I'm never really ready to walk through the passion at this time of year, but that is the path we travel through the beginning of Advent. Today we follow the disciples who are instructed to go and get a donkey and her colt for Jesus to ride into town. (Click to read...Matthew 21:1-11)
I'm one who learns through observing others. But reading with a lens of trust, I wonder if Jesus continues to do the things he can to to help us trust that God's purposes are being accomplished when it soon looks like nothing we expected will be accomplished.
Trust seems a fragile relationship for humans. Like a house of cards, it seems difficult to build and tumbles with the tiniest bump. So Jesus seems to be laying a foundation that might hold together, if we have eyes and heart to see.
Where do we get a donkey? God will provide. Say this and it will be loaned. Jesus enters in peace mode. The donkey symbolizes the peaceful intent of a ruler entering a city. And in this snapshot of time, the people trust. The laying of cloaks and branches is a sign of submission, being all in.
Of course, we know that changes. The same crowds that greet Jesus at the gate shout for his crucifixion days later. After his arrest and apparent impotence before Pilate and the temple authorities, we decide our trust was misplaced.
And that creates this wondering about our trust of God's purposes today. Are we good if life goes as we expect? On what is our trust of God's purposes based? Can we see the building blocks and assume that God will work God's purposes out, or do we too easily knock the house down when God's work doesn't look like "it should"?
Trust can be a painful journey, and perhaps that is our misunderstanding. Perhaps we assume that trust is painless, that staying in connection will only be joyful, that once "trust" is granted, the hard work ends. Perhaps that is the value of traveling through Jesus's passion at the beginning of Advent. If anyone trusted, it was Jesus. And the pain endured through the trust--well, I'm not sure I could have done it.
So God is asking us to look for God's work, to submit to God's purposes, to serve God's intent. And we get little glimpses of see-this-is-how-it-will-work-out because God knows we will always struggle with what we expected--the King--versus how God really works--the baby.
Monday, November 30, 2015
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Advent: Watching for God at Work -- Trusting
Our congregation is challenged this Advent season to watch for the coming of God's Kingdom...the kingdom yet to come in it's completeness, and the Kingdom which we see breaking in every day...if we are alert enough to notice. A significant characteristic of seeing God at work is trusting that God is at work...sometimes easier said than done.
And then God goes after the Ammonites, outlining their horrible behavior and detailing their punishment. Another whoop. God is mighty indeed. Moab is next, then Judah. Judah is closer to home, but really, they were just as sinful, just as cavalier about ignoring the commands of God.
The people could see, through Amos, the hand of God at work bringing righteousness into the world. Their trust was validated. This was a God who loved them!
Then....
The punishment is turned on Israel. Selling the poor and the righteous for profit, trampling over the poor to get what they want, misusing the temple gifts, sleeping with the cultic prostitutes. The tables are turned, the judgment voiced, and the people are, suddenly, not at all sure Amos, in fact, speaks the word of the Lord.
Do we trust God when we are being corrected? Do we see God at work when justice is being required of us?
It hits all of us...humans are just bad at accepting correction. We have the hardest time listening to criticism of ourselves. We cheer when the "other side" gets it. But we are masters at self-justification. We are expert at dismissing the complaints others have against us.
The rather ugly question is do we trust the voice of God when God calls us on bad behavior? Or do we only trust God when God is after "others."
Perhaps the challenge of learning to trust during Advent is learning that God is working on us as well as others...God is at work to bring to light our sin as well as the sin of our "enemies." Looking for the coming of God, the in-breaking of God's kingdom in the world means us as well as them. Perhaps it means us even more than them.
From Amos:
1 The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and in the days of King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
2 And he said:
The Lord roars from Zion,
and utters his voice from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds wither,
and the top of Carmel dries up.
3 Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Damascus,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because they have threshed Gilead
with threshing sledges of iron.
4 So I will send a fire on the house of Hazael,
and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.
5 I will break the gate bars of Damascus,
and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven,
and the one who holds the scepter from Beth-eden;
and the people of Aram shall go into exile to Kir,
says the Lord.
13Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of the Ammonites,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead
in order to enlarge their territory.
14 So I will kindle a fire against the wall of Rabbah,
fire that shall devour its strongholds,
with shouting on the day of battle,
with a storm on the day of the whirlwind;
15 then their king shall go into exile,
he and his officials together,
says the Lord.
2 Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Moab,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because he burned to lime
the bones of the king of Edom.
2 So I will send a fire on Moab,
and it shall devour the strongholds of Kerioth,
and Moab shall die amid uproar,
amid shouting and the sound of the trumpet;
3 I will cut off the ruler from its midst,
and will kill all its officials with him,
says the Lord.
4 Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Judah,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because they have rejected the law of the Lord,
and have not kept his statutes,
but they have been led astray by the same lies
after which their ancestors walked.
5 So I will send a fire on Judah,
and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.
Judgment on Israel
6 Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Israel,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because they sell the righteous for silver,
and the needy for a pair of sandals—
7 they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth,
and push the afflicted out of the way;
father and son go in to the same girl,
so that my holy name is profaned;
8 they lay themselves down beside every altar
on garments taken in pledge;
and in the house of their God they drink
wine bought with fines they imposed.
Today's reading from Amos (1:1-5, 1:13-2:8--also attached at the end of this post) is a great story of the beginning of Amos's prophesy to Israel. Amos is a master communicator...he whips the crowd into a frenzy as he speaks a word from the Lord against Israel's enemies...and by extension, God's enemies.
Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Damascus and for four, I will not revoke the punishment:Whoop! God's going to get them. Clearly that's the right thing. Anyone who would act like that deserves God's punishment and we trust that God will "take care" of them.
And then God goes after the Ammonites, outlining their horrible behavior and detailing their punishment. Another whoop. God is mighty indeed. Moab is next, then Judah. Judah is closer to home, but really, they were just as sinful, just as cavalier about ignoring the commands of God.
The people could see, through Amos, the hand of God at work bringing righteousness into the world. Their trust was validated. This was a God who loved them!
Then....
The punishment is turned on Israel. Selling the poor and the righteous for profit, trampling over the poor to get what they want, misusing the temple gifts, sleeping with the cultic prostitutes. The tables are turned, the judgment voiced, and the people are, suddenly, not at all sure Amos, in fact, speaks the word of the Lord.
Do we trust God when we are being corrected? Do we see God at work when justice is being required of us?
It hits all of us...humans are just bad at accepting correction. We have the hardest time listening to criticism of ourselves. We cheer when the "other side" gets it. But we are masters at self-justification. We are expert at dismissing the complaints others have against us.
The rather ugly question is do we trust the voice of God when God calls us on bad behavior? Or do we only trust God when God is after "others."
Perhaps the challenge of learning to trust during Advent is learning that God is working on us as well as others...God is at work to bring to light our sin as well as the sin of our "enemies." Looking for the coming of God, the in-breaking of God's kingdom in the world means us as well as them. Perhaps it means us even more than them.
From Amos:
1 The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and in the days of King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
2 And he said:
The Lord roars from Zion,
and utters his voice from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds wither,
and the top of Carmel dries up.
3 Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Damascus,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because they have threshed Gilead
with threshing sledges of iron.
4 So I will send a fire on the house of Hazael,
and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.
5 I will break the gate bars of Damascus,
and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven,
and the one who holds the scepter from Beth-eden;
and the people of Aram shall go into exile to Kir,
says the Lord.
13Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of the Ammonites,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead
in order to enlarge their territory.
14 So I will kindle a fire against the wall of Rabbah,
fire that shall devour its strongholds,
with shouting on the day of battle,
with a storm on the day of the whirlwind;
15 then their king shall go into exile,
he and his officials together,
says the Lord.
2 Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Moab,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because he burned to lime
the bones of the king of Edom.
2 So I will send a fire on Moab,
and it shall devour the strongholds of Kerioth,
and Moab shall die amid uproar,
amid shouting and the sound of the trumpet;
3 I will cut off the ruler from its midst,
and will kill all its officials with him,
says the Lord.
4 Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Judah,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because they have rejected the law of the Lord,
and have not kept his statutes,
but they have been led astray by the same lies
after which their ancestors walked.
5 So I will send a fire on Judah,
and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.
Judgment on Israel
6 Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Israel,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because they sell the righteous for silver,
and the needy for a pair of sandals—
7 they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth,
and push the afflicted out of the way;
father and son go in to the same girl,
so that my holy name is profaned;
8 they lay themselves down beside every altar
on garments taken in pledge;
and in the house of their God they drink
wine bought with fines they imposed.
Monday, November 9, 2015
Religion Makes Children What?...
I don't much care about the Starbucks kerfuffle. But this article that came out saying the researchers had shown that "religious children" were more selfish/mean than other children made me snort my coffee (yes...Starbucks, red cup).
Have they not met children?
The researcher found this by accident--looking for empathy or sharing across cultures. Instead he found what he attributes to "moral licensing:"
I get the "moral licensing." But the following insinuation that, therefore, religion is not a good thing for children just doesn't wash.
Not one major religion in the world advocates selfish behavior. Not. One. And as much as we might like to, once we see what adulthood is all about, we do not stay children. We do, if we practice religion as an adult, work on our tendency toward moral licensing. Sometimes we succeed.
Having met children, I would like to practice religion with them...the religion that at least makes an effort to overcome our selfish, mean tendencies. The alternative is pretty grim.
And, if you disagree, I may hit you...
Cause I work in a church, ya know...
Have they not met children?
The researcher found this by accident--looking for empathy or sharing across cultures. Instead he found what he attributes to "moral licensing:"
Why are religious people less moral? One factor is a psychological phenomenon known as ‘moral licensing’: a person will justify doing something bad or immoral – like being racist – because they’ve already done something ‘good’, such as praying. “It’s an unconscious bias,” Decety explains. “They don’t even see that’s not compatible with what they’ve been learning in church.”I don't disagree. But did you also study the non-religious children who "helped clean the dishes" who were willing to start WWIII over the last cookie because "I helped and you didn't"? Did they study the non-religious children who gave mom a hug, then smacked their sibling because they wouldn't share the TV remote?
I get the "moral licensing." But the following insinuation that, therefore, religion is not a good thing for children just doesn't wash.
Not one major religion in the world advocates selfish behavior. Not. One. And as much as we might like to, once we see what adulthood is all about, we do not stay children. We do, if we practice religion as an adult, work on our tendency toward moral licensing. Sometimes we succeed.
Having met children, I would like to practice religion with them...the religion that at least makes an effort to overcome our selfish, mean tendencies. The alternative is pretty grim.
And, if you disagree, I may hit you...
Cause I work in a church, ya know...
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