Sermon Brief

Honored to be blessed with the trust of the pulpit yesterday at First Christian in Hennessey.  I had never preached John 15:9-17, and some may say I still haven’t.  The paragraphs below represent the sermon brief.

Reside, Tolerate, Endure, Wait, Accept, Suffer: Abide
John 15:9-17

This is the Year B in the Lectionary, that organized way to read through most of the bible in a three year cycle. In Year B, we hear about Jesus of Nazareth through the Gospel of Mark.  Mark is what I call an outline gospel.  It is the short story that Matthew and John turn into their own novels, and then the author of Luke-Acts uses all three. Matthew, Mark, and John, to create a made for TV movie that could be optioned as a screen play.

Today, we meet up with Jesus and his disciples in a sort of flash back moment.  Jesus is with the disciples in Jerusalem in the middle of a monologue that began with setting for you, for me, and anyone that would follow, an example: he washed the disciples’ feet.  If you are ever unsure about what gospel looks like in your life, in your community, or in the world, John’s gospel suggests it begins with a basin of water, a towel, and humility. 

The good news of God is always counter-cultural in deed and in word.

As Jesus continues to talk he reminds the disciples in that room, and this one:

  • Just as Jesus has loved you, you also should love one another.
    By this everyone will know that you are his disciples if you have love for one another;
  • Anyone who believes in Jesus will do the works that he does and do even greater works than his;
  • If you love Jesus, you will keep his commandments;
  • Abide in Jesus as he abides in you.  Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Jesus.

And there is that word seldom used anymore: abide.  Like so much of Jesus’ life and ministry, abide is a verb: 

to remain; to reside; to continue in a particular condition, attitude, or relationship; to tolerate; to endure; to wait; to accept; to suffer for.

Remember, John’s gospel novel is not for the newly initiated believer or novice follower of Jesus.  The language invites theological conversation that requires you to have spent some time personally struggling with God,
personally struggling with Jesus,
intimately struggling with Jesus in relationship with others; and risk.  

Risk the friendship of disagreeing with someone you’ve known your whole life.  That someone may be the face you see everyday in the mirror, a family member, co-worker, or neighbor.  Risk disagreeing with Christian tradition’s presentation of Jesus and its presentation of God.

Jesus doesn’t make it easy.  I’ve got to figure out how to abide in Jesus’ love, which is an example of God’s love, and be a model of reciprocal love with our State and Federal legislators, some whom flaunt their Christianity as a qualification for office, yet cannot apply love your neighbor as yourself to budgets, tax policy, healthcare, or discriminatory religious freedom laws.

Christianity is pretty comfortable with the idea that abide means “to suffer for” when it is others or when it is Jesus doing the suffering.  But Jesus says, abide in my love.  Whom have you ‘suffered for’?  Did that feel redemptive?

It is common for clergy to discuss the text for the week, with colleagues and friends from a broad spectrum of belief and practice.  Sometimes we even do that on social media.  Talking with my colleague, Rev. Charles Ragland, minister at First Christian in Claremore, about one of the definitions of abide, “suffer for”, he noted:

“Suffer for” as in, “allow for”? As in “Suffer the little children…”? May I suggest that when we suffer [for] others (in the above sense), we “allow” them space in our lives. We make room (take time) for their needs. God constantly makes room in God’s life to abide with us, and seems to me that is a mark of authentic love as Jesus did it: to make welcoming space in your life for others.”  Whom have you suffered for?

In John’s gospel the friendship based mutual, collaborative, risky, joyful, self-sacrificing, reciprocal companionship that Jesus wants for his disciples, and any who would follow, is enfleshed in the ability to abide in Jesus’ love;
abide in Jesus’ way of loving;
abide in keeping Jesus’ commandments.

Maybe it is a way of seeing the world, interacting with creation and people; it is a lifestyle as much as a faith statement about who God is and what Jesus means.  Abide in Jesus and his way of loving, and your joy may be complete.

You’ve seen complete joy.

It is people who send some of their store of hay or feed or clothing or money for those whose lives have been consumed in flames, by flood, swallowed by earthquake, or blown away by wind.

It is the believer and non-believer alike that does what is right because it is right, even when it is unpopular.

It is Job declaring, “It is the Lord.  Let the Lord do what seems right to the Lord.”

Disciples in Hennessey . . . abide.

, 05/07/2018. Category: Preaching Notes, Theological Rant.

Reading Today . . .

“I must confess.  I could use some rest.  I can’t run at this pace for very long.”

That lyric from Jimmy Buffett’s, “Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season” (A1A 1974) explains a bit of my distance.  I’ve been away from this blog, somewhat intentionally, unsure if my ramblings, theological ranting, observations, or creativity continue to interest me as well as anyone that visits the site. This distances has happened before with my journal pre digital age and blogs.  A question I ask clergy that are the primary preachers in their congregations, “Do you ever get bored with your preaching?  If so, do you think that comes through to your people?”  I think a form of that question applies to all vocations and even 9-5 jobs.  It’s my responsibility to aware of the freshness and new opportunities of my vocation.  Can one tire of being curious, empathetic, pastoral, or prophetic?  Sure.

I think Buffett’s lyric is applicable to our culture, journalism, religion, economy, and our politics.  How long can people stay attentive to the substantive questions surrounding the behavior, decisions, and misrepresentations of the POTUS, his Cabinet, and Congress?  The President’s philosophy for business and governing, if you can classify what he and the Republican led Congress do as “governing”,  is a mix of 3 Card Monty and a Roulette.  I think the current manifestation of Republicanism at the Federal level, and here in Oklahoma, are comfortable with reigning and have no idea or interest in governing.  They most often demonstrate what the President said during the campaign, “to the victor go the spoils.”  That does not uphold the ideals of our republic nor democracy.  The majority must be concerned with the voice of the minority and their experience.  The Constitution is designed as a check to monarch or dictatorial leadership that does not seek out and work with the minority voice(s) to co-govern the Republic.  Somehow, that has been forgotten.  Maybe you can’t test for it.

The President’s Cabinet Secretaries are required to produce their taxes, but we still do not know how the President, his family, or business are profiting from his tenure as President in real time.  And, I have no doubt that Trump is profiteering in real time rather than waiting until after his Presidency to write a book, do speaking engagements, or whatever former Presidents do to earn a living.  An example: his many trips to Mar a Lago and how he raised the fees to join the club when we won the election.  He is the poster child of immediate gratification.  He is learning that he cannot run the United State Government like his business and if he ever able to do so completely, it will take decades for people of goodwill to clean up the mess.  The Republican members of Congress that are retiring know that having enabled this President is wrong, and I think hope that private life will ease their guilt and being responsible by their constituency and the writers of history.  Not that they deserve to be personally disparaged, but they do deserve the factual blame and retirement removes themselves from the possible accountability of the ballot box.

I must confess.  There is much to do.  More than can be done in this day.  I’ve got to work the muscles to manage the pace, my pace, and steer clear of the clickbait that monetizes attention and imagination.  However you do it, stay centered.

Some of the things I’ve read today.

Apostolic Exhortation, Gaudete et Exsulate, of Pope Francis

Generation X — not millennials — is changing the nature of work
Stephanie Neal and Richard Wellins, CNBC.com (April 11, 2018)

The History of White Power
By Kathleen Belew, Opinion, The New York Times (April 18, 2018)

Nine Reasons People Aren’t Singing in Worship
Kenny Lamm, Church Leaders (April 2, 2018)

‘Roseanne’: When a Punch Line Feels Like a Gut Punch
Kelvin Yu, Television, The New York Times (April 13, 2018)

Payday Lenders Convening At A Trump Resort Are Met By Protesters
Greg Allen, All Things Considered, NPR (April 18, 2018)

Why Can’t We Fix Puerto Rico’s Power Grid
Adam Rogers, Wired.com (April 18, 2018)

You Can Go Home Again
Michael Smerconish, (April 18, 2018)
South Philly native David Brenner once joked that when he went out to my current neighborhood, the Main Line, he was surprised to see that every other house was missing.  My visit to our house reminded me that’s not all that’s absent.  So too the sort of  memories that were re-kindled by our going home.  The kind that exist only when living in close proximity to others. My kids don’t have neighborhood stories like those that I cherish.  That’s the steep price they have paid for acreage and comfort and only time will tell whether it was worth it.  The good news is that you can go home again, if only for 15 minutes.

, 04/19/2018. Category: Monday Morning Reading.
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