Tuesday, February 27, 2018

In the Temple


In the Temple
A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
February 25, 2018
at Bethany Presbyterian Church, Zuni, Virginia
Mark 11: 15-19
1 Chronicles 28: 1-19


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


Jesus Cleanses the Temple
(Mt 21:12–17; Lk 19:45–48; Jn 2:13–22)
15 Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; 16 and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 He was teaching and saying, “Is it not written,
‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’?
But you have made it a den of thieves.”
18 And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. 19 And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.


I've had trouble wrestling with this text this week. This scene is an important one because it represents a definitive action of Jesus ministry. In many ways it is the high water mark. He has just entered Jerusalem in triumph, and it seems that he goes straight for the temple. When he gets to the temple, instead of praying, he empties the place out. He over turns tables, and sends out all of the people, proclaiming this house to be a house of prayer for all nations, and instead they have made it a den of thieves. It is this that is the last straw for the chief priests and scribes, because they are now looking for a way to kill him. What is interesting though, is that it seems here that his message is popular with the people, I mean it "spellbound" them. That seems good right? Here are the questions I have been struggling with. 1. (is basic) What is the statement Jesus is making by going into the temple and cleaning house? and 2. Why if it is popular with the people do they follow the Chief Priests and the Scribes at the end of the week?
To get to a place where it would be possible to answer these questions let's look at the history of the Temple,. What it is; what it means; what it has been; and what it has become by the time Jesus enters it and turns the tables. Let's begin by looking at Temples in general. Temples throughout the ancient world were places where gods lived, places where people and gods came together, places where heaven and earth were joined as one. The temples were the turf of the priests. Priests dominated the temple, controlled the worship, and set up the rituals. Temples were also places of great wealth. The best of what was produced in the land would be placed in the temple as a kind of a sacrifice to the gods. It would be hoarded by the priests, and plundered from time to time by kings and emperors, when resources became short, or when one group of people invaded another. This being the case, temples were very much the central identifying body of a city or a state.
The first temple of sorts, that is found in the biblical narrative is the Tower of Babel. Human beings were attempting to build a bridge to God, and it seems that at least in the Biblical Hebrew tradition this is very bad. Why? Apollo has no problem with the Greeks building him a temple, in fact he seems to relish it. Zeus, too, and Baal, Ashtarte, all of the ancient gods are thought to like their temples, why not this Hebrew God? Worship of this Hebrew God begins with God having no name and no temple. Why? The answer, I believe, comes down to confinement and control. One of the main components of ancient religions, chiefly paganism, is the idea that the gods are human creations, and are therefore made in the image of human beings and animals. . . images of what we would consider created things.
The Hebrew God on the other hand cannot be confined to such things because God was not made, but instead made all things. . . is not made in the image of creation, but rather is the chief agent of creation, making human beings in his own image. This is a major and important distinction. Look at it this way, if you make a temple, you are confining God, and controlling the place in which God becomes manifest. I'll use a crude analogy, but yet effective in getting to the point: it is in a sense that the priests are the zookeepers and God is the caged attraction you pay to go see. The priests determine where God lives, the priests determine who gets to see God, the priests are in a sense in Control, and God, though powerful certainly, exists within very confined human set parameters. The Hebrew God does not fit into these parameters, cannot be confined within a temple, or a box, or an idea, not even a name. The name of God simply means God is, that God is being, try if you will to capture the present, you try and it is gone, already past, such it is with God. So what changes between here and the construction of the temple?
After God had led the Israelites out of bondage, the ark of the covenant, resided in a Tabernacle, a movable tent. The Levite Priests had constructed this movable tabernacle based on direct specifications given to Moses. Since those times, this tabernacle had been with the Israelites as they built with God's help and direction a great kingdom. David became king, consolidating a kingdom and building for himself a fine palace. David did not think it right for himself to live in palace and for God to live in a tent, so he says so, quoted in 2 Samuel 7:2, " the king said to the prophet Nathan, “See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.” Nathan tells David to go ahead, but that night God comes to Nathan, the prophet, telling him to tell David,
Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; 9and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

In this passage from 2 Samuel we get the description for the commissioning for the construction of a temple. It will not be David to build it but instead for Solomon, David's son. It seems as if the purpose of the temple is not as a house for God, but instead for God's name, and in the name it seems to mark the covenant between God and David's family. There is a major distinction here suggesting again that God is in control of the situation, rather than the king or the priest. God sets the parameters for the building of the temple, not David. Our Old Testament lesson goes into it further. . .
28 David summoned all the officials of Israel to assemble at Jerusalem: the officers over the tribes, the commanders of the divisions in the service of the king, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, and the officials in charge of all the property and livestock belonging to the king and his sons, together with the palace officials, the warriors and all the brave fighting men.
King David rose to his feet and said: “Listen to me, my fellow Israelites, my people. I had it in my heart to build a house as a place of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, for the footstool of our God, and I made plans to build it. But God said to me, ‘You are not to build a house for my Name, because you are a warrior and have shed blood.’
“Yet the Lord, the God of Israel, chose me from my whole family to be king over Israel forever. He chose Judah as leader, and from the tribe of Judah he chose my family, and from my father’s sons he was pleased to make me king over all Israel. Of all my sons—and the Lord has given me many—he has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. He said to me: ‘Solomon your son is the one who will build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. I will establish his kingdom forever if he is unswerving in carrying out my commands and laws, as is being done at this time.’
“So now I charge you in the sight of all Israel and of the assembly of the Lord, and in the hearing of our God: Be careful to follow all the commands of the Lord your God, that you may possess this good land and pass it on as an inheritance to your descendants forever.
“And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsakehim, he will reject you forever. 10 Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary. Be strong and do the work.”
11 Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the portico of the temple, its buildings, its storerooms, its upper parts, its inner rooms and the place of atonement. 12 He gave him the plans of all that the Spirithad put in his mind for the courts of the temple of the Lord and all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the temple of God and for the treasuries for the dedicated things. 13 He gave him instructions for the divisions of the priests and Levites, and for all the work of serving in the temple of the Lord, as well as for all the articles to be used in its service. 14 He designated the weight of gold for all the gold articles to be used in various kinds of service, and the weight of silver for all the silver articles to be used in various kinds of service: 15 the weight of gold for the gold lampstands and their lamps, with the weight for each lampstand and its lamps; and the weight of silver for each silver lampstand and its lamps, according to the use of each lampstand; 16 the weight of gold for each table for consecrated bread; the weight of silver for the silver tables; 17 the weight of pure gold for the forks, sprinkling bowls and pitchers; the weight of gold for each gold dish; the weight of silver for each silver dish; 18 and the weight of the refined gold for the altar of incense. He also gave him the plan for the chariot, that is, the cherubim of gold that spread their wings and overshadow the ark of the covenant of the Lord

So this is the beginning of the temple in Jerusalem. No blood, set plans, limits placed on this temple, so that it will not become a corruption, and not become like the other temples of other ancient gods, and not a place where treasures are hoarded, and raided, and captured, but instead it becomes just that. The temple becomes a symbol of the nation of Israel, and when that nation crumbles so too does the temple. . . The following is taken from the book of Lamentations. . . the Jeremiah's lament for the fall of the temple.
Enemies have stretched out their hands
over all her precious things;
she has even seen the nations
invade her sanctuary,
those whom you forbade
to enter your congregation.
11     All her people groan
as they search for bread;
they trade their treasures for food
to revive their strength.
Look, O Lord, and see
how worthless I have become. (Lamentations 1: 10-11)

     He has broken down his booth like a garden,
he has destroyed his tabernacle;
the Lord has abolished in Zion
festival and sabbath,
and in his fierce indignation has spurned
king and priest.
7     The Lord has scorned his altar,
disowned his sanctuary;
he has delivered into the hand of the enemy
the walls of her palaces;
a clamor was raised in the house of the Lord
as on a day of festival.  (Lamentations 2: 6-7)

And the Jews fall into exile. . . If the temple was connected to the covenant, does this mean that God has abandoned them, or that God has been defeated? What are they to think? But the exile ends and they rebuild the temple. That account is found in the book of Ezra. And in there it says that this new temple was commissioned by the Persian Emperor. It makes you wonder as to whether the Persian Emperor did not have blood on his hands, or if the standard had somehow been changed. . . This temple stood for 500 years, and had 500 years of weathering and assaults on it. Then 18 years before the birth of Christ, Herod set to work rebuilding the temple. Herod did so to gain favor of the Jews he wished to rule. You can see that throughout this long history this Temple had existed on shaky footing. And by shaky, I mean, whose job is it to build a dwelling place for God? And what should such a dwelling place's purpose be? Is it to house God? Is it to claim God? Is it to appeal to God? What is the purpose of the temple?
Jesus upon riding into Jerusalem goes straight for the temple, this building that is supposed to be his dwelling place. He finds within a very different purpose from what he imagines, at least it appears: the exchange of money. . . the wielding of power. Exactly what a temple has always been, but exactly what this temple was not supposed to be. He says, "My house was to be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves."
So now that I've given some background let's return to our two questions: 1. What is the statement Jesus is making by going into the temple and cleaning house? and 2. Why if it is popular with the people do they follow the Chief Priests and the Scribes at the end of the week?
It seems obvious to me that the statement Jesus is making is that things need to change because the temple has become exactly like the other pagan temples, places where power is brokered over people, and where God is wielded rather than worshiped, where God is confined, boxed, and sold. You can see how threatening this setup would make the chief priests and the scribes upset. Their power is tied to the temple, just like the ancient pagan priests. They are in league with the Roman occupiers. Money changers is a concept that we may not completely understand, but what they are doing is changing money from the unusable Jewish money to the Roman Money. You can imagine the types of corruption that would occur during this process. People are being swindled by those people who should protect them, in a place that is supposed to be sacred. Jesus seeks to end this, restoring the only model that can be for the temple. . . one that does not confine God, or wield, God, or use God, but one that is a mark of the covenant, a sign on Earth of God's steadfast love for  his people.
But this would be good for the people, you would think. It is my second question that is so much more difficult to answer. Why, if Jesus' message is popular with the people, do the people decide by the end of the week to follow the Chief Priests and the Scribes instead and demand that Jesus be crucified?
Let's expand the Jesus message. One of the things that Jesus represents is the new covenant, the new revelation of God's steadfast love. In the Matthew and Luke gospel accounts of this scene, the idea that Jesus claims that he will tear down the temple and rebuild it in three days is conveyed along with this story. Look at this claim. There will be a new temple, and if we look at the rest of the story that new temple, the new symbol of the covenant of God's steadfast love would be Jesus himself. I think we are almost there. What makes this message so hard is what it means. . . God is with us. . . not in some temple under the control of priests, but really with us, and even more than that also God is in us. Jeremiah and Paul both testify to the count. Jeremiah 31
31 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband,  says the Lord33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says theLord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

Paul writes in his first letter to the church in Corinth. . .
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?  17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

If God's spirit dwells within us, and we are his temple, take another look at this passage. Jesus comes into your town on a donkey, you wave palms, you sing hosanna, and shout praises. Then though Jesus enters into your heart, the temple of you. What does he find? Does he find a house of prayer, or does he find a den of thieves? Do we prefer the temple the way it is because it doesn't challenge us the way we are? It seems to me that this is the answer to the second question, and the reason why the cheers changed. The status quo was safer because it did not force the people to look at themselves. Is that still the case? Are we content with the way that we are and the way that the world is? Is there no room anymore for a God let loose from the temple to run free in the world, freeing people, healing people, and changing lives? Would we rather seek to control God? The rest of the story shows us that our desire to control God is futile, misguided, and destined to always fail because God cannot in the end be nailed to a cross, nor sealed in a tomb, and oh the wonders that He can do let loose within the temple of our hearts. Amen.


Monday, February 26, 2018

Light



Thank you to Danielle Jackson for the inspiration through the breathtaking photograph!

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

The Parade and After


The Parade and After
A sermon delivered by Peter T. Atkinson
February 18, 2018
at Bethany Presbyterian Church, Zuni, Virginia
Luke 19: 36-40
Exodus 15: 1-18



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

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:
“I will sing to the Lord,
    for he is highly exalted.
Both horse and driver
    he has hurled into the sea.
“The Lord is my strength and my defense[a];
    he has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will praise him,
    my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
The Lord is a warrior;
    the Lord is his name.
Pharaoh’s chariots and his army
    he has hurled into the sea.
The best of Pharaoh’s officers
    are drowned in the Red Sea.[b]
The deep waters have covered them;
    they sank to the depths like a stone.
Your right hand, Lord,
    was majestic in power.
Your right hand, Lord,
    shattered the enemy.
“In the greatness of your majesty
    you threw down those who opposed you.
You unleashed your burning anger;
    it consumed them like stubble.
By the blast of your nostrils
    the waters piled up.
The surging waters stood up like a wall;
    the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.
The enemy boasted,
    ‘I will pursue, I will overtake them.
I will divide the spoils;
    I will gorge myself on them.
I will draw my sword
    and my hand will destroy them.’
10 But you blew with your breath,
    and the sea covered them.
They sank like lead
    in the mighty waters.
11 Who among the gods
    is like you, Lord?
Who is like you—
    majestic in holiness,
awesome in glory,
    working wonders?
12 “You stretch out your right hand,
    and the earth swallows your enemies.
13 In your unfailing love you will lead
    the people you have redeemed.
In your strength you will guide them
    to your holy dwelling.
14 The nations will hear and tremble;
    anguish will grip the people of Philistia.
15 The chiefs of Edom will be terrified,
    the leaders of Moab will be seized with trembling,
the people[c] of Canaan will melt away;

16     terror and dread will fall on them.
By the power of your arm
    they will be as still as a stone—
until your people pass by, Lord,
    until the people you bought[d] pass by.
17 You will bring them in and plant them
    on the mountain of your inheritance—
the place, Lord, you made for your dwelling,
    the sanctuary, Lord, your hands established.
18 “The Lord reigns
    for ever and ever.”


This past Wednesday Lent officially began with Ash Wednesday. Some of us got together here at church for a small service that centered around an ancient tradition: the imposition of the ashes. We did not do it this way, but it is traditional that the Palms from the prior year's Palm Sunday are burned, then the ashes are used to mark the foreheads of the penitent. As the ashes are placed the words, "From Dust you were formed, and to dust you will return," are repeated, reminding us of the frailty of human life. The season of Lent is a time for fasting, for prayer, for study, for self evaluations, and most importantly for repentance. There is great symbolism in the use of the Palms as ashes. It is appropriate because the palms represent the best of our praise for Jesus, the celebration of us at our best, on our best day, and the ashes represent the great depths that we always seem to fall to, as well.
During this season of Lent we are continuing our study of Jesus’ life by looking at the final events one by one, from the colt he rode into Jerusalem hearing shouts of Hosanna, all the way to the cross, and then through the cross to the empty tomb. So basically we are turning the 40 day of lent into an extended Holy Week. So much happens between Palm Sunday and Easter, that often it gets missed, so we are going to look at a few of those important events in the weeks to come. So this beginning of the Lenten Season is marked with the liturgy of Palm Sunday, the songs that are normally sung then we have sung this morning, and now the story of that triumphant entry will be our Gospel Lesson for this morning. Here is Luke 19:28-40:
28 After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.29 As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 30 “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”
32 Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”
34 They replied, “The Lord needs it.”
35 They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. 36 As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.
37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”[a]
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

I chose the gospel and Old Testament readings this morning to recall one of the great paradoxes, and great falls from grace that human beings are prone to. Because here you have two of the great parades recounted, and in both you have a fast fall from faith. The Old Testament’s, Song of Moses, recounts the great joy and triumph of escape from Egypt, from years of bitter bondage, but so soon after this, the Israelites start to grumble and make for themselves a Golden Calf to worship. And then the triumphant entry into Jerusalem by Jesus, and the fact that in just one week's time the great palm waving celebration, the parade through the streets on the young colt, so quickly turns into the mocking, jeering, march towards the cross. The people who had been cheering Hosanna, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, become the same people who demand that Jesus be crucified.
It is very easy to disregard a shift like this. It is much easier to think of ourselves as the Hosanna shouters. We can relate to them, loving Jesus, being swept up in the excitement, the momentum, the miracles. Few of us allow ourselves to identify with the ones yelling crucify him. Throughout the history of Christianity, we Christians have claimed the Hosanna’s but have discarded the shouts “Crucify him” peddling them off on others, either the Jews, or Romans, or chief priests, scribes and Pharisees. The ugly truth though is that most likely it was the same people, the same crowd, the same mob exclaims both Hosanna and then Crucify him. And we are very capable of shouting both in our lives. And thus the ashes of those palms belong on our faces, and the remembrance of our propensity to go along with such evil needs to find its place in our hearts.
As a captivated student of history, I’ve always been interested in the big events of human history, and how they reflect the best and worst of human nature. At Hampden-Sydney I took classes on many, from the fall of the Roman Empire, to the American Civil War, but the period that always peeked my interest the most was the French Revolution, a period of change and upheaval that saw the pendulum shift back and forth, the leaders of one day are the guillotine’s swift victims of the next. It is hard not to see the parallels between such a historical event and the Palm Sunday/Holy Week betrayal of the always fickle crowd.
We ask ourselves how it can happen. We tell ourselves that it never could again, but it does again and again. It is a phrase repeated I think much too frequently that “those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” Though it is true, that forgetting history makes one apt to relive the patterns, but simply knowing the events of history is not enough. It is much more important to understand history, not just to avoid repeating it, but simply to understand who we are as humans and just what wonders and horrors we are capable of.
How does it happen? What is the force behind the change? How can we shift our position so easily? Simply put, we have no idea who we are, no identity, no true concept of self, or as the choir sang so beautifully, we have forgotten that we are crafted unique and personally by the Potter’s hand, and since we have forgotten, when the winds of change blow us we have no root, no binding principle to hold us, and therefore when the crowd yells Hosanna we join in, and when the tide turns we turn right along with it.
Let’s take a step back though first, and look at the make up of the crowd. As an English Teacher I'm always looking for ways to teach important distinctions between words. One of the big word concepts that opens the door to understanding so many more word distinctions is the important differnece between the words: Denotation and Connotation. For a reminder to those who have been gracefully removed for a long time from the High School classroom, Denotation is the dictionary concise definition of the word, and a Connotation is the feelings or added meanings that a word picks up over time, based on usage and other things. I ask the class to look up three words, one was “group”, the second was “crowd,” the third one was “mob.” Each year they find that basically all three share the same dictionary definition, i.e. that “they are a collection of people,” but then I ask them to look at a selection of pictures and ask them which word fits each one. They have no problem differentiating the four people standing together doing nothing as the "group," the destructive and unruly "mob," and finally the cheering "crowd." This week though as I’ve been wrestling with the fickleness of the mob in the Passion text, I’ve been wondering, what is the inherent difference between a “mob” which we could say that the Hosanna cheering then Crucify jeering folks were and a “community,” which we as Christians are called to be? The distinction in their make up is subtle, but important because though rarely does a mob become a community, but a community constantly is threatened on all sides at every moment with the with danger of turning into a mob.
I would say that the main difference is that a community is made up of individual people who preserve their identity and function together, and therefore remain rooted. And a mob is a mass of people who give up their own identity and take on the identity of the mob. They then become the fickle crowd participating in group think, the dangers of which give us the swinging pendulum of popular opinion, the chopping guillotine, Nazi’s, fascists, a world blown seemingly out of control, and the shouts of Hosanna to Crucify, again and again throughout history.
 The difficult part of becoming a community is that it is truly hard to know who we are in this world and what defines us. So many things work together in our lives to form our identity. They seem to shape us, and give a semblance of meaning to our lives, but they can hide from us the real truth about ourselves.
There is a modern parable that has been used by many people in recent years. I’ve seen it used to show the difference between Christianity and other religions. It has also been used to show how Christ himself functions differently than other people. Today I want to use it to show how many different things can work to define who we are and how we act. This is the parable of the man who fell into the pit.
So a man falls into a pit and tries and tries to get out but just can’t. He cries out for help but no one hears him.
One of the things that work to define us are our emotions.
A happy person came by looked down saw the man in the pit and said my what a lovely day to be in a pit.
A sad person came by said, I don’t think being in a pit could be any worse than what I deal with everyday.
An angry person said, I wish that I could put my enemies in a pit like that.
And a jealous person wondered how come this guy’s pit was so much bigger than his own.
Another thing that can define us is our job. For instance:
A policeman might ask the man if they have a license for that pit.
An IRS agent might ask if he’s yet filed his taxes on his pit.
An insurance salesman might ask him if his pit is in the good hands of All State.
A news reporter might ask if he could interview the man for an exclusive story on his pit.
A sportscaster might say, Well sports fans it appears that the man has fallen into a pit.
Sometimes we are defined by our race
If you were more like me I’d save you from that pit
If you were more like me you wouldn’t have fallen into this pit to begin with
If you could speak my language, if your skin were my color, if you were just. . . not in that pit maybe we could get along.
Sometimes our actions are defined by our politics
A Liberal might say, let me give you some money while you are in that pit that should solve all your problems
A Conservative might say, how much is this guy’s pit going to cost me
Sometimes our actions are defined by our religious affiliation or philosophy
A Pharisee might tell him that only bad people fall into pits
A Fundamentalist might tell him that he deserved to fall into his pit
A Charismatic might come by and say if he would only confess he’d be out of the pit
A Christian Scientist might tell him, “you only think you are in that pit”
A Realist might say, “That surely is a pit”
A Calvinist might say, “If you were saved you never would have fallen into that pit”
A Wesleyan might say, “You were saved and still fell in that pit”
An optimist might say, “Things could be worse”
A Pessimist might say to him, “You know what, things will get worse”
The parable though always ends the same: Jesus pulled the man out of that pit. And it is possible that any of those other individuals might done the same on any given day. When the weather and circumstances was right, their best and true selves would reach down and help him out of the pit, but Jesus would always do it because Jesus knew who he was, and what he was, regardless of circumstances, regardless of temptations, regardless of what the herd said. Jesus was the Son of God when he healed all of the people he healed. He was the Son of God when he preached the Sermon on the Mount. He was the son of God when he was out in the desert for forty days of temptation. He was the son of God when he rode into Jerusalem on the Colt amidst praising shouts of Hosanna, and he was the Son of God when he stumbled broken to the cross amidst shouts of Crucify him.
Do you think it is possible that we could live our lives like that? Completely free from the whims and wishes of other people. Independent to an ever changing world. Independent in an ever changing world? Perhaps.
Psalm 1, which Pat read for us this morning, captures some of this important grounding nature in following God:
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
 2But his delight is in the LORD;
he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, and not scattered by the wind.

Paul also points to our need to be this way in his letter to the Galatians, writing, "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." This is the foundation for our new community. We must find  our identity in Christ Jesus, as a child of God because that identity is constant, complete, and eternal. That identity does not change with the times, with the fads of the day, or with the herd. That identity is like a tree planted.
We live in an interesting time, where people seek to define us, with labels, in groups. None of these labels fit a child of God because God made all of his children completely unique. There has been no other you, and there will never be another you. This is important to remember because your gifts are unique, and the role that your life will play is unique. Remembering that we are children of God gives us unity, but a unity that is not meant for the mindless mob, but rather for the more rooted Community. If we are shaped by our identity as a child of God, then we are free to become a true actualization of the potential of ourselves. We become empowered to be the person we were created to be.
And it is during Lent that we search for just who that person is. We look inside at the person we are, honestly. Where are the shadows within ourselves? Where do we not allow in the light? Where are we filled with the darkness? What are the parts of us that are not accepting of the identity of a Child of God? Where do we feel inadequate, unworthy, unlovable? Where in ourselves are we capable of shouting crucify him, instead of Hosanna? Where in ourselves is there the capacity for evil, or violence, or racism, or genocide? Where in ourselves do we feel fragmented? Where in ourselves do we seek the acceptance of the herd? Where in ourselves do we abdicate our identity and assume the identity of others?
Are we children of God or are we still the man in the pit? We may find that our Lenten preparation has made us aware that we are very much still in the pit. That may be so, and if it is so, Christ will pull us out. . . that's what Easter is, and if we find that we have already been taken out of our pit, let us be completely about the business of Christ, that is not sympathizing with those in the pit, not making their pits better, or livable, or pretending that they don't exist, but to be completely about the business of Christ, and bringing them out of the pit.