Come let us sing to the Lord; *
let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving *
and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God, *
and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the caverns of the earth, *
and the heights of the hills are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it, *
and his hands have molded the dry land.
Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, *
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. *
Oh, that today you would hearken to his voice
There is much in church life and with a new and small church like Reconciler that can keep us from the truth that the Vinite of the morning office reminds us. We gather to worship God and be transformed by that worship, and we worship because God knows and cares for us and we have a relationship with God.
Reconciler exists because over a year and a half ago a small group of believers came together for worship and discussion were convinced that God was calling into being an ecumenical congregation: one that would witness to unity of Christians and the reality of one baptism one faith one God. We set out to do this through attempting to join three Protestant denominations together in one congregation by having both lay and clergy representing the three traditions and seeking institutional ties with all three denominations. The coming together to worship is proving easier than getting official denominational recognition and support. In the past few months we have come to recognize that we need to move slowly and carefully as we seek such recognition.
In some ways this along with summer has and other circumstances has taken away some of the momentum we had. In part this is due to the need for the pastoral team to reorient to this reality of a slow process, and the uncertainty of that process. As we approach the constitution committee meeting in late August we need to keep in mind these changes in our circumstances and pray and think together how God is calling us to proceed.
One of the ways we the Pastoral team have flet god leading is to gather together supportive professors from local seminaries and pastors and lay people from local congregations ,we hope to network with, for a Saturday afternoon of conversation and discernment together. We are looking to have this meeting on a Saturday in the middle of October.
Yet with all of these adjustments and activities and uncertainties may we remember the words of the Vinite, that all we do is contextualized by our worship of our great God and of our relationship with our God.
Peace,
The Pastoral Team
Wednesday, July 20
Tuesday, July 19
Sermon 9ths Sunday after Pentecost
Genesis 28:10-19a
Romans 8:12-25
Matthew 13:24-30,36-43
In differing ways the texts for today are about eschatology about the end of the age, the fulfillment of all God is doing and has promised. They are also calls for us to wait. I don’t always like waiting, and especially when it comes to things surrounding the world as it should be or as it is presented in the Scriptures when it talks about the Kingdom of God, I don’t want to be told to sit and do nothing. Waiting is difficult waiting seems passive; waiting seems to let evil be.
As you know my wife Kate and I have been working on the film “Say Hello To Clive For Me”. We both have been working on it longer than the filming of the past six weeks. Kate was part of the pre-production as Art director for the Film and I have been working on it for more than a year and a half having written the screenplay with our director and two other writers. Making a film is an interesting process; it is a long process from screenplay to movie screen. In that process much changes, and one doesn’t have the film until the final cut and it is projected on a screen.
For me as a writer the film began with an idea a set of characters and a few pivotal events. These things have remained the same; the five main characters, the mobsters the five run up against, a failed burglary heist at a Currency Exchange and a shootout at the end of the film. Of course other things changed and as the screenplay was written initial ideas we had even the direction we thought the screenplay was going changed, often drastically. After about 9 months we had our final draft of the screenplay, and yet we still did not have a film. Yet we did have the film, we had its structure it’s ending (you’ll have to see the movie to know the ending other than that there is a shootout).
Then we moved into pre-production where the director the director of photography, Art director and Casting Director begin to visually interpret the screenplay. First the DP and the Director created a shooting script with the shots worked out with the camera angles, and from that storyboards were made. The film was coming to visual life. The art director and with the art department began bring ideas of costumes and location possibilities, and props. Finally casting gave faces and body types to the characters in the film. In all this process the film was coming together, and yet there was no film and yet there was. And things changed. As we chose the actors they began to bring their interpretation of the characters their interpretation of the script, and it wasn’t quite the same as I had envisioned and yet it was still the film I had written but I as a writer could not see all that the film would be.
On set things didn’t always work out as we had planned either the location we chose to use imposed their own demands and visuals and yet we had chosen them to work with the screenplay. Actors brought the characters to life and thus also brought nuances not found in the screenplay that I did not anticipate. The most dramatic was with the character Pete who was written just as standard Chicago guy, but whom the actor who played him decided he was Irish and spoke with an Irish accent, and so Pete is Irish in the film. And now we are one day away from our wrap and still we don’t yet have a film. And yet we have been filming the film.
Now we are days from entering postproduction. Editing of the footage, splicing together the shots we took, sound and music (some of which has been planned in pre-production) but now it is all put together. I as a writer will have little if anything to do with this stage and so I wait for the film. And I will wait several months before I will ever see it on the big screen final cut with sound and music, the film I have been waiting on for what will be two years before I see it in its final form.
All this time waiting for the final product the film project on the big screen and I am still waiting we are all still waiting to see what the final for of the film will be.
In a sense this is not unlike the picture our texts give us of God's work in the world and how the Kingdom is coming and is for us. This reality of having and not having at each stage has created tension for me as a writer. If I resisted this movement toward the final end of the film I would have often been frustrated. While in fact what I have seen through this process is how the film, the screenplay I wrote, has become visually alive on film (I have seen some of the footage I have often been next to the director at his monitor while filming). I don’t have any doubt that the film will be faithful to the screenplay and what we had seen the film to be even if many details it is different than what I had seen when I read the final draft of the screenplay. But for the film to become a film it had to develop, I had to admit as a writer that I couldn’t see the end product, and that in all my activity even in writing I was waiting to see what the film would be like in the end.
Our Genesis passage is about Jacob the son of Isaac, grandson of Abraham. In this passage god in a dream reaffirms the promise given to Abraham and which Jacob has received from Isaac. Jacob is heir to the promise; the land he is leaving to find a wife is the land promised to him the land Abraham and Isaac have lived the land Jacob has grown up in. Jacob has the promise and it is still promised, the fulfillment is still to come. And its fulfillment we know is far beyond what he could have known.
This promise to Abraham in the preaching of Jesus becomes the promise of the coming and presents Kingdom of God. In chapter 13 of Matthew we find a series of parables about the Kingdom of God. These parables are to illustrate (and perhaps hide) truths of the kingdom that is hidden from view, which while present seems far from present.
So Jesus says the Kingdom of God is like a field of a landowner who sow good wheat seed, only to find out as the wheat begins to grow that someone has also sown weeds in his field. His workers want to go in a tear out the weed right away, but the land owner says no wait for the harvest than you will be able to in fact distinguish, now is to early you could miss something you could remove what should have stayed, its in process.
Jesus explains that to separate before the harvest is to risk jeopardizing the final end, fu full revelation of the work of God in God’s people. We must wait Jesus says. Yes it is the kingdom and no it is not fulfilled. The Kingdom is and is coming. Like the film in progress like a field yet to be harvested.
Paul speaks of this waiting in a differing way. Our passage in Romans begins with an admonition to not live according to the flesh but the Sprit. Paul elsewhere speaks of this as living into the age to come and leaving behind the age that is passing away. To live in the Spirit is to live into what is coming, for what we, and the whole of creation, are groaning. Waiting isn’t easy, waiting for what we hope for what in some sense we have and yet have only a foretaste is to live in tension, to suffer, to groan. In some ways waiting for the film to come to its final cut has been difficult. Filming hasn’t been easy for any one on set. It has not been easy for me at all times to see changes to my screenplay, yet I know the end the final cut is coming. And all the suffering all the changes in the end will be worth it when I see it on the big screen. It’s something like that: Paul says that all the tensions of the reality of the process of the presence and coming of the Kingdom will be worth it when we final see all revealed.
In the meantime we are called to wait like we all have been waiting for the film to come to its final form, like I have had to wait and continue to wait as writer to see my film made, to see the end product.
The waiting we are called to, Paul reminds us, is not some passive waiting we are to live into the reality; that is coming, we are to live in the spirit not in the flesh which is passing away, that which will be tossed out, that footage that will not make the cut, that scene we trashed months ago. Yes this means tension, and discomfort and suffering that causes groaning in us. This is the reality we live in may we live in the Sprit anticipating the fulfillment of the promise that is here and is being fulfilled. Amen
Romans 8:12-25
Matthew 13:24-30,36-43
In differing ways the texts for today are about eschatology about the end of the age, the fulfillment of all God is doing and has promised. They are also calls for us to wait. I don’t always like waiting, and especially when it comes to things surrounding the world as it should be or as it is presented in the Scriptures when it talks about the Kingdom of God, I don’t want to be told to sit and do nothing. Waiting is difficult waiting seems passive; waiting seems to let evil be.
As you know my wife Kate and I have been working on the film “Say Hello To Clive For Me”. We both have been working on it longer than the filming of the past six weeks. Kate was part of the pre-production as Art director for the Film and I have been working on it for more than a year and a half having written the screenplay with our director and two other writers. Making a film is an interesting process; it is a long process from screenplay to movie screen. In that process much changes, and one doesn’t have the film until the final cut and it is projected on a screen.
For me as a writer the film began with an idea a set of characters and a few pivotal events. These things have remained the same; the five main characters, the mobsters the five run up against, a failed burglary heist at a Currency Exchange and a shootout at the end of the film. Of course other things changed and as the screenplay was written initial ideas we had even the direction we thought the screenplay was going changed, often drastically. After about 9 months we had our final draft of the screenplay, and yet we still did not have a film. Yet we did have the film, we had its structure it’s ending (you’ll have to see the movie to know the ending other than that there is a shootout).
Then we moved into pre-production where the director the director of photography, Art director and Casting Director begin to visually interpret the screenplay. First the DP and the Director created a shooting script with the shots worked out with the camera angles, and from that storyboards were made. The film was coming to visual life. The art director and with the art department began bring ideas of costumes and location possibilities, and props. Finally casting gave faces and body types to the characters in the film. In all this process the film was coming together, and yet there was no film and yet there was. And things changed. As we chose the actors they began to bring their interpretation of the characters their interpretation of the script, and it wasn’t quite the same as I had envisioned and yet it was still the film I had written but I as a writer could not see all that the film would be.
On set things didn’t always work out as we had planned either the location we chose to use imposed their own demands and visuals and yet we had chosen them to work with the screenplay. Actors brought the characters to life and thus also brought nuances not found in the screenplay that I did not anticipate. The most dramatic was with the character Pete who was written just as standard Chicago guy, but whom the actor who played him decided he was Irish and spoke with an Irish accent, and so Pete is Irish in the film. And now we are one day away from our wrap and still we don’t yet have a film. And yet we have been filming the film.
Now we are days from entering postproduction. Editing of the footage, splicing together the shots we took, sound and music (some of which has been planned in pre-production) but now it is all put together. I as a writer will have little if anything to do with this stage and so I wait for the film. And I will wait several months before I will ever see it on the big screen final cut with sound and music, the film I have been waiting on for what will be two years before I see it in its final form.
All this time waiting for the final product the film project on the big screen and I am still waiting we are all still waiting to see what the final for of the film will be.
In a sense this is not unlike the picture our texts give us of God's work in the world and how the Kingdom is coming and is for us. This reality of having and not having at each stage has created tension for me as a writer. If I resisted this movement toward the final end of the film I would have often been frustrated. While in fact what I have seen through this process is how the film, the screenplay I wrote, has become visually alive on film (I have seen some of the footage I have often been next to the director at his monitor while filming). I don’t have any doubt that the film will be faithful to the screenplay and what we had seen the film to be even if many details it is different than what I had seen when I read the final draft of the screenplay. But for the film to become a film it had to develop, I had to admit as a writer that I couldn’t see the end product, and that in all my activity even in writing I was waiting to see what the film would be like in the end.
Our Genesis passage is about Jacob the son of Isaac, grandson of Abraham. In this passage god in a dream reaffirms the promise given to Abraham and which Jacob has received from Isaac. Jacob is heir to the promise; the land he is leaving to find a wife is the land promised to him the land Abraham and Isaac have lived the land Jacob has grown up in. Jacob has the promise and it is still promised, the fulfillment is still to come. And its fulfillment we know is far beyond what he could have known.
This promise to Abraham in the preaching of Jesus becomes the promise of the coming and presents Kingdom of God. In chapter 13 of Matthew we find a series of parables about the Kingdom of God. These parables are to illustrate (and perhaps hide) truths of the kingdom that is hidden from view, which while present seems far from present.
So Jesus says the Kingdom of God is like a field of a landowner who sow good wheat seed, only to find out as the wheat begins to grow that someone has also sown weeds in his field. His workers want to go in a tear out the weed right away, but the land owner says no wait for the harvest than you will be able to in fact distinguish, now is to early you could miss something you could remove what should have stayed, its in process.
Jesus explains that to separate before the harvest is to risk jeopardizing the final end, fu full revelation of the work of God in God’s people. We must wait Jesus says. Yes it is the kingdom and no it is not fulfilled. The Kingdom is and is coming. Like the film in progress like a field yet to be harvested.
Paul speaks of this waiting in a differing way. Our passage in Romans begins with an admonition to not live according to the flesh but the Sprit. Paul elsewhere speaks of this as living into the age to come and leaving behind the age that is passing away. To live in the Spirit is to live into what is coming, for what we, and the whole of creation, are groaning. Waiting isn’t easy, waiting for what we hope for what in some sense we have and yet have only a foretaste is to live in tension, to suffer, to groan. In some ways waiting for the film to come to its final cut has been difficult. Filming hasn’t been easy for any one on set. It has not been easy for me at all times to see changes to my screenplay, yet I know the end the final cut is coming. And all the suffering all the changes in the end will be worth it when I see it on the big screen. It’s something like that: Paul says that all the tensions of the reality of the process of the presence and coming of the Kingdom will be worth it when we final see all revealed.
In the meantime we are called to wait like we all have been waiting for the film to come to its final form, like I have had to wait and continue to wait as writer to see my film made, to see the end product.
The waiting we are called to, Paul reminds us, is not some passive waiting we are to live into the reality; that is coming, we are to live in the spirit not in the flesh which is passing away, that which will be tossed out, that footage that will not make the cut, that scene we trashed months ago. Yes this means tension, and discomfort and suffering that causes groaning in us. This is the reality we live in may we live in the Sprit anticipating the fulfillment of the promise that is here and is being fulfilled. Amen
Thursday, July 14
Weekly update
Trust in the LORD, and do good; so you will live in the land, and enjoy security. Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act. He will make your vindication shine like the light, and the justice of your cause like the noonday. Be still before the LORD, and wait patiently for him; do not fret over those who prosper in their way, over those who carry out evil devices. Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath. Do not fret—it leads only to evil. For the wicked shall be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land...
Psalm 37:3-9 (appointed for today in the Episcopal Daily Office lectionary)
Much of the work mentioned in the previous update continues its progress. Meeting to worship together, even in the midst of the summer absences so common to any church, has been ongoing, and a blessing to those who are able to attend. Meanwhile, planning for the future of the congregation has also proceded. We continue in conversation with various possible locations for worship space, though they also have delays due to summer schedules. We also continue in prayerful consideration of a formal connection between the church and the Community of the Holy Trinity.
This evening Larry and Tripp will be attending the artist gathering mentioned in lat week's Update. Building community connections in this way will, we hope, aid in our efforts to establish the congregation and share the Gospel in the area. Along those same lines, we are beginning to plan for a get-together with local pastors and theologians in the area, sometime this fall-- a time of fellowship and conversation, sharing insights with one another about our work in this region. We'll let you know more about that as the time approaches.
In the meantime, we continue to gather on Sunday evenings at the Community for worship. Larry (doing double duty as preacher and presider, this time) and Jane will be present; but Tripp will be away this week, officiating at Justin and Mae's wedding in Minnesota. He will be taking with him our prayers for God's blessing on them that day, and for the rest of their lives together.
As always, "...to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!"
Peace,
The Pastoral Team
Psalm 37:3-9 (appointed for today in the Episcopal Daily Office lectionary)
Much of the work mentioned in the previous update continues its progress. Meeting to worship together, even in the midst of the summer absences so common to any church, has been ongoing, and a blessing to those who are able to attend. Meanwhile, planning for the future of the congregation has also proceded. We continue in conversation with various possible locations for worship space, though they also have delays due to summer schedules. We also continue in prayerful consideration of a formal connection between the church and the Community of the Holy Trinity.
This evening Larry and Tripp will be attending the artist gathering mentioned in lat week's Update. Building community connections in this way will, we hope, aid in our efforts to establish the congregation and share the Gospel in the area. Along those same lines, we are beginning to plan for a get-together with local pastors and theologians in the area, sometime this fall-- a time of fellowship and conversation, sharing insights with one another about our work in this region. We'll let you know more about that as the time approaches.
In the meantime, we continue to gather on Sunday evenings at the Community for worship. Larry (doing double duty as preacher and presider, this time) and Jane will be present; but Tripp will be away this week, officiating at Justin and Mae's wedding in Minnesota. He will be taking with him our prayers for God's blessing on them that day, and for the rest of their lives together.
As always, "...to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!"
Peace,
The Pastoral Team
Monday, July 11
Sermon- Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 10A
Psalm 65
Romans 8:1-11
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
This morning's Gospel is a familiar one-- one of Jesus' parables. Jesus does a lot of storytelling this way, doesn't he? Parables about what the kingdom of God is like, or how God loves us, or how we are to treat one another... he does all sorts of teaching this way.
One thing that is unusual with this one, of course, is that an explanation goes with it. Unlike most parables, for which we are left to interpret and decipher the meaning, this one is clearly spelled out. The disciple is to be the good soil, taking in the word of God, and allowing it to bear fruit within us, to varying degrees.
Sometimes, I've heard those amounts-- the seeds which produce a hundredfold, or sixty, or thirty-- explained as being our responsibility. The argument is that a "good" Christian will bear more fruit. Like, if I pray more, or have a better relationship with God, that will show greater results.
Well... maybe. But then again, that might also seem to presumes that God's gifts are ours to control; and I don't think it works that way. I think it's more like...
Well, it kind of makes me think of a friend of mine. Todd was a classmate at seminary; he's originally from the pacific northwest, and now is the vicar of a couple of congregations in southwest Montana. He really, really loves it out there-- the town, the people, the work... and the mountains. "His" mountains, he'll say, as though he were personally responsible for their upkeep. That was one of the things he missed most, in his three years here in the midwest. Even when he came back to visit in June, he couldn't wait to get home, and away from all the "flat."
In a way, I can't really blame him. I've vacationed out west, and the scenery is indescribably beautiful. The grandeur of the peaks rising out of the land, and the awesome size of it all... it's no wonder to me at all that our ancestors moved to high places to worship.
On the other hand, if you look around where we live here, and all you see is "flat," then I'd suggest you look again.
Go on out to Indiana's National Lakeshore, only a few minutes from here; you can hike trails through the dunes, and see plants that don't grow anywhere else in the world. These are the conditions perfect for them, right here; they wouldn't survive in the mountains.
And the trees... sure, there are lots of trees in those mountains; but they're different. The sycamore, and the sweet gum, and the tulip poplar... those are native to this part of the world. I have a sweet gum tree just outside my front door; I love to go out and rub the leaves, and get the light scent they carry on my hands.
Or drive down the road in the spring and see the dogwood blooming wild, or the lacy pink of the redbud trees...
Oh, and there's a reason they call this region "the breadbasket to the world." Miles of level land means millions of acres of arable farmland, growing corn and wheat and beans, to feed billions of people. The fields have their own beauty, too, as you watch the sunlight play across the shades of green, and watch their growth over time.
No, we do not have the magnificence of the mountains towering above us, here; but there is beauty, nonetheless. It is more subtle, maybe, but surely no less a grand and vital part of God's creation.
People are kind of like that, too. Some seem to be incredibly gifted. The saints through the ages, who set amazing examples for us; or contemporary people like Mother Teresa, or Martin Luther King-- their faith, and their gifts seem to tower over the rest of us, as though they were specially favored by God.
But the person who works honestly and diligently at a job, year after year... or the parents who are raising children to know and love the Lord... or one who can be counted on for prayer, or encouragement, or quiet wisdom... the gifts and talents these people have are no less important, my brothers and sisters, even if they are less noticed, and more subtle. And I believe in the long run they are just as vital to the purposes of God, and the growth of the kingdom, as anything more impressive we hear about.
Yes, we look to the high places to see God; as the psalmist says, we "lift up our eyes to the hills." And that is a great and glorious thing, and as it should be. But at the same time, we also need to try to see God's glory where we are-- to use fully and not be ashamed of our seemingly simpler gifts. We can remember also that the prophet Isaiah notes, "Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And there the glory of the Lord will be revealed..."
Psalm 65
Romans 8:1-11
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
This morning's Gospel is a familiar one-- one of Jesus' parables. Jesus does a lot of storytelling this way, doesn't he? Parables about what the kingdom of God is like, or how God loves us, or how we are to treat one another... he does all sorts of teaching this way.
One thing that is unusual with this one, of course, is that an explanation goes with it. Unlike most parables, for which we are left to interpret and decipher the meaning, this one is clearly spelled out. The disciple is to be the good soil, taking in the word of God, and allowing it to bear fruit within us, to varying degrees.
Sometimes, I've heard those amounts-- the seeds which produce a hundredfold, or sixty, or thirty-- explained as being our responsibility. The argument is that a "good" Christian will bear more fruit. Like, if I pray more, or have a better relationship with God, that will show greater results.
Well... maybe. But then again, that might also seem to presumes that God's gifts are ours to control; and I don't think it works that way. I think it's more like...
Well, it kind of makes me think of a friend of mine. Todd was a classmate at seminary; he's originally from the pacific northwest, and now is the vicar of a couple of congregations in southwest Montana. He really, really loves it out there-- the town, the people, the work... and the mountains. "His" mountains, he'll say, as though he were personally responsible for their upkeep. That was one of the things he missed most, in his three years here in the midwest. Even when he came back to visit in June, he couldn't wait to get home, and away from all the "flat."
In a way, I can't really blame him. I've vacationed out west, and the scenery is indescribably beautiful. The grandeur of the peaks rising out of the land, and the awesome size of it all... it's no wonder to me at all that our ancestors moved to high places to worship.
On the other hand, if you look around where we live here, and all you see is "flat," then I'd suggest you look again.
Go on out to Indiana's National Lakeshore, only a few minutes from here; you can hike trails through the dunes, and see plants that don't grow anywhere else in the world. These are the conditions perfect for them, right here; they wouldn't survive in the mountains.
And the trees... sure, there are lots of trees in those mountains; but they're different. The sycamore, and the sweet gum, and the tulip poplar... those are native to this part of the world. I have a sweet gum tree just outside my front door; I love to go out and rub the leaves, and get the light scent they carry on my hands.
Or drive down the road in the spring and see the dogwood blooming wild, or the lacy pink of the redbud trees...
Oh, and there's a reason they call this region "the breadbasket to the world." Miles of level land means millions of acres of arable farmland, growing corn and wheat and beans, to feed billions of people. The fields have their own beauty, too, as you watch the sunlight play across the shades of green, and watch their growth over time.
No, we do not have the magnificence of the mountains towering above us, here; but there is beauty, nonetheless. It is more subtle, maybe, but surely no less a grand and vital part of God's creation.
People are kind of like that, too. Some seem to be incredibly gifted. The saints through the ages, who set amazing examples for us; or contemporary people like Mother Teresa, or Martin Luther King-- their faith, and their gifts seem to tower over the rest of us, as though they were specially favored by God.
But the person who works honestly and diligently at a job, year after year... or the parents who are raising children to know and love the Lord... or one who can be counted on for prayer, or encouragement, or quiet wisdom... the gifts and talents these people have are no less important, my brothers and sisters, even if they are less noticed, and more subtle. And I believe in the long run they are just as vital to the purposes of God, and the growth of the kingdom, as anything more impressive we hear about.
Yes, we look to the high places to see God; as the psalmist says, we "lift up our eyes to the hills." And that is a great and glorious thing, and as it should be. But at the same time, we also need to try to see God's glory where we are-- to use fully and not be ashamed of our seemingly simpler gifts. We can remember also that the prophet Isaiah notes, "Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And there the glory of the Lord will be revealed..."
Thursday, July 7
Weekly Update
Thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, "I dwell in the high and holy place and also with the one who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite." Isaiah 57:15
We are in the midst of summer. This means as it does for most churches, that people are often absent. However, for our small congrefation these absences are more noticable and can make it a challenge for us. Larry will not be present again this Sunday as Kate and Larry are once again on set of their film on a Sunday, it is the second and last time Larry will need to be away for filming. Tripp also will be gone this Sunday, as he is leading the a worship service in the pediatric ward of Lutheran General Hospital, as part of his chaplain Residency there. This leaves Jane leading worship this coming sunday. As of the time of this writing we have been unable to get a supply priest for Sunday, so Jane will be leading an evensong service. We hope that a few of you will be arround and able to come this Sunday as Larry, Kate, and Tripp will be gone.
We are still meeting at the Community of the Holy Trinity. However, we are making progress on some possible new spaces all in local churches. Pray for Gods leading as we speak to these churches in the area. Meeting in on a churches property was not our first choice but we have found it difficult to find space elswhere that will work for what we need.
Also, if you have been wondering about progress on the Constitution, The Pastoral team needs to meet to complete the draft of the constitution which then will be presented for review to the constitution committee we hope some time in August.
Lastly, Reconciler will be sponsoring a monthly gathering of artists at Enuie cafe in Rogers Park at the corner of Sheridan Road and Lunt. The first meeting will be thus Thursday at 7PM. The intention of the gahtering is to offer a space where artists can come together and share their work and talk about the intersection of faith and art. The Pastoral team in organizing this gathering with Grant Elgersma, lead singer of the band Overhang.
Peace,
The Pastoral Team
We are in the midst of summer. This means as it does for most churches, that people are often absent. However, for our small congrefation these absences are more noticable and can make it a challenge for us. Larry will not be present again this Sunday as Kate and Larry are once again on set of their film on a Sunday, it is the second and last time Larry will need to be away for filming. Tripp also will be gone this Sunday, as he is leading the a worship service in the pediatric ward of Lutheran General Hospital, as part of his chaplain Residency there. This leaves Jane leading worship this coming sunday. As of the time of this writing we have been unable to get a supply priest for Sunday, so Jane will be leading an evensong service. We hope that a few of you will be arround and able to come this Sunday as Larry, Kate, and Tripp will be gone.
We are still meeting at the Community of the Holy Trinity. However, we are making progress on some possible new spaces all in local churches. Pray for Gods leading as we speak to these churches in the area. Meeting in on a churches property was not our first choice but we have found it difficult to find space elswhere that will work for what we need.
Also, if you have been wondering about progress on the Constitution, The Pastoral team needs to meet to complete the draft of the constitution which then will be presented for review to the constitution committee we hope some time in August.
Lastly, Reconciler will be sponsoring a monthly gathering of artists at Enuie cafe in Rogers Park at the corner of Sheridan Road and Lunt. The first meeting will be thus Thursday at 7PM. The intention of the gahtering is to offer a space where artists can come together and share their work and talk about the intersection of faith and art. The Pastoral team in organizing this gathering with Grant Elgersma, lead singer of the band Overhang.
Peace,
The Pastoral Team
Monday, July 4
Sermon July 3
As we begin to reflect on Romans 7 this evening I wish to first direct our attention to the difficulty of Paul and the ruling of the Supreme court concerning the displaying of the 10 commandments in Public spaces. Paul is difficult and I think for many of us myself included, as often as not we’d like to avoid Paul if at all possible. When I set out to prepare this sermon I first tried to preach from the other two texts in the lectionary. I am a bit nervous preaching to us, for I believe that our attitudes towards Paul make it difficult for us to hear the Word of God in Paul. I ask that you set aside for this time your suspicion of Paul. I ask this because I think our difficulty with Paul has in part to do with a truth that Paul does not waver from. This truth is two fold, our human condition and God’s extravagant grace. Paul is unflinching, perhaps even brutal, in his insistence that we, as members of the Body of Christ, face the true depths of the human predicament. Paul does not allow us to keep the delusion that we possess some kernel of goodness apart from God. Simultaneously Paul is extravagant even ecstatic in his proclamation of the glory of God’s work in Jesus Christ and Christ’s death on the Cross. What I would like you to consider as I preach tonight is that we must hold to these two things if we are to have true faith in Christ.
This past Monday The Supreme Court ruled on government displays of the Ten Commandments. It is a contentious issue, and much effort have gone into defending and opposing various displays of the Ten Commandments in public spaces, especially court houses around the country. I do not wish to comment here on the constitutionality of such displays. But I wonder what Paul would think of such a thing: not only that there would be such displays, but of how the 10 Commandments are being contextual zed in this debate. My suspicion is that Paul would be a bit puzzled and probably furious over the clear misunderstanding of the function and effect of the Law and its encapsulation in the 10 commandments.
Essentially the Supreme Court decisions basically allow for the display of the 10 Commandments if they do not serve a religious purpose or have a religious intent. From my reading of the report it appears that the Supreme Court sees the 10 Commandments as an artifact of our past, as such the 10 commandments are not religious but can be put to a secular purpose. If however, the display attempts to make some normative statement about the role of the 10 commandments in the current state of affairs in this country then there is a clear religious purpose and such a display is prohibited. Those who advocate for such displays were in part satisfied for they wish to claim the American heritage and history as Judeo-Christian, but they were disappointed in that the court did not uphold the on-going normative use of the 10 commandments in the public sphere. Opponents as I understand them were satisfied in that there was the affirmation of the separation of church and state and yet disappointed because the two rulings create an ambiguity, current religious intent is prohibited but monuments to our religious past are allowed. Therefore one could take the Supreme courts rulings as saying that separation of Church and State has existed in our past when the public use of the 10 commandments was a common aspect of American public discourse, but that is no longer true. This of course begs the question of what has changed and if that change is good or bad. In the end the Supreme Court did not answer the contentious debate but has only recontextualized it by saying what is permitted and isn’t. .
So what does this all have to do with Paul’s account of the Law and Sin and Christ’s death in Romans 7? First for Paul the Law functions very differently than any of the functions of the Law as presented in this debate. The Law does not function as some monument, and it cannot so function, it is not, nor has it ever been, the ethical underpinning of life, nor is the Law the property of a particular religious group and thus a private matter. The 10 commandments are both more radical and less useful than the Supreme Court and proponents and opponents of the display of the 10 commandments recognize.
It would seem that for many Christians in this country that the 10 commandments are a set of ethical principles that teach one how to be a good person: an upstanding law abiding citizen. But Paul depicts a very different scenario. The 10 commandments not only don’t make one a better person but they stir up the very deeds they seek to prohibit. Paul says that through the command “You shall not covet” he both learns what it means to covet and it stirs up covetousness within him. The Law does not make us better people. In fact, and this is essential for what Paul is seeking to address in our text, the appearance is that the Law actually causes sin.
As a history major we were taught that we could learn much about a society and past culture from its laws. There are two things we could learn: The culture or past societies ideals and how those ideals were not followed. Laws are written only if people are doing what is prohibited: law is after the fact. As long as an ideal is followed there is not a law against its violation. Thus, through the legal code an historian can get a glimpse of the ways in which the culture in fact deviates from its own ideals.
Laws do not tell us how we should live but they tell us how we live poorly, they tell us what we need to prevent ourselves from doing. When the 10 Commandments says, “do not covet”, that tells us that we as human beings are covetous, not how to live without coveting. As lessons in how to be the Law is powerless.
However, if we are tempted to see laws or the Law as an evil Paul stops us from such conclusion. As I have mentioned Laws do reflect ideals or the ideal of a society that is what is considered to be the good. Similarly to Paul the Law reveals not only our sinfulness but also the Good, or more precisely the goodness of God. The Law tells us what is good by God’s definition. As such the Law is not sin, nor does it cause sin but is spiritual.
This leads us to a problem and the reason Christ had to die and we must die with Christ. The problem is that in the face of the good articulated in the Law we not only confront our own sin, but we in fact find that sin is effected in us through encounter with the Law. When the 10 commandments tells me not to covet not only do I then know that I am covetous but I find myself in fact coveting more in the face of the Law. The Law, which is good, causes sin to have a greater hold on me than it did before. How is this possible?
This is possible for two reasons: One, The Law does not (is not meant to) effect the Good in us, and is incapable of doing so, and two we are already bound to sin prior to the Law. The Law reveals to ourselves the reality of our fleshly nature as sinful beings, and ultimately by revealing God’s goodness reveals our incapability of doing the Good, even the good we may desire to do, and in fact the desire for the Good that the Law encourages in us.
The reality Paul wants us to face is on the one hand the inability of the Law to make us good and that although we human beings do not do the good we do desire the good. We are both spiritual and fleshly, yet our spirit is bound to sin and death, and the 10 commandments only heighten the reality of that servitude by stirring up in us not only the desire for the good but also actuality of doing evil. In the face of “you shall not covet” I find my self coveting all the more. This Paul says is the predicament of every human being including himself.
The actuality of the effects of the Law is this: that I do what I don’t want to do and what I wish to do I fail to do. In my mind and spirit I will the good, but in my actions and my passions I do not do the good, but its opposite. I will to not covet but find myself coveting. In the face of the Law I am helpless knowing what I should do and finding that the Law stirs up in me competing desires one of the will and one of my actions. What I do is sin even as I am willing the good, all the while knowing I am doing the opposite of what I will.
Do we not see this fact all around us? Is not the very history of this country testament to this reality of the ultimate effect of the Law upon us and the domination of Sin and Death over humanity? The founders of this country willed to be free, and at the same time as they sought freedom bound themselves and others to the institution of slavery, which eventually lead to what most historians consider the firs Modern war, the American Civil War, the deadliest war this country has experienced. The Great Society envisioned the end of poverty, out of the desire for the good ending poverty, through welfare and housing projects. However in the end these things perpetuated in differing forms the poverty they were created to eliminate. Recognizing this mistake we now begin to dismantle both and then poor find themselves without any support structures and poverty deepens. Or we see a blighted neighborhood, empty storefronts high crime rates etc. So we seek to revitalize the neighborhood, and in the process as the money comes in and more shops open as condos go up and buildings are rehabbed the former residents are forced out by high rents and rising property taxes. We seek to do the Good and evil and sin multiply. What we will is not accomplished, what is accomplished is more sin and death.
This should lead us to the point of despair; it is where we stop Paul today, “Oh who will deliver me from this body of death. Jesus Christ!” For all our willing of the Good, the 10 commandments could be plastered on every school courthouse city and county building in every legislature and things at best would be exactly the same, this country would be no better off in fact if Paul is right they could very well be worse, as the Law would do its work of revealing our depths of our human condition.
In the end the only solution to our human condition the only way that our will and our deeds will coincide is in union with Christ, in being joined with Christ in Christ’s death. That is through faith and baptism. Meaning it is only by submitting to the work of God in Christ that we ever see even the possibility that our willing the good will find its way into the actuality of our deeds. Only Christ can make us truly good. The Law the Ten Commandments, Worlds Religions Christianity apart for the death and resurrection of Christ only reveal our failure, our ability to envision the good but never see it accomplished and actualized. A Christianity that sets its hope on anything other than the grace of God in Jesus Christ will only reveal humanity’s failure never God’s work of salvation in Christ. This is why the great mystics and ascetics of the Church never cease praying “Lord Jesus Christ Son of God Savior have mercy on me a Sinner.” The greatest Saint, the most perfected by the grace of God never escapes this fact: God’s goodness and grace and human failure to accomplish the Good. On Jesus Christ save us from this body of death that is the human condition. Praise be to God!
This past Monday The Supreme Court ruled on government displays of the Ten Commandments. It is a contentious issue, and much effort have gone into defending and opposing various displays of the Ten Commandments in public spaces, especially court houses around the country. I do not wish to comment here on the constitutionality of such displays. But I wonder what Paul would think of such a thing: not only that there would be such displays, but of how the 10 Commandments are being contextual zed in this debate. My suspicion is that Paul would be a bit puzzled and probably furious over the clear misunderstanding of the function and effect of the Law and its encapsulation in the 10 commandments.
Essentially the Supreme Court decisions basically allow for the display of the 10 Commandments if they do not serve a religious purpose or have a religious intent. From my reading of the report it appears that the Supreme Court sees the 10 Commandments as an artifact of our past, as such the 10 commandments are not religious but can be put to a secular purpose. If however, the display attempts to make some normative statement about the role of the 10 commandments in the current state of affairs in this country then there is a clear religious purpose and such a display is prohibited. Those who advocate for such displays were in part satisfied for they wish to claim the American heritage and history as Judeo-Christian, but they were disappointed in that the court did not uphold the on-going normative use of the 10 commandments in the public sphere. Opponents as I understand them were satisfied in that there was the affirmation of the separation of church and state and yet disappointed because the two rulings create an ambiguity, current religious intent is prohibited but monuments to our religious past are allowed. Therefore one could take the Supreme courts rulings as saying that separation of Church and State has existed in our past when the public use of the 10 commandments was a common aspect of American public discourse, but that is no longer true. This of course begs the question of what has changed and if that change is good or bad. In the end the Supreme Court did not answer the contentious debate but has only recontextualized it by saying what is permitted and isn’t. .
So what does this all have to do with Paul’s account of the Law and Sin and Christ’s death in Romans 7? First for Paul the Law functions very differently than any of the functions of the Law as presented in this debate. The Law does not function as some monument, and it cannot so function, it is not, nor has it ever been, the ethical underpinning of life, nor is the Law the property of a particular religious group and thus a private matter. The 10 commandments are both more radical and less useful than the Supreme Court and proponents and opponents of the display of the 10 commandments recognize.
It would seem that for many Christians in this country that the 10 commandments are a set of ethical principles that teach one how to be a good person: an upstanding law abiding citizen. But Paul depicts a very different scenario. The 10 commandments not only don’t make one a better person but they stir up the very deeds they seek to prohibit. Paul says that through the command “You shall not covet” he both learns what it means to covet and it stirs up covetousness within him. The Law does not make us better people. In fact, and this is essential for what Paul is seeking to address in our text, the appearance is that the Law actually causes sin.
As a history major we were taught that we could learn much about a society and past culture from its laws. There are two things we could learn: The culture or past societies ideals and how those ideals were not followed. Laws are written only if people are doing what is prohibited: law is after the fact. As long as an ideal is followed there is not a law against its violation. Thus, through the legal code an historian can get a glimpse of the ways in which the culture in fact deviates from its own ideals.
Laws do not tell us how we should live but they tell us how we live poorly, they tell us what we need to prevent ourselves from doing. When the 10 Commandments says, “do not covet”, that tells us that we as human beings are covetous, not how to live without coveting. As lessons in how to be the Law is powerless.
However, if we are tempted to see laws or the Law as an evil Paul stops us from such conclusion. As I have mentioned Laws do reflect ideals or the ideal of a society that is what is considered to be the good. Similarly to Paul the Law reveals not only our sinfulness but also the Good, or more precisely the goodness of God. The Law tells us what is good by God’s definition. As such the Law is not sin, nor does it cause sin but is spiritual.
This leads us to a problem and the reason Christ had to die and we must die with Christ. The problem is that in the face of the good articulated in the Law we not only confront our own sin, but we in fact find that sin is effected in us through encounter with the Law. When the 10 commandments tells me not to covet not only do I then know that I am covetous but I find myself in fact coveting more in the face of the Law. The Law, which is good, causes sin to have a greater hold on me than it did before. How is this possible?
This is possible for two reasons: One, The Law does not (is not meant to) effect the Good in us, and is incapable of doing so, and two we are already bound to sin prior to the Law. The Law reveals to ourselves the reality of our fleshly nature as sinful beings, and ultimately by revealing God’s goodness reveals our incapability of doing the Good, even the good we may desire to do, and in fact the desire for the Good that the Law encourages in us.
The reality Paul wants us to face is on the one hand the inability of the Law to make us good and that although we human beings do not do the good we do desire the good. We are both spiritual and fleshly, yet our spirit is bound to sin and death, and the 10 commandments only heighten the reality of that servitude by stirring up in us not only the desire for the good but also actuality of doing evil. In the face of “you shall not covet” I find my self coveting all the more. This Paul says is the predicament of every human being including himself.
The actuality of the effects of the Law is this: that I do what I don’t want to do and what I wish to do I fail to do. In my mind and spirit I will the good, but in my actions and my passions I do not do the good, but its opposite. I will to not covet but find myself coveting. In the face of the Law I am helpless knowing what I should do and finding that the Law stirs up in me competing desires one of the will and one of my actions. What I do is sin even as I am willing the good, all the while knowing I am doing the opposite of what I will.
Do we not see this fact all around us? Is not the very history of this country testament to this reality of the ultimate effect of the Law upon us and the domination of Sin and Death over humanity? The founders of this country willed to be free, and at the same time as they sought freedom bound themselves and others to the institution of slavery, which eventually lead to what most historians consider the firs Modern war, the American Civil War, the deadliest war this country has experienced. The Great Society envisioned the end of poverty, out of the desire for the good ending poverty, through welfare and housing projects. However in the end these things perpetuated in differing forms the poverty they were created to eliminate. Recognizing this mistake we now begin to dismantle both and then poor find themselves without any support structures and poverty deepens. Or we see a blighted neighborhood, empty storefronts high crime rates etc. So we seek to revitalize the neighborhood, and in the process as the money comes in and more shops open as condos go up and buildings are rehabbed the former residents are forced out by high rents and rising property taxes. We seek to do the Good and evil and sin multiply. What we will is not accomplished, what is accomplished is more sin and death.
This should lead us to the point of despair; it is where we stop Paul today, “Oh who will deliver me from this body of death. Jesus Christ!” For all our willing of the Good, the 10 commandments could be plastered on every school courthouse city and county building in every legislature and things at best would be exactly the same, this country would be no better off in fact if Paul is right they could very well be worse, as the Law would do its work of revealing our depths of our human condition.
In the end the only solution to our human condition the only way that our will and our deeds will coincide is in union with Christ, in being joined with Christ in Christ’s death. That is through faith and baptism. Meaning it is only by submitting to the work of God in Christ that we ever see even the possibility that our willing the good will find its way into the actuality of our deeds. Only Christ can make us truly good. The Law the Ten Commandments, Worlds Religions Christianity apart for the death and resurrection of Christ only reveal our failure, our ability to envision the good but never see it accomplished and actualized. A Christianity that sets its hope on anything other than the grace of God in Jesus Christ will only reveal humanity’s failure never God’s work of salvation in Christ. This is why the great mystics and ascetics of the Church never cease praying “Lord Jesus Christ Son of God Savior have mercy on me a Sinner.” The greatest Saint, the most perfected by the grace of God never escapes this fact: God’s goodness and grace and human failure to accomplish the Good. On Jesus Christ save us from this body of death that is the human condition. Praise be to God!
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