Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Prophetic Fire

Prophetic Fire

Who could stand in the face of prophetic fire,
Stand brood and erect in the elemental ire?
It is easier by far to hide and call God a liar,
Maybe not wholesale, but he never
Could have meant that, not literally.
It’s not doable, not possible, no we‘ll shave
Off the edge, so we all can get it done,
Feel better, and go on living just as we are.

Can I accept that my life comes at a cost,
My nourishment depends on another’s lost,
A detail my mind would rather leave glossed,
And distant, a truth easier to ignore,
At the Local Grocery store, safe wherein
I need not know what sacrifices are being
Made each day for me? I’m not even saved
From such truth by my freshly picked salad.

Can I admit my life has consequences,
That there are always paid expenses
By others who do stand defenseless
Against a plan for which they did not ask,
Nor get a vote, a choice, a pick? Such is life,
We can hide from it, shave it, gloss it over
Or try to stand tall, take a step, and sing,
“Hallelujah” walking as each day cools.




Monday, November 20, 2017

The Thick

"The Thick"
A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
November 19, 2017
at Bethany Presbyterian Church, Zuni, Virginia
Romans 12:12b
Job 1: 13-22
1 Peter 4: 12-19



Let us pray,
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
           For your eyes show us the way
           Your mind knows the truth
           Your being is the life.
Amen.


God does interesting things, especially when you don’t plan, like for instance I started this sermon series, what two months ago, at least, and I didn’t really look at how any of the dates were going to line up. I just week to week, would wrestle with each phrase as it came up, but what we have for today, the Sunday before Thanksgiving of all days, is “be patient in suffering.” Interesting right. . . and God has a sense of humor I’m sure. Here on the day where everyone is expecting you to talk about gratitude and giving thanks, why don’t you take a stab at patient suffering? Yeah wind up this Marks of a Christian series on that one Pete, go for it. . . and we do wrap up today, having merely scratched the surface, because next week we begin the Advent Season, and we need that time to prepare for Christmas, so we’ll end with the Marks today, and we’ll come back to it at some point in the future, I’m not sure yet when because I have other, plans for after the Christmas season is over. I’m planning to step through the life of Christ from Christmas to Easter, so it might be next summer before we get back to it. So for the last time in a while here is the Marks of a Christian, that we know so well, Romans 12: 9-21

9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18 If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

So this morning where the bulletin has all the decoration of our annual celebration of thanks, where the communion table has been so beautifully decorated with a harvest cornucopia, where all the hymns, and the choir’s rousing anthem are about Giving Thanks, we turn our eyes on suffering. I know right. . . we’ll just see, now won’t we. . . I mean last week we got to talk about hope, and hope would have been perfect to match with gratitude, but suffering? And if we take a look back at the journey we have been on this fall with The Marks of a True Christian. So far we have looked at: Love being genuine; hating evil, clinging to the Good; Brotherly Love; Competing with each other in showing honor. We’ve talked about zeal, having that ceaseless energy that is needed, especially when we are trying to serve the Lord. Then rejoicing in hope," all of them would have been great to match with Thanksgiving, but now this week instead "be patient in suffering." Well, so to do this I want to look at the Old Testament and New Testament lessons first, rather than waiting like I have done in recent weeks. . . first the Old Testament. . . and what better reading on suffering than the description of Job’s afflictions, from Job 1, here are the final verses of Job 1, namely 13-22

One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, 15 and the Sabeans attacked and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
16 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
17 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
18 While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 19 when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
    and naked I will depart.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
    may the name of the Lord be praised.”
22 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

How about that for a picture of suffering, and Job accepted it, did not charge God with any wrongdoing. And if that wasn’t enough let’s look at the New Testament, here 1 Peter 4: 12-19, which my Bible labels, “Suffering as a Christian” yes I know right, give thanks. . .
12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, a criminal, or even as a mischief maker. 16 Yet if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name. 17 For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And
“If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinners?”
19 Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful creator, while continuing to do good.

Now I know that tradition dictates that I should proclaim this the word of the Lord, and you all would respond with Thanks be to God. . . but do you want to? I’ll leave it up to you. . . This is the Word of the Lord. . .
The reason I asked that question is that there is one truth that I have found in this our American world and culture, and that is that suffering does not sell. It is not a great lead. You never see advertisements offering up suffering. All State doesn't promise to provide mayhem, it tells you that mayhem is all around you, and if you get their insurance you will be safe in their "Good Hands." MacDonald's doesn't advertise that their food is bad for your health, could cause suffering a heart attack, not your hating it, but instead, "I'm loving it." Pepsi is the choice of a new generation, a cooler generation, not one suffering from diabetes. Suffering just doesn't sell, and here I am today saying that one of the true marks of a Christian is being patient in suffering. I’m not sure they are hearing this up the street. . . Suffering doesn’t sell, but it is reality.
But the other word in this phrase is no cupcake either, we are not a fan of suffering sure, but we also are not a fan of patience. In our world where we want things, now, where everything is available at our fingertips instantaneously, where if we have to wait even for a moment we try something else.  . . no patience is not a popular idea either. . . and if we were to pair them together there is nothing that would make us more impatient than suffering. . . but how true is it that they are often paired in life. I had a woman at my former church in Gordonsville. Early in my tenure there she was very active, she was in charge of getting the mail and bringing it to the church, she was in charge of setting up communion, she was the first person that anyone called to let them know what was going on, and she was always the first to be helping other people with whatever they had going on. I instantly loved her, such a sweet lady, but I remember clear as day, she came into my office and asked me, Pete what I really need to learn is patience, is there anything you can teach me about it. . . I told her we’d work together on it, and be careful what you wish for. . . her trials piled up right after that, her husband’s parkinsons steadily got worse, she fell and broke her pelvis, she also hurt her shoulder, and over the span of the next three years, she went from being active as anyone to being homebound, and a full time caregiver, even in the face of all her pain, as her pelvis took forever to heal. . . we joked many times when I’d visit her, that she was learning patience the hard way. . .
Patience is a funny word for me because it is tied to a memory. It was one of the first words that Coralee learned, though the concept still seems to escape her, as it does us all. I remember one time she wanted mommy really bad, and DeAnna needed a nap, she'd been dealing with her for long hours and needed a break. I just happened to come home from work, and could give her such a break. So I'm holding Coralee and she is freaking out, and I say to her you need to be patient, and she says back to me, "patient, patient" repeating it trying to convince herself. "Mommy needs a break sweatheart, and  you need to be patient." "Patient," she meekly squeaks out again.
Too often I think we think of patience as patience IN the midst of suffering. As Americans we do not know real suffering, and our entire life is built around protecting ourselves from suffering, and I wonder what that does to us. What does it do to us, to try to block ourselves from suffering? Because this mark of a true Christian doesn't say, avoid suffering at all costs, but when it eventually catches up to you, as it always seems to do, be patient and it will end at some point really soon. For Coralee and her suffering she just needed to chill for 15 minutes or so, so that DeAnna could get some peace, is that being patient in suffering? Is our suffering, suffering, and are we patient when it occurs? I'm not sure about y'all, but you can look at me and you know that I have never wondered about where my next meal would come from. I've also never really known real persecution for my beliefs, real oppression, real restriction on my life and my choices. So what this passage, "Be patient in suffering" means to me is, don't worry things won't be bad so long. Hard rain, don’t last. You'll get over it. All things come and go. Pain is temporary, but glory lasts. Football season including the post season for private schools in Virginia ended yesterday, and for the first time in a long time, I wasn’t a part of it, and yesterday was cool because I got to see my mentor win his second state championship, but football season was probably for the last 6 years at least was the hardest time of the year for our family. It would all start in August, DeAnna and the girls would go to the beach, and I’d be "suffering" all day practices in that hot August humid heat. And when I say all day I mean all day, 6 a.m. to about 10 p.m. for two week’s straight, followed then by a week of long boring beginning of the year faculty meetings. Then the scholl year would start and I’d work 7 day weeks for 3 straight months. . . it was long, and we would “suffer through it”  Starting with Hot temperatures, long hours, me being a little bit lonely, missing my girls, being a little bit bored. Then working a bunch of days straight, that was the extent of my “Suffering.” So let me be patient in it. Yeah I know I can get through. Just a little bit more, then I can go home and take a nap. It was bad, but that is not real suffering, it doesn’t compare to Job, and it doesn’t match what St. Peter is referring to in his letter.
Even Paul's audience is different, and his meaning of suffering is different, and his meaning of patience is different. For Christians in the beginning, there was real suffering going on. We know in our world that when trouble happens on a national scale, you know like an economic crisis, that people tend to lose their civility and their sense of humanity, and things get divided, and people get blamed, and often groups of people get blamed. On July 19, 64, the city of Rome burned, the great fire of Rome for which the emperor Nero is famous for playing his violin while the city burned. The problem was he was a little less negligent once the fires were out and the blame needed to be assigned. Like most politicians at this point they looked around and, to quote Mel Brooks, as the governor in Blazing Saddles, "We've got to protect our phony baloney jobs, Gentleman." The spin must begin, and so it did. The strange small, new sect of Christianity seemed to be a good scapegoat. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote it this way:
As a consequence, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians [or Chrestians] by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but, even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. In accordance, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not as much of the crime of firing the city as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired. 

Now here is the big question. . . Could you have patience in that kind of suffering? Would you still claim to be a Christian when the Roman Centurions came knocking at your house? I have to be honest that I'm not sure what I would do, but this is what Paul is talking about when he mentions suffering, being patient in persecution.
English translations always seem to down play it, both in the choosing of the word suffering, and the choosing of the word patient as translations. The Greek word here used for suffering has more to do with oppression and persecution than, mere bodily pain. It has more to do with finding yourself in the face of hatred, in the face of those who want you dead because of who you are and what you believe. Can we wrap our minds around that 1950 years later in the safety of America, here safe in Zuni? Can we even imagine what it would be like to live under such a hostile government, rather than the ambivalent one we complain often about? Can you imagine living in that world. It's a world foreign to us, yet it exists all around us. I don’t know how often I’ve heard people today, completely sure that the end times are near because it is so bad, but it you look at history and you look at many parts of this world you see it much, much worse, much more corrupt, much more divided, much more violent, than anything experience here. . . there is real suffering in the world. . . and there is real oppression and hatred, like this word seems to suggest for us.
So that's suffering, but what about patience. It is interesting that the NRSV committee chose "patience" as the word here because there are many other words for patience used in the New Testament. And this Greek word is also translated in other instances as "resist, standing firm, holding one's ground." That takes on a much more active role than simply being patient, especially when paired with oppression rather than merely suffering. It also can be translated as "abide." Now abide is a word I love, though typically it is a word that is only used in church. How often do you hear about abiding in our world? Abiding means being there in the midst of it all. Being there, with, through thick, through thin, in the heart of it. Going through, seemingly by choice, just to be with and provide comfort. You could leave, but you have chosen to stay, that's abiding. In my church growing up, the church's mission statement was, "We could care less, but we have decided to care more." It seems to me that that is a statement that gets close to the idea of abiding. You could leave, but you have decided to stay. The emperor has literally thrown your neighbor to the dogs, and you could leave, but you have decided to abide with him, through it.
Again that is what Christ does with us. God sees us, sees our plight, and becomes us, becomes one of us, to show us simply, hey I'm here. Don't forget, I'm here. I'll be with you in your suffering, no matter what, no matter how hard. I'm there. When the storm winds blow, I'm there, when persecution falls I'm there, when disease strips you bare, I'm there. Awesome, truly amazing, but yet we run from suffering. We run from suffering avoiding by any means necessary. Why? Oh yeah it doesn't sell. Perhaps it's just that we are not buying. We are not buying the fact that God's purpose could include suffering for us, what if it does, what if it does simply because we need to be reminded that God is there, that God is there, abiding, and has us in the palm of his hand, right there beside us in all things. This passage is not saying, hey avoid suffering at all costs, but once in bear it, instead it is saying go find suffering, be there in the midst of it, be strengthened by it, and find God in it.
I know it doesn’t sell, but there is much to suffering that changes the world. How many times do we see that in the midst of the worst things that happen, terrorist attacks, flooding, earthquakes, hurricanes, mass shootings, that the best of people comes out. I know it sounds weird, but I often in some ways yearn for suffering, because it is real, and you’d know that you were in it. There is real strength in a situation like that where there is no way of avoiding it any more, where there is no exit, no escape hatch, no reset button, there is nothing to do but be in it, in someways we yearn for such in life because it is life, and it is in such times where we feel the most alive, but we have an aversion to life like that often, we grow comfortable in our status quo, and what we have attained, what we have accumulated, and we fear losing it, we hold onto all of these things, and we become trapped by them, kept away from life. . .

So here I am on the Sunday before Thanksgiving saying, we need to embrace suffering, seek it out, and therefore of course be grateful for it. I know that, that is a tough sell, but I am giving it a shot this morning because there is life in it, and all life demands that we give thanks for it, get down on our knees and thank the Lord, that we suffer, for in suffering we find that life that he gave us, and the strength that we need to forget about all the small concerns of our daily lives, and remember again, what it is that truly matters. That God loves us, sent his son to suffer with us, and that we then can love like our lives depend on it. Praise be to God, Amen. 

Monday, November 13, 2017

Eternal Hope Springs

"Eternal Hope Springs"
A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
November 5, 2017
at Bethany Presbyterian Church, Zuni, Virginia
Romans 12:12
Revelation 19: 1-10
Psalm 62: 1-8



Let us pray,
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
           For your eyes show us the way
           Your mind knows the truth
           Your being is the life.
Amen.

Today, let’s just start with it. We’ve been looking at it for many weeks now. Here are the Marks of a True Christian according to Paul, in Romans 12: 9-21.

9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18 If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.


So if you are keeping score at home, you’ll know that this morning our line from the "Marks of a true Christian" is simply Romans 12:12a "Rejoice in Hope." Since last week we talked about serving the Lord, and the difficulties that service entails, especially when you look at all the trials endured by the heroes of the Old Testament, and even Jesus and then the disciples in the New, but this week we find ourselves talking about the idea of Hope and that we are to rejoice in it.
Hope is an interesting topic, and one that I have taken alot of time thinking about this week, one we’ll revisit in just a few weeks, when of the four Advent Candles, the first is the Candle of Hope, but do you ever think about what hope is, whether it's good or not, and whether it is possible to rejoice in it. I chose a passage from Revelation to get at hope, knowing that for some reason it's always a little bit intimidating to preach from Revelation. There is so much stuff in it that sounds a little bit crazy, what with the trumpets and the seals and the numerology, and the dragons, and there are all kinds of different ways that people interpret it and use it, and frankly there is a great history of irresponsible misuse of it. But all in all the message of Revelation is primarily and at heart completely one of hope and bears witness to that hope, and no other passage in the entirety of the book represents a witness of hope more than this one I am about to read, this is the famous Hallelujah scene from the beginning of chapter 19.
A few weeks ago, the Session had the pleasure of getting to chat with Rev. Dr. Brian Blount, who is a native of Smithfield, President, of my seminary, Union Presbyterian in Richmond, and possibly the leading scholar in the study of the book of Revelation. Through the years I've had the opportunity to hear him preach and lecture on this very passage often, and I've enjoyed his take, and his description of this scene as a major victory party, celebrating an end to oppression, celebrated by a people who have been oppressed for a long time. The early Christians, and Jews as well had found themselves in a period where persecution by the Roman Empire had grown fierce again, and were looking for things in the world that could give them hope, they needed hope, they needed to find a way to get through the days and remain faithful. Ever since the fall of the Kingdom of Israel, the area of Palestine had been controlled by a series of foreign empires. First the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, then it was the Persians, then the Macedonians, then the Ptolemies, then the Seleucids , and finally by the time of Christ, Rome. Much like the book of Daniel and other works written within the history of being a subjected people, the book of Revelation is from the genre, from the Greek word, apokolypsis, which means secret teachings, or disclosure, manifestation, revelation. These were words and books of hope written to inspire the people to believe in a future state where things would be put right, where the rulers of the day would be thwarted, the power structures replaced, and righteousness restored. In other words, a Revelation of the fact that God is very much in control. It was easy for the Christians in the first century to look around them and think there must be something more than this, there must be something better than this, God is better than this, and God is in control, and God will set things right, we believe this, and it gives us hope. The passage that I selected this morning to get at the idea of rejoicing in hope is very much a victory celebration over the evils of the world. Evils that to the Christians of the first century were certainly apparent to them and surrounded them in every way, and the victory is complete, and the host of heaven sing an earth shattering, hell destroying, hallelujah. Probably ten years ago now I heard this passage preached at the Massanetta Springs Bible and Music Conference, yes by Brian Blount, and the anthem that accompanied the scripture reading and the sermon was the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's "Messiah" sung by a huge mixed choir of all the musicians and singers that had been there that week. It was truly moving music because it put you in that place. You felt like they had almost accomplished the sound that the writer John of Patmos was describing in court of heaven. So have that song going through your head while I read: Revelation 19: 1-10: 

After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying,
“Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power to our God,
2     for his judgments are true and just;
he has judged the great whore
who corrupted the earth with her fornication,
and he has avenged on her the blood of his servants.” 
3     Once more they said,
“Hallelujah!
The smoke goes up from her forever and ever.”
4     And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who is seated on the throne, saying,
“Amen. Hallelujah!”
And from the throne came a voice saying,
“Praise our God,
all you his servants,
and all who fear him,
small and great.”
6     Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunderpeals, crying out,
“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
7     Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready;
8     to her it has been granted to be clothed
with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.” 10Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your comrades who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”[1] 

This is the word of the Lord, thanks be to God. Look at this celebration. It is celebrating the idea that God is more powerful than things, all things. He's more powerful than evil, more powerful than war, more powerful than enemies, more powerful than hatred, more powerful than injustice, more powerful than genocide, more powerful than oppression, more powerful than slavery, more powerful than a "bad day", more powerful than a petty disagreement, more powerful than a broken relationship, more powerful than doubt, more powerful than sin, more powerful than our minor disobedience, more powerful than our major disobedience, more powerful than the outcome of some election, more powerful than negative adds, more powerful than cynicism, more powerful than any clear and present danger that we face, and that very fact is cause to celebrate. And not just is God more powerful, God is also good, all the time, beyond time into the infinite, the beginning and the end, and so hope springs in the eternal, the eternity of God.
So we ask ourselves, why not now? Why all this injustice now? Why all this pain now? These earthquakes, this disease, this discord, and hatred and war. Why wait? Why doesn't God just fix it all now if He can? Many agnostics and atheists ask these questions, and speak ardently that if God exists, God is either a monster or is completely ineffective, for to let so much pain exist in the world, and therefore their shouts at God are not hallelujah. I do not hope to preach today as to why, because I do not know the answers of these questions, but I believe part of our comfort is found in the today's idea from the Marks of a Christian. "Rejoice in hope."
It's funny to me to see rejoice in hope. It is so alien to our world to do so. We don't rejoice in hope; we rejoice in attaining things, in victories, in gold medals won, and challenges accomplished, and bottom lines. Those are the things we tend to rejoice in, but how fleeting are the trophies, how fleeting are the accomplishments? How much more inspiring and powerful is it to strive, and having striven felt the extra push of force that hope gives? I'll get back to that because there is something of truth in that, but we aren't ready yet. . .
***Ha ha got you hoping? Man I sure hope I can pull this off? Are you hoping with me? I hope so***
If you look at the prayer of preparation, you'll see the famous line: hope springs eternal. I chose the passage, coming from one of my favorite poems, Alexander Pope's "Essay on Man." What Pope is trying to accomplish in the poem is to describe the human condition. The poem has four parts, and the first part, from which this passage comes, he is trying to describe the way the world works, and in his words to "justify the ways of God to man," which is one of the great poetic challenges taken up by poets since the beginning of time from the writer of Job, to the psalmist, to Homer, to Shelley, Milton, Keats, all of them, the greats. He takes a similar spin on it, to the Book of Job, and is reflecting his time, because he questions whether man is in any position, any moral place to question God. He wonders how can you question the maker of you? How can you wish for more than what is? Is it the place of the creature to question the actuality and the quality of the creation? It is a cool poem placing the perfection and the sovereignty of God at the forefront of his understanding of the world, concluding the first section with the poem with some of my favorite turns of a phrase:
All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good:
And, spite of pride in erring reason's spite,
One truth is clear, whatever is, is right.
  

In other words, Pope puts the sovereignty of God at a premium, first and foremost in his view of the world and uses that as the lens to view and judge the way the world operates, made perfect by God, but now let's take a look at the section including the words "hope springs eternal" because it is here where he talks about how hope, and hoping is a crucial part of the human condition, as humans were created by God. I'll begin and include a few lines I left out of the bulletin for reasons of space:

Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate,
All but the page prescribed, their present state:
From brutes what men, from men what spirits know:
Or who could suffer being here below?
The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?
Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food,
And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood.
Oh, blindness to the future! kindly given,
That each may fill the circle, marked by Heaven:
Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurled,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.
Hope humbly, then; with trembling pinions soar;
Wait the great teacher Death; and God adore.
What future bliss, He gives not thee to know,
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confined from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

 Pope suggests that hoping is part of our nature, that we were created to be hopeful, and that there must be some driving purpose to it, in his words confined from home, perhaps driving back to home. There must be some purpose to which he suggests we should not question. Paul takes it one step further, not just to not question, that we are created hoping, but to rejoice in it. To be thankful for our capacity to hope and rejoice, believing that the future blessings will be incredible.
Hope is an interesting phenomenon in other faith systems. It is not found in the eastern religions and philosophies of India and China at all and to the pagan Greeks, hope was kind of a mixed bag. As the myth of Pandora goes, when her curiosity compels her to open the box, out come all of the evils of the world, one by one and personified, but too, hiding in the bottom of the box, out pops hope. Hope enters into the world along with the evils according to that ancient Greek story, which shows their world view. Does this mean they saw hope as a piece of the evil, or our only positive in a world now fraught with evil.
How do you view hope? I've spoken often in the last few weeks about cynicism, that most ancient and hopeless of Greek philosophies, many in the world of today would say that hope is foolish, or misguided, We say, I don’t want to get your hopes up. . . or others might say hope is a tool that those of great power, intelligence, and influence use to control those who are hopelessly gullible, dimwitted, and weak. Someone intelligent could never be controlled in such a way. I can see how that would be and could be true. False hopes, or placing  your hope in something that cannot deliver would certainly leave you out on a ledge, looking foolish, that is why hope is tied to faith, and love, those spiritual gifts that Paul writes of in his first letter to the Christians at Corinth. Having faith in the truth, that God is all powerful as I opened with, and that the hallelujah passage gives witness and testimony of provides a hope that is not foolish, but if true the only possible source of hope.
Having hope in that truth can allow us to see our world in a different light, to see our place in the world in a different light, and to see our work in the world in a different life. It allows for the end to be taken care of, to hope for, to inspire us, to recharge us with ultimate drive and desire, infinitely ahead, allowing us to love in the present, rejoicing in the present, rejoicing in hope. I said earlier that trophies and accomplishments sometimes are fleeting at best or underwhelming at worst, anti-climatic might be the best word. There is so much build up that once it's all over and achieved there isn't much left, but life was lived in the achieving. Life is lived in the hope of achieving. There is something to the wisdom of creating human beings with an innate capacity to hope. It drives us, it moves us, it is us, it is life, and life is a gift to be lived, and a gift to be thankful for, and a gift to be rejoiced in, that when it is all over and we come face to face with the infinite, the hallelujahs burst forth from our inward parts with a loving chorus of praise for the amazing love and power that created each and every one of us, completely unique, with an infinite capacity for hope.
Truly my soul finds rest in God;
    my salvation comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
    he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
How long will you assault me?
    Would all of you throw me down—
    this leaning wall, this tottering fence?
Surely they intend to topple me
    from my lofty place;
    they take delight in lies.
With their mouths they bless,
    but in their hearts they curse.[b]
Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
    my hope comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;

    he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my honor depend on God[c];
    he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
Trust in him at all times, you people;
    pour out your hearts to him,
    for God is our refuge.


Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Serving the Lord

"Serving the Lord"
A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
November 5, 2017
at Bethany Presbyterian Church, Zuni, Virginia
Romans 12:11c
Deuteronomy 31: 1-8
Luke 9: 57-62



Let us pray,
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
           For your eyes show us the way
           Your mind knows the truth
           Your being is the life.
Amen.


If we think back to last week, we talked about enthusiasm. It was about Zeal and being ardent in the spirit. We talked about how when you are being what you are, what you were made to be what you are called to be, then the energy it takes to just simply be whatever that is, is equal to the energy you have, and your cup is overflowing, it never runs out. . . and so there is the sense that we are each called to bring ourselves to the table, to not hold back, but to be all in. . .and that we wouldn’t necessarily then be doing what every one else is doing, not looking to mimic what other churches are doing, but instead find our own way that is right,  and that the rest would then take care of itself. But then came of course the inevitable question, “What then do we do?” And the answer comes quick on the heals of last week’s lesson with this one, right after “Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in the spirit,” closing out the verse is this week’s “Serve the Lord.” Which then is the answer, this is what we are to do. Simply, serve the Lord, but let’s take a quick look again at the entire picture, these according to Paul are the Marks of a Christian.

9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18 If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

So the answer to what we are to do, is to serve the Lord, and if you put that together with last week, the basis of our life, what we are created to do is exactly this. If we were to look at our Book of Confessions, the Book in our denomination that contains the conversations about what we believe, one of the things we find in there is the Catechisms of our Church, and the first question of the Catechism is what is the chief end of man? And the answer, “To glorify God and enjoy him forever. . .” we have a sense then that we glorify God when we serve him, and we also enjoy him in this service. . . but what is the enjoyment of serving God like? What does it mean to serve God? How is God served? How is God glorified through our service?
This week we celebrated and marked the 500th year anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation, and as children of the Reformation we look to scripture for answers to our questions like this. So in my study this week I started to think about, what are some of the Old Testament Models of service to the Lord? I could have chosen so many, but I went with Moses, having led the Israelites out of Bondage, has reached the end of his service. This is Deuteronomy 31: 1-8
31 Then Moses went out and spoke these words to all Israel: “I am now a hundred and twenty years old and I am no longer able to lead you. The Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not cross the Jordan.’ The Lord your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua also will cross over ahead of you, as the Lord said. And the Lord will do to them what he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, whom he destroyed along with their land. The Lord will deliver them to you, and you must do to them all that I have commanded you. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance. The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

So if we were to look at Moses as an example, we find the sense of serving the Lord is that you do God’s will, you set captives free, you stand up before the rulers and in God’s name defy them, and lead grumbling people into and then through the wilderness, and just when you are about to find the fulfillment of all your labors, you hand the job over to someone else to finish it. Hmmmm. . . .
Well maybe we can look at Jonah, he’s another servant of the Lord in the Old Testament. . . he runs away at first, because he doesn’t want to do it, but the reason he doesn’t want to do it is because God wants him to go to Ninevah and preach to them about repenting and turning to the Lord, or else. . . . but he knows that if he goes, they will repent, and then there will be no, or else. . . and this makes him mad. . . but he does it anyway, and he is right, the Lord relents, and Jonah is angry sitting in the shade.  . . hmmm.
Ezekiel serves and gets in hot water with Jezebel and Ahab. . . Daniel serves and finds himself in the Lion’s den, Shadrach Mesach and Abednego serve and they find themselves in a fiery furnace. . . Noah has to built a big boat and fill it with animals. . . then of course there is the man that God refers to as, “my servant Job” have you considered, “my servant Job” he asks. . .
You see what I mean there are a lot of different models and paths for servanthood that we find there, and many are challenging, to say the least. . . the very act of serving the Lord seems to be fraught with many different paths, and many different obstacles. . .
If we were to look at history there are many different understandings on what it means to serve the Lord. You can look in the Gospels and find Jesus embodying the idea of servanthood, healing the sick, feeding the multitudes, caring for the lowly, eating with outcasts, and of course going to the cross, bearing the cross himself, he even says to his disciples in the Gospel of Matthew 20: 25-28,  
But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 26 It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; 28 just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.

So we can see that Christ is an original model for this notion of service. The early church had some ideas about service, and if you look at all of Paul’s letters, including this one of the Romans, you can get a lot of different ideas of what it means to serve the Lord, many connected to serving those around you, serving your brothers and sisters in the faith, being united together, etc., and then there was another generation of Christians who was forced to face persecution at the hands of the Romans, and if you read the Book of Revelation you can see a view of service that was about witnessing, proclaiming the idea that Christ is Lord in a society where such things could cost you status, could cost you business, and in some cases could even cost you your life. But then eventually things change as the church has more success than it has ever had before because the church and the state gets combined when Constantine converts the Empire to a Christian one, and then being a Christian gets connected to serving the state, being a good citizen, etc. As the Roman Empire Falls and Kingdoms develop in Feudal Europe during the middle Ages, serving the Lord might be connected to serving your Lord if you are a peasant, it might have to do with being a good vassal, serving in the military if you are asked. . . during the Crusades, serving the Lord meant going to the Holy Land to fight the infidel Muslims. In the late Middle Ages serving the Lord took on many faces, the claim of tradition included things like indulgences, where serving the Lord somehow got connected to making payments to restore your soul back in the grace of God, but then during the Reformation serving the Lord took on new meanings, like studying the Bible, believing, having faith. Here in America even more meaning, perhaps serving the Lord meant having the right political views, attending church, wearing the right clothes to church, but also teaching Sunday School, feeding the poor, finding ways to help those in need through financial contribution, etc. If you study it closely, there are as many different ways of serving the church as there are people, and some are problematic and some are very noble, and why would that be. . . it is because of the Lord we serve, and the fallibility of human beings as servants. . . let’s look to our Gospel reading from this morning: Luke 9; 57-62
57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
59 He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”
62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

You see, one of the reasons serving the Lord looks so diverse is the very nature of our Lord. God in the Old Testament cannot be tied down. He is the God who is. . . the Hebrews believed that they could not even say His name because even a name trapped him too much. They couldn’t put him in a box, they couldn’t depict him in anything made by humans, he defied such things, and so since he is the God who created everything and cannot be nailed down into any one thing. . . serving Him takes on as many different modes as he does. . . and Christ  is the same, he says follow me, leave all behind and follow me, and do so right now, again the Lord we serve is a God on the move, and when given the chance to serve himself. . . he himself goes to the cross.
Serving a God like that then takes on a life of its own. . . and we are lucky enough to live in a time where we are free to serve him, individually and as we are created to because now, in 2017, we have mostly rid ourselves of the trappings of power, where we stand with only Christ as our intermediary between ourselves and God, where Church and State are mostly separated by a wall, where Christianity is not imposed on us by any state, and where we as individual followers of Christ need nor have anyone between us and the Lord to tell us what it means to serve him, yes that means even me, even Pastors, no, the question comes to us each again, what does it mean to serve the Lord when we are completely free as Christians, as Americans, as Presbyterians, as members of Bethany Presbyterian Church to do so? How can we get back to following the Lord, rather than all the Lords of this world?
One answer and maybe the most important is that we cannot trade back our freedom for something else. . . . even though it is in our nature and in our history to do so. We cannot flee from the danger of serving the Lord, we cannot cling to the safe, we cannot avoid the difficult questions seeking common answers. . . but instead each individually wrestle with what we are, and what we are called to do as servants of God. Because though we are all here together, each of us has a unique path, and so I cannot tell you exactly what your path is, though I can seek to help you find it, because just like we can learn from the great servants in the Bible, we can learn from history, and we can learn and help each other on our way. We can’t do for, and we cannot take the place of, but we can seek to discern together, and walk our own paths, side by side and parallel, for it is true that the Lord we serve has brought us each to this point.
I believe that serving the Lord takes on a 7 part pattern. . . and I’ve developed this by looking at the common threads between those who I think have effectively served the Lord in their lives, those characters I have seen in the Bible, those saints throughout history, whom I have admired, and the great saints that I have been blessed in my life to walk this Earth alongside. . . . and the beautiful thing about these 7 patterns is they are always occurring, constantly and repeatedly throughout our lives. . . they aren’t really stages that you go through once in life, but rather ones that you constantly find yourself in.
These are Humility, Discernment, Resolution, Perseverance, Fulfillment, Legacy, and Retirement. I want to take a minute to go through each of these, and say a little something about each one, and then walk through an example or two. . .
Humility is the point where you admit that you don’t know what to do, and you give up yourself. . . the idea of being a servant means that you are not doing things for your own benefit, nor your own purposes, but instead are aligning your purpose to what you are serving. . . so this unselfing is an important part of it. . . so many people who claim to be serving the Lord throughout history do not begin with this important piece. . . they hold on to themselves, and either do not have the staying power to finish the race, or corrupt the God’s purposes to achieve their own. . . I think of all those Medieval kings and Popes who used the name of Christianity to enrich and empower themselves at the expense of others. . . and we can still see this today. . . Humility says, it is not about me, but thee Oh God. . . and this is the crucial step. . . but the great thing about it, is there is the constant and recurring chance to start over if you go astray because realizing you are or have been wrong is . . . yes. . . humility. . . kinda like the Go space on the Monopoly board. . . you can always get back to that grab your $200 and start your way back around the board again.
So you are standing there in humility, and you ask the next question. . . what am I to do? This is called discernment. . . discernment as the question, who am I and what am I being called to do? Where do you go to find out? Since we begun with humility, the first thing we must do is ask, and ask anew, and ask again and again, seek and keep on seeking, ask and keep on asking, knock and keep on knocking. Never stop asking until you have a good idea of what you are supposed to do and be, and not just on the big full life scale, but in the little questions, remember these are patterns that are constantly repeating. Am I called to do this? Am I called to do that? What are these things? It may not be what you have always done, remember starting with Humility opens us up to whatever God is calling, whatever God is doing in and through our lives. Sometimes it is a major shift in what you may have thought about yourself previously. . . but alas God’s will is what is to be done. . .
And that brings us to the next step, which is Resolution. Having discerned what you are being called to the next step is to take it. To do it, to dive in, to go all in,  to commit yourself. . .
The next two often happen interchangeably and simultaneously and that is Perseverance and Fulfillment. . . .  . They go together because God gives us a little of both when we are serving. Sometimes the challenges come and we have to persevere, and we can if our Resolution was strong. . . but also along the way our cup runs over, and we feel that fulfillment, we feel like we are at the right place at the right time, and it all just works out right. And that brings us to the next part:
Legacy, people will see your energy, your attitude, your accomplishments, your strength, all of it, and it makes a difference, you leave behind that kind of legacy, you are remembered for what you have done, and then you give God all the glory. . . because the last part is the most difficult, modeled by Moses in this morning’s Old Testament Lesson.
The last is Retirement. . . . stepping away, passing on what you have done so that some one else can finish. The play goes on, and you have contributed your verse and now it is time for someone else to finish. You started with humility, you were serving the Lord and not yourself, can you remain humble enough to let go, and move on to the next thing? So very important, but so very challenging.
Now I know that I have built up serving the Lord to a high level, using big words to describe it, but I want to close with a reminder that this is about the small things as much as the big. If you can do everything in life, as part of your service to God, then you will always be in the right place. . . George Herbert’s poem which I quoted in the bulletin gets at this idea. Let me close with it.
All may of Thee partake: 
         Nothing can be so mean, 
Which with his tincture—"for Thy sake"— 
         Will not grow bright and clean. 

A servant with this clause 
         Makes drudgery divine: 
Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws, 
         Makes that and th' action fine. 

This is the famous stone 
         That turneth all to gold; 
For that which God doth touch and own 
         Cannot for less be told.
From “The Elixir” by George Herbert