conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

celebration of discipline

It occurs to me from time to time that I might actually want to share some of my background thinking for many of my more blanket statements on "stuff."

Especially where liturgical stuff is concerned, this is the case. I love to just say something and let it hang out there to be interpreted however the wind moves. It is a specific joy.

But lately, I have been finding myself using the term "discipline" in many of my conversations. I use it in lieu of "dogma"...or to give a framework for Christian dogma/systematic theology. Typically I find that this is a good term to use when speaking with people full of questions. I encounter these people often when I hang out with my musician and actor friends. Most are used to me by now, but every so often I am introduced to someone new and they want to know about Christianity. They typicall ask their questions three or four martinis into the evening, so I try to keep things clear as I can. One thing that helps is to steer clear of the terms "doctrine" or "dogma." There is a knee jerk reaction against them. So, "discipline" works well. Somehow the people I can talk to can then think of Christian belief and practice with the same charity they approach other religions. Cool, no?

Richard J. Foster's book, Celebration of Discipline is a great place to begin to get at what I mean by discipline. I think I may reexplore his book and post on it from time to time.

Here is how he divides up discipline:

The Inward Disciplines: meditation, prayer, fasting, study
The Outward Disciplines: simplicity, solitude, submission, service
The Corporate Disciplines: confession, worship, guidance, celebration

Even the way he divides things up is interesting. I think this may be a worthwhile experiment.

a wednesday musing

So, I have been playing around in my Celtic prayerbooks again. This is, of course, in preparation for my thesis. Heh. Well, some good work has been done on the thesis. I'll get there by hook or by crook.

Celtic Daily Prayers from Iona by J. Philip Newell is my favorite of those I have encountered thus far. I have had it the longest, too. I am sure there is something in that relationship of time and favoritism to contemplate, but I'll save it for later.

I thought I would share the Intercessions this afternoon. Pray them at your leisure.

There is no plant in the ground
But tells of your beauty, O Christ.
There is no creature on the earth
There is no life in the sea
But proclaims your goodness.
There is no bird on the wing
There is no star in the sky
There is nothing beneath the sun
But is full of your blessing.
Lighten my understanding
of your presense all around, O Christ
Kindle my will
to be caring for Creation.

Pray for the day and for the care of the earth.

keeping everyone in stitches

So, I finally figured out how to post mp3's on my server. Trevor was great help. If you are looking for someone to host your blog, superfastaction is the best possible. I am convinced.

So, if you want to hear me play mandolin, give this a listen! I am so happy I could jump! The tune is called Britches Full of Stitches. It is one of those traditional mandolin tunes from the hills. Enjoy!

preachin'

I preached at Reconciler (link)Sunday evening. I thought it went well enough. I posted my outline on the Reconciler blog. There is no manuscript.

I tried a couple of newish things this time. First, I used my Greek and my Hebrew. I really need to make that a habit. It was great fun. Second, I preached from the outline. Eh, some success there. I tend to swim in my thoughts anyway, so an outline actually proved to be too little structure. I really need a manuscript.

But take a gander at the sermon. If you would like to comment, feel free.

On the employment front, I am still spenindg my days loitering. I have registered with four (4) temp agencies. No luck so far. I have applied to wait tables at a few restaurants. No luck.

I may start taking all this personally very soon.

seabury group photo

AKMA posted this photo of the SWTS folk present at Jane's ordination on his blog. I am the long-haired gentleman standing to your right. Jane, the one who was just ordined, is also standing in the back row. You will find her in the red outfit. It was a wonderful day. There was prayer, jokes from the bishop about laying hands on me while he was at it, much music, and at Jane's house afterward there was pie.

How I love pie.

american family idol?

Americans idolize 'traditional family' even if theirs isn't one, study shows

By Robert Marus

This is interesting:

WASHINGTON (ABP) -- A new survey shows that, even as Americans have become more accepting of non-traditional family structures, their view of the ideal family has remained the same -- a heterosexual couple, married for life, with children.

The survey, commissioned by the PBS program Religion and Ethics
Newsweekly, was conducted by the Washington polling firm Greenberg
Quinlan Rosner Research. It will form the basis for a four-week series
on the public-television show, beginning the weekend of Oct. 28.

The results, released to the press Oct. 19, show "that there is a
significant gap between what we call beliefs and reality" about the
family, said pollster Anna Greenberg, who designed the survey.

"Nearly everyone in this country supports what we would call the
'traditional family,'" Greenberg continued, noting that 71 percent of
respondents agreed with the statement, "God's plan for marriage is one
man, one woman, for life."

However, only 22 percent of respondents agreed that divorce is a sin, 49
percent said it is OK for couples to live together without intending to
get married, and 40 percent agreed that it is "a good idea for a couple
who intend to get married to live together first."
"There's a very strong -- some might even say romanticized -- vision of
what family life should look like," Greenberg told reporters. "Yet,
there is a very strong realization of what family life actually looks
like."

For instance, 52 percent of respondents believed that divorce is
"usually the best solution when a couple can't seem to work out their
marriage problems." That figure included 38 percent of those in
"traditional marriages," defined as a heterosexual couple in their first
marriage with children at home.

Greenberg also noted that divorce rates are similar between the
population at large and evangelical Protestants and traditionalist
Catholics. "If you are more religiously conservative ... you are not
less likely to get divorced and in some cases more likely to get
divorced," she said.

The survey found that less than 20 percent of respondents were
never-divorced married couples with children at home. Another 27 percent
were married and never divorced but with no children living at home.

Nonetheless, a large majority of respondents remain opposed to marriage
and adoption rights for same-sex couples.

The tension between the ideals for marriage and the reality means that,
despite changes in society, institutions charged with defining societal
ideals have held their ground in the area of family life, said John
Green, who helped conduct the study. Green is a professor of political
science at the University of Akron and an expert on American religious
life.

"... [C]hurches and other religious institutions have been very
successful at maintaining a certain ideal that can be held by people who
don't live it out," Green said. "On the other hand, Americans have
become much, much more tolerant of deviations from that ideal, I suspect
because they themselves have experienced those deviations."

The survey was conducted between July 25 and Aug. 7 and involved 1,130
adults across the nation. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3
percent.

polity matters

Missouri Baptists will vote again on local-church loyalty to SBC

By Vicki Brown

So, before you begin this article I have this question for you: Are they still Baptists if they do this?

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (ABP) -- No congregation could be a Missouri Baptist
Convention church without cooperating with the Southern Baptist
Convention, if a constitution amendment is passed next week.

Requiring a church to cooperate with the national convention would be a
departure from Baptist tradition. But the Missouri move -- believed to
be the first of its kind among traditional state conventions -- reflects
the growing power of conservatives in Baptist state conventions.

The issue of "single alignment," which has alternately united and
divided Missouri Baptists almost since they began working together in
1834, will again come to a vote at the Oct. 24-26 annual meeting of the
Missouri Baptist Convention in Springfield. Messengers will consider the
"second reading" of a constitutional amendment that will restrict
membership in the convention to churches that are singly aligned with
the Southern Baptist and Missouri Baptist conventions.

If approved, the change would exclude congregations that support the
alternative state convention established by moderates, the Baptist
General Convention of Missouri. Likewise, congregations that support the
state and national Cooperative Baptist Fellowship would not be allowed
to participate.

Technically, the amendment to the constitution's membership article
would change wording from "any Baptist church" to "any Southern Baptist
church" and would change the words "in sympathy" to "singly aligned"
with the convention.

Another amendment apparently would permit some churches to relate to
other organizations, conventions or associations along racial, ethnic or
cultural lines as long as the relationship is not contrary to the MBC
constitution and does not "violate accepted Southern Baptist faith,
polity and practice."

According to the report presented at the 2004 annual meeting, a church
would have to adopt a doctrinal statement and contribute financially to
the work of both the SBC and Missouri Baptist Convention to be
considered a cooperating church.

Currently, the MBC constitution does not require giving as a condition
for affiliation, although the SBC constitution does.

The congregation also could not send a representative or messenger or
financially support any other state or national convention or an
organization that acts as a convention.

Rules for the convention's credentials committee define a national
convention as "any organization which independently sends and ordains
ministers to the United States military services."

By that definition, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and some state
Baptist conventions, such as the Baptist General Convention of Texas,
would be classified as "denominations." Neither the CBF nor state
conventions consider themselves as denominations.

Rules and procedures would allow the committee to "investigate" the
qualifications of a church and of individual messengers. Under proposed
committee procedures, the convention might claim the right to examine
churches' contributions to determine whether congregations support other
national or state conventions or bodies that act as conventions.

curious

Birth control, not liberalism, explains mainline decline, researchers say

By Greg Warner

CHICAGO (ABP) -- The decline of mainline church membership over the last century had more to do with sex than theology, according to research by a trio of sociologists.

The popular notion that conservative churches are growing because mainline churches are too liberal is being challenged by new research that suggests a simpler cause -- the use of birth control -- explains most of the mainline decline.

Differences in fertility rates account for 70 percent of the decline of mainline Protestant church membership from 1900 to 1975 and the simultaneous rise in conservative church membership, the sociologists said.

"For most of the 20th century, conservative women had more children than mainline women did," wrote three sociologists -- Michael Hout of the University of California-Berkley, Andrew Greeley of the University of Arizona, and Melissa Wilde of Indiana University -- in an Oct. 4 article in Christian Century.

"It took most of the 20th century for conservative women to adopt family-planning practices that have become dominant in American society," the writers said. "Or to put the matter differently, the so-called decline of the mainline may ultimately be attributable to its earlier approval of contraception."

While mainline churches could claim 60 percent of the total Protestant congregants in 1900, their share fell to 40 percent in 1960. Many religious observers and some sociologists attributed the drop -- and simultaneous growth of conservative churches -- to the lethargy of liberalism and the appeal of biblical certainty.

But simple demographics can account for almost three fourths of the mainline decline, the trio of sociologists said.

"In the years after the baby boom, the mainline [fertility] rate declined earlier than did the rate of conservatives. Only in recent decades has the fertility rates of the two groups become similar."

The researchers studied shifts in church membership from 1900 to 1975 and the accompanying differences in fertility rates between women in conservative churches -- Baptist, Assembly of God, Pentecostal, and the like -- and mainline ones -- Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal, Lutheran, etc.

They also created a demographic model that projected what would have happened to mainline and conservative memberships if the difference in fertility rates was the only factor influencing membership during the same period. "The answer is that it would look remarkably like it does in real life," they concluded.

The trio also studied other factors that could have influenced the real-life shift in memberships. For instance, they looked at how many people switched from mainline to conservative churches during the period, and vice versa.

During most of the last century, more people moved from mainline to conservative churches than in the other direction. Conservatives were much more successful at retaining their church members, even when they married mainliners.

"The declining propensity of conservatives to convert to the mainline accounts for the 30 percent of mainline decline that fertility rates cannot account for," they concluded.

The researchers investigated other possible causes for mainline decline -- support for homosexual and abortion rights, a lower view of the Bible, a higher "apostasy" rate, and fewer conversions from outside the Christian fold. But they dismissed these other factors as "irrelevant" because none could produce numerical changes significant enough to explain the shift in church membership.

"Higher fertility and better retention thus account for the conservatives' rising share of the Protestant population," they concluded.

However, the authors suggested, the trends underlying the mainline's decline "may be nearing their end."

Fertility rates are now virtually the same between the two groups and will produce only a 1 percent decline in mainline membership over the next decade, they noted. "Unless conservative Protestants increase their family size or mainline Protestants further reduce theirs, this factor in mainline decline will not be present in the future."

Moreover, fewer people are now switching membership from mainline churches to conservative ones. While 30 percent of conservatives in the 1930s had come from mainline churches, only 10 percent of those counted among the conservatives in the early '90s had made the switch, the authors said.

That downward trend will continue -- if only because there are fewer mainliners left to make the jump.

However, the sociologists cautioned, it will be some time before the conservatives' "demographic momentum" exhausts itself -- perhaps 50 years -- because those born during the conservatives' belated baby boom of the 1970s will be filling those pews for quite a while.

thoughts?

Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18

19:1 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

19:2 Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.

19:15 You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor.

19:16 You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I am the LORD.

19:17 You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself.

19:18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

rev. david knight

So, Wilma is on the way...the strongest hurrican on record. Dear Jesus help us out here.

David asks that we not forget the Katrina victims. So much attention has been on the people in New Orleans, that the other areas have been forgotten...and we have all moved on in some way.

David is right. I know I have. Mea culpa. Here in Chicago I find it easier to look at all the storms as a single set of events and not a series of separate issues. This is a defense mechanism of sorts. I'll admit that. But David does not have that luxury.

Pay him a visit and don't forget the struggles.

a wee chat

AngloBaptist: Monday is "One True Church" day, so there are people to flog.
GWbutterfly: not ot mention burn!!
AngloBaptist: Tomorrow will be "Get 'em wet while they worry" day.
GWbutterfly: lake michigan, here you come!
AngloBaptist: Wedesday is "Universal Salvation" Day.
GWbutterfly: you need an ecumenical tolerance day
AngloBaptist: Thursday is "Methodists are cute in that Care Bear kinday way" Day.
GWbutterfly: nice
AngloBaptist: Friday is "Anglican Hokey Pokey" Day. We eat fish but say mean things about the Pope.
GWbutterfly: ooh, i like that day
AngloBaptist: Saturday is "Navel Gazing" Day. Individualism has its place!
GWbutterfly: saturday? interfaith sabbath observance where you're nice to the Jews?
AngloBaptist: Wednesday gets everyone.
GWbutterfly: ah. having been to a baptist service, i thought thats what Sunday was for
GWbutterfly: ;-)
AngloBaptist: Sunday is "One hour till the Holiday Inn buffet opens" Day.
GWbutterfly: LOL
GWbutterfly: you missed a calling in comedy
AngloBaptist: doubtful.

I love theological debate.

gerrish on john calvin

Just so everyone knows, I am at Seabury working on my thesis. Be ye warned.

Rightly or wrongly, [Calvin] always saw himself as Luther's kin, even as Luther's disciple. When he first became acquainted with the inner-Protestant controversy on the sacraments, Calvin's instinctive sympathies were more with Wittenberg than with Zurich, and he tells us that he did not even trouble to read Oecolampadius or Zwingli for himself.

This quote is from B.A. Gerrish's book, Grace and Gratitude. I commend it to your reading if you consider yourself a scholar fo John Calvin. It is an interesting text, full of Calvin's sacramental theology and anti-Papist rants. Fun for the whole family!

david adam

I weave a silence on my lips

I weave a silence into my mind

I weave a silence within my heart

I close my ears to distractions

I close my eyes to attractions

I close my heart to temptations.

Calm me, O Lord, as you stilled the storm

Still me, O Lord, keep me from harm

Let all the tumult within me cease

Enfold me, Lord, in Your peace.

john skinner

If we practised silence a little bit more, then when we did speak, we'd have something to say.

a joke

Three souls appeared before St. Peter at the pearly gates.

St. Peter asked the first one, "What was your last annual salary?" The
soul replied, "$200,000; I was a trial lawyer."

St. Peter asked the second one the same question. The soul answered,
"$95,000; I was a realtor."

St. Peter then asked the third soul the same question. The answer was
"$8,000."

St. Peter immediately said, "Cool! What instrument did you play?"

news

American Baptists cutting staff, but 'not collapsing,' says Medley

By John Pierce

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (ABP) -- The American Baptist Churches USA is shutting
down its communications department -- the latest step in budget cuts and
restructuring brought on by declining funds and theological division in
the denominational group.

Although the ABC national office is experiencing funding losses due to
divisions over homosexuality, the venerable denominational group, based
in Valley Forge, Pa. is not collapsing, said Roy Medley, ABC general
secretary.

Richard Schramm, spokesman for the 1.5 million-member denomination since
1996, will leave his position Oct. 31, along with an associate director
and a media assistant in the office of communication. Schramm will serve
as a consultant to the ABC.

Medley said the cuts were based on recommendations from consultants
McConkey and Johnston and resulted in the merger of two divisions --
communications and missions/stewardship development.

"We have formed a new division called mission resource development,"
said Medley. "This new entity will be responsible for communicating the
ABC story effectively with our family and the larger church as well."

Medley said the restructuring is similar to what the Baptist World
Alliance did following the withdrawal of funding from the Southern
Baptist Convention. The new effort, he said, will focus on electronic
communication.

Tensions over the issue of homosexuality have come to a head in recent
months in the ABC, which counts 5,836 churches. Although the group
adopted a resolution opposing homosexual conduct in 1992, many
conservatives in the denomination have complained ABC leaders have done
little to "enforce" it on the denomination's agencies or congregations.

In September, directors of the American Baptist Churches of the Pacific
Southwest, which includes Southern California, initiated the process of
separating from the denomination by the end of the year. While some
other regional bodies of American Baptists still debate the issue, the
full impact of the controversy remains undetermined.

Regional fellowships are the channel through which local congregations
relate to the national body, known earlier as the Northern Baptist
Convention. In recent years, several gay-friendly churches have been
expelled from some of those regional bodies.

But Medley said talk of the ABC's demise is unfounded.

"Some of the headlines, like in a Christian Century web article, which
speak of a stampede are just untrue," said Medley. "At our biennial
meeting, which was held in Denver this past year, two-thirds to
three-fourths of the delegates clearly expressed their commitment to
remaining united through this time of dissension."

Medley said he and Pacific Southwest executive minister Dale Salico have
sought to avoid "an atmosphere of charge-countercharge" in the media.
"We have consistently communicated to PSW that it is not our wish that
they withdraw from the covenant of relationships," said Medley. "Our
polity grants them the freedom to order their life as a region as they
choose, as it does other regions."

Often the press does not understand a church structure that is not
hierarchical, said Medley, and that the rights and privileges of local
congregations can never be usurped by an over-reaching General Board or
general secretary.

"I have consistently stressed that the inability of the General Board to
impose any resolution upon our member churches is not a flaw in our
system," said Medley, "but was an intentional design in the
denomination."

Despite dealing with significant fallout over the homosexuality
controversy, the ABC has adopted a new mission statement, Medley said.
He added that American Baptists are "energized" by growing relationships
with other groups such as the Progressive National Baptist Convention,
the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Church of the Brethren.

"ABC is not collapsing," said Medley. "Our mission focus and call are
clear. We intend to focus on them like a laser beam."

blogging and recording

Yep, today is the day. Today is the day we record at 3pear. It is Christmas morning here in Andersonville. Yahoo!

Oh, our website is updated somewhat. Thanks be to Tommy.

*update*

Well, it is 12:16 and we finally have something to show for it. It took an hour or more to get set up. Then we cranked through Leaving of Liverpool in one take. Irish ROver was a bit different. Anywhooo...it continues anon!

*update* - 1:16pm

You know, The Fields of Athenry is a lovely song. So is Long Black Veil. We have not yet begun the background vocals or my handy little mandolin solos. That should be an adventure. I am only learning how to make the solos handy.

*update* - 1:51pm

Isn't It Grand is a gentle song about embracing life. Aye, it is to be sure, to be sure. But I don't play on it. I sing. So, I can blog.

I feel the need for a pizza. I think the Girls will agree. Will someone call Calo's for us?

And always remember: The longer you live, the sooner you bloody well die!

*update* - 2:49pm

The pizza is here and The Water is Wide. There is the semblance of a handy solo.

*update* - 3:52pm

Well, Wild Rover took forever and none of us are satisfied. But it is done...or medium rare at least. So we will keep what we have. Now we get to add the backing tracks.

We is a tired bunch.

*update* - 6:44pm

And we are done. There will be some very good stuff on thsi CD. Then there is the rest. Eleven songs, lots of harmonies and foolishness...good times had by all.

Exeunt.

live, from three pear studios

Today I am blogging from Three Pear. I have gotten to know the owner and he needed some help. So, this morning I am playing host to a group using the space. It is not hard...nor does it take very long. I make small change, but get to use the internet as long as I am not in the way. This is a good trade as far as I am concerned.

In related news, One of the Girls will be recording our first CD here on Tuesday. We will spend nine hours in the studio. I am sure our relationships will be tested to no end, but thus is the joy of recording. The album will include Irish stuff for the most part. We might throw a little bluegrass on it as well. We have been rehearsing for the last couple of weeks focused on just this project. I am excited. When it is all pretty and such, I will let you know. There will be free mp3's. If we can figure out how, we will set it up so one can download the entire album from our website.

Oh, and the band is playing yet another theater benefit. The Chicago Dramatists have enlisted our aid. It seems we may have found a niche market. The benefit is on Saturday at their address. We begin at 6:45 and play for an hour. There has been a little phone tag strife, so I do not know what the tickets to the benefit cost. It appears to ba an ad hoc event. But if you are wantin' a Girls fix, give them a call and come on by.

Trish's new show opens this evening. Parody does not even begin to describe it.

SIX twisted tales of terror and suspense that will take you to another dimension where laughter and fear walk hand and hand, meeting at the oh-so-familiar corner of Parody and Homage, where your favorite episodes of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery collide, resulting in yet another twisted Hell in a Handbag vehicle.

The Twilight Gallery includes six rotating episodes, five authors, six directors and a cavalcade of familiar and new talent, and features Michael Miller* as Rod Sterling Silver, your guide for the evening.

These are late night shows...usually brief. The tech week for the shows has been brutal. Thus, my lovely wife has been getting home between to and three in the morning this week. She's sleep deprived in all kinds of new ways. I am assuming that she will begin to mainline caffeine soon.

There is much more to report.

Amy is off to Palestine. She is keeping a blog of her experiences. You need to check it out. She is with the Christian Peacemaker Teams doing good work.

Tonight we celebrate the natal day of Spud. She is a brilliant woman...one of my favorites. I am looking forward to hanging out with her this evening. There will be food, geekiness, and general birthday hijinks. Good times.

And with that, I bid you all adieu. I'll see you all later.

this makes me feel good somehow

So, I record from where in the ether people visit this site. It is a grand thing.

Today someone came from a google search.

define prostelyte

Who knew?

good news

Dear Rev. Hudgins,

The Search Committee asked me to let you know that you are one of three candidates we would like to move forward with, and I'm trying to coordinate everyone's schedules so that we can take the next step.

Please take a look at your schedule and let me know what weekends between October 22 and Christmas would work for you. Plan on being available the entire weekend for direct interviews and preaching at a neutral pulpit nearby. If it is impossible for us to find a weekend before year-end, let me know when you might be available right after the first of the year.

The Search Committee is meeting again on Sunday, and I'd appreciate it if you could give me some weekend dates before that so we can finalize our schedule and move forward. Thank you for your continued interest, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Peace,
Someone From the Search Committee

wow

It has been a while.

Sorry guys. And it looks like it will continue to be hit or miss for a while until we can afford internet. There is no news on the job front. These processes are slooooow.

I preached at Reconciler yesterday. Go here for the sermon. You can also follow the extended link if you don't care to travel.

Have a great day, y'all.

Could there be any more going on for us today? The lectionary itself is enough to keep us wondering and talking for weeks: the Ten Commandments; a glorious Psalm about how we might perhaps purpose our day; a letter to the Philippians where Paul once again surprises us with humility and an expression of his own imperfections; and a parable from Matthew that is often listed among the “hard sayings” of Jesus. But, no, that is not enough. Today is also the Feast of St Francis. It is World Communion Sunday. It is also, for some traditions, World Mission Sunday.

I am the kind of person that is confused when given too many options. It takes me a long time to sort things out and sift through the noise. On a day like this when there are so many good options, the task of preaching on one subject is that much more difficult.

So, early this week I began a letter to an old college friend of mine. It is an old habit of mine to send him letters about my theological struggles. These letters help me clarify my thoughts and begin the process of unearthing what has actually caught my attention. Sometimes the thing that has caught my attention is simply the thing that bothers me the most.

Something irritating
Something frightening
Something scandalous

To be candid, there is much in this week’s readings that has bothered me. In spite of my education, and my study, I still find myself stumbling over the parables like the one we find in Matthew. I have not yet reconciled myself to them. I have not yet found a place for them in my heart. I still wrestle with them, trying to bend them to my own will. I want them to say anything other than what they are saying.

Perhaps it is just me. Perhaps I am the only one here who struggles with such language…such “hard sayings.”

Daniel Harrington, SJ and Ulrich Luz have something helpful to say that gives greater light to this particular parable.

The parable is about leadership. The immediate context is a conversation between Christ and the current leaders of the Hebrew people. The “nation” of people we should be imagining is not the entirety of the Hebrew people but the specific people who lead them by word and deed, the scribes and Pharisees, the chief priests.

Let’s return to the parable. The analogies are interesting and helpful in understanding what is at work here. I am going to give some parallels for us, but I do so with the same caveat I always do this…a parable is an analogy, a metaphor. To draw too specific a picture with every parable is a mistake. This parable, however, actually lends itself to a rather clear analogy. Even within the scriptures themselves, we are given an interpretation.

- The landowner is God.
- Those tenants who keep watch over the vineyard are the Chief priests of Israel.
- The son, who is called “beloved” in Mark and Luke’s versions of this parable, is Christ.
- The vineyard is Israel…God’s chosen people.

This is not a parable directed to the masses, to Israel, but to those who have been called out by God to lead God’s chosen people. What I thought was the great scandal, a vengeful and wrathful God who must threaten creation into a loving relationship, no longer exists within this parable. What we have before us is the continued outrage of the Christ who has just tipped over the money lenders’ tables in the Temple.

It is the Passover. The people have received Jesus. “Hosanna in the highest!” They have spread cloaks and palms before him. Yet, here stand the chief priests, the leaders of God’s chosen, those who are called by God to lead God’s chosen out of Egypt, through the desert, and into the Promised land of Jerusalem. They would bar the gates. They would keep Christ from the altar. They would rather keep their position of power and control who receives Grace and who does not. They would control how Grace is given and received. They would rather not have the people receive Christ in such a way as the “triumphal entry.” They would rather keep people from God.

Christ’s outrage is expressed even in the response of the priests to the parable (“He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyards to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”). They understand what has gone wrong in the parable. They prescribe a harsh response. In the process, they condemn themselves. This is one layer of the confusing context for this parable.

There is another context to this parable. As I stated, within the story of the gospel, we have the immediate context of Christ preaching outside the Temple to the Pharisees and chief priests. Underlying that context is the context of Matthew’s community. Why would Matthew share this parable with his people?

Underlying most of Matthew’s gospel is the struggle for Christian identity within Judaism. These were people still claiming Jewish identity. They attended synagogues, but they were persecuted.

The Jewish leadership oppressed them. The struggle for identity was constant. Many scholars suggest that Matthew’s use of this parable underscores two of the writer’s chief complaints. The first complaint is the ongoing mistreatment of Christian Jews. The second is the fundamental misunderstanding of whom Jesus is. How does one preach a resurrected messiah as the means of salvation in the midst of a community who is defined as “God’s Chosen”? How does one keep saying “but Jesus is the messiah!” without sounding like a clanging cymbal? This is a difficult and painful task.

Matthew is drawing distinctions between his community and that of other Jews. It appears that, for Matthew, the line must be hard and fast. This is how Christian identity within Judaism is founded. The process of the growing distinctions will continue for centuries (Dying for God, Daniel Boyarin). Matthew is just getting the ball rolling.

Sometimes scriptural interpretation is actually about context. Simply lifting this parable out of its proper place in the Gospel and the history of Christianity may actually be a misuse of it. That practice, my friends, can lead us into trouble quickly.

For example, this week I was at a concert. A friend of mine, Roger, was playing with his band, Moxie Motive (Go see them. They are fun.). So, Trish and I went. There we saw several people who were there for the exact same reason, to support our friend Roger. Some of these were new acquaintances to us. Some of them were people we had encountered before.

One person in particular is memorable. She is an anthropologist. I seldom meet anthropologists. So, when we happen upon one another I am always excited to ask her questions about her work and whom she is studying.

This time would be different, however, for she had questions for me. It seems that since the last time we met she had been trying to puzzle out how a pastor, a Baptist one at that, could be in a band. She had come to a One of the Girls concert. She wanted to know how I could go into a bar given my tradition. She laughed to find me at yet another Chicago bar for a rock concert.

Context is often the most important factor in understanding what is done or said. And when something seems out of context, I often stumble.

We spoke for a while about church and our faith journeys. She shared some of her own (…baptized as an infant, lost interest as a teen, does not attend anywhere…) but was more interested in mine. Again, it was the puzzle of identity and context. Who belongs where?

At the end, she asked me if it would be okay for her to visit our congregation some day. She thought it sounded interesting. “But,” she warned me, “I am not a very religious person. I hope you don’t mind.”

Mind? I do not know if it is exactly the same experiences that motivate her and I. I do not know much of her past. I do know, however, that I have heard many times similar comments by my “less religious” friends about why they do not attend. They cannot go to church because of some purity line, some spiritual threshold that begins at the doors to a building. I do know how long I let the same logic keep me from God. I thought that I must first be worthy and then come to God.

Nothing could be further from the truth of the Gospel. Nothing could be further from the truth of this parable. What I was stumbling on when I was writing that letter to my friend was that old voice that questions my worthiness to be here. Of course I am not worthy to be here…But should Christ but say the words, I shall be healed.

Those of our brothers and sisters who would use parables like this one to keep the so-called impure away from the church threatening divine punishment for not being about to “get it” are the same people that Jesus is preaching against in the parable itself.

They are no more or less guilty than those of us who pander to popularity unable to articulate a clear message about anything at all.

If we are keeping people from hearing the word of God in any way, we are those Jesus indicts in this parable. We are, in effect denying God’s grace to others and attempting to control the community of the faithful, claiming it for ourselves. We are guilty of pulling the Gospel out of its rightful context.

The context of the church is broad. The church is not the place for the people who have it all worked out, who know all there is to know about God and lead only upright and moral lives. No. It is a more complicated and varied context and community. Yes, people like our St. Francis are in the church. But there are those of us less saintly, less true, less pure, less certain, who are trying to allow the Spirit to change us slowly, by hook or by crook.

Paul shares that experience with us in the Philippians reading. He tries. He struggles. He has repented and strives to change. And even Paul, our knocked off his horse conversion guru, will admit it. He has not attained perfection.

No…but he presses on.
He believes in the promises of Christ…and he presses on.
He had all the tools necessary to claim the vineyard for himself. But he tosses them aside and…presses on.

If not for the light of the Lord, Paul would be lost. The humility of Paul is our salvation. Pressing on is our salvation! Pressing onward is the context in which the Church finds itself.

Brothers and sisters, context is everything. We must recall our true context…that though we may have thought had everything, it is all but loss now. Now what we have is Christ. For those who are still struggling, know that we all struggle. Know that I stand before you today constantly wrestling with God, striving to let go of all else but Christ.

We all aim to press on.
We have doubts…but we press on.
We suffer trials…but we press on.
We were born into affluence in a country that does not understand what it means to truly want…and we strive to let it all go and we press on.

Brother and sisters, The Church is the people who press on.
Do not stand in one another’s way. Encourage one another. Do not be a stumbling block, but be instead the cornerstone for one another.

Amen.