Davison's Doodle

Paragraphs from Sunday’s Sermon

In Regional Ministry, I have the opportunity to preach a few times a year.  Unlike the settled pulpit minister, I don’t know the stories of those sitting in the pews and how they practice Christianity.  You might think being the guest preacher is easy.  Say whatever you wish because you don’t live with these people.  Well, not really.  One must invite the hearer into your words in a way that the settled minister does not.  Last Sunday I shared a few words, that’s what I call preaching, at Woodlands Christian Church in Ponca City, OK.  Here are a few paragraphs from those words.

Text: John 3:14-21

I don’t know what brought you to worship today or what you carried into the sanctuary this morning on your heart or in your mind.  What I do know is that all of us come to worship seeking to hear and experience the gospel, the good news that the Lord’s mercies never cease; that Lord’s mercy is new every morning; and the Lord’s faithfulness extends beyond our ability to see in a mirror dimly, and recognize the image of God in others as well as our own face. With good news on our minds and in our hearts I invite you to hear the gospel according to John.

Often, reading and studying the bible can feel like being in an episode of Dr. Who.  Most often, this is how we come to the biblical text.  We rely on others to help us translate ancient words, ancient ways of reasoning, and how to understand the world from ancient eyes.  Few of us know Hebrew or Greek well enough to translate the original texts, and catch the nuance of their historical context or turn of phrase.  So, translating and continued interpretation of this language, ways or reasoning, and understand the world invites us into a conversation with the text and today’s best biblical scholarship;
and our own experiences;
and our own faith;
and with other believers;
and with practitioners of the way of Jesus who may not believe like we do;
and with de-churched, the un-churched and the growing number of “nones” all around us.

While sitting next to a stranger, friend, or new acquaintance, wherever we are, we all become our own press secretaries.  We all have become adept at talking about issues that are important without talking at any depth; without saying anything, really.  It is so much easier and safer to just stay on the surface and stereotype.  Social media has enabled this, but it has been happening for a long, long time.  Right now, more than any other time in my life, we are witnessing ratings driven ideological governing, and a profit driven presidential cycle.  Right now, we live in a time when it is profitable to be unreasonable.  What is a person who practices Christian faith, or any faith, to do when community and friendship and governing and religion and congregational life, “Church,” are treated like a commodity to be owned, bought and sold to the highest bidder, won or hoarded.   We could be counter-cultural.  We could listen more deeply, ask informed questions, and tune out the profit noise that affirms our silos of truth.  The text today gives us several places where we could sit and visit, like Jesus did with Nicodemus and the others in the room.  What topics could we discuss?  Here are a few in no particular order that come to mind.

What does it mean to say that God so loved, past tense, the world?  Can the good news of God, of which Jesus taught and often spoke of, mean something more than the creedal orthodoxy of John 3:16?

As our nation, and the world, continues to struggle with race and racism, violence for profit, poverty, and a revival of the idea of “separate, but equal,” is the language of darkness and light helpful imagery in understanding good, evil, and those who perpetuate both?

Is belief more important than practice?  Paul later refers to this as “works v righteousness,” and Christianity has argued over what is the right amount of both for centuries.  How much good works is enough?  How much righteousness through belief in Christ is enough?

A millennia of theology based in scarcity and control has defined eternal life to only mean ‘life after death.’   But remember, the gospel of John is metaphorical language, and “eternal life” is meant as a metaphor for living now in the unending presence of God.  When you follow the way of Jesus it can lead to discovering capital “T” Truth about yourself and about God; and that capital “T” Truth can give life meaning.  That Truth it is life giving.  That kindom, not the imperial kingdom, the kinship of God is all around us already, and it is also not yet fully revealed in my life nor in yours, nor in our world.  Jesus recognized it in his life and his time.  It is what he was certain of most.  Are we who proclaim to be followers and believers recognizing it in our time?

Welcome as you have been welcomed and you will be a floodlight of the good news of God.  Right now, that is counter-cultural.  I cannot guarantee it, but I think when we risk that kind of depth, when we risk that kind of Truth, we might experience the unending presence of God.  Why not?