conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

the sermon...

Follow the extended link if you wanna read the sermon for this Sunday. I struggled with this one. The language does not convey the strength of my convictions. I am a little lost this time...I cannot seem to get where I want to in the manuscript.

Sermon: Proper 24 (29) Year C 2007
Community Church of Wilmette
October 21, 2007

There Is No Quick Fix

I am angry.

And I find it difficult to step into a pulpit when I’m angry knowing that the purpose of a pulpit, the truth-telling significance of the pulpit, is to proclaim the presence of God.

Ann Coulter, the political instigator, has been in the news lately. Once again the internet newswire is afire because of something she said in an interview. Usually I pay this no mind. I don't have the time for it. But this week I just couldn't let it go.

She made statements about Christianity that were untrue. She insulted our Jewish brothers and sisters. She hurt people…and not with the truth. Sometimes freedom and pain come together. But this was not one of those times.

She said, “America would be better off if everyone were Christian.”
She said, “[Christianity] is a lot easier [than Judaism], it's kind of a fast track.”

There’s more that she said. She becomes very political very quickly, but I want us to focus on her theology.

I just don't know what to do when I hear words like this. I think about our loved ones here. I think about Jewish spouses, of friends and family who struggle with their faith because of what has been done, is continually done, in the name of Christianity.

A friend of mine is known for saying “Bad theology hurts people.”

What Ann Coulter has said is bad theology.
Bad theology hurts people.
Good theology, however, saves lives.

This is why I am constantly striving after our own theological language here at Community Church. We have to be able to speak theologically. Theology matters. Doctrine matters. Scripture matters. Exploring it is not ephemeral or a simple intellectual exercise. It is a human endeavor with real, tangible results. It is storytelling at its greatest. Lives are at stake. I know it sounds dramatic, but it is true. And Ann Coulter understands this. That's what makes what she says so difficult for me. This is how she can set me on fire.

She said, “America would be better off if everyone were Christian.”
She said, “[Christianity] is a lot easier [than Judaism], it's kind of a fast track.”

Christianity is not a fact track. Christianity is complicated. It demands all of us, a total sacrifice. But this has never been easy for people to embrace. Paul knew this. And I imagine he had this truth in mind when he wrote to Timothy:

For the time is coming when the people will not put up with sound doctrine, but have itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

Paul offered this statement in his letter to Timothy. It should seem like familiar ground to us as well. Paul is not so much predicting the future as he is stating what is already afoot in Timothy’s congregation. This is a dynamic that has always existed in human communities. We look for the quick fix. There is always room for the snake oil salesman, the carpetbagger, the false teacher, or the guru with the easy path to self-actualization. We look for it. The same was true two thousand years ago.

Paul knew this and he wanted Timothy to remember something else. He wanted to strengthen Timothy’s place, his sense of what is true.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 3:14-15)

There’s an interesting clue hidden in the Greek here in our passage. “Whom” is a plural. It asks us to look back in the letter to when Paul encourages Timothy in his struggles as a young leader in the church by reminding him of the examples he had in his grandmother, mother, the apostle himself, and many others. Community is what shaped Timothy’s faith. The faith Timothy received is the blessing of those who had gone before him, those who journeyed with him.

Ann Coulter wants to see more Christians. She is right that this is an important part of our tradition. And that’s fine. That she later equates the faithful with any one political party, manifesto, or ideology is troublesome at best. No one party or political theory can contain the vastness of the Gospel.

We, as Christians, are called to invite people into our tradition. True. We are called to teach our children our tradition. Timothy was the recipient of such a blessing. Paul wants him to remember this. We are all the recipients of such a blessing. We are called to spread the faith, to hand it on. We are called to bless and to be blessed.

What will save the world, however, is not any one of us…any number of Christians. It is God who will saves. The scriptures, the stories, and the doctrine of the church repeat again and again that it is God who saves. In the end, it is God, not we, who save. We are no more than the vehicles of God’s grace, instruments of God’s peace, and evangelists of God’s good.

I think of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King from Atlanta, Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, Dorothy Day of Chicago and New York, Mother Teresa of Calcutta...Good theology saves lives. There are so many wondrous examples of good theology, sound doctrine, put to work. The fruit of the Holy Spirit are then revealed. People are led from slavery into freedom. The poor receive love. The silent are given voice. Paul wrote:

All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

What will help the world, help to show God’s love to all the peoples of the world, is if we Christians live into our own traditions, our own stories…allowing them to change us first. We cannot amass traditions that leave us stagnant, unchanged, we cannot accumulate for [our]selves teachers to suit [our] own desires. These stories and traditions are meant to change us…slowly, and inexorably into disciples. We are meant to wrestle with God and one another and, in the end, seek a blessing.

This is what we encounter in our passage from Genesis. Jacob is in trouble with his brother. He’s in real trouble. He expects to die. He expects his family to be killed in a single act of familial vengeance. This is the context of his encounter with God. He wrestles with God in the night. He struggles with what to do. It is a stalemate of sorts…and Jacob will not let the angel go. The angel blesses Jacob, but not without leaving a mark. Jacob is changed, wounded, and yet made whole and is able then to reconcile with his brother. There is no vengeance. There is peace.

This is why at communion you will hear me mention this story…”Those who wish to strive with God as did Jacob in the desert…are invited to this table.”

She said, “America would be better off if everyone were Christian.”
She said, “[Christianity] is a lot easier [than Judaism], it's kind of a fast track.”

Scripture is full of stories of wrestling with God. There is no simple list of things one must do to “be Christian.” The Christian journey is anything but simple. It is anything but a set of rules, a series of hoops to jump through. And we are the children of Judaism. Coulter should keep this in mind. We are the adopted children. Christ may have come to fulfill the Law, but we are adopted, grafted into the vine.

She said, “America would be better off if everyone were Christian.”
She said, “[Christianity] is a lot easier [than Judaism], it's kind of a fast track.”

18:2 [Jesus] said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 18:3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, 'Grant me justice against my opponent.'

18:4 For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, 'Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 18:5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'"

18:6 And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 18:7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 18:8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:2-8)

We have to take heart. We have to cry day and night.
We must have faith…
…faith that our God is not an unjust judge, fickle, shallow or cruel. Justice is coming. Peace and reconciliation are coming. We must have faith enough to wrestle with God, to wrestle with one another.

I must wrestle with Ann Coulter. The work of the Gospel is too important for me not to. The work of loving the world is too important to my own salvation for me not to. I must love her.

She is a Christian. I have no doubt of this. I question her theology and the conclusions she articulates. This is true. And she sets me on edge. There is no doubt. But wrestle we must. Our shared salvation, our blessing in God, depends on it.

I expect no less here at Community Church. I expect us to wrestle. I expect us to seek one another’s blessings. To do this is to live into the story. But we must first tell the story.

We must constantly return to the story, the Gospel story. It is, after all good news, the tale of a journey with God, and the invitation we have all been given…

…to reveal God’s love to the world.

We must tell the story…again and again. We must remind one another of our stories. If we want to love our Jewish brothers and sisters, the Buddhists, our Muslim cousins, the agnostic, or the atheist, then we must wrestle. If we want peace, we must wrestle.

America would be better off if we wrestle.

And there is no quick fix. There is no solution but God’s grace.

Praise God.

Amen.

Posted by tripp at October 20, 2007 11:01 PM