Feb 2012 Meeting of PbYukon, Communion Service
Intro: It should have been Pollyanna!
I came home recently from work trip away from Anchorage. In some ways, travel brings on a different kind of tired than other work, so I was ready for a break; and my wife, Cindee, who teaches and is involved in a million other things, was tired, too. So we decided to go see three movies together.
Now, obviously we weren’t thinking. Brain researchers tell us that what we pay attention to over time affects our brain. If we are constantly paying attention to things that stress us out, then our brains start to get stuck in a Stress-loop. Our attitude gets a little itchy, and we aren’t as much fund to be around. Our bodies start to build blood pressure, and we start to forget how to be happy.
For that reason, they often tell us that we need to be careful what we are talking about all the time, or reading, or watching on TV. In fact one of the researchers suggested that people ought to by a copy of that old 1960 movie, Pollyanna. In that one a very positive girl comes to a really bitter town, but her unshakable positive attitude and encouragement hits everyone, and turns the whole town around. He believed that thinking this way would really be good for everyone!
I was not thinking of this at the time, when I returned from my trip away. I just thought we ought to enjoy our evenings together over the weekend. So, for the first night we saw Sea Change—a documentary about how the oceans are absorbing so much of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that the oceans are turning acidic—sort of like coca-cola—and the corals are dying, and the little mollusks that feed baby salmon and cod are next.
The next night we saw Margin Call—supposed to be a fiction movie this time, but it showed the ethical dilemmas that the investers were facing about the time that the markets crashed in 2008. It about made me sick to see the kinds of cruel, cutthroat business that was being practiced.
So the next night we went to see On the Ice. This really is a good movie, made by Iñupiaq people, set in Barrow and about the troubles that drugs bring to friendship and to communities. The movie is wonderfully done—but it is R-rated, and it doesn’t sugar-coat the tragedies that drugs can bring, and you can’t help but care about the people caught up in all that trouble.
I was about ready to go home and buy Pollyanna just to remind myself that it is possible to write a story with a happy ending.
Our Scripture passages today are something like that. Psalm 39 is the recommended evening psalm for today from the daily devotion lectionary. I love that Psalm…but really, what a downer! Yet, there have been times when I kept silent, but the silence burned in me. Have you ever done that. I relate to the Psalmist, who then found he couldn’t stand the silence any more and cried out to God. Yet, when he cries out, he is crying out his anguish…his shame…and his wondering if his short life will accomplish anything of value at all!
Yet, he turns all this pain to God—who is the right one to go to with such deep, deep need.
The Philippians reading was the verse chosen by the Presbytery Leadership Team as the theme for our presbytery meeting. Now, this one must be the Pollyanna Scripture. Paul says he always prays with joy over them (uh-huh!), and he always prays that their love may abound more and more in knowledge, in depth and in insight. Further, he prays with absolute confidence that it is all going to work out.
Fascinating! What a happy ending kind of guy.
Well, I do think the brain researchers are on to something. What we focus on does affect how we think and how we respond to the world—whether the world is bringing us adversity or if we are feeling a moment of great privilege. We can focus ourselves on God’s goodness, and power and great possibility and let this guide us, or not.
But it really isn’t that simple. Scriptures point us to different moments in life—the adversity moments and the joy moments—because life has a whole lot of experiences in it.
Lately, our denomination and our presbytery has been more in the adversity camp than the fun side of life. Indeed, the world is changing rapidly, but the financial, political and social spheres are truly strained. If people are to have confidence, they very much need the gospel, because the need Jesus Christ. Paul has confidence, he says, that the One who began the good work—that is, God—is fully capable of bringing them through it all.
It is not because the people of Philippi had good enough training; or because they have such a wise pastor; or because they live in easy times—Paul writes to them about his suffering in chains!!! They did not live in easy times as Christians.
No Paul is confident because he knows God.
Interestingly, an Episcopalian Christian, who is a sociologist, did a study a while back about how Christians talk about God in their lives. I find it fascinating that the confidence that Christians have still takes different shapes, depending on what part of the faith stirs their passions the most deeply. Now, I am of the opinion that all of these methods of telling the story are deeply important. But you normally find that Christians flock together in congregations that look at God similarly. The whole church, however, needs to hear from everyone if they are not to get caught up in too much Pollyanna Christianity, or maybe too much Rambo warriors for Christ Christianity. Let me show you what I mean.
The first group tells their story in such a way that the human hero (not God in this case) is the one who is steadfast, obedient to God, and faithful. Great way to look at Christian discipleship, isn’t it? These folks are well aware that sin is pervasive in the world, and that God’s holiness is beyond human capability. If we are to be faithful, we must be obedient to the Bible and to the accepted teachings of the church. Enduring faithfulness is the moral. I love this type of Christian!
The second group would never say anything against the first group, or at least not really. But they tell their story as an adventure story of good versus evil. This group is well aware that we fight not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities. They are also aware that God’s holiness and power are beyond human grasp. But they are also aware that God can and does give spiritual gifts to the faithful, for them to use in the spiritual battle. For this group, the human ability is not as hindered by sin, because God empowers them to go beyond themselves. Their story is not about enduring faithfully, but about going forth for Christ. I love this kind of Christian, too!
The third group is aware that human thinking is too narrow and limited to see the deeper truths that God knows, but they are also more aware that the Holy Spirit really is at work with, in and around us. So they are always looking for God to reveal the mysteries through coincidences and signs—but also by working through our conversations and connections with the faithful throughout the church. Together, we are the body of Christ with much to learn from one another. This story is about God teaching and equipping us through the renewing of the mind and the knowledge and depth of insight. What’s not to love in this group?
The fourth group is very aware of sin in the world, but they are most passionate about how that sin works its way into our social attitudes and structures. This group is looking to set people free from prejudices, and set society free from injustice. They Recognize that God is at work in and through the church in very practical ways. So they are engaged in activism, in church boards, as doctors and teachers and many helping professions. They take to heart the scriptures that tell us that true religion is the feeding of the hungry, and caring for the poor, the widow, and the dispossessed. For this group, the story of God is in how God helps us to make our world better reflect the Kingdom of God on earth. How can one help but
Now, all of these stories are scriptural. But each puts a different emphasis either on God’s holiness and power, or God’s work in and through us. They are the different arms of the church.
For my part, I have fallen in love with the different people of the church. But more than that, I have become convinced that all have gifts to share. I have never suffered like Paul. But like Paul I am absolutely convinced that God is able to bring to fulfillment that which he began among us. I am convinced, first and foremeost because of who God is, and what God is capable of. But I am also convinced because I have walked among you and sensed the giftedness that is there.
The hard part for me is that we now have to change. I like to know the plan. I can really get excited about a plan. But God seems not to have given any one of us the plan. It seems that we will have to work together to work this one out together. It is going to take a blending of all four stories.
So, as much as I like to just plug away at things faithfully and obediently, I find that God is requiring that we realize that what we are doing in ministry is no longer practical. We have to find ways of meeting the spiritual needs of the people in ways that work—not in ways that worked in the past. Things have to change. And I have to recognize that God will reveal what is needful if we bring our giftedness together. And so, I am choosing to treat this as a grand adventure story, trusting that the forces that would hold us back cannot stand against the will of God.
I want to take it a step further. Sometimes, we have not treated one another as if we trusted one another. I fear that I have been as guilty of that as anyone. We have to treat one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. We have to build fellowship between the pastors, so that the pastoral leadership can work as a team. We have to find ways of connecting our elders and probably others, so that we can envision the ministry needs in a region and work together on strategies to work them out.
And we have to do this admitting that we have real differences.
But there is something we need to take seriously. The people of the world need the gospel of Jesus. They need it for all four reasons—so that they will know the gospel and the Lord to which they must pledge obedience; so that when they are thrown into the battle, they do so with the whole armor of God; so that they become a practical ministry that raises our children, feeds the hungry and cares for the downtrodden, taking on the injustices of the age; and, as our scripture tells us today, so that their love may abound in knowledge and deeper insight.
For my part, I have spent too much of this past year listening to the negative story and not to the good news of Jesus. I have been caught up too much in Psalm 39 and have not been in Philippians 1. Perhaps this has been your experience, too. And so I challenge you to listen again to the gospel and renew your faith.
Remember: the One who reached out in the Spirit and began the work of salvation in you. Remember the touch of the One who is truly Love. Remember God’s salvation. And accept the promise of God’s healing, restoring, transforming touch. You have been called by God. And together we have been called for such a time as this. God will show us the way. And he who began this work, in you and among us, is capable of turning us in new ways and bring that work, along with us, to all fullness.
Philippians 1:4-6
In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. ...And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.
Psalm 39
1 I said, “I will watch my ways
and keep my tongue from sin;
I will put a muzzle on my mouth
while in the presence of the wicked.”
2 So I remained utterly silent,
not even saying anything good.
But my anguish increased;
3 my heart grew hot within me.
While I meditated, the fire burned;
then I spoke with my tongue:
4 “Show me, LORD, my life’s end
and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is.
5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,
even those who seem secure.[b]
6 “Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom;
in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth
without knowing whose it will finally be.
7 “But now, Lord, what do I look for?
My hope is in you.
8 Save me from all my transgressions;
do not make me the scorn of fools.
9 I was silent; I would not open my mouth,
for you are the one who has done this.
10 Remove your scourge from me;
I am overcome by the blow of your hand.
11 When you rebuke and discipline anyone for their sin,
you consume their wealth like a moth—
surely everyone is but a breath.
12 “Hear my prayer, LORD,
listen to my cry for help;
do not be deaf to my weeping.
I dwell with you as a foreigner,
a stranger, as all my ancestors were.
13 Look away from me, that I may enjoy life again
before I depart and am no more.”
Message Psalm 29
1-2 Hooray, God, Halleluia! Gods and all angels shout, "Halleluia!"
In awe before the glory,
in awe before God's visible power.
Stand at attention!
Dress your best to honor him!
3 God thunders across the waters,
Brilliant, God’s voice; and brilliant God’s face, streaming brightness—
God, across the flood waters.
4 God's thunder tympanic,
God's thunder symphonic.
5 God's thunder smashes those powerful cedars,
God topples the cedars of the Tsongas.
6 The mountain ranges skip like spring colts,
The Brooks Range leaps up like wild dall sheep.
7-8 God's thunder spits fire.
God thunders, the wilderness quakes;
He makes the whole Yukon plane to shake.
9 God's thunder sets the spruce trees dancing
A wild dance, whirling; the pelting rain strips their branches.
We see all this, and we fall to our knees—we call out, "Glory!"
10 Above the floodwaters is God's throne
from which the power flows,
from which God rules the world.
11 God makes his people strong.
God gives his people peace.
Let us worship the Lord!
No comments:
Post a Comment