California's Proposition 8, funded enormously by people from outside of California, has been upheld. There will be no more marriages for same sex couples in California.
However, the marriages that took place before Prop. 8 passed will be upheld.
Thank God for small mercies.
Meanwhile, this blog will remain in mourning until or unless there is a sign that the forces of darkness are not triumphing completely.
[This is my personal blog, and my personal statement, having nothing to do with the church I serve, nor the opinions of the congregation of that church, regardless of the fact that this blog is attached to said church's website.]
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
I'm back!
Comments will continue to be monitored for the time being. I don't know when I will have time to write a proper blog article.
The above is a snark at the person who linked my blog in a comment he/she made on another blog site, commenting that maybe Grace Church wouldn't be closing if I weren't wasting my time blogging. This from a blogging community that spends much time in sifting through hits everyday to find things of interest to post. I, of course, being bone idle, just write a little something, once in awhile, to keep my congregation up to date on things that I'm thinking, things that are not necessarily worth newsletter space. They like it. I feel bad when weeks go by when I don't write something, because my congregation like to read what I write.
This blog will rarely, if ever, post articles having to do with the news of the Anglican Communion. There are plenty of blogs out there for those purposes if you want that kind of thing. I do spend a little time each day checking out four of them, because they do all the heavy lifting and they present a well-written, balanced approach (balanced being a totally subjective word here!) I commend to you Thinking Anglicans, Preludium (Mark Harris), and Episcopal Cafe, for straight up news and commentary, as well as thoughtful pieces which might not have anything to do with the "troubles" in the Anglican Communion. I will leave it to you to find your way to these sites.
It's good to be back. Hope you all had an excellent week in my absence. See you in church!
The above is a snark at the person who linked my blog in a comment he/she made on another blog site, commenting that maybe Grace Church wouldn't be closing if I weren't wasting my time blogging. This from a blogging community that spends much time in sifting through hits everyday to find things of interest to post. I, of course, being bone idle, just write a little something, once in awhile, to keep my congregation up to date on things that I'm thinking, things that are not necessarily worth newsletter space. They like it. I feel bad when weeks go by when I don't write something, because my congregation like to read what I write.
This blog will rarely, if ever, post articles having to do with the news of the Anglican Communion. There are plenty of blogs out there for those purposes if you want that kind of thing. I do spend a little time each day checking out four of them, because they do all the heavy lifting and they present a well-written, balanced approach (balanced being a totally subjective word here!) I commend to you Thinking Anglicans, Preludium (Mark Harris), and Episcopal Cafe, for straight up news and commentary, as well as thoughtful pieces which might not have anything to do with the "troubles" in the Anglican Communion. I will leave it to you to find your way to these sites.
It's good to be back. Hope you all had an excellent week in my absence. See you in church!
Sunday, May 3, 2009
While I'm away
I've found that one of the opponents of us on the religious left has for reasons known only to him and God found an article in the Norwalk Hour newspaper about Grace Church and has commented adversely on the newspaper's website and also on a worldwide blog. So while I am gone, I have disabled comments, meaning only members of this blog can comment, and the comments will be hidden until I return.
I make no apology for this. I have a responsibility to keep this a safe environment. See you next week.
I make no apology for this. I have a responsibility to keep this a safe environment. See you next week.
Friday, May 1, 2009
CREDO
Before I went to seminary, I was taught that the Latin word credo means I believe. In settings of the Mass, the creed begins Credo in unum Deum - I believe in one God.
Monday I'll leave for a week in Louisiana at a conference, a retreat for clergy, sponsored by The Church Pension Fund. It's time to reflect on my health - physical, spiritual, financial, vocational. The conference is called CREDO. It is called CREDO after the more proper translation of credo which is I give my heart to.
Now that would certainly change the mechanical recitation every Sunday of the Nicene Creed: I give my heart to One God, Father almighty... I give my heart to Jesus Christ his Son, our Lord... I give my heart to the Holy Spirit... I give my heart to one holy, catholic and apostolic Church...
This Sunday is Good Shepherd Sunday. I suggest you go to Mad Priest's blog, OCICW... and read his sermon for this coming Sunday. I hope that link works - it's a long url and it's a brilliant sermon. At the same time, I also suggest you change the reading of Psalm 23 for the same reason I'd like to change the reading of the Creed - to snap us out the mechanical, soothing recitation of the familiar.
The 23rd Psalm is the psalm appointed for this coming Sunday. It begins, "The Lord is my Shepherd..." I suggest you read, instead,
"Love is my Shepherd; I shall not be in want. Love makes me lie down in green pastures; Love leads me beside still waters. Love revives my soul and guides me along right pathways for his Name's sake. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; for Love is with me. Love's shepherd's crook comforts me. Love spreads a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me; Love has anointed my head with oil, and my cup is running over. Surely Love's goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of Love for ever." (I got this idea from the latest issue of Trinity News out of Trinity Wall Street.)
Then read, "We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us..."
That line is the first line of the epistle appointed for the day, 1 John 3:16-24 (careful, this is not the Gospel of John, this is the first letter of John. The three letters of John come just before the epistle of Jude, which is then followed by the Revelation.)
"...I shall dwell in the house of Love for ever." (Psalm 23:6b)
"We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us..." (1John 3:1)
Think about what you have read. How does it change you? How does it change your world view?
Then go and read Mad Priest's sermon again.
I'll be back in the office on Wednesday, May 13. I doubt I'll be blogging. There is not a lot of time allowed for access to the center's computer and I don't carry a computer with me. I'm an analogue girl in a digital world - I believe strongly in being disconnected from time to time.
So, I count on everyone being kind to one another in the comment section. Think unconditional love, not "tough" love, and all shall be well.
Monday I'll leave for a week in Louisiana at a conference, a retreat for clergy, sponsored by The Church Pension Fund. It's time to reflect on my health - physical, spiritual, financial, vocational. The conference is called CREDO. It is called CREDO after the more proper translation of credo which is I give my heart to.
Now that would certainly change the mechanical recitation every Sunday of the Nicene Creed: I give my heart to One God, Father almighty... I give my heart to Jesus Christ his Son, our Lord... I give my heart to the Holy Spirit... I give my heart to one holy, catholic and apostolic Church...
This Sunday is Good Shepherd Sunday. I suggest you go to Mad Priest's blog, OCICW... and read his sermon for this coming Sunday. I hope that link works - it's a long url and it's a brilliant sermon. At the same time, I also suggest you change the reading of Psalm 23 for the same reason I'd like to change the reading of the Creed - to snap us out the mechanical, soothing recitation of the familiar.
The 23rd Psalm is the psalm appointed for this coming Sunday. It begins, "The Lord is my Shepherd..." I suggest you read, instead,
"Love is my Shepherd; I shall not be in want. Love makes me lie down in green pastures; Love leads me beside still waters. Love revives my soul and guides me along right pathways for his Name's sake. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; for Love is with me. Love's shepherd's crook comforts me. Love spreads a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me; Love has anointed my head with oil, and my cup is running over. Surely Love's goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of Love for ever." (I got this idea from the latest issue of Trinity News out of Trinity Wall Street.)
Then read, "We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us..."
That line is the first line of the epistle appointed for the day, 1 John 3:16-24 (careful, this is not the Gospel of John, this is the first letter of John. The three letters of John come just before the epistle of Jude, which is then followed by the Revelation.)
"...I shall dwell in the house of Love for ever." (Psalm 23:6b)
"We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us..." (1John 3:1)
Think about what you have read. How does it change you? How does it change your world view?
Then go and read Mad Priest's sermon again.
I'll be back in the office on Wednesday, May 13. I doubt I'll be blogging. There is not a lot of time allowed for access to the center's computer and I don't carry a computer with me. I'm an analogue girl in a digital world - I believe strongly in being disconnected from time to time.
So, I count on everyone being kind to one another in the comment section. Think unconditional love, not "tough" love, and all shall be well.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
The Day of the Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Easter Day has dawned clear and crisp. The sun is rising. I'm second-guessing my sermon. Nothing new there.
It is my custom to follow that of many eastern Orthodox churches and read out St. John Chrysostom's Easter homily, with brief commentary afterward.
It has nothing to do with the world in which we live. It has nothing to do with the everday lives of the people. It is, for most of those who attend this morning, the only time I have with them all year to tell them that Jesus' resurrection is for them.
What I won't tell them is this, which came to me yesterday morning:
The eastern tradition is that in death Christ harrowed hell - that is, Christ descended to hell, broke down its gates, smashed all the chains and released all hell's captives, beginning with Adam and Eve, the two who brought sin into the world in the first place.
Yesterday, I thought to write only this: After Adam and Eve, the next soul lifted out of hell was hell's newest prize - Judas, who had only just committed suicide after his betrayal of Jesus.
Christ is risen, everyone. He is risen and he has raised you with him. Christ is risen. Alleluia!
Easter Day has dawned clear and crisp. The sun is rising. I'm second-guessing my sermon. Nothing new there.
It is my custom to follow that of many eastern Orthodox churches and read out St. John Chrysostom's Easter homily, with brief commentary afterward.
It has nothing to do with the world in which we live. It has nothing to do with the everday lives of the people. It is, for most of those who attend this morning, the only time I have with them all year to tell them that Jesus' resurrection is for them.
What I won't tell them is this, which came to me yesterday morning:
The eastern tradition is that in death Christ harrowed hell - that is, Christ descended to hell, broke down its gates, smashed all the chains and released all hell's captives, beginning with Adam and Eve, the two who brought sin into the world in the first place.
Yesterday, I thought to write only this: After Adam and Eve, the next soul lifted out of hell was hell's newest prize - Judas, who had only just committed suicide after his betrayal of Jesus.
Christ is risen, everyone. He is risen and he has raised you with him. Christ is risen. Alleluia!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Faith, Belief, Practice
Please click on this link and read Mark Harris's essay on Preludium. Then return here for my comment.
Today we enter again that season of great mystery, Holy Week. The triumphant procession that begins today's worship ends with the passion of our Lord. For the rest of the week we remember that last week of Jesus's life here on earth, particularly the last supper before his arrest, his trial, and his execution.
In the end, that execution is not the end. The tomb is empty. There will be appearances of the Lord Jesus, that great mystery of resurrection of the body.
Meanwhile, we Christians will continue judging one another's faith, one another's beliefs, and even one another's practice. Are you a Christian or not? we ask. You made a speech and never once mentioned the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore you must not be a Christian. You don't believe that God required that Jesus die a bloody and terrible death in order to save us from ourselves and therefore you must not be a Christian. You have alternate ways of understanding the great mystery of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and you publish them abroad. You are not only a Christian but an apostate priest or bishop or presiding bishop. This group or another has the only correct understanding, faith, belief, practice and no one who strays from that way can possibly be holy, Christian, saved unless they repent and return to the correct way.
When I hear Christians speaking or writing or teaching in this way, I say, my God, Jesus wasted his life. He died in vain. He died to free us from fear. Instead, we visit fear on others in the name of Jesus, and call it salvation. For, if salvation is in any way conditional on us getting something, anything right, then there is no difference between the world before and the world after Jesus' death and resurrection.
I have written this before. I have endured comments couched in oh so condescending terms to tell me I have misunderstood, I have got it wrong, and here, we will set you straight. And still, I hear the call to freedom - freedom from being afraid of getting it wrong and, having not repented of my wrongful understanding, counter to the teachings of the church, of being damned for all time.
I do not understand what it is in us humans that so desires the death of another. I do not understand what it is in others that says, "This is what the scriptures say, this is what the church teaches, this is the faith once delivered for all time and it does not ever change and our faith, belief, understanding and practice must not ever, ever change without repenting of it and returning to right belief or we are damned." I do not understand that. Is God really like that?
For the thousandth time, I write of my conversion. I was lost in this life. My life was despair. One night I cried out, "No one loves me" and cutting through my thoughts the words, "Jesus loves you". And I replied, yes, but Jesus can't hold me when I'm alone.
My ungracious rejection of that love continued, while at the same time I tested It to see if It was real, if It meant it. Over the time of a year, I was less despairing, less self-destructive, less and less isolated from those around me. At some point I realized that even though much of my anti-social behavior had not changed, that love was still there. I understood from It that It would still love me, that I would still be acceptable, just as I was, even if I never made any changes in my life or repented or anything else at all. I would still be part of that Love that had calmly assured me of its presence that night long ago.
Over time, I had to come to terms of the implications of what I was experiencing and thinking. What about the perpetrator in my life? Well, said Love, he, too, is safe in me. And yes, that was the implication - if I was safe in Christ, so was that person.
This journey has taken me to places which some of my fellow faithful Christians would say are unChristian. They may be right. I no longer believe, for instance, that baptism confers salvation in the way I was taught - that salvation is available only to the baptized. Instead, I believe that baptism makes the baptized part of God's work in Christ to convey salvation to the world, by binding the baptized to being the unconditional love of God in Christ in the world, by the power of the Holy Spirit. That is definitely not the same as baptism confers salvation only on the baptized.
Regardless of how one reads the scriptures, and I take scripture very seriously, the journey to God is a mystery. God's way with us is a mystery. God in Christ is a mystery. The incarnation, the life, passion, death and resurrection are a mystery. If we are not free to explore that mystery freely, to get it wrong, to teach wrongly, to believe and practice wrongly and decide the next day to change our mind, or not, then I fear Jesus died in vain.
But for me, his death was not in vain. I discovered that God's love has no strings, no conditions, but just is. My work, as a baptized person as well as an ordained priest, is to make real, to the best of my frail ability, that love in the world. I fail at it miserably. It is that for which I repent, not my thoughts, or my beliefs or my faith or even my teaching, but for my failure to love as God has loved me. And still, I am loved. And so are you, loved equally to me, saved, hidden in the heart of God and in Christ's wounded side. This is the faith once delivered to the saints, that God in Christ is love.
Today we enter again that season of great mystery, Holy Week. The triumphant procession that begins today's worship ends with the passion of our Lord. For the rest of the week we remember that last week of Jesus's life here on earth, particularly the last supper before his arrest, his trial, and his execution.
In the end, that execution is not the end. The tomb is empty. There will be appearances of the Lord Jesus, that great mystery of resurrection of the body.
Meanwhile, we Christians will continue judging one another's faith, one another's beliefs, and even one another's practice. Are you a Christian or not? we ask. You made a speech and never once mentioned the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore you must not be a Christian. You don't believe that God required that Jesus die a bloody and terrible death in order to save us from ourselves and therefore you must not be a Christian. You have alternate ways of understanding the great mystery of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and you publish them abroad. You are not only a Christian but an apostate priest or bishop or presiding bishop. This group or another has the only correct understanding, faith, belief, practice and no one who strays from that way can possibly be holy, Christian, saved unless they repent and return to the correct way.
When I hear Christians speaking or writing or teaching in this way, I say, my God, Jesus wasted his life. He died in vain. He died to free us from fear. Instead, we visit fear on others in the name of Jesus, and call it salvation. For, if salvation is in any way conditional on us getting something, anything right, then there is no difference between the world before and the world after Jesus' death and resurrection.
I have written this before. I have endured comments couched in oh so condescending terms to tell me I have misunderstood, I have got it wrong, and here, we will set you straight. And still, I hear the call to freedom - freedom from being afraid of getting it wrong and, having not repented of my wrongful understanding, counter to the teachings of the church, of being damned for all time.
I do not understand what it is in us humans that so desires the death of another. I do not understand what it is in others that says, "This is what the scriptures say, this is what the church teaches, this is the faith once delivered for all time and it does not ever change and our faith, belief, understanding and practice must not ever, ever change without repenting of it and returning to right belief or we are damned." I do not understand that. Is God really like that?
For the thousandth time, I write of my conversion. I was lost in this life. My life was despair. One night I cried out, "No one loves me" and cutting through my thoughts the words, "Jesus loves you". And I replied, yes, but Jesus can't hold me when I'm alone.
My ungracious rejection of that love continued, while at the same time I tested It to see if It was real, if It meant it. Over the time of a year, I was less despairing, less self-destructive, less and less isolated from those around me. At some point I realized that even though much of my anti-social behavior had not changed, that love was still there. I understood from It that It would still love me, that I would still be acceptable, just as I was, even if I never made any changes in my life or repented or anything else at all. I would still be part of that Love that had calmly assured me of its presence that night long ago.
Over time, I had to come to terms of the implications of what I was experiencing and thinking. What about the perpetrator in my life? Well, said Love, he, too, is safe in me. And yes, that was the implication - if I was safe in Christ, so was that person.
This journey has taken me to places which some of my fellow faithful Christians would say are unChristian. They may be right. I no longer believe, for instance, that baptism confers salvation in the way I was taught - that salvation is available only to the baptized. Instead, I believe that baptism makes the baptized part of God's work in Christ to convey salvation to the world, by binding the baptized to being the unconditional love of God in Christ in the world, by the power of the Holy Spirit. That is definitely not the same as baptism confers salvation only on the baptized.
Regardless of how one reads the scriptures, and I take scripture very seriously, the journey to God is a mystery. God's way with us is a mystery. God in Christ is a mystery. The incarnation, the life, passion, death and resurrection are a mystery. If we are not free to explore that mystery freely, to get it wrong, to teach wrongly, to believe and practice wrongly and decide the next day to change our mind, or not, then I fear Jesus died in vain.
But for me, his death was not in vain. I discovered that God's love has no strings, no conditions, but just is. My work, as a baptized person as well as an ordained priest, is to make real, to the best of my frail ability, that love in the world. I fail at it miserably. It is that for which I repent, not my thoughts, or my beliefs or my faith or even my teaching, but for my failure to love as God has loved me. And still, I am loved. And so are you, loved equally to me, saved, hidden in the heart of God and in Christ's wounded side. This is the faith once delivered to the saints, that God in Christ is love.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Lent 5
Sermon
Lent 5
March 29, 2009
Grace Episcopal Church, Norwalk, Connecticut
The Reverend Lois Keen
Scriptures: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51:1-13; Hebrews 5:5-10; John 12:20-33
Rob Bell is the 38-year-old evangelical pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan. When he starts to preach during Sunday worship, he prepares the congregation by announcing that he will be teaching – notice, please, teaching, not preaching – for 80 minutes. (The Christian Century, March 24, 2009) So, what do you think? Will that fly here – give me 80 minutes every Sunday so I can really teach Bible instead of trying to jam a little bit of inspiration into 10 to 15 minutes? Will you go for it?
[LOL of course]
Of course if I could have that time, I’d be able to tell you what that strange little piece in the epistle means, about being a priest after the order of Melchizedek. And I’d be able to unpack the part in the gospel – the rather harsh part – about hating your life so you won’t lose eternal life.
And together we’d be able to sort out for each and every one of you how you might live into the imperatives of the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ – about loving your neighbor, about loving God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, about selling everything and giving to the poor, and about taking up your cross – little things like that.
Instead, I have time this morning to teach you just one thing. The underlying assumption of what I want to teach you today is this: Jesus died so you can be free. He died so you would not have to be afraid of God anymore. He died so you would not have to be afraid to “get it wrong” anymore. God knows the disciples got it wrong most of the time, and so did the early church of the Epistles, and we call them saints!
Here’s what I want you to learn this morning – Please do not reduce the Bible to a self-help manual for life, a rule book to end all rule books. With well over 600 commandments in the Old Testament alone, who can stand up to this? Turning the Bible into a rule book assumes that you are not already safe in the arms of Jesus, in his heart and his wounded side. And you are. Safe, that is.
The Bible does contain plenty about how to live your life. A lot of it is contradictory. It will leave you frustrated. It will leave you feeling guilty, ashamed, like the young lawyer who went away from Jesus because it was too hard for him to get his mind around selling everything he had in order to follow Jesus.
Instead, approach the Bible like this: as a treasury of faithful peoples’ experiences with God, that provides an entrée into your own journey toward God. The Bible is there to incite you to seek out God for yourself, to find and be found by God, to discover that God has always been there, indeed is always with you, and then for you to “write” at least metaphorically your own chapters of your own experiences with God to add to the scriptures.
The Bible begs you to taste it, to chew it, to mull it over, to argue with it, to engage with it as though it were a living thing, not a dead book stuck in one time and place.
How are you to do this? Well, you can certainly do it alone, at home or at work or in the park or on the train. At the same time, not either/or but both/and, you can join a Bible study, not for the purpose of having some clergyperson tell you what the scriptures mean, but as one place to bounce off your own insights against other people’s insights, including the clergyperson’s. Bible study group is a place to be in community with others. It is a place to encounter God, who is the epitome of community – Father, Son and Holy Spirit; Creator, Redeemer, Inspiration; Source of all Being, Incarnate Word, Guide. One Holy and Undivided Trinity, one and yet community of persons.
If you would rather, I can restructure Sunday morning worship to allow for 80 minutes of teaching and Bible study in the middle of worship. That way you only have to come here once a week, bringing your Bibles with you, that would be very important, and ready to work together in study. The Orthodox Jews in Egypt do just that – the floor of their synagogue is filled with double desks instead of pews, so the worshippers can be in pairs, studying and arguing and discovering scripture together. What better way to use our Sunday time together?
If that does not appeal to you, than I strongly urge – indeed, I expect you to take advantage of the opportunities to study scripture that are already available – The Mission Congregation monthly Saturday afternoon gathering, the Wednesday Night study group which engages scripture through various themes, the monthly 8 a.m. Sunday “Service” Service which puts scripture into action, taking our lead from the youth group who engage scripture in this way.
Or, you can sign up for the Bible Study time and day of your choice.
Outside in the hallway along the wall of this nave, this worship space, there is a chart with the days of the week and time slots on it. You can choose the day of the week and the time slot that works for you, and enter your name and the frequency with which you would like to meet – weekly, every other week, monthly. The only day not available is Friday, and the only time slot not available is Sunday morning before 10:00 a.m. Otherwise, there should be some time there that works for you.
I am very serious about this. You cannot move forward as a congregation unless you come together for the purpose of taking the scriptures seriously and engaging God, face to face, through encountering each other in study.
It’s totally bogus to have your preacher tell you how to relate scripture to your life. She or he can give you some insights, some glimmers, but those must be only a part of the input. Your own life as you live it in the context in which you live it has to be the other part, and only you can provide that, as you wrestle with the scriptures yourself in group. And ten minutes on Sunday morning isn’t enough.
I’m asking you to make an ironclad commitment to do Bible study here, in this building, regularly. I in turn will commit to being with you for Bible study at every one of those times for which people have signed up, even if there is only one person, although if it is at 7 a.m. I will most likely be in my exercise clothes! We can take the Sunday lessons as our texts, to begin with.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this invitation comes from the prophet Jeremiah, in the reading from this morning, in which God promises to take the laws away and instead write his law of love in all hearts. The invitation to study scripture together is an invitation to open your hearts to that law of love, and learn from God what the implications for your life may be with that law written in your hearts rather than as words on paper.
As your priest, I am telling you, this is the single most important thing to which you will commit in the coming year. It is a commitment to our Lord; it is a commitment to the scriptures themselves; it is a commitment to yourself and your life as a Christian, and it is a commitment to the life of this congregation, whatever form that life may take in the coming year.
Now, about that “priest after the order of Melchizedek” bit in the epistle.
If you have your Bible with you, please turn to Genesis, chapter 14, verse 17-20, which reads, After Abraham’s return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet Abraham at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley). 18 And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. 19 Melchizedek blessed Abraham and said, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; 20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!" And Abram gave Melchizedek one tenth of everything.
Now, here is how Melchizedek is understood. He came out of nowhere and he went nowhere. His biography is not in the Bible, and so he has no beginning and no ending. His blessing of Abram is the action of a priest. Abram confirms that priesthood by giving Melchizedek a tithe, one tenth of all he has, as an offering. Melchizedek, therefore, a priest who has no beginning and no ending, is, for the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, a prototype of Jesus, a priest after the order of Melchizedek, who has no beginning and no ending but was and is and ever shall be. Jesus earned this priesthood by offering prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who could have saved him from death, but he also went reverently and obediently to his death, and having been thereby made perfect, is now the source of salvation for all, “having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.” I’m sure that is perfectly clear!
Martin Luther wrote, “If you could understand a single grain of wheat you would die of wonder.” So, too, with the scriptures. I invite you to come and understand together just what these ancient writings might have to say to you in your life, today, in this time, in this place.
Lent 5
March 29, 2009
Grace Episcopal Church, Norwalk, Connecticut
The Reverend Lois Keen
Scriptures: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51:1-13; Hebrews 5:5-10; John 12:20-33
Rob Bell is the 38-year-old evangelical pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan. When he starts to preach during Sunday worship, he prepares the congregation by announcing that he will be teaching – notice, please, teaching, not preaching – for 80 minutes. (The Christian Century, March 24, 2009) So, what do you think? Will that fly here – give me 80 minutes every Sunday so I can really teach Bible instead of trying to jam a little bit of inspiration into 10 to 15 minutes? Will you go for it?
[LOL of course]
Of course if I could have that time, I’d be able to tell you what that strange little piece in the epistle means, about being a priest after the order of Melchizedek. And I’d be able to unpack the part in the gospel – the rather harsh part – about hating your life so you won’t lose eternal life.
And together we’d be able to sort out for each and every one of you how you might live into the imperatives of the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ – about loving your neighbor, about loving God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, about selling everything and giving to the poor, and about taking up your cross – little things like that.
Instead, I have time this morning to teach you just one thing. The underlying assumption of what I want to teach you today is this: Jesus died so you can be free. He died so you would not have to be afraid of God anymore. He died so you would not have to be afraid to “get it wrong” anymore. God knows the disciples got it wrong most of the time, and so did the early church of the Epistles, and we call them saints!
Here’s what I want you to learn this morning – Please do not reduce the Bible to a self-help manual for life, a rule book to end all rule books. With well over 600 commandments in the Old Testament alone, who can stand up to this? Turning the Bible into a rule book assumes that you are not already safe in the arms of Jesus, in his heart and his wounded side. And you are. Safe, that is.
The Bible does contain plenty about how to live your life. A lot of it is contradictory. It will leave you frustrated. It will leave you feeling guilty, ashamed, like the young lawyer who went away from Jesus because it was too hard for him to get his mind around selling everything he had in order to follow Jesus.
Instead, approach the Bible like this: as a treasury of faithful peoples’ experiences with God, that provides an entrée into your own journey toward God. The Bible is there to incite you to seek out God for yourself, to find and be found by God, to discover that God has always been there, indeed is always with you, and then for you to “write” at least metaphorically your own chapters of your own experiences with God to add to the scriptures.
The Bible begs you to taste it, to chew it, to mull it over, to argue with it, to engage with it as though it were a living thing, not a dead book stuck in one time and place.
How are you to do this? Well, you can certainly do it alone, at home or at work or in the park or on the train. At the same time, not either/or but both/and, you can join a Bible study, not for the purpose of having some clergyperson tell you what the scriptures mean, but as one place to bounce off your own insights against other people’s insights, including the clergyperson’s. Bible study group is a place to be in community with others. It is a place to encounter God, who is the epitome of community – Father, Son and Holy Spirit; Creator, Redeemer, Inspiration; Source of all Being, Incarnate Word, Guide. One Holy and Undivided Trinity, one and yet community of persons.
If you would rather, I can restructure Sunday morning worship to allow for 80 minutes of teaching and Bible study in the middle of worship. That way you only have to come here once a week, bringing your Bibles with you, that would be very important, and ready to work together in study. The Orthodox Jews in Egypt do just that – the floor of their synagogue is filled with double desks instead of pews, so the worshippers can be in pairs, studying and arguing and discovering scripture together. What better way to use our Sunday time together?
If that does not appeal to you, than I strongly urge – indeed, I expect you to take advantage of the opportunities to study scripture that are already available – The Mission Congregation monthly Saturday afternoon gathering, the Wednesday Night study group which engages scripture through various themes, the monthly 8 a.m. Sunday “Service” Service which puts scripture into action, taking our lead from the youth group who engage scripture in this way.
Or, you can sign up for the Bible Study time and day of your choice.
Outside in the hallway along the wall of this nave, this worship space, there is a chart with the days of the week and time slots on it. You can choose the day of the week and the time slot that works for you, and enter your name and the frequency with which you would like to meet – weekly, every other week, monthly. The only day not available is Friday, and the only time slot not available is Sunday morning before 10:00 a.m. Otherwise, there should be some time there that works for you.
I am very serious about this. You cannot move forward as a congregation unless you come together for the purpose of taking the scriptures seriously and engaging God, face to face, through encountering each other in study.
It’s totally bogus to have your preacher tell you how to relate scripture to your life. She or he can give you some insights, some glimmers, but those must be only a part of the input. Your own life as you live it in the context in which you live it has to be the other part, and only you can provide that, as you wrestle with the scriptures yourself in group. And ten minutes on Sunday morning isn’t enough.
I’m asking you to make an ironclad commitment to do Bible study here, in this building, regularly. I in turn will commit to being with you for Bible study at every one of those times for which people have signed up, even if there is only one person, although if it is at 7 a.m. I will most likely be in my exercise clothes! We can take the Sunday lessons as our texts, to begin with.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this invitation comes from the prophet Jeremiah, in the reading from this morning, in which God promises to take the laws away and instead write his law of love in all hearts. The invitation to study scripture together is an invitation to open your hearts to that law of love, and learn from God what the implications for your life may be with that law written in your hearts rather than as words on paper.
As your priest, I am telling you, this is the single most important thing to which you will commit in the coming year. It is a commitment to our Lord; it is a commitment to the scriptures themselves; it is a commitment to yourself and your life as a Christian, and it is a commitment to the life of this congregation, whatever form that life may take in the coming year.
Now, about that “priest after the order of Melchizedek” bit in the epistle.
If you have your Bible with you, please turn to Genesis, chapter 14, verse 17-20, which reads, After Abraham’s return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet Abraham at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley). 18 And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. 19 Melchizedek blessed Abraham and said, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; 20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!" And Abram gave Melchizedek one tenth of everything.
Now, here is how Melchizedek is understood. He came out of nowhere and he went nowhere. His biography is not in the Bible, and so he has no beginning and no ending. His blessing of Abram is the action of a priest. Abram confirms that priesthood by giving Melchizedek a tithe, one tenth of all he has, as an offering. Melchizedek, therefore, a priest who has no beginning and no ending, is, for the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, a prototype of Jesus, a priest after the order of Melchizedek, who has no beginning and no ending but was and is and ever shall be. Jesus earned this priesthood by offering prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who could have saved him from death, but he also went reverently and obediently to his death, and having been thereby made perfect, is now the source of salvation for all, “having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.” I’m sure that is perfectly clear!
Martin Luther wrote, “If you could understand a single grain of wheat you would die of wonder.” So, too, with the scriptures. I invite you to come and understand together just what these ancient writings might have to say to you in your life, today, in this time, in this place.
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