address each day’s problems as they come, confident that your life is in the hands of God who somehow holds the whole world in holy hands.

So, Jesus tells us not to worry, so let’s just not worry ok?  Can that just be the end of the sermon?  I wish that would be how it worked, don’t you?  If your mind is like mine, it’s just not that easy to shut it off once those little niggling thoughts get going.  Before you know it, you’re looking at the clock as the hours tick away, dreading the early alarm that starts another day, on a night’s sleep brought short by worry.

Why do we worry so much?  What is wrong with us?  Rarely do the things we worry about happen.  Is there anything we can do to stop the destructive habit of worrying? 

I think Jesus gets us started in a positive direction in dealing with worry with the very valid point he makes in v. 27:  Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?  It’s a good question.  Has worry ever, in the history of humankind, every done anyone any good?  No, of course not.  Worrying provides zero benefit whatsoever.  In fact, not only is it a waste of time, a completely ineffective strategy for dealing with life, it actually makes things worse.  By worrying, our problems seem worse than they really are.  Our energy is drained, and our capacity to deal with life effectively is crippled. 

The good news is that we have more control over the tendency to worry than we might imagine.  We can break the habit of worry and therefore free ourselves of its destructiveness.  And I will offer some specific ideas on how to get started, but first I just want to make a clarification.  Being concerned and worried are two very different things.  Being concerned about something means that there may or may not be a potential problem.  From a concerned mindset, we can assess the situation intelligently, and decide on how best to handle it; we have control over how the situation is affecting us.  Being worried about something, on the other hand, puts all the power into the problem or situation.  The issue usually becomes much worse in our minds than it actually is.  Our thinking becomes sluggish, and a sense of panic or foreboding sets in.  We become almost paralyzed, waiting for something terrible to happen.

Whether you worry all the time or only occasionally, we can all benefit from some specifics to help us end worry when it sneaks in.  First, try writing your worries down.  When these thoughts constantly float around in your brain, worries can seem much bigger than they actually are.  Writing them down may well give you more control over them.  Write exactly what is going through your head.  You might return to it later to find what you’ve written seems completely crazy.  Or if you don’t dismiss it as crazy, you can begin formulating possible solutions for the problems you face.  In one study, people wrote down their worries for 14 days.  When they reviewed their lists after that period, they found that 85% of their worries never came to pass.

Another idea - play the time warp.  Pretend you are in the future.  Look back on the problems you are worrying about today.  Do they look as difficult or scary as they do today?  Frequently you’ll find that this perspective helps you to see your current difficulties in a different light.

Something else that helps?  Resolve to live in the present moment.  And that means being present to your life just as it is, without judgment.  Spending time feeling guilt about the past or taking on tomorrow’s troubles keeps us from being present today.  Psychologist Richard Carlson said, “As you focus on becoming more peaceful with where you are, rather than focusing on where you’d rather be, you begin to find peace right now, in the present.”

It also helps if you cut yourself a little slack.  Self-criticism feeds worry.  Though some think constant self-assessment and criticism spurs them toward their goals, in reality it usually does just the opposite. 

You also might try something proactive.  Invest yourself in a daily practice of meditation.  This helps to boost your ability to live in the present moment.  Start with a modest program of daily meditation – 5 minutes a day.  Anyone can manage 5 minutes a day just to sit and breath.  (And if you don’t know how to start, we have coming up the perfect opportunity to learn.  Sign –up for the Pre-Lenten Mindful Meditation Morning that Lisa and I are facilitating on this Saturday, March 6.)  I honestly believe a daily meditation practice will change your life for the better in more ways than you could imagine.

One last suggestion, be grateful.  Gratitude can have a profound effect on calming fears, reducing envy, cooling anger.  When you look at the rest of the world, where hundreds of millions of people struggle every day to find enough food to eat and clean water to drink, most of us in North America have much to be grateful for.  Another study revealed that people who kept a gratitude journal were significantly happier than those who did not.  Gratitude creates a healthier perspective and a more hopeful outlook on life. 

³⁴“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. Worry does not empty tomorrow of its troubles – it empties today of its strength.  Instead, strive first for the kingdom of God and its righteousness.

Choose Life - 2/13/11

Choose Life

Rev. Lee Ann Bryce

Community Christian Church

February 13, 2011

See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. ¹⁶If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in God’s ways, and observing God’s commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. ¹⁷But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, ¹⁸I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. ¹⁹I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, ²⁰loving the Lord your God, obeying God, and holding fast to God; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

I happen to think this is a gorgeous passage of scripture.  I’m sure I’m not alone in that and I can imagine many uplifting sermons that can be preached on this text.  However, we really do this passage a disservice if we move too quickly to how it might apply to our lives, without first considering what it meant in its original context.  So, we’re going to begin today by looking at what these verses reveal in the life of our ancestors in the faith, then with that context as a backdrop, we’ll move to what it might mean to us.

Let’s start with a whirlwind tour through the history of ancient Israel.  (Depending on who you are, you either got excited when I just said that or you groaned to yourself at the prospect of a history lesson.  I promise it will go quickly!)  Since we’re been reflecting on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount for the past few weeks in worship, consider that these words from Deuteronomy speak of a time thousands of years earlier.  The Israelites had been held in slavery in Egypt, then Moses arose as a leader, going to Pharoah demanding, “Let My People Go.”  Things didn’t go as quickly as Moses and the people had hoped, of course.  And so all those plagues were sent (you know, gnats, frogs, boils, hail, locusts) to persuade Pharoah to listen and release the people.  Eventually, when all the first born children in Egypt were killed, that was the last straw.  Pharoah had had enough and he let the Israelites go.

They went gratefully on their way, into the desert, led by Moses where they wandered for 40 years, of course, not a literal length of time, but Bible short hand for a long, long time.  They were headed for the promised land that they felt God had promised to them.  The book of Deuteronomy opens when the people are poised right on the edge of the promised land looking in.  The failures of the past lay behind them and the challenges of a new future, ahead.

It’s been said that Deuteronomy is Moses’ last will and testament for the Israelites though that’s a little misleading.  After all, Deuteronomy was written down hundreds and hundreds of years after these events happened and so what we have is the record (again, not a literal account) of how a much later people shaped these traditions. The book is organized around 3 speeches attributed to Moses.  The first two speeches include historical summaries, plus an urgent appeal to faithfulness.  In the second speech you’ll hear about the Ten Commandments and the Shema, “Hear of Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.” 

Sometimes when I’m doing sermon research I come across one of those passages that just stop me in my tracks because it’s just so, so strange.  Most preachers will ignore those passages, but I just cannot help myself.  I have to show it to you.  Though there’s a lot of, shall we say, interesting reading material in Deuteronomy, I just want to quickly point out chapter twenty-eight.  Remember, in Deuteronomy, Moses is teaching the people what they must do in order to be safe and thrive in community.  So there’s a lot of, do this good thing and this will be the result, but if you do this bad thing, then this horrible thing is what you can expect.  While we might be put off by this sort of instruction, this teaching, which ancient Israelites considered as law, was really a gift to the people.  Obedience to the law was literally a matter of life and death.  They didn’t think of the law as a burden to be endured.  Following the law meant that you’d be more likely to survive under dangerous conditions. 

Chapter 28 is one of those “blessings and curses” chapters and it does go on and one.  It’s quite explicit!  The first 14 verses outline all the good things they could expect if they follow the law, things like, “The Lord God will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your livestock,” (v. 11) and God will “make you the head, not the tail; you shall only be at the top and not the bottom” (v. 13).  That sounds pretty good, but what if they didn’t follow the law?  What would happen them?

Beginning in v. 15, we hear.  “If you will not obey the Lord your God by diligently observing God’s commandments and decrees, which I am commanding today, then all of these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.”  Then the rest of the chapter describes in great detail the curses they could expect:

Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. ¹⁷Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. ¹⁸Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock. ¹⁹Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. ²⁰The Lord will send upon you disaster, panic, and frustration in everything you attempt to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me. ²¹The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until it has consumed you off the land that you are entering to possess. ²²The Lord will afflict you with consumption, fever, inflammation, with fiery heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish….

That’s enough of that.  You get the idea.  But in case you haven’t, let’s pick it up in v. 52 with a little reminder that, as I said, gets very explicit:

It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout your land; it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout the land that the Lord your God has given you. ⁵³In the desperate straits to which the enemy siege reduces you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your own sons and daughters whom the Lord your God has given you. ⁵⁴Even the most refined and gentle of men among you will begrudge food to his own brother, to the wife whom he embraces, and to the last of his remaining children, ⁵⁵giving to none of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because nothing else remains to him, in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in all your towns. ⁵⁶She who is the most refined and gentle among you, so gentle and refined that she does not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge food to the husband whom she embraces, to her own son, and to her own daughter, ⁵⁷begrudging even the afterbirth that comes out from between her thighs, and the children that she bears, because she is eating them in secret for lack of anything else, in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in your towns. ⁵⁸²³

(I wonder how often this passage has been read in worship.)  Yes, in my book, this falls under the “Strange and Shocking Things Found in the Bible” category.  And lest you think I’m just pointing it out for a laugh, I’m really not.  I’m showing you how seriously the ancient Israelites took this instruction.  Being faithful to God by following the law God had provided was the path toward survival in a time when they thought any of those horrible and terrifying things could happen. 

“I set before you life and death, blessings and curses.  Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.”  (Deut. 30:19).  I saw a film recently that is a great illustration of choosing life.  It’s academy awards time and one of the films up for best pictures is “127 Hours.”  It’s the story of Aaron Ralston, an avid outdoorsman who in 2003 was hiking alone in a canyon.  A big rock slipped, pinning his arm so tightly that he couldn’t move it.  And as all the headlines at the time reported, he ended up severing his own arm to escape.  It’s a terrific movie – not for the faint of heart – but an amazing film that pays tribute to Ralston’s strength, courage, and will to survive. 

In the film, he had been trapped for almost 5 days with little food and water and was close to death.  He had tried everything he could think of to escape and was ready to give up and let go of his life.  And then something happened to renew his will to live.  I won’t go into it because I don’t want to give away the film in case you haven’t seen it yet.  (No spoilers in my sermons!)  For Ralston, to choose life meant that he found a way to literally survive.  But more importantly, in those long days pinned in the cavern, he thought about his life – his fierce independence, the ways he had isolated himself from the people who loved him, his arrogant idea that he was so indestructible that he could go hiking all by himself, miles out in the Utah desert and not tell a single soul where he was.  He realized that dying in a canyon, pinned under a rock, all by himself, was a fitting death, a natural consequence of the life he’d lived.

Let’s hope it won’t take any of us such extreme circumstances to realize the errors of our ways.  The issue of survival for the ancient Israelites was essentially a conflict of faith and culture.  They were to do certain things because their faith required it.  They were urged not to “bow down to other gods.”  Arrogant independence was the god that called Aaron Ralston.  What other gods call to you?  The possibilities are endless.  There are many engrained values of our culture that continually call to us, that we struggle to resist; things like financial prosperity, excessive focus on how we look or value placed on the things we own, accumulating stuff.  Many struggle with an intense desire simply to be liked that keeps them from living with integrity.  Or some struggle with addictions that lead to their destruction.

What are the other Gods that call to you?  Let’s pause for a moment to reflect on our own lives, to identify the things that get in the way of healthy living.  (Silent reflection.)

“I set before you life and death; blessings and curses.  Choose life so that you and your descendants may live."  As we consider the many choices before us, let us make choices that will lead to healthy living – physically, emotionally, spiritually.  Amen.

Knowing Who We Are 2/6/11

Knowing Who We Are

Rev. Lee Ann Bryce

Community Christian Church

February 6, 2011

Last week, worship focused around one of the most beloved passages of scripture, the opening section of what is called the Sermon on the Mount, Beatitudes, in which Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor, that those who mourn will be comforted and that the meek will inherit the earth.  He said that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled, that the pure in heart will see God, and peacemakers will inherit the earth.  Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.  In the beatitudes Jesus says that these things will happen – someday, somewhere. 

One thing for sure, it certainly hasn’t happened yet.  In our world people are routinely persecuted for all sorts of things:  for faith, for politics, for ethnic identity, for sexual orientation, for the color of their skin.  In the beatitudes Matthew describes a different reality than we know – were those who morn are comforted, where the poor and the persecuted inherit riches and peace beyond their wildest dreams.  He calls this kind of place the kingdom of heaven. 

In his gospel, Matthew often uses this term, the kingdom of heaven.  And sometimes we assume that he’s talking about some kind of kingdom in heaven, another world beyond death, an afterlife that is nothing like this life.  He’s not.  When Matthew says, kingdom of heaven, you can accurately substitute kingdom of God.  You see, Matthew was merely using a common Jewish reverential practice of avoiding the word “God” as much as possible.  So instead of saying God’s kingdom, Matthew says, the kingdom of heaven.

And the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven does not refer to an afterlife.  Kingdom of heaven refers to the earth, right now.  Just as it says in the Lord’s Prayer, on earth as it is in heaven.  The kingdom of heaven is about the transformation of life in this world.  How is the transformation of life in this world to take place?  When will this happen?

And as we continue reading in Matthew chapter 5, we begin to see Jesus’ idea of how God’s kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven” unfolds. 

You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under-foot. ¹⁴You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. ¹⁵No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. ¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to God in heaven.   Matthew 5:13-16

Here Jesus uses two common, everyday images to tell his disciples who they are.  And we, right along with that crowd who heard the Sermon on the Mount, listen to hear that we, too, are “the salt of the earth,” and “the light of the world.”  And while Jesus is telling us who we are, his use of the metaphors salt and light, are really much more about what we do and how we do it, the effect of what we do in the world.  Salt and light make a difference.  Have you ever tasted something when you’re cooking that seemed bland, but then you added a few shakes of salt and the taste changed completely?  Or have you walked in a darkened room and lit just a single candle, then waited for a moment for your eyes to adjust to see the entire room illuminated?

We are salt and light.  Salt that isn’t salty isn’t much good for anything.  Light that is cloaked or covered; that is not permitted to shine, is useless.  Who we are is shown by what we do.  Like salt and light, we are to be agents of change.  And the gospel clarifies what this means.  We are to disorder the status quo by valuing those who are dispossessed, caring for those who suffer loss, seeking to do justice, showing mercy, having integrity, being peacemakers, and courageously standing for what we believe.

I recently made the acquaintance of a new friend, someone I’d like to tell you a bit about.  His name is Bruce Pollock and he’s in worship today.  I guess you could say he’s a pretty salty guy.

(Which is interesting to use a gospel metaphor for him because Bruce, actually is Jewish.  Of course, the Torah of Moses and the torah of Jesus, who was himself Jewish, agree on the core message that we are all to be agents of change in our world.)

Bruce wrote a letter to the editor in City News about his work that caught Lisa’s eye, leading to the three of us getting together to learn more about what Bruce is doing to improve education right here in Rochester.  We’ve all heard the statistics about student performance in our city schools.  Only 46% of students graduate which is on the one hand shocking and on the other hand, not surprising at all, given that only 28% of elementary children passed the State English Language Arts (ELA) Exam last year.   Children will continue to struggle in school until they have adequate literacy skills. 

If you’re like me, you might read these stats and sigh and feel sad.  You might go a step further and try to learn more about it.  You might even go to school to be a reading teacher and contribute in that way.  You might criticize politicians or administrators or teachers.  Here’s what Bruce did.

A few years ago, Bruce was a business manager for IBM.  He’s a smart fellow with an MBA from Harvard.  He worked for IBM for 20 plus years and then, Bruce got laid off.  As he describes it, he was sort of happily laid off (which tells you a lot about Bruce’s character.)  He had been happy enough in his work, but he could also sense the promise of new possibilities for his life.  He decided to take full advantage of his new found freedom and pursue a great passion, improving the education for Rochester students. 

He founded an organization called FREE Partnerships (Friends of Educational Excellence:  Helping Students Succeed).  They set up community partnerships to support teachers by providing volunteers to work with students to help their learning and skill development.  (Bruce is staying for a meeting after church with all of those who are interested in learning more about how, with minimal time commitment, you can personally be involved in this work.  Everyone is invited to attend.  I encourage you to come just to learn more about what Bruce is doing.

Bruce is one example of what our scripture passage is all about.  Sometimes people say, I don’t get the Bible at all.  I don’t know what it means and I don’t know how it applies to my life.  I can point to Bruce today and say that’s what it means.  It’s about the responsibility that we all have; the willingness to do what we can to make a difference in the world.  To walk the talk of our faith.  Our faith doesn’t mean anything if it doesn’t do something.

I think the problem is that many of us do not think of ourselves as salt, with its capacity to change, to shake things up or as light, with its inherent ability to illuminate.  Many of us think of ourselves instead as incapable, overextended, weary, even sinful.  What a shame.  I wonder how our lives would change if when we looked at ourselves in the mirror with full integrity could say, I am the light of the world.  Wow.  You are the light of the world.  It’s true.

I’d like to close with a short guided meditation.  Make sure your body is in a comfortable position.  Close your eyes, if you’re comfortable to do so.  And just start by being mindful of your breath.  Follow your breath for a moment and relax your body.  (Silence)  Now I want you to picture yourself, just as you are, right now, sitting in your pew, only add one change.  Picture your very body as being illuminated from deep within.  As you sit here, you are literally glowing, your body is emitting light like a lamp.  (Silence)  Now picture yourself leaving worship, perhaps heading down to coffee hour or coming to the meeting with Bruce or just getting in your car and going home.  Picture yourself, doing whatever you do, continuing to glow with a warm light from deep within.  (Silence)  And as you encounter people, something fascinating happens – your glow extends to them.  When the cashier gives you your change, your light passes to them.  When you pick up your child, they begin to glow too.  Whether you come upon a stranger or a close family member, your light passes to them.  And so you go through your day, warming, encouraging, enlightening everyone you encounter.  (Silence)  You are the light of the world.  Open your eyes.

As we strive to live faithfully in this world, may we do so in full knowledge of who we are.  Amen.

The Language of Hope 1/30/11

The Beatitudes Part 1:  The Language of Hope

Rev. Lee Ann Bryce

Community Christian Church

January 30, 2011

                                                                                                                                                Text:  Matthew 5:1-12

We’ve just sung our text for today, Matthew 5:1-12, otherwise known as the Beatitudes.  It’s one of the better known and beloved passages in the Bible, right up there with the 23^rd Psalm.  In Matthew, the Beatitudes are part of what is called the “Sermon on the Mount,” because verse one says, “And when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountain and begin to teach them saying, ‘Blessed are…’”  A similar version is found in Luke, only in Luke it’s called the “Sermon on the Plain.”  Any idea why?  The answer is a bit like the answer to “Who is buried in Grant’s tomb?”  In Luke it’s called the Sermon on the Plain because it says, “Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place….and Jesus looked at his disciples and said, ‘Blessed are…’”  (Luke 6:17, 20).  Of course it isn’t the local that matters here.  What matters is the rich, memorable, and thought-provoking text that is attributed to Jesus.

It’s interesting to note that beatitudes were very common expressions in those days, and not just in religious circles.  They were everyday sayings about the good life, listing virtues that anyone would have been pleased to have.  Blessed are the wise, for they shall not be fooled.  Blessed are the wealthy, for they shall never go hungry.  The word “blessed” is also translated as happy – Happy are the strong for their enemies will fear them, or in French, debonair.  That’s fun, isn’t it?  Debonair are those who invest well, for their old age shall be secure.  (Supposedly, anyway.)

What was so shocking about Jesus’ version of beatitudes was his peculiar content.  Blessed are the meek?  The mournful?  The poor in spirit?  Is he kidding?  Do these thing sound debonair?  Rejoice and be glad when you’re reviled and persecuted?  It sounds like a pretty convoluted idea of the good life, doesn’t it?   (Taylor, The Upside Down Good Life.) 

It could be that many of us have heard them for so long that we don’t really hear them anymore; they’ve lost their shock value for us.  We love to sing “Blest Are They,” (and we sing it quite well!)  The Beatitudes sound sort of comforting, that’s why that song is often sung at funerals.  We might be inclined to needlepoint the Beatitudes on a little pillow or something.  Or maybe we hear them like they’re commandments and we worry that we’re not meek enough, not poor enough, not persecuted enough!

The Beatitudes are not commandments.  There’s no “do this and this will happen.”  They are descriptive:  this is what these people are now and this is what the future holds for them in the “kingdom of heaven” as Matthew puts it.  The Beatitudes speak the language of hope.  They promise that the way things are now is not the way they will be in the future.  What future is Jesus referring to?  When will things be the way he describes them?  Well, that is the topic for next week’s sermon as we continue looking at the Beatitudes.  For today, we’re considering how they sound – to us and to others.  Anything we hear, any message we receive by written or spoken words (and this applies to every word of the Bible, of course) is understood differently depending on who we are.  What sounds like very good news to some may sound like very bad news to another.  In Luke’s version of this text, we hear a similar “blessed are the poor, the hungry, etc.” but Luke follows that up with a little section that sounds a bit off-putting, “Woe to you who are rich,” “Woe to you are full now” because you’re going to be hungry.  “Woe to you who are laughing now,” for things will change and you will be weeping.  If you’re weeping, that sounds pretty good.  If you happen to be laughing it’s a bit sobering.

Consider how different people might hear the beatitudes:

John shuffled down the city street.  It was January in Rochester and streets were lined with big icy piles of brownish snow, pushed there by plows.  Today’s allotment of snow was starting to fall as he walked along, pulling his inadequate coat tighter around him, an old ball cap on his head, his hands bare.  For John, the streets had been his home for a long time.  Most nights he was able to find a place to spend the night and he was grateful for that.  His feet were sore and it hurt to walk.  He spent much of his day standing, walking on concrete sidewalks.  Whenever he found a warm, dry spot to pass the time, it didn’t seem to last for long.  He would spot someone in authority walking toward him with that look on their face that said he was about to be asked to leave.  He understood and he would meekly nod and get up to leave to find the next spot.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

Stan was preoccupied as he drove home from work.  Shock was probably the more apt description.  Joe, his partner of 20 years, was dying.  He didn’t have long left and Stan had requested family leave to care for him.  Stan had never told his boss or his co-workers about Joe, but he trusted it would work out.  Surely everyone knew he was gay.  He had turned in his request for family leave yesterday and today expected to get approval.  But when he had entered his boss’ office her expression was…well, frightening.  She shook her head, “Your kind,” she had said.  “Your kind…destroys our families.”  He looked down to see the cross necklace against her sweater.  He hadn’t heard much else that she had said.  He didn’t even know if his request had been granted or denied.  It was just her expression, and that cross, and those two words, “your kind,” that kept replaying over and over again as he tried to drive home.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

                Angela was quietly weeping as she drove.  Her meticulously manicured fingernails gripped the

steering wheel of her Porsche as if it were a life-vest.  She was late for her massage appointment,

but her therapist would wait.  Everyone waited for Angela and eagerly did her bidding – her housekeeper, her hair stylist, her few friends, everyone except her husband.  You see she had married the love of her life, the cheerleader and the quarterback of the football team, no less.  Together they had ridden the roller coaster that was their shared life.  She knew he had had indiscretions, but nothing prepared her for his brisk announcement three days ago.  He was moving out and Angela’s tears knew no end.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” 

The Beatitudes are the words of God for the people of God.  They speak of a different reality than we know.  They promise that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit, the meek, the persecuted.  What do you suppose he meant by that?  Does the kingdom of heaven refer to an afterlife or to this life?  Will God bring this kingdom about with or without us?  Do we have anything to do with the creation of a kingdom, a reality in which the whole earth belongs to the meek?

Next week, we will continue with this text by considering what the Kingdom of Heaven might have meant to Jesus.