Tuesday, 12 April, 2005

1 Peter 2:9-10
"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."

There are lots of voices that try to tell us who we are and what we should think about ourselves. Nearly every television commercial tells us, at least implicitly, that our value as people is determined by the products we consume and the stuff we buy. If we want to be people of refined taste, we'll have Kohler faucets in the bathroom and a Lexus in the garage-or at least those are the things we'll want to have. And maybe we don't have to have a white picket fence anymore, but conventional wisdom still tells us that I'm only on the right track if I've got a romantic relationship, a lucrative job, and a well-developed portfolio to ensure my comfortable lifestyle into the future. Political voices tell us the same. If we want our opinion to count, our identities need to fit the molds presented to us with labels like "freedom-loving" and "patriotic" or "modern-thinking" and "progressive"-and then we have to buy into the agendas that go with them wholesale. And if we listen closely to those voices, they'll all tell us that we have to do something first and only then will we be people of status. My worth is then either grounded in my tenacity in getting the best for myself, or my ability to fall in line with what some other group calls "good."

The word from 1 Peter, and from the whole witness of Scripture, turns that whole logic on its head. Our worth and our identity do not rest in whether we have chosen the right things or come from the right category first. Rather, they are grounded in the God who has first chosen us and brought us into a new people. Our identity is given to us as a gift of grace, and our value comes from the unswerving declaration of God that we are loved. That faithful love redefines us-it says we are precious when conventional wisdom calls us damaged goods. And it gives purpose and meaning when television can only advise us to aimlessly acquire more and more stuff in the pursuit of happiness. It can almost be scary to live in the freedom of that love, since we no longer have a checklist of things to do or have in order to guarantee our status-only the simple promise of God that we are "God's people." But maybe-no, more than maybe-that promise is enough.

Connection: What might I freed from as I see that other claims do not have the final say on me? What might I be committed to as I let the claim of God take hold of all of who I am?

Gracious God, tell us who we are again-we forget so easily. Open our eyes to see that you have already brought us into you marvelous light, and let us see the possibilities of this new day.

Monday, 11 April, 2005

Our devotions for the first few days of this week will come from the second chapter of 1 Peter, which rather conveniently overlaps with the second lessons for the next two Sundays. Hurray for a theme, right?

1 Peter 2:2-3
"Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation-if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good."

The shoes were enormous. I must have been in third or fourth grade when my father bought me a pair of tennis shoes that was at least three sizes bigger than the ones I wore at the time. At first I thought he'd forgotten my size-or gotten me confused with a young Goliath-but he told me that he got them so big intentionally. They were for when my feet got bigger with age and I grew into them. All I could do was to grow into them by drinking enough milk (that's the standard parental prescription for developing children, right?) and by just being the boy I was. And in the mean time, there those tennis shoes would sit, a sort of signpost toward the future, a rubber-soled promise of who I would become. But while I waited, I didn't have to do anything to make those shoes my possession-they were already mine. All I could do was to grow into them.

I can't help but picture the same shoes when I read that line from 1 Peter about "growing into salvation." It's not that salvation is some fixed material reward handed to us in a cardboard box at the pearly gates on some distant day. No, just the opposite-God gives it to us even now, even before we have grown into it. Paul would put it to the Romans by saying that God's love came to us in Christ "while we were still weak." But the idea is the same here-salvation is given to us in the present, plain and simple, and all we can do is to grow into that gift, the gift we have already received. We use words like "salvation," "hope," and "redemption," as signposts pointing toward God's future, a future God is drawing us and all this hurting creation into. We use those words as shorthand for the promise that God has loved us now, even in our infant-like weakness, even in our childish self-centeredness, and that God will not rest until that love has had its way with us, taken root in us, and come to fruition. In the mean time, all we can do is to grow into that love.

Connection: Salvation is already ours as a gift from God. And because of that, in this day, we no longer need to stew over whether we're "in" or not in God's book. Instead, we can look hopefully to how we will be changed in this day and how the love of our God will take hold of us in surprising new ways.

Gracious God, let us drink you in deep and taste that you are good. Give us the freedom to trust that you are leading us and making us to grow into who we are-your very children. Amen.

Wednesday, 6 April, 2005

Text: Galatians 4:1-7

My point is this: heirs, as long as they are minors, are no better than slaves, though they are the owners of all the property; but they remain under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. So with us; while we were minors, we were enslaved to the elemental spirits of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

Our status - has changed. Not because we have grown up...not because we have learned something new...not because we have become enlightened...not because we have achieved a greater level of consciousness, rather it has changed by God's action. The elemental spirits...can be literally translated as "what is put in a row" "what is put in order." The law...like a nanny keeps us in line, teaches us the alphabet...the ways things must go. The elemental spirits can be the ordering of the stars...the charts that we can count on as we sail the seas. But...they do not give us our status for life. As heirs...adopted ones at that...we are children in an intimate and close relationship with God...because God says so. God has liberated us from the many ways we have tried to sustain ourselves and make something of our selves by "putting our ducks in a row" or "getting it right" or "following the letter of the law" with the expectation that it could save us. The law...the order...the nanny who helps and teaches - is good. But we are sons and daughters - heirs of the Reign of God...because our status is changed by God

Connection: Three cheers for rules and order. Thank God for adopting us...making us God's own - no conditions - completely & even today...even today.

O God you display the mastery of your creative power in the order of life tha surrounds us. You display the fullness of your grace by holding each of us as your beloved children. Remind us of our status within your Reign and remind us of the same status that is given to those we encounter along the way. Amen.

Tuesday, 5 April, 2005

Text: Galatians 3:23-29

Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. AS many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greeek, there is no longer slave of free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Our identity is in the fact that in our baptism we have clothed ourselves in Christ. It is an all new identity and character and community. How new...? Take a look at the abolishment of the "natural" distinctions that would send us off in different groups and with different lives. No longer Jew or Greek...slave or free...male or female. We are in Christ and with that status and new reality there is no need for the law as our nanny (disciplinarian) to make us act a certain way so as to see to our safe keeping. We live according to the promise as heirs by faith. I find it particularly important that Paul points out the complete lack of the distinctions that once were considered "second nature." They are no longer needed. Even when the law made sure that those distinctions were in place - no longer. No longer is the status of a person set in place by the law and how one fits into its definition of good and right. Now, we are one in Christ Jesus. We may want the distinctions to continue...we may even argue that they stay in place for any number of reasons...but as one in Christ...there is not longer.....

Connection: Paul's earliest letters are very inclusive - radical...right to the root of the gracious acts of God in Christ Jesus. Today, churches and congregation are often known for how well they can maintain distinctions. Homogeneous congregation have proved that they will grow....duh...of course they will...we long for like-minded, like-looking, like-economic status. And yet in Christ there is a new reality. Can we put names to our ongoing ways of drawing insiders and outsiders...and can we trust that our Lord will help us dismantle those distinctions and walk with us?!

O God of all humankind, how great is you word of truth and the life you offer to your beloved children through Jesus. May we see inn those around us this day the many ways you present yourself to us in the diversity of your creatures. Amen.

Monday, 4 April, 2005

Text: Galatians 3:19-22

Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring would come to whom the promise had been made; and it was ordained through angles by a mediator. Now a mediator involves more than one party; but God is one.

Is the law then opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could make alive, then righteousness would indeed come through the law. But the scripture has imprisoned all things under the power of sin, so that what was promised through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Verses 19 & 20 raise up some considerations about the law that seem to make the argument for it secondary status. The comments end with the assertion that God is one - in contradiction to the what preceeded it. Then comes a bit of sarcasm that is particularly pointed. The questions "Is the law then opposed to the promises of God?" comes from voices that are confronting what has just been said by Paul. The forceful "Certainly not!" is Paul's quick response. But then he throws in the kicker. In essence he says that the law - has nothing to do with the promises of God. "For if a law had been given that could make alive, then righteousness would indeed come through the law." God's promise comes not through the law but by faith. The law doesn't bring us into the same place as the promise of God to be our God. The law has another function - not to save - not to make one right before God. The law has it's good place - useful - helpful for daily order and life and community development...but it does not make one alive.

Connection: So then, what is the impact on being made alive -today!? We all know the law is a great help to us in each of our days. All the fuss over the ten commandments being put up on the walls of schools is a sign of that truthfulness. We like and we need and we respect the law and what it does to shape our living. But now, what impact does the promise of God to be our God have on our lives - today!? Trustiing that - having faith in that...what does life become for us - today!?!

Blessed Lord of Life, we give you thanks for the place of the law within our lives and for the gracious embrace of your promise. Lead us into a prayerful appreciation of your never failing love for us. Amen

Friday, 1 April, 2005

Text: Since we are headed into a few days that will deal with the law and how Paul sees it being used, I will again interject another reading so that several days needed to deal with the size of the Galatians text will be continuous. So...from Between Noon & Three by Robert Farrar Capon.

In a follow-up comment on the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32): Let me refine that a little. I said grace cannot prevail until law is dead, until moralizing is out of the game. The precise phrase shoud be, until our fatal love affair with the law is over - until, finally and for good, our lifelong certainty that someone is keeping score has run out of steam and collapsed. As long as we leave, in our dramatizations of grace, one single hope of a moral reckoning, one possible recourse to salvation by bookkeeping, our freedom-dreading hearts will clutch it to themselves. And even if we leave none at all, we will grub for ethics that are not there rather than face the liberty to which grace calls us. Give us the parable of the Prodigal Son, for example, and we will promptly lose its point by preaching ourselves sermons on Worthy and Unworthy Confession, or on the Sin of the Elder Brother.

The notion of "one single hope of moral reckoning" is always a temptation. It is always what we think will make things well. It is easier to be a proponent of "moral living" as the way of fixing our status before God than to trust that our status is set - by God alone. Of course, this does not mean the end of morality. On the contrary, it is much like the "law" that comes after the promise to Abraham and his seed (yesterday in Galatians). Morality helps to keep things in order...but that is not the final nor the first word. In fact, I would submit that it is the promise - taken and held onto as though it is our life (which it is!) that truly transforms our everyday lives to be that which we commonly call the life of the body of Christ. A grace-filled living that will be like nothing the law on its own can bring. Self-giving love that comes out of our understanding that we are dead and only alive by grace, cannot be legislated. It is a gift that cuts through the curtain of the law so that God is truly visible in the midst of us.

Connection: What power grace can have for the living of this day! We are free to be agents of graceful living even when there is no command to be such agents. We are free to give beyond the limit of the law or the demands of the law. We can be graceful even in our driving. Free to obey the orange barrels and free to give gifts of gracefulness to other drivers as we tool along the road in a day when road rage seems to rule. Ha!

O God of grace and orange barrels, lift up our hearts by your loving kindness and mercy. Show us the path of your beloved, Jesus, that we, in this day, may walk within that grace and love. Amen.

30 March 2005

Jesus get a longer look in "The Prophetic Imagination" by Walter Brueggemann.

A fourth aspect of what Brueggemann says is a part of Jesus' radical criticism.
Jesus' attitude toward the temple (Mark 11:15-19; John 218-22 was finally the most ominous threat because there he spoke directly about the destruction. In so doing he of course voices the intent of the enemies of the church and the state. Moreover, in his speech about the temple he quotes from the temple sermon of Jeremiah (Jer. 7:11), thereby mobilizing that painful memory of dismantling criticism and the in fact radically replicating it here. In critiquing the temple, Jesus struck at the center of the doctrine of election...Thus Jesus advances the critical tradition of Jeremiah against the royal tradition reflected in Isaiah.

This kind of criticism that cuts to the very heart of the tradition and power that has built up a people and made great promises to them cannot be tolerated. It cannot be tolerated because there is still a corporate memory that recalls that this very center of the religious community can be wiped out. When there is great loss, there is often the attitude that we can never let it happen again...we must do everything we can to prevent such destruction and loss. This brings us to what is so human about all of us. When we dig in and become entrenched and say "never again," we often become the ones who oppress and restrict and make gods of the patterns and objects of our lives and we will serve them at all cost. I remember a speaker who insisted that a god is that to which we give our lives even if it means sacrificing our children and our own lives - everything. At that time, he was making reference to our worship of nuclear weapons and the military-industrial complex as a whole. We will secure ourselves even if it means we must destroy others by not taking care of the basic needs of most of the people. Jesus was holding up a mirror so that the religious and cultural leaders could see what was taking place. They could not and would not stand for such a clear portrayal of their world...and...they did not.

Connection: Always take another look at what is being served in our lives today. The gods of our lives try to stay hidden beneath the many causes and good order of the day...but they are there waiting to be served by us. It is not easy to stay out of their reach and hold on us.

You, O God, and the one true God who liberates and brings life. We are likely to forget that fact and therefore we call upon you Spirit of life to remind us of your place in our lives as Lord of All. Amen.