Considering the Anxious Lilies: A Sermon Preached on Holy Monday

Considering the Anxious Lilies

FBC|WJ

April 14^th, 2014, Monday of Holy Week

Luke 12:22-28

Will you pray with me?

            God of Holy Week,

            May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be pleasing in your sight oh God our strength and our redeemer. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

            Go with me if you will to the year 1959. Rogers and Hammerstein created what may be one of the greatest musical masterpieces that turned into one of the favorite movies of so many. The Sound of Music changed the way we look at films and musicals, and the beauty of that movie still captivates young and old to this day.

            In one scene of the movie, Captain Von Trapp in the face of the Nazi regime defiantly sings a song of love to his Austrian homeland. “Blossom of snow may you bloom and grow
bloom and grow forever
 Edelweiss, Edelweiss
 bless my homeland forever.” He stood with poise and courage in the face of Nazi power. The words he sang were a metaphor for his beloved Austria, and with Nazi Germany closing in the words reminded the people of the resiliency of the nation they loved.

            Today we hear about a different flower. The text we hear today is on its surface a very weird text for Holy Monday. Part of me wonders if Jesus even remembers the words that he said when he said, “Therefore do not worry about your life.” If anything, Jesus is very concerned with his life during this week of doom and gloom.

            Don’t worry about your life, even to Captain Von Trapp that was counter-intuitive. The reality is that we are creatures who worry, we worry because we are scared, alone, afraid, or in trouble. We worry because of jobs, of friendships, relationships, our own personal failings, or the fact that tax day is tomorrow and you haven’t started your taxes yet. Human beings are extremely good at worrying. But God is even better at causing us to give pause in our daily lives and give us peace.

            God gives us the lilies, the edelweiss, the flowers of Easter to combat the darkness of this week, of any week where worry threatens our very souls. God comes to us in the Christ Child, in the man on the cross and in the empty tomb to remind us again and again that worrying is ok, but worrying should not consume for God is Lord over time and space.

             As a person who suffers from anxiety of the worst kind, this text speaks profoundly to me because it reminds me that all of creation is a part of the magnificent plan of God to take care of all of us. If God can keep the lilies from worrying in all their splendor, can God not keep us safe as well? If God’s eye is on the sparrow, then where does the love of God’s heart lay down? It must be in our very souls.

            So as Jesus turns his face towards the cross and we too turn our eyes towards what is to come we are called not to be anxious. I wonder if Jesus remembered these words he spoke in Luke 12 by the time he got to Luke 22. I wonder if Jesus considered the lilies as he stood before Pilate and the crowds. I wonder if a sparrow flew over in peace as the crowds were yelling crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him!

            You see we have the ability to be on this side of the resurrection, we know the outcome. But think of all the worry and despair the disciples must have had this week. The Passover was at hand and they had to make ready for that and on top of everything their Rabbi was telling them he wouldn’t be with them much longer. This was truly a week of worry and anxiety for all those gathered round.

            In one of the most thought provoking scenes in my favorite book series, Harry Potter is dealing with a dying Professor Dumbledore who will not survive the mortal wound he had been blown. The scene has lines such as these, “It's going to be all right, sir," Harry said over and over again, more worried by Dumbledore's silence than he had been by his weakened voice. "We're nearly there ... I can get us both back ... don't worry ... "I am not worried, Harry," said Dumbledore, his voice a little stronger despite the freezing water. "I am with you.”

            God comes to us during the Holy Weeks of our lives and says, “There’s no need to be worried, I am with you. Just like it was on that first Holy Week all those years ago, in the midst of it all Jesus broke bread and gave wine. He reminded the disciples whose they were and even in their denial there was grace extended.  Just like Captain Von Trapp they sang a hymn the night before he was betrayed. I wonder if it had anything to do with the flowers of the field or the beauty of the created world. Ultimately that doesn’t matter because Jesus faced his death with anxiety, and yet he fulfilled the task set before him since before the dawn of time.

            How will you face this week? Will you face it with anxiety and fear for what is coming on Good Friday? Will you face the future with caution and despair or will you shout yes to what God is doing to bring about Easter morning? These are the juxtapositions of our lives, Holy Week and Easter, death and resurrection, anxiety and joy. But ultimately, Easter, joy and resurrection win!

            Considering the lilies, the next time I’m anxious I’m going to give that a try. The next time I face my cross I’m going to consider the sparrow. Maybe you can do that too? Perhaps you can look into the eyes of whatever is staring you down and remind it that nothing on earth or under the earth or above the earth can stop God’s calming peace to be upon you. Anxiety and worry have no place in the Kingdom of God, and Jesus knew this even when he was anxious on Maundy Thursday.

             At the Garden of Gethsemane, even as Jesus’ anxiety and worry was reaching a boiling point he didn’t let the atrocity of what he was about to face overtake him. He considered all he had preached, all he knew about God and said, “Your will be done.” Even though Jesus went through hell and back to reach Easter morning he didn’t let his worry or anxiety consume him.

            We have a wonderful church member here at First Baptist Church named Diane. Diane is here with us today and the other night we went and saw the movie Noah together and followed it up with discussion at the local coffee house. Diane told us the story of her sitting under an orange tree in Florida worrying about a possible third pregnancy. Thoughts raced through her head and her worry was consuming her until her young son James came up and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned and looked at him and James without knowing the situation said in a childlike voice, “It’s going to be ok, it’s going to be ok.”

            Friends if this is not the lesson of Holy Week I don’t know what is. As Captain Von Trapp prepared to sing Edelweiss at the Salzburg Festival he says, “I know you share this love. I pray that you will never let it die.” Jesus, the one we know as Lord never let love die, even in his own mortal death he was clothed with immortal love in spite of his anxiety and worry and pain. So however you consider it, whether it be through Captain Von Trapp standing without worry over his actions or through Diane’s story of sitting under the orange tree, counter to everything we have ever conceived, worry has no place in this week, anxiety has no place in this week for we are bound for the kingdom of God, we are bound for the resurrection and it’s going to be ok! It’s going to be ok! It’s going to be ok!

Waiting on the World to Change: A Sermon Preached at First Baptist Church

Waiting on the World to Change

Advent IV, December 22^nd, 2013

Matthew 1:18-25

First Baptist Church West Jefferson

Will you pray with me?

            God of life and love, what do you dream about? What is your dream for us? May we hear that word today. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            Do you believe in dreams? It was a few days before Christmas. A woman woke up one morning and told her husband, "I just dreamed that you gave me a pearl necklace for Christmas. What do you think this dream means?" "Oh," her husband replied, "you'll know the day after tomorrow." The next morning, she turned to her husband again and said the same thing, "I just dreamed that you gave me a pearl necklace for Christmas. What do you think this dream means?" And her husband said, "You'll know tomorrow." On the third morning, the woman woke up and smiled at her husband, "I just dreamed again that you gave me a pearl necklace for Christmas. What do you think this dream means?" And he smiled back, "You'll know tonight." That evening, the man came home with a small package and presented it to his wife. She was delighted. She opened it gently. And when she did, she found a book! And the book's title was "The Meaning of Dreams."

            The question returns again, do you believe in dreams? We hear Matthew’s account of a dream and we hear it loud and clear. An angel shows up and says in angelic fashion, “Don’t be afraid.” Now normally when an angel shows up, it’s a good idea to be afraid, because Joseph’s dream changed the course of history. It changed the very reality of our world by Joseph’s obedience to his dream. So the question becomes not do you believe in dreams, but to echo what Michael said last week, what are you waiting for?

            Too many times we find ourselves waiting on the world to change. John Mayer even wrote a Grammy award winning song of the same name. We’re all here warm and cozy in church talking about the most incredible moment of all time and I guarantee some of you are making your last minute shopping lists and grocery plans. We’re waiting on the world to change. Why not be a little more like Joseph and Mary and believe in the dreams that change history.

            What if Dr. King hadn’t believed in his dream? What if Nelson Mandela on Robben Island hadn’t dreamed that apartheid could end? What if Mother Teresa had abandoned her dream that people deserved healthcare on the streets of Calcutta? What if you abandon your dream? What could the world be missing out on as you wait on the world to change without your dreams in place?

            As we approach the culmination of our Advent season I’d like to challenge you to dream again. Dream like you’ve never dreamed before. Because, as Frederick Buechner put it,  “If the Christmas tale is true, it is the chief of all truths. What keeps the wild hope of Christmas alive in a world notorious for dashing all hopes is the haunting dream that the Child may be born again in us - in our needing, in our longing for him."

            Friends do you see this truth beyond all truths, we don’t celebrate Advent, we ARE advent. We are the present and real coming of God to earth in our time for as Teresa of Avilla said, “Christ has no body but yours,
no hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world”

            So here we are, sitting on the vast expanse of Christmas about to dive into a world of joy and delight as family draws near and presents opened and candles lit. We stand with great expectations for what is about to happen and it’s time to start dreaming again. It’s like my dog Rusty. You see Rusty loves riding in the car, and whenever I am home in Statesville he hangs out with my dad. When my dad is out in the yard working on chores he will put Rusty in the passenger seat of the car with the car door open. Now my dad doesn’t call Rusty by his name because they both have the same name, so he calls Rusty, Little Man. Little Man sits in the side seat of the car and with anticipation for God knows what wags his tail the entire time he is in the car. He has no idea what, if anything is about to happen but he knows that if it does happen it will be grand.

            Friends like my dog we have no earthly conception of what Christmas might bring this year, but I can assure you when God bursts onto the scene it is grand. So this season of Advent, let expectancy and hope and love and peace and joy envelop you in a world of grace.

            What if God showed up in your dream? Would you have the courage of Joseph to say yes? What if God showed up in your life? Would you have the grace of the Virgin Mother to give your life for the advancement of God’s dream for the world? These answers are life-changing, and yes we are asked the very same questions today.

            You all know this story could have gone terribly wrong, correct? Even if Joseph had dismissed Mary quietly word would have gotten out and during that time in society Mary would have met a not so great ending. We have the hope of Christmas because people were obedient to their dreaming. They were obedient to what God had called them to. They were obedient to the incarnation, to Emmanuel.

            So this year as we light candles, as we sing carols, we dream. We dream of a teenage mother who doesn’t have all the answers but accompanies her fiancé to be taxed in Bethlehem of Judea. We dream of the child who would save us all, and in our dreaming we see that God was with us. God is with us, and God will be with us for the rest of our existence. So may you rest and learn to dream again in the majesty of God’s grace and the hope of all creation.

            If God shows up this year, be prepared for what might happen. One of the lines to John Mayer’s classic Waiting on the World to Change goes something like this: “It’s hard to be persistent when you’re standing at a distance.” Friends I think God realized that long before John Mayer did. God realized that persistence from a heavenly distance wasn’t working with a hard-headed, stubborn people like us. So as St. Iranaeus famously said ‘God became like us so that we might become like God.”

            What does that look like for you? What does God’s dream of persistence and patience for our lives look like for us? Deeper than that how are you living it out? How are you making God’s dream your reality?

            The greatest gift you can give yourself this Advent season is to believe in the dreams that God has given you. Believe in the calling placed on your life, believe in the hope that the incarnation is here to stay and that God has surrounded you with love, joy, hope and peace this season and all the days of your life.

            I must confess that I haven’t always believed in dreams. I’m a skeptic, I don’t buy into people’s dreams easily. But all of that was humbled this past week with none other than my little brother Scott. You see Scott is one of my favorite people in the world, and I want what’s best for him So six months ago when he started voice lessons I thought it would be a passing fad. He had other things he was so much better at that would make colleges notice him. I wanted to cry when he told me that he was going to be auditioning for the Hayes School of Music at Appalachian because I knew that his dream of singing might be crushed by people he would never meet sitting behind a desk. I knew the odds were against him.

            You see Appalachian’s admissions process to the School of Music goes a little like this: You send in a video recording and they call you back if they’d like to hear more from you. Well last night Scott got that call. Scott received the phone call that his dream was alive and well, and that my own ignorance to his dream was only hindering myself. So needless to say today I stand as a proud brother of a kid who will be auditioning at one of the most prestigious music schools in the state.

            Believe in the dreams of the ones you love. God worked 2000 years ago through a young and wonderful woman, and her husband who believed in her and believed in his dreams. That miracle can occur again and again. Believe in dreams this Christmas, and God will appear. Stop waiting on the world to change church, and start dreaming again.

All glory, honor and power be to the One who was, who is, and who is to come. Amen.

My Interview with Stanley Hauerwas

A few years back I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Stanley Hauerwas via email for the Record and Landmark. While the interview was never published I hope to publish it here, I am reminded ever so presently of his influence on my own theological reflection, and I hope you find it meaningful. 

Dear Rob,

Here are my short responses to your questions. These are good questions, by the way.

1. Rob: Dr. Hauerwas, in one of your pieces, The Ethicist as Theologian you speak of humor being is important to theological reflection. How do you feel about the issue of theology and humor? How do they co-exist?

Hauerwas: The relation between theology and humor is very simple: what could be more humorous than theologians thinking they can say something interesting about God. God surely laughs at our efforts. I think it’s probably true that you shouldn’t trust a theologian who doesn’t have a good sense of humor. Theology and humor must co-exist.

2 Rob: How has the church embarrassed you in your beliefs? We all find times when we cringe at what the church has done, how does that pertain to your personal walk of faith?

Hauerwas: I’m not sure I’ve thought of the church embarrassing my beliefs. But I often worry if I embarrass faithful Christians. I do, of course, worry about the accommodated character of the church. But in that same accommodated church I often discover lives that put my own life in perspective. So God is great, able to raise up faithful Christians even in the midst of a severely compromised church.

3. Rob: How can a person or church in a small town truthfully hold fast to theological ethics within the context of the greater community? 

        

      Hauerwas:Well, smallness doesn’t necessarily mean “narrow”. It can mean locality which allows for the development of practical reason and judgment that cannot be known elsewhere. So I say, take advantage of locality.

     

     4. Rob: At Duke, you teach a course on John Howard Yoder's the politics of Jesus. Yoder's work is phenomenal and lays claim to Jesus' response to the social behavior of his disciples. How do you think that Jesus would respond to the social behavior of modern day Christians? 

      Hauerwas: I suspect Jesus would think that those who call ourselves Christians are pretty close to those he identifies in the gospel of Matthew as scribes and Pharisees. It’s a harsh judgment, but it’s one I fear is unavoidable.

      5. Rob: Finally, Dr. Hauerwas, death and dying seem to be on the headlines of news these days. Society is fascinated by it, but how should the church respond to the issues of death and dying? I know you have done significant research in this as an issue of ethical behavior, and I hope this isn't too forward but how do you see death coming for you? How can a Christian live a life ready for death? 

      

      Hauerwas:  I’m not sure if Christians today can live lives such that they are ready to die. We simply no longer know how to do that. We can, however, keep before us that we are a people shaped by martyrdom. That can never be forgotten. Just to the extent that we remember this we continue to have hope that we too will be faithful as we face death.

Harry Potter and the Kingdom of God

Harry Potter and the Kingdom of God

A sermon preached at First Baptist Church, West Jefferson

November 24^th, 2013, Christ the King Sunday

Will you pray with me?

Great God of Light,

Let this King’s cross become the shape of our lives; let this Lord’s compassion form our hearts; let this Shepherd’s embrace welcome us to Paradise. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

            September 1^st, 1998 changed American culture forever. A little known British author’s book was published in the United States and the Harry Potter craze began. The Harry Potter series chronicle the story of Harry, the orphaned boy wizard whose glasses and lightening bolt scar captivated a generation. The author who wrote the first book on napkins now has more money than the Queen of England, and we are all eternally grateful for a series that told us the story of the boy who harnessed not only magic, but life itself.

            In the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry has arrived at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and is hearing stories about the elusive sorcerer’s stone, this elixir of life is the key to eternity, and Harry must find it before the dark Lord Voldemort does. The dark Lord Voldemort and Harry already have a history as Voldemort had killed Harry’s parents. As Harry searches for this stone, this key to eternity, Harry wants to use it for good by keeping it out of the hands of evil. Throughout the course of the book he has to traverse various adventures and eventually does find the sorcerer’s stone. As Harry destroys the stone he realizes that Voldemort cannot touch him for some reason and cause him harm. As professor Dumbledore explains, “Your mother died to save you when Voldemort tried to kill you. If there is one thing evil cannot understand, it is love. Love as powerful as your mother's for you leaves it's own mark. To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever.” But we’ll get back to that.

Let’s clear the air; we shouldn’t be hearing this text today, should we? We come this Sunday on the cusp of the liturgical New Year, with Advent a stone’s throw away and we hear words of crucifixion. I’m not exactly sure why the lectionary decides this year to veer off and take us down the road towards Golgotha but part of me is glad that we do. We need to hear these words, ‘Jesus remember me, when you come into your kingdom.’ These desperate words come from a criminal. Now this criminal was not any ordinary crook, the Greek words used here for criminal and context clues as to how this man was being killed meant that this man had like Jesus, incited trouble for the Roman Empire. This man got what he was asking for and standing on the abyss of the afterlife he begs Jesus to remember him.

            One of the things I love about Jesus is he often ends up doing way more than any of us could ever imagine or hope for. Jesus looks lovingly at his companion opposite him on a stage set for all time and space to see and says, ‘Truly I tell you, you will be with me in Paradise.’ Friends I think we need to take Jesus at his word.

            We don’t take Jesus at his word anymore do we? As progressive Christians we have an answer for everything. If we trust what Jesus actually said then truly we too can be with him in Paradise. Deeper than that if we take Jesus for what Jesus said in the text today then we can see that truly anyone can be with God in Paradise. You see today Christians often use heaven and hell as cosmic bargaining chips by which we ignore the hells around us. We use the afterlife as a proverbial game in which someone might attain that if they vote the right way, look like they deserve it and are card carrying members of the rotary club.

            You see this is precisely the mentality Christ the king comes to combat on the cross. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female for we all one in Christ Jesus. What might that look like for us today? In Christ there is neither Republican nor Democrat, there is neither gay nor straight, there is neither immigrant nor legal citizen for we are all one in Christ Jesus. Perhaps this is best summed up in the story of St. Lawrence. After the death of Pope Sixtus II, the prefect of Rome demanded that Lawrence gather all the wealth of the church and present it to the emperor. Lawrence asked for three days to gather the wealth and on the third day he came back with the poor, the lame, and the diseased and looked the prefect in the eye and said, “These are the church’s riches. The Church is truly rich, far richer than your emperor." Lawrence was martyred for his actions but in his death and his presentation of the church we see exactly where God calls us to be. We see the plight of the crook on the cross begging Jesus to remember him and we see Jesus doing so much more.

            Friends we come here to this Christ the King Sunday, this Sunday when we enthrone Christ in the throne of our hearts and minds and as Lord of all Creation and we are on the brink of Advent, the expectation that Christ came, Christ rose, and Christ will come again. What if we as a church started treating each other like the Messiah was in our midst. Because let me fill you in on something, the Messiah is already here. For we are called to be like Christ to people and experience Christ in people, that ultimately, is what the kingdom of God looks like.

            Truly I tell you today you will be with me in Paradise. All of us here are still waiting for the fulfillment of that promise. We wait with expectancy and with fervor as Christ stands above time and space bringing the hope that we can take God for what God has spoken to us through the prophets, the martyrs, the saints and Christ himself. Perhaps we need this text this week because it shows God’s way of ruling is far superior to our way of ruling things. It’s almost comical that we threw the worst we had at Jesus, a cross, and Jesus laughs in the face of death with a holy laughter that echoes through our own lives and our own deaths as well.

            There are things in life that we will never of and eternity is one of them. But perhaps not only what happens after death is Paradise, maybe dying with Jesus, knowing the Savior of the nations stands with us to face what he has already faced is as close to Paradise as we will get this side of the Jordan.

            What is Paradise for you? If I could have my paradise it would be at my grandmother’s house on Christmas Eve. You see Nana has one of those artificial trees that is older than I am, it must be at least 30 years old and the lights flicker but the warmth of the room is full and bright. I remember the first year after my uncle had died and many of us wondered how we could celebrate such a holiday in Paradise without my uncle there. God has mended, God has restored, nothing is ever the same, there will always be a place missing at the table but we must hold our past in Paradise on earth in tension with God’s future Paradise prepared for us since before our pasts occurred. God reminds us in this text that at the fruition of our lives God will keep God’s word. If that is the case then we need to be so bold as to proclaim it for ourselves, we must actually believe these words, we must commit them to memory and recite them in our last moments, ‘Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.’

            Fifty years ago this past Friday John Kennedy was shot and killed by a gunman’s bullet. I’m sure some of you remember where you were that fateful day. John Kennedy, the king of what became known as an American Camelot famously said, “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”

            Friends we come to this place asking too many times what the kingdom of God can do for us, sure it promises us eternity and bliss, which is good, but what else does the Kingdom of God demand of us? It demands we become the very Christ for others, we must live incarnate the kingship of faith. This kingship is not wealth or fame or crowns. No this kingship involves a cross, and a crown of a very different kind.

            Have you ever wanted a second chance? This text offers precisely that. It offers Paradise, what the Jewish faith knows as the second Eden. How are we preparing to be with Jesus in Paradise? How will we be when we are faced with our cross?

            Church do you see where I’m going with this? God’s love for us was so strong on the cross that even in our own deaths love will come out triumphant. As in Harry Potter when Voldemort could not touch Harry because of his mother’s love, God loves us so much that it leaves a mark on us so that we can laugh at death and know that it has been swallowed up in victory. Therein lies our hope on this Christ the King Sunday. Our hope should not be in elixirs of life or sorcerer’s stones that promise eternity from anything other than Jesus. When we ask Jesus to remember us that is a love that death and hate and evil cannot overcome.

            There was a 2012 movie released that struck a particular chord with me. Silver Linings Playbook tells the story of Pat, a man with bipolar disorder who is released from a psychiatric hospital and moves back in with his parents. Determined to win back his estranged wife, Pat meets recently widowed Tiffany Maxwell. She tells Pat that she will help him get his wife back if he enters a dance competition with her. The two become closer as they train and Pat, and a romantic comedy ensues in the process. In one of the most pivotal scenes in the movie Pat’s father declares, “Let me tell you, I know you don't want to listen to your father, I didn't listen to mine, and I am telling you you gotta pay attention this time. When life reaches out at a moment like this it's a sin if you don't reach back, I'm telling you it’s a sin if you don't reach back!”

            Holy People of God whether you are coping with disease, with loss, with mental illness, with struggles far too deep to name in words, may you be ready to experience the coming kingdom of God. For God is reaching out to you and when God reaches out to you at a moment like this, it’s a sin not to reach back. You have to listen to your father for you have been given a mark, a mark of love that no one, not even the powers of hell and death could hope to tarnish. For God’s love is too strong and those powers too weak.  You are the face of God’s beloved. You are marked as Christ’s own forever. Jesus remember us, when you come into your kingdom.