E Pluribus Unum

E Pluribus Unum

Peter T. Atkinson 

The Greeks would say that conflict is all there is,

And I can see that as the wind cools my cheek,

While the sun heats it. Which will triumph?

On Fall days like today it seems the wind is winning,

And will prevail, but would I have said the same

Last week, when the sun and water teamed together,

Creating the hot, hazy, victory of the humid hundred?

And though today, the cool wind’s armies are marching,

At some point, they will overreach, and like all victors

And tyrants be beaten back. So maybe it is all a cycle,

An infinite order that a Hindu may suggest, on and on,

In both directions, forever without change, merely forms

Change, the difference of just a moment, that juxtaposed

With the infinite, all distinction fades. Or is it connected,

In Yin and Yang, connected pieces of a larger whole, joined

Forever with the rest of us, not merely dancing together,

Or fighting against one another, but entwined, inseparable,

One? Or do the Cheyenne grasp it better, seeing those

Forces partnered together, working together, with each other,

And the Great Spirit, to create and improve, creation

Heading forward, evolving through caring, concerned

Hands? Or is just the opposite true? Conflict again, like the Greeks

But instead of battling forces, tangled, diverse, alliances

of moment, there are just two, good and evil, diametrically

Opposed, life and destruction, that the conflict is simple,

Yet in its simplicity much more sinister and fatal,

For this struggle seen in everything, decides also the fate

Of everything: life or destruction? A battle unfinished today.

I see them all when I look outside, or I can close my mind,

And see none of them. I see why people have thought,

Do think, and will think each to be so, and I could just say,

“Well it’s just relative, all is. Who is to say? We’re all

Blindly describing what our minds let us see, and no one,

None of us are any more right than the other.” I could say that,

Or I could find an order beyond what each sees, listening to all,

That there is unity within the diversity, that behind it all

There is truth, one truth, and from our differences,

Through our conflict, in our identity and connection,

There is a beautiful order we cannot fully see by ourselves

Until we listen to the other, and in listening begin to love,

Perhaps in that love are all things made true, that in love

There is unity, conflict, partnership, life and destruction,

Birth and rebirth, connection, and all of it, and so do we,

through love, truly only can we come to find one Holy God.

Defining part 2

Defining part 2

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

September 14, 2014

at Gordonsville Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia

Genesis 2: 18-23

Colossians 3: 9-11

Let us pray, for a welcome mind and a loving heart

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.

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. ¹¹ In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all! ^[1]

 Last week I focused on the issues that we have when we seek to define God, when we seek to put limitations on what God can do, who God is, and what God means in our lives and in our world, that there is a great tendency within human nature to want a simple definition for God, a simple understanding, one that gives us comfort, and maybe even more importantly control, we can feel like we've got it all figured out, and there is always great danger with that, because when people tend to think they have it all figured out and under control, they aren't just happy with having control of information, but usually also seek to wield it over others and control them, wielding God, or at least their small, sold short version of God, the idol they have made, taking that idol and selling him, using him, and controlling others with him. We see it again and again around us throughout human history, and we see it around us constantly still, and no one group of people has a monopoly on such actions. It happens again and again, with anyone who is seeking to control, the first step is always to have a simple sellable version of the truth that consolidates your message and your power, and how often is a simple sellable version of God right there at the forefront. But never is that limited version of God real, instead it is always a counterfeited man-made version. . . instead God is infinite, and therefore, like love is, bigger than anything we can imagine.

But that was last week, and though I want you to keep it in your mind as we go through this week, because this morning's message is related to last week's, I want us to take a step forward, in a different direction. I want to look at what is a similar tendency within human nature, related in our tendency to simplify, to sell short, and to seek control, but this week instead of focusing on how we seek to define God, I'd like to take a look at how we seek to define each other, because we do, and like when we do the same for God, putting God in a box we can handle, we like to put the people around us in boxes, in categories we can handle, and it always sells them short. And in that reciprocity of this world, the flipside of the golden rule reigns, we will be treated in the way that we treat others, and I don't know about you, but I hate to be labeled, to be defined, to be sold short, to be boxed, to be caged. I can't stand it, because I know that I am more than any one thing, especially any one thing that someone who doesn't know me well would think

Some may say. . .oh well he is a pastor. . . and miss much when they come to know, because I am not a typical pastor

Some may say. . . oh well he is a football coach. . . and miss much because I'm not a typical football coach

Some may say. . . oh well he is an English teacher. . . and miss much because I'm not a typical English teacher

Some may say. . .oh well he's a conservative. . . and miss much because I'm not a typical conservative.. . . \

Some may say . . . oh he's a guitar player. . . . and miss much because I'm not a typical guitar player.

Some may say. . . oh he's a poet. . . and miss much because I'm not a typical poet.

He's white. . . he's a southerner. . . a Virginian, yet raised in Maryland. . . a public school kid. . . a Hampden-Sydney man, a private school teacher. . . . a Presbyterian. These may fill out a resume, fill a form, fill a statistic. . .. fit a type. . . but none of them on their own come close to who I am. . .

Typical. . . who needs typical. . . it's much too confining. It's awful, but yet we do it to people all the time, often even with good intentions.

I wonder why we do it. Why do we always seek simple categories for people. As I was thinking of this issue, this week, I was teaching the Genesis Creation story as a part of my unit on Creation Myths in my English Class. I was struck anew by a very common well known detail from that story, one that I had jumped over so many times before, but one that seemed to really scream out to me, "hey pay attention" this week. It was Adam naming the animals. How many times have I considered that detail of the story just a cute part of it, really tailor made for Sunday School, but easily ignored in sermons. . . but I was thinking this week, especially when considering how important names were for Hebrews. . . I mean they wouldn't even dare utter God's name for fear of idolatry. . . fearing to do exactly what I was warning about last week, the name becoming a controlling, confining, definition. . . so with that in mind think about Adam naming all the animals. . . There's a lion. . . and a lion is a big cat. . . with a mane. . . huge claws. . . likes to lie around in the shade when not hunting. . . often considered the king of all. . .  and there is a deer. . . antlers. . . spots on the sides of the young ones. . . long legs. . . good for jumping and maneuvering quickly during a speedy escape through the woods. These are the categories that we like. . . simple straightforward, predictable. How would we deal with a deer that started roaring and lying around in the shade? Not good right. So maybe categories. . . definitions. . . isn't only a part of our nature. . . but also closely related to what we were made for and what we were put in the garden to do, but how extensively do those things get impacted by the fall, when our vision, our understanding, our belief in the world as God made it becomes skewed, does our point of view on truth become limited in the error of our new sinful eyes? When Adam and Eve believe that lie in the garden, how much about the way we are to function becomes changed. We still do the naming, but are we missing something in what we see?

For how do we see people?. . .What categories do we use for other people? . . . What boxes are there? . . . How confining are they? . . . How binding are they? . . . How narrow are they? . . . and then lastly, How much damage are we doing by them?

I am surrounded by it all the time at school because we have teenage boys there, and they are all seeking their identities. . . and within that is the pull of many labels. . . many groups. . . many narrow definitions. School are notorious for putting kids in groups. . . It makes it easier to deal with. . . It makes it more expedient. . . to package to sell. . . to get funding. . . to create an education system designed to get results. . . but what happens is education becomes too narrow, to conformity oriented. . . too results based and not tied to real learning, missing the child for the category. . . whether it is race. . .or aptitude. . . or test score. . . or what sport and activity they do. . . what learning difference category we can put them in. . . what label of help they need. . . it is dangerous because some of these labels do not stop with the expedience of organization, but go beyond to really define and limit the child's concept of who they are. . . good intentions, but really scary consequences. . . and it doesn't work.

At Blue Ridge we try to do better, our mission says that we seek to do better, but we even fall into it at times. Another way we do it is the positive side of group identity. . . We often celebrate "diversity" at school. But every time we do I get the feeling that we are selling our diversity way too short. Because we typically say, that "when I look out at the crowd here assembled ,I'm amazed at the diversity." As if we could see it. . . right. As if the diversity were visible. . . And there is visible diversity at the school. We have students from all over the world. . . Chinese, Korean, African, European, Americans from many different states, white student's and black students. . . so I get and am also very proud of it, but I also can't help but think that our diversity goes beyond those mere categories, those simple categories, and is in fact each individual, each unique creature of God, uniquely made, and solely distinct. Because to me the categories are arbitrary and artificial, created by us based on how our brains work, putting people into compartments, just like Adam named the animals. . . it simplifies it all these categories. . . but for human beings the real isn't what fits but what breaks through. Real relationship will destroy these outward visible groupings that we have, for when you truly get to know someone the definitions that you had for them, the category you put them in always pales in comparison to the real person. The categories sell short.

And this is a problem that has been a human one for years, forever, because it is a major theme in all of literature. There are countless stories of diamonds in the rough, people that were sold short, and then proved to be of great value. The biggest example is probably Cinderella. . . look at her name, named for the ashes that covered her clothes. . . defined by her servant status. . . but when given the chance to break free, to show her true self, she shined brighter than anyone else at that royal ball, certainly more than any of her keepers and definers. Pretty Woman was on TV while I was working on this sermon. . . another perfect example. Julia Roberts is a prostitute. . . people see her that way. . .they sell her short. . . at the store when she wants to buy clothes. . . they don't see how much money she has to spend, they just see he outward appearance. . . the lawyer. . . who the actor ends up becoming famous for being George Costanza on Seinfeld, he treats her poorly because he has preconceived notions about who she is. . .but is certainly wrong. This theme transcends time. . . there are so many great examples, I could go on and on. The Brave Little Tailor. . . the Beast in Beauty and the Beast. . .dare I say Mary Magdelene. . . maybe those fisherman disciples. Each and every one of us has a uniqueness a glorious individual quality that is different that defies defining, that seeks to break free from being placed in such a confining box, but again we keep doing it to other people.

I've always been drawn to the passage from Colossians, and there is a similar one in Galatians. . . but it says that the distinctions of the past must go away. . . that they disappear in the world saved by Jesus Christ. "there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!"^[2] All those categories go away because they pale in comparison to our new status as saved by Christ. . . but also because they are too narrow, they cannot describe the infinite, the infinite value and uniqueness of each human life.

Think about Psalm 139 in this light. . . the care of God's creation for each human life.

¹     O Lord, you have searched me and known me.

²     You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from far away.

³     You search out my path and my lying down,

and are acquainted with all my ways.

⁴     Even before a word is on my tongue,

O Lord, you know it completely.

⁵     You hem me in, behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me.

⁶     Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

it is so high that I cannot attain it.

⁷     Where can I go from your spirit?

Or where can I flee from your presence?

⁸     If I ascend to heaven, you are there;

if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

⁹     If I take the wings of the morning

and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

¹⁰     even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me fast.

¹¹     If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light around me become night,”

¹²     even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is as bright as the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

¹³     For it was you who formed my inward parts;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴     I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

that I know very well.

¹⁵     My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

¹⁶     Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.

In your book were written

all the days that were formed for me,

when none of them as yet existed.

¹⁷     How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

¹⁸     I try to count them—they are more than the sand;

I come to the end —I am still with you. ^[3]

Imagine if we started our definitions for others there. . . wonderfully fearfully made, known by God. . . may we seek to know each other the way that God knows us. . .not placing us in a box, but made wonderful, wonderfully in the image of the one true infinite God who is. . . .

So when we are faced with categories. . . checklist approaches to human identity. . . forms that limit us to our race. . . or our nation of origin. . . or our political leanings. . . or our religion. . . or our state. .  . our accent. . . our medical diagnoses. . . our hair color. . . skin color. . .outward appearance. . . the grades we make in school. . . what job we have. . . our tax bracket. . . the statistics of our lives. . . whatever they may be. . . let us not define others by these things. . . and also never allow these things to be the source of our defining ourselves. . . but instead let us look to the fact that we are fearfully and wonderfully made by a God who knows our inmost parts. . . whose thoughts of us are more numerous than the hairs on our head, or the grains of sand on the beach. . . and despite the ease and expedience of our categories, let us be able to break through them to see each other as we are. . . .all to the glory of God. . . Amen.

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^[1]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Col 3:9-11). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

^[2]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Col 3:9-11). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

^[3]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Ps 139:1-18). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

When the Little Things Become Small

When the Little Things Become Small

Peter T. Atkinson

(written 9/11/14 -- 13 years later)

“Don’t sweat the small stuff,”

So they say, but small is relative,

For small is just less big, or little,

So how do you ever know, until you do?

And when you do, when there is no question:

That little thing, right there, that is small. I get it,

Now. Now, what changed? — Everything.

For now  your eyes are open; you can see

All at once, and compare, and prioritize,

And make clear decisions about life—the ones

You used to just float through in the wave,

The pulling tide of routine, the speed,

And busyness, where everything is big

And intense and consuming and looming

Awash in the mess of life, in the midst

Of life, missing life. What happens

To make the little things become small?

What causes the shift—that perspective

Giving shift—of distance, and space,

And separation from self? On days

Like these the small looms too large for us

To remember days like those all to our peril. 

Defining

Defining

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

September 7, 2014

at Gordonsville Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia

1 John 4: 7-12

Let us pray, for a welcome mind and a loving heart

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.

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. ^[1]

Every year I begin my classes with the same lesson. I use it as an introduction to what I think literature is all about. I have them do their best to define "love", not that all literature is about love, but if you stick with me you'll get what I'm talking about.  It's cool because it is a word that means so much, and means something personal and different to each person, and it means something even to teenage boys. It is a word that is packed with experience, and each of us have experienced love in one of its forms throughout our lives. Love is something that is universal, it lives in all times and all places. It is an idea that is infinite, and so I am setting the boys up for failure, when I send them back to their dorms on the first night of school with a blank piece of paper, and the assignment that says, define love. . . and don't just define it from the dictionary, I want you to define it completely and leave nothing out. Ok, go, gentlemen. . . good luck.

Now they always come back with basically the same ideas. There is the dictionary definition that comes first, and it is always easy to spot it, those cheaters think they're so smart. . . . something like . . . "the intense emotional feeling of attraction and attachment to a person or object." That is always first. . . then you get a few words trickling in, like, passion, romance, affection, preference; sometimes unconditional creeps in. But in those first try definitions so much is left out. . . it always is. . . which at this point is very good for the lesson because the bait is set. . .their minds are beginning to work, and they are already realizing that there is more to it instead of less, more to words than what the dictionary has to offer, and that is key, so next I get them to come up with two word phrases that have love in them. . . like tough love, puppy love, love shack, love hate relationship. . . on and on. . . usually like twenty or so, and with all of them on the board it is easy to see some of the major holes in their first definition. It just doesn't go far enough. . . and I ask them, what they think about their original definition. . . they always say it's pretty bad. . . it sells itself short. . . it is a cheap version, it is too limited.

It's at this point that I get into the root of the problem with them. . . and I get to do so by showing them a Greek root that is found in the assigning word, the cause of the problem, and the result of the problem, all at the same time, and that is the Greek root, "Fin." It is the root in words like "final" and "finish." And for the bell choir  your "fine" in your music, like DC al Fine. . . where you go back to the beginning and then play through to the fine, to the end. . . yes the root fin means end. You see I'm always working on their vocabulary. . . you have to have many levels going on at once. . . kinda like a sermon. . . but yes this root "fin" is also in the word "define" because that is what you are doing. . . you are putting ends on where the word begins and ends, the boundaries of meaning that make the word itself. That is what you do when you define. . . but the problem with a word like "love" as I am trying to get them to see is that you can't put ends on it because . . . here is the next one. . . love is "infinite". . . do you hear it again, there is the "fin" again, this time describing something that has no ends. You can't define something that is infine. . . it doesn't work. . . because no matter what you do, when you set the ends you will end up, and here is the last one, "Confine," you always confine. . .  when you try to define the infinite.

So then with their minds swimming. . . I tell them, O. K.  so now do it. I want you to define Love. . . "but Mr. Atkinson you just said it was impossible." Sure it's impossible. . . and I'm the teacher and I'm telling you to do it, so go ahead. Now with them flabbergasted, frustrated, and utterly confused. . . I ask them. . . how do you do it. . . how do you define something that is infinite without confining it? How? . . .  Blank stares. . . Come on guys don't quit on me now. . . it's day 2. . .

Hand goes up. . . yes. . . "You could just be vague. . . "

"Sure"  you can just be vague. . . but isn't that just what we had on the board at first. . . a vague definition that really doesn't help us and sells us way too short?" Yes, no good, too easy, I won't let you punt. . . I told them this anecdote. . . and it connects here. . . so you have a community. . . I tell them. . . let's call it a school. . . and the school has a religious tradition, but that religious tradition, though still there, does not reflect the make up of the school. . . maybe it does a certain majority, but the school has grown much more diverse. . . so you decide to water down the message so as not to offend. . . you try to make everything safe. . . and vague if you will. . . what happens. . . nothing right. . . it all becomes a waste. . . no one gets anything out of it, because it is a lifeless, vague version of something that should be giving life. . .  Think about it with love. . .what if all you had was this vague definition limiting people's concept of how love works, what love does, how it affects people, what it is. . . what if you go with the definition of love that we started with. .. that whole intense feeling of attraction thing. . .and then that intense feeling of attraction isn't returned, and you get that amazing all encompassing pain that goes with love sometimes. . . but your definition doesn't include it because you were being safe and vague and. . . men do you see the problem? That person may think that their love wasn't real, they may down play their experience. . . they would be missing something extremely important.  "Yes coach, we get it." So next try. . .

How do you define something that is infinite? I start to give them hints. . . remember that you are in English class. . . its day 2 and this is an introduction exercise. . . more blank stares. . . I ask them. . .What if I were to say, "love is like a hole in the head" . . . it's painful. . . it takes life. . . but then also, sometimes when you are in it your brain seems like it going to fall out, and you lose your mind completely. . . or that your head has this hole. . . and it is the shape of love. . . and if it is not full. . . you will never be whole. . . we could go on and on couldn't we. . . what if I said "love is a water" it gives life, it's refreshing, it's powerful, it cleans and refreshes, starting you out anew. . . it also could be dangerous . . . especially when out of control. . . when it rises too quickly. . . when those floodwaters are raging. . . what about when it's not around,. . . life just can't flourish. .  . everything dries up and dies. Do you see figurative language. .. poetry. .. this is what allows you to define something indefinable. . .why does it work? Because it leaves it open for interpretation. . . the writer means it a certain way or ways, but it also allows for the reader to take it another way, and every reader will bring his own ideas and take it a different way. . . why because experience. . . love like other infinite ideas, is something that is infinite because everyone's experience is different and should be taken into consideration. . . to leave out someone's experience would be to sell love short. . . again confining the infinite.

But that is not the only way. . . how else guys. . . how else can we define the infinite. . . blank stares. . . but interested ones. . . how else. . . come on guys remember it is English class. . . still nothing. . . remember it's English class and now we've gotten Poetry covered already. . . someone says "stories" . . . yes narratives. . . why . . . because again we are bringing experience, showing experience, showing life. . . I point up to star crossed love. . . on the board as one of those two word phrases from earlier. . . I could define that sure. . . or I could write and perform Romeo and Juliet and I would take you much further. . . I could define what it is to be an orphan, or I could Oliver Twist. . . obviously the story is not enough. . . interpretation, connection, all of that is part of the deal. . . it needs to be there in the intimate relationship between writer and reader. . . and so I tell them that is what we will do this year. . . we will read some of the great works of world literature. . . looking at how people throughout history have tried to define things that were indefinable. . . I ask them what are some of those things. . . those infinite things. . . we already have love. . . what about hope. . . what about dreams. . . what about friendship. . . what about evil. . . what about good. . . what about human nature. . . what about God. . . these are the ideas we seek to understand, to study. . . because they are the ideas of humanity. . . and they always have been. End of lesson. . .

Now what does this have to do with us, here on Sunday morning. . . it is there in this morning's reading from 1 John with that famous of metaphors. . . pairing two of these infinite ideas together. . . God is love. And just like love. . .  God is infinite. . . God is hard to define. . . and yet we seek to do so, oh so often. And the danger is just like love. . . when we define God. . . we confine God. . . We make God small . . . we sell God short. . . we try to put God in a manageable, definable box. . . one that makes us comfortable. . . one that gives us a sense of security. . . one that allows us to be in control. . . one that fits our lives. . .and then with God in that manageable box we use God for our purposes. . . whether they be controlling other people. . . or judging other people. . . or making us feel better about ourselves and our situation. . . but just like the Israelites in building their golden calf. . . this God is a mere shadow of God's true reality. . . God's infinite reality.

So how do we then get to know God. . . how do we get to tell others about God. . . to communicate about God if we can't define. . . the answer is similar to how I told my students to define love. . . through metaphor. .. through relationships between things. . . common threads and comparisons. . . that is poetry. . . and also through narratives. . . between these ideas we get to share our experience, for that is what we do, that is what we have to give and to get from eachother. . . experience. . . relationship. . . all of these teach us about each other. . . and give us more and more of an understanding about God. So then it makes sense that the way that we get to know God is to love one another. . . to get closer to God by getting closer to eachother. . . loving our neighbors. . . listening to them. . . telling our stories. . . It's all there.

And that is what Jesus is for us. . . metaphor. . .in that Jesus is both God and man. . . a comparison of two unlike things. . . brought together. . . and it shows so much about both. . . amazing metaphor. . . and narrative. . . God coming to us. . . walking with us. . . tried by us. . . dying for us. . . and then raised. . . again busting through any perceived limitations we may seek to place on the infinite. . . that's quite a story. . . and it is a story that could teach us beyond what any other thing could do, because it meets us where we are, allows us to experience it for ourselves. . . and creates that wonderful relationship between the teller/actor/creator of the story. s. . and all of us blessed, open hearted witnesses. It is love forever defined by metaphor and narrative, it doesn’t confine the infinite, but sets it free in that relationship. . . and so we come to understand what love is, and also what God is, and so we come to the communion table together and once again become a part of that narrative ourselves. . . each of us. . . together . . . and with Christ. . . Amen.

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^[1]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (1 Jn 4:7-12). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Astounded

Astounded

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

August 31, 2014

at Gordonsville Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia

Matthew 7: 24-29

Let us pray, for a welcome mind and a loving heart

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.

²⁴ “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. ²⁵ The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. ²⁶ And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”

²⁸ Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, ²⁹ for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes. ^[1]

I was inspired looking at the Sermon on the Mount last week, to take another look this week. And this week I decided on looking at the end, which would allow me to go look back at the whole of the sermon, looking back at some of the key points, in the context of this ending and the reaction of the crowds. At the end of the three chapter sermon, Jesus finishes, and it says that the crowds were "astounded." I get that. . . I get astounded. . . especially in light of teachings like last week's where Jesus says we are not supposed to stand up to evil. . . yes I get astounded. Because "Astounded" means overcome with shock and wonder. Yes if you take a look at the sermon on the mount. . . Matthew 5-here at 7:27. . . you look at it with careful fresh eyes, trying your best to recreate the environment of the folks hearing it live. . . and yes astounded. . . I think would be the word to describe it. It is hard for us to do that though. This sermon has been picked apart, studied, examined. . . its teachings have become cliche to an extent. . . its teachings have been watered down. . . its teachings have been taken out of context. . . and from our familiarity with them we have lost a bit of that astoundedness. . . but if we can try to recapture it this morning. . . to become astounded again. . . do you have room in your heart for shock and wonder. . . when it comes to the teachings of Jesus Christ?

But amazingly it isn't the teaching that astounds the crowd at all. As amazing as the teaching is. . . as challenging as the teaching is. . . as seemingly new and fresh, and original as the teaching is. . . it is not the teaching that astounds the crowd, but instead it says. . . it is the fact that Jesus speaks with authority. The Greek word is "exoosia" . . . do you hear that word. . . "exoosia" . . . it means the kind of guy that can get stuff done. . . a guy with bonifides. . . a guy with liberty. . . a guy with real power. . . and interestingly enough it says, "not like the scribes." It is interesting because the scribes are the people that should have the authority. . . they are the ones who should be in the know. . . who should know what they are talking about. . . who have the authority to preach the scriptures to say what's what. . . for people to listen to them, but they obviously do not. . . they should but they don't, and Jesus does.

As I was thinking about this, this week. . . I was drawn to thinking about this idea of speaking with authority. . . and what it's all about. I was deep in the throws of three a day football practice. . . we had football players looking to us for direction and guidance and motivation, and correction, and care, and concern for them. . . these are new students, some of them freshman, many of them first time away from home, and doing something harder than most of them had ever done before. We had to teach them and get them in shape enough to play a game yesterday and we only had a week to do it. But it was interesting to think about what it is that gets people's attention. . . because it really is that idea of speaking with authority.

We have four coaches and each of us have our own style at how to speak. . . how to compel attention with the right authority. The head coach is older, reserved, intelligent, caring. . . we have a young coach who is an alum. .. a former player. . . not much older than them. . . We have another coach who is 6'7 really big, played division I football in college at Indiana University. . . and me, reserved. . . yet not afraid to get intense and yell if the time is right. Somehow though we all speak with authority. . . at least so far. . . its a good mix. . and we have the boys listening to us at this point.  . . I've also coached now with four different head coaches in my career, too, and all of them have had different styles. They had different styles, but they all came through, they all spoke with this idea. . . authority. Some people think you have to yell and be intense to get the attention of football players. . . maybe. . . some people think you have to have been a player yourself. . . some people think you have to be old. . . some people think you have to be young. . . to be able to relate. . . some people think you have to be fun. . . some people think  you have to be stern and serious. I've seen it all and all coaches are different. But I think what really matters is being genuine, that  you care, that you show up, that you are there in the first place. . . people respect people who show up. . . kids certainly do. . . they have a respect for people who are there for them, and are not just there, but real and present. . . sometimes the other stuff fades over time. . . you may have their ear early because they like you, or because you are fun, or because you are scary and yell and scream, or that they are impressed with your resume as a player or as a coach, but those don't last. . . if you are genuine you'll speak with greater impact, and it seems to be the kind of impact that will last. People will look to  you and see that you are someone who is real. Is that what we have from Jesus here? Is it that Jesus has shown these people he cares, that he's there, that he's genuine?

I think so, it has to be a part of it. . . I know it's hard to separate our concept of Jesus from the movie versions. . . like the idea that Jesus comes up, and you can see the glowing halo above his head, or his crystal blue eyes. . . the caring stare that heals the pain in Charlton Heston's Ben Hurr, that makes him forget his quest for revenge. . . It's hard to get beyond the idea that Jesus would be walking around and every one would automatically know that he was the son of God. . . remember that even those closest to him. . .those following him. .. his disciples. . .though they do follow, it is not until much later that they begin to identify Jesus as something more than just a really powerful rabbi. . . but a Christ. .. a messiah. . . but something does draw these people to Jesus. .. this thing Matthew calls "authority" "exoosia". . . because some of the things Jesus is saying are a major challenge to us. . . and certainly would have been to his contemporary audience. Obviously last week's, "Don't stand up to evil" would be hard. . . for they had evil all around them. They were occupied, oppressed, by a foreign and cruel empire from a distance, and a corrupt sellout governmental system closer to them. They knew what it was like to walk down the street and have occupying soldiers there, who had the military might and authority to use force and intimidation tactics to get whatever they wanted. It is in this situation that Jesus says for the crowd not to worry. . . that their needs and wants would be taken care of. . . that like the birds of the air and the lillies of the field their needs would be supplied. . . hard sell for people who have been poor, but yet they listened, yet they were intrigued, yet they followed, did they believe? Did they yet? He had authority. . . but what is it? What is it about what he is saying? Is it how he is saying it? Or is it just that he has "it". . . that hard to pin down idea of charisma. . . the gift.

Matthew's gospel has this sermon early in its pages. Jesus hasn't done all that much yet. . . but it would seem there is already a growing reputation. He has done some healings and some ministry, but they are only talked about in generalizations in the text. . .  never as  yet has the narrative slowed down enough to really tell one of those stories. . . so here is Jesus' first big moment for the crowds. . . and without doing any real miracles he's up there talking. . . and he has authority. He has exoosia. . . . I wish I knew more about this idea. . .

One of the things that we do as people, people who try to speak with authority is that we are always trying to figure out what our authority is. . . so that we can hold on to it. We want to know, hey why do people listen to us? What is it? Is it my credentials? Is it my ability to turn a phrase? Is it that I am telling people what they want to hear? Is it that I haven't stepped outside my comfort zone, nor the comfort zone of my audience? What if I challenge the people? What if I offend? What if I say something wrong? Will I lose all of my credibility if I do? These are the things that go through our minds. It certainly does for me. . . as a teacher. . . constantly we are taught as teachers to teach to the students, to teach in ways that they will receive the information, to meet them wherever they are and help them get up the mountain. I don't think I could be effective of doing that if I didn't speak with that whole authority thing. And even here. . . I am much younger than most of you. . . yet you listen. . . yet you come back. . . I do sometimes ask myself what is it. . . is it the building . . . is it the tradition. . . is it the fact that you always have. . . But what about new people and visitors, what makes them come? What will make them stay? Certainly it is partly what is going on up here. . . I think we as humans worry about that. . . and I do to some extent. . . but I think that if you are worried too much about that stuff, you'll end up losing that authority. . . because what you are saying might get curbed. . . it might become safe. . . and it might stray away from the truth.

Jesus speaks with authority because not only does he care and is genuine to the people, but because he speaks the truth. . . he is the embodiment of the truth, and there is something within all of us, despite our fallen nature, and our self interested blinders that we tend to put on, when faced with the truth we can't deny its existence. Without halos and miracles, Jesus' words come forth from his mouth to our ears and we recognize them as true because they are. . . even when they push our minds, hearts, and souls beyond where we want to go.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart the peacemakers

You are the salt of the earth, the light of the world, a city built on a hill cannot be hid.

Don't hide your light under a bushel, let it shine, let it shine let it shine.

I have not come to abolish the law but fulfill the law, righteousness is important

You have heard it said do not murder, don't even be angry

You have heard it said do not commit adultery. . .  don't even look with lust

Just let your word stand. . . why swear

You have heard it said and eye for an eye. . . turn the other cheek

You have heard it said love your neighbor. . . yes but love your enemies as well

Don't practice your piety in front of others. . . but in secret. . .not for credit

Don't pray long. . . pray like this. . . not heaping up empty phrases for undue praises

Fast without making it look like you are suffering

Don't store up treasures on earth where they will rust

The eye is the lamp of the body

No one can serve two masters

Do not worry. . . consider the lilies of the field the birds of the air

Strive for the kingdom of heaven. . .

Do not judge lest you be judged

Why do you see the speck in  your neighbor's eye but do not notice the log in  your own eye

Do not give what is holy to dogs

Ask and it will be given to you, seek and ye shall find, know and the door will be opened

In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.

Enter through the narrow gate. . . the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life

Beware of false prophets. . .  know them by their fruits

Build your house upon the rock. . . for the house build on sand. . . the rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell--and great was its fall!"

Be astounded. . . for this is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God!

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^[1]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Mt 7:24-29). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.