Another piece from Barth as Willimon writes about this "All" of salvation.
Barth gives thanks that he is preaching "in a house where there are so many closed doors," where he doesn't have to expend much homliletical effort explaining the word "prisoner." He then reminds the inmates that the text says that "all" are prisoners - some enslaved by socialist Utopian dreams, others imprisoned by illness or the deprivations' "of the so-called 'free world,' not to mention death." Barth implies that the prisoners have an advantage in understanding the Scripture since their imprisonment is undeniable, unlike the faithful at First Church Basel.
I cannot imagine being in a prison. I have heard that the sound of the iron doors closing after you enter is a frightening moment. There is no getting out. There is no living...as you were living. The door is closed. And yet, that is where this story of God's Reign begins. Doors are open and all who are prisoners are released. No one is left behind - not one.
Open up our lives, O God, and pull us into places and times within our lives where we will be needed to display your loving presence that your image may become clear to those around us. Amen.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Thursday 30 July 2009
Here's an opening piece from a section called "All" in "Who Will Be Saved?" by William Willimon.
On a late September Sunday in 1957, the great theologian Karl Barth once again preached to the prisoners in the Basel jail. The title for his sermon was simply, "All!" His one verse text: "For God has imprisoned all inn disobedience so that he may be merciful to all" (Romans 11:32). Barth told the prisoners that here was a lofty mountain "which we cannot climb, in our thoughts or in a sermon," a mountain "from which we can only climb down." Barth focuses first on the second phrase of the text - "God has mercy on us. He says 'yes' to us, he wills to be on our side, to be our God against all odds.
...Then Barth notes that this "all" is without qualification - Gentiles, atheists, believers, nonbelievers, those who have been formally incarcerated, and those who sit in judgment upon them - "all." Barth confesses that sometimes he is guilty of wishing that this "all" did not include, "this fellow-creature beside me, in front of me or behind, whom I don't like. Then he admits to the intention of his sermon: "The one great sin from which we shall try to escape this morning is to exclude anyone from the 'yes' of God's mercy." All are prisoners; all are shown mercy.
This may be a digression but I often hear people say that there are many ways that lead to God. It is often described as a journey up the mountain. This piece by Barth made me look at all that talk in a very different way. Yes, there may be many ways up the mountain...but our God comes down to us. Our journey is not to God. Our journey is with this God who is "with us" and "for us" no matter who we may be. The journey is one in which we are already set free - from the start. "All" is without qualification. That is a powerful word...not simply for each of us who hears it...but for how we then are opened up to a new way of viewing all others. When all are shown mercy, the day can become something quite unexpected for everyone because we do not need to be stuck within the way we evaluate others and the world. Instead, we come to the realization that we are all prisoners and when God is the liberator...God liberates all - without condition and without judging degrees of goodness and badness. All is all.
Connection: Is it really all?! The answer to that can change within moments. It is so based on how I see myself and how I am able to see others. One minute it is all....right. Next minute it is definitely not him or her or them...or me. It is really all....try that on.
Without qualification you embrace us and promise to never let us go. Then, O God, you gather in all of us...so that we will not be able to say it is just for me or my own. You gather up all...all and then you invite us to live there in your Reign. We give you thanks. Amen.
On a late September Sunday in 1957, the great theologian Karl Barth once again preached to the prisoners in the Basel jail. The title for his sermon was simply, "All!" His one verse text: "For God has imprisoned all inn disobedience so that he may be merciful to all" (Romans 11:32). Barth told the prisoners that here was a lofty mountain "which we cannot climb, in our thoughts or in a sermon," a mountain "from which we can only climb down." Barth focuses first on the second phrase of the text - "God has mercy on us. He says 'yes' to us, he wills to be on our side, to be our God against all odds.
...Then Barth notes that this "all" is without qualification - Gentiles, atheists, believers, nonbelievers, those who have been formally incarcerated, and those who sit in judgment upon them - "all." Barth confesses that sometimes he is guilty of wishing that this "all" did not include, "this fellow-creature beside me, in front of me or behind, whom I don't like. Then he admits to the intention of his sermon: "The one great sin from which we shall try to escape this morning is to exclude anyone from the 'yes' of God's mercy." All are prisoners; all are shown mercy.
This may be a digression but I often hear people say that there are many ways that lead to God. It is often described as a journey up the mountain. This piece by Barth made me look at all that talk in a very different way. Yes, there may be many ways up the mountain...but our God comes down to us. Our journey is not to God. Our journey is with this God who is "with us" and "for us" no matter who we may be. The journey is one in which we are already set free - from the start. "All" is without qualification. That is a powerful word...not simply for each of us who hears it...but for how we then are opened up to a new way of viewing all others. When all are shown mercy, the day can become something quite unexpected for everyone because we do not need to be stuck within the way we evaluate others and the world. Instead, we come to the realization that we are all prisoners and when God is the liberator...God liberates all - without condition and without judging degrees of goodness and badness. All is all.
Connection: Is it really all?! The answer to that can change within moments. It is so based on how I see myself and how I am able to see others. One minute it is all....right. Next minute it is definitely not him or her or them...or me. It is really all....try that on.
Without qualification you embrace us and promise to never let us go. Then, O God, you gather in all of us...so that we will not be able to say it is just for me or my own. You gather up all...all and then you invite us to live there in your Reign. We give you thanks. Amen.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Wednesday 29 July 2009
This will be the last piece taken from the section "Divine Abundance" in Willimon's book "Who Will Be Saved?"
At the end of one of his most demanding, exacting sermons, requiring that his disciples turn the other cheek, refuse to divorce and remarry, carry others' burdens not just one mile but two, and to pray for their enemies (Matthew 5), Jesus extravagantly demands that they be "perfect...as your heavenly Father is perfect" (v.48). But then he characterized the Father's perfection as one who "makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends the rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous" (vs. 45). It is of our nature to make careful distinctions, to draw accurate lines between people, to conceive of reality as characterized by scarcity and insufficiency. But it is of the nature of this God to blur our proper divisions by indiscriminately, profusely sending rain and sun upon all without distinction.
Perfectly graceful. No bias. No special interests. No favoritism. No pecking order. Graciousness poured out upon all. It is that act of unconditional grace that begins to shape the character of the community of saints called the Church. When we leave out this very vital piece about who we are within the Reign of God we begin to shape our character around that which will suit us. As we all know, that means the divisions go up, wars break out, the number of poor increase, people turn their backs to one another. What is most amazing about how we try to run things is that we speak of the vision of God's Reign but we walk away from it as though we have a "better take" on what it is to be among us. It is a grand comedy that is also the greatest of tragedies.
Connection: On the evil and the good....wow...what a way to consider all that we move by today.
From the beginning when you called the unfolding of your creation "good," O God, you continue to remind us of the way to care for all things and let your grace be the source of new life day after day. Inspire us to see with this vision that opens up the future to new ways of encountering all things. Amen.
At the end of one of his most demanding, exacting sermons, requiring that his disciples turn the other cheek, refuse to divorce and remarry, carry others' burdens not just one mile but two, and to pray for their enemies (Matthew 5), Jesus extravagantly demands that they be "perfect...as your heavenly Father is perfect" (v.48). But then he characterized the Father's perfection as one who "makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends the rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous" (vs. 45). It is of our nature to make careful distinctions, to draw accurate lines between people, to conceive of reality as characterized by scarcity and insufficiency. But it is of the nature of this God to blur our proper divisions by indiscriminately, profusely sending rain and sun upon all without distinction.
Perfectly graceful. No bias. No special interests. No favoritism. No pecking order. Graciousness poured out upon all. It is that act of unconditional grace that begins to shape the character of the community of saints called the Church. When we leave out this very vital piece about who we are within the Reign of God we begin to shape our character around that which will suit us. As we all know, that means the divisions go up, wars break out, the number of poor increase, people turn their backs to one another. What is most amazing about how we try to run things is that we speak of the vision of God's Reign but we walk away from it as though we have a "better take" on what it is to be among us. It is a grand comedy that is also the greatest of tragedies.
Connection: On the evil and the good....wow...what a way to consider all that we move by today.
From the beginning when you called the unfolding of your creation "good," O God, you continue to remind us of the way to care for all things and let your grace be the source of new life day after day. Inspire us to see with this vision that opens up the future to new ways of encountering all things. Amen.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Tuesday 28 July 2009
Our focus continues to be on the Divine Abundance - William Willimon.
In these Bible stories a central character emerges. Unfortunately, well-meaning commentators have placed titles on the stories, subheadings in your Bible like, "The Prodigal Son," or the "Laborers in the Vineyard." Yet in reading the stories, we are surprised to find that all the stories are about God. They render an agent, a personality so that they ought to be called, "The Prodigal Father," or the "Ridiculously Gracious Farmer." Most of us have been conditioned to listen to Scripture anthropologically rather than theologically, asking, "How is this story about me?" Therefore, we need a general interpretive principle for reading the Bible: Scripture always and everywhere speaks primarily about God, and only secondarily, that then only derivatively about us.
It is in seeing these great stories the God who is "for us" that we are caught off guard and surprised and, I would say, thrown off of our base. The graciousness of our God is a ridiculous reality that cannot be handled easily by us. We all know that we live with conditions - ones put on us and ones we put on others. To have a love that is as unconditional and gracious as the God who we are able to see within the parables can confuse us and cause us to have to re-view all that we expect from God. Too often, we come at these stories expecting God to be too much like us. That means there is still love...but it is limited, that means there is grace....but it is limited, that means there is mercy...but that too is limited. We need to hear about the God who is as God would be - strange but down to earth...beyond our control and our games.
Connection: Just watch how easily God is turned into an image of us without letting the fullness of God's love show through. Stop and listen.
Continue to help us to let go of the way we would have your Reign come among us, O God. We will always try to turn it into our way and try to sell it as your way. It is by your Spirit that we are given the ears to see the vision of your Reign and hear the News that is eternally Good. Amen.
In these Bible stories a central character emerges. Unfortunately, well-meaning commentators have placed titles on the stories, subheadings in your Bible like, "The Prodigal Son," or the "Laborers in the Vineyard." Yet in reading the stories, we are surprised to find that all the stories are about God. They render an agent, a personality so that they ought to be called, "The Prodigal Father," or the "Ridiculously Gracious Farmer." Most of us have been conditioned to listen to Scripture anthropologically rather than theologically, asking, "How is this story about me?" Therefore, we need a general interpretive principle for reading the Bible: Scripture always and everywhere speaks primarily about God, and only secondarily, that then only derivatively about us.
It is in seeing these great stories the God who is "for us" that we are caught off guard and surprised and, I would say, thrown off of our base. The graciousness of our God is a ridiculous reality that cannot be handled easily by us. We all know that we live with conditions - ones put on us and ones we put on others. To have a love that is as unconditional and gracious as the God who we are able to see within the parables can confuse us and cause us to have to re-view all that we expect from God. Too often, we come at these stories expecting God to be too much like us. That means there is still love...but it is limited, that means there is grace....but it is limited, that means there is mercy...but that too is limited. We need to hear about the God who is as God would be - strange but down to earth...beyond our control and our games.
Connection: Just watch how easily God is turned into an image of us without letting the fullness of God's love show through. Stop and listen.
Continue to help us to let go of the way we would have your Reign come among us, O God. We will always try to turn it into our way and try to sell it as your way. It is by your Spirit that we are given the ears to see the vision of your Reign and hear the News that is eternally Good. Amen.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Monday 27 July 2009
Here are a few more days at the beginning of this week that will will look at Divine Abundance - by William Willimon.
There is a pervasive nihilism at the heart of modernity, a sense of scarcity. We are on our own, making our way in a world of want as best we can with insufficient information and not enough love. Freud, who did much to form the modern mind, spoke of "obscure, unfeeling, and unloving powers" that determine our fate, reviving the early Greek view that we are, in Homer's words, mere "toys of the gods." If there are gods in the heaven above, they do not reveal themselves to us and have no benevolent intent for us here on earth below. This is a story that captivates modernity.
A Christian is someone who looks upon the world, the passing scene of current events, the sweep of history, her own life, and believes that there is, despite our first impressions of nothing, not just something but Someone. There is a discernible pattern. We look, with non-Christians, at the same events, the same history, and yet we see a distinctive movement in a particular direction, a surfeit of meaning. Salvation is the story, the whole story, from beginning to end, the discernible shape of the narrative that is being told by God, not just the end of the story. Christians become protagonists in God's story. This is what it means to be saved.
We are a part of this unfolding of God's living story that is at hand. Here it is called a "pattern." I think this pattern is also something we may know as the character of God's Reign. We are not left without a vision. The vision is that of the unfolding of life and the shape that is that life. When we say things like God is love, that is definitely about our God. And yet, as we say that about our God, the character of that love is the power that opens us up to receive such love and also to become such love. We are not pushed into this life. We are not like chess pieces in a cosmic game. We are the way in which our God makes known the way God's hand enters into the scene and how that touch or embrace uses us -as we are- to bring about the life that vision calls forth from us and all creation.
Connection: What part of this character of God's Reign will be a driving force within this day as you move along the way of our Lord, Jesus?!
Keep us in our place, O God, but carry us into the domain of your will so that as we engage the world, we will do so from a place in which we are beloved and from which we begin to love in your name. Amen.
There is a pervasive nihilism at the heart of modernity, a sense of scarcity. We are on our own, making our way in a world of want as best we can with insufficient information and not enough love. Freud, who did much to form the modern mind, spoke of "obscure, unfeeling, and unloving powers" that determine our fate, reviving the early Greek view that we are, in Homer's words, mere "toys of the gods." If there are gods in the heaven above, they do not reveal themselves to us and have no benevolent intent for us here on earth below. This is a story that captivates modernity.
A Christian is someone who looks upon the world, the passing scene of current events, the sweep of history, her own life, and believes that there is, despite our first impressions of nothing, not just something but Someone. There is a discernible pattern. We look, with non-Christians, at the same events, the same history, and yet we see a distinctive movement in a particular direction, a surfeit of meaning. Salvation is the story, the whole story, from beginning to end, the discernible shape of the narrative that is being told by God, not just the end of the story. Christians become protagonists in God's story. This is what it means to be saved.
We are a part of this unfolding of God's living story that is at hand. Here it is called a "pattern." I think this pattern is also something we may know as the character of God's Reign. We are not left without a vision. The vision is that of the unfolding of life and the shape that is that life. When we say things like God is love, that is definitely about our God. And yet, as we say that about our God, the character of that love is the power that opens us up to receive such love and also to become such love. We are not pushed into this life. We are not like chess pieces in a cosmic game. We are the way in which our God makes known the way God's hand enters into the scene and how that touch or embrace uses us -as we are- to bring about the life that vision calls forth from us and all creation.
Connection: What part of this character of God's Reign will be a driving force within this day as you move along the way of our Lord, Jesus?!
Keep us in our place, O God, but carry us into the domain of your will so that as we engage the world, we will do so from a place in which we are beloved and from which we begin to love in your name. Amen.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Friday 24 July 2009
This will be a lengthy piece from Willimon...this Divine Abundance!
....The Master seems to be more into careless sowing, miraculous growing, and reckless harvesting than in taxonomy of the good from the bad, the worthwhile from the worthless, the saved from the damned.
"Which one of you?" to paraphrase Jesus' question in Luke 15, "having lost one sheep will not leave the ninety-nine sheep to fend for themselves ...until you find the lost sheep?
"Which one of your women...if you lost a quarter will not rip up the carpets.."
"Which one of you fathers, having two sons...
"Which one of you, journeying down the Jericho Road...
The answer is that none of us would behave in this unseemly, reckless, and extravagant way. These are not stories about us. These are God's stories... Jesus thus reveals a God who is no discrete minimalist. Abundance is the nature of this God.
We would not and we do not go where this Reign of God is and will always be. That is we cannot and will not on our own. We call out for the Spirit to move us and encourage us. We hold on to one another to muster the courage to face scarcity and still know that God abundantly opens up life that we never would have expected. In the life of the Church and in the life of an ordinary congregation, it is too easy to resist this life of abundant joy and hopefulness. We can become to entrenched in thinking that we must do more or we must expect more or we must press for more...rather than giving thanks - a life of thanksgiving that gives as freely as God gives of God's love. Lately, this abundance...this strange abundance...this overwhelming God who keeps embracing and holding and pulling, has been much needed and has made me think again and again about who we are to be as a people who bear the name of Jesus within the world.
Connection: The answer to the questions of our lives can be: We Will.
You abundantly give us new life, O God. We give you thanks. Again. Amen.
....The Master seems to be more into careless sowing, miraculous growing, and reckless harvesting than in taxonomy of the good from the bad, the worthwhile from the worthless, the saved from the damned.
"Which one of you?" to paraphrase Jesus' question in Luke 15, "having lost one sheep will not leave the ninety-nine sheep to fend for themselves ...until you find the lost sheep?
"Which one of your women...if you lost a quarter will not rip up the carpets.."
"Which one of you fathers, having two sons...
"Which one of you, journeying down the Jericho Road...
The answer is that none of us would behave in this unseemly, reckless, and extravagant way. These are not stories about us. These are God's stories... Jesus thus reveals a God who is no discrete minimalist. Abundance is the nature of this God.
We would not and we do not go where this Reign of God is and will always be. That is we cannot and will not on our own. We call out for the Spirit to move us and encourage us. We hold on to one another to muster the courage to face scarcity and still know that God abundantly opens up life that we never would have expected. In the life of the Church and in the life of an ordinary congregation, it is too easy to resist this life of abundant joy and hopefulness. We can become to entrenched in thinking that we must do more or we must expect more or we must press for more...rather than giving thanks - a life of thanksgiving that gives as freely as God gives of God's love. Lately, this abundance...this strange abundance...this overwhelming God who keeps embracing and holding and pulling, has been much needed and has made me think again and again about who we are to be as a people who bear the name of Jesus within the world.
Connection: The answer to the questions of our lives can be: We Will.
You abundantly give us new life, O God. We give you thanks. Again. Amen.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Thursday 23 July 2009
Continuing with Divine Abundance - Willimon.
The question "Is there salvation and who is it for?" is an inquiry into the identity of God. Who saves? It is not a matter of what we think we need or deserve in order to give our lives some measure of sustainability and permanence. Salvation requires an inquiry into what God wants. Salvatin is the peculiar "yes" that is spoken to us, spoken even before we ask, in Jesus Christ. Salvation is God's projection of God's desires upon us.
We know this only on the basis of the stories of Jesus. A farmer goes forth to sow seed and - carefully, meticulously - prepares the ground, removing all rocks and weeds, sowing one seed six inches from another. No. The farmer, without preparation, begins slinging seed. A dragnet is hauled into the boat full of creatures both good and bad. Should the catch be sorted, separating the good from the bad? No. The Master is more impressed with the size of the haul than with the quality of the harvest. One day, not today, it will all be sorted.
I don't think we want to hear this. There is too much judging to do. There are too many people unlike me that must be corrected. There are too many people like me who need to be changed. there are those who have done that or live like that or speak like that or act out like that. Too often we cannot even tolerate typos in a church bulletin let alone understand that "those folk" over there want to be in the same boat we're in. This dragnet image is...well...quite wild and beyond our control. That image of the farmer may be the way seed was scatter back then...but we have better methods with more controls that allow us to be more selective about what is right and good and what is...well...not.
Connection: How do we learn to settle into a boat filled with a dragnet of possibilities? Let's pray about it.
Your Reign, O God, is expansive and we are not all that sure that we want to be the way you are. So...in the meantime, inspire us and open our hearts and help us to see your image in all the strangers who seem to be everywhere! Amen.
The question "Is there salvation and who is it for?" is an inquiry into the identity of God. Who saves? It is not a matter of what we think we need or deserve in order to give our lives some measure of sustainability and permanence. Salvation requires an inquiry into what God wants. Salvatin is the peculiar "yes" that is spoken to us, spoken even before we ask, in Jesus Christ. Salvation is God's projection of God's desires upon us.
We know this only on the basis of the stories of Jesus. A farmer goes forth to sow seed and - carefully, meticulously - prepares the ground, removing all rocks and weeds, sowing one seed six inches from another. No. The farmer, without preparation, begins slinging seed. A dragnet is hauled into the boat full of creatures both good and bad. Should the catch be sorted, separating the good from the bad? No. The Master is more impressed with the size of the haul than with the quality of the harvest. One day, not today, it will all be sorted.
I don't think we want to hear this. There is too much judging to do. There are too many people unlike me that must be corrected. There are too many people like me who need to be changed. there are those who have done that or live like that or speak like that or act out like that. Too often we cannot even tolerate typos in a church bulletin let alone understand that "those folk" over there want to be in the same boat we're in. This dragnet image is...well...quite wild and beyond our control. That image of the farmer may be the way seed was scatter back then...but we have better methods with more controls that allow us to be more selective about what is right and good and what is...well...not.
Connection: How do we learn to settle into a boat filled with a dragnet of possibilities? Let's pray about it.
Your Reign, O God, is expansive and we are not all that sure that we want to be the way you are. So...in the meantime, inspire us and open our hearts and help us to see your image in all the strangers who seem to be everywhere! Amen.
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