Saturday, September 26, 2009

Esther 7 September 27, 2009 Sermon

Most days, we go through the motions. We drive to work and barely notice that we've somehow gotten ourselves home. Sometimes, we enter a confluence of forces that demand a decision. We enter into a moment of truth. Timing is important in comedy, but in life. We do encounter windows of opportunity. Sometimes it is wise to strike when the iron is hot. At other times, a decision is forced upon us.

 

Esther used her looks and personality to become queen in a beauty contest to become queen of the Persian empire. Esther was doing well, but what of her people? A royal advisor with power, Haman, has started a plot, signed by the oblivious king, to exterminate the Jews in the far-flung Persian empire. No one knew that Esther was Jewish; she could avoid the coming slaughter of her people, insulated in the palace. Her revelation could mean her death. She has to figure how to influence the king with little formal power.

 

God seems to rarely act with parting of the seas. but God seems to prefer to work through human decisions and human actions. Here, god is working with a woman who is living out the Cinderella story. God working behind the scenes; God's hand is often hidden. Is it a result of the prayer and fasting? James is convinced of the power of prayer.Notice that he emphasizes it in all conditions, good or bad. those prayers can affect our internal struggles and even the weather. I don't imagine Esther is asking for fasting as a dietary regimen; she is asking for what accompanies fasting, prayer. She needs the assurance that others are praying for her and with her. At this point, i always think of the pastor who did nmy installation sermon in LaGrange. Stricken with cancer more than twice, he said that on rough days his sense was that the only thing that got him out of bed were the prayers of people for him.

 

Esther could be doing well all her life, but her people were in deep trouble.she had a choice. She could live in the safety of the palace, in the lap of luxury all her life. To try to save her people, she could risk it all. She had to discover courage. Esther needed a plan. She needed insight into her fickle husband and be able to predict his reactions. Just becuase Mordecai told her that help could come from another quarter, it dows not absove her of her particular resposnibility. Her plan did work, and we cannot know if it was the hand of god or the craftiness of her plan. The plan could easily have failed, but she did her best within the vast set of limiations and difficulties before her.

 

The name of God does nto appear in the story of Esther.Some think that is why it does nto appear int eh Dead Sea Scrolls.  The name of God is not always on our lips either. Still, in both cases, God is there: alet, active, alive to what we do. In ourt complex world, God works with and against human decisions to keep working for a better world. The story of Esther, and our own lives, is one where God doesn't seem to follow a rigid script but is more improvising and adapting to the circumstances on the ground. Like Esther, we can use what resources we have available to make this world jsut a little easier, just a little better. As we practice those good seemingly small deeds, the time may come when we are called to an important decision that requres discernment, faith, and courage. What we do matters as they flow into God's constant working of a plan to make this worth fit for human habitiation, and fit for the divine presence.

Job 2:1-10

 

1) We are introduced to Job. My money is still with Gerald Janzen's (CTS) commentary in Interpretation. Newsom's NIB is good, but she sometimes slips into blaming Job. This is a wonderful introduction to the issue of God and human suffering.

 

2) Job is probably not an Israelite name. I see the land of Uz as the land of Oz, a palce for the imagination to run free.

 

3) We are in the second heavenly test/trail/temptation of Job. this challenges most of our views about God. Many would find it safer, at least less anxiety provoking, to see this as a set-up for the important question of God and suffering.

 

4) Satan=the adversary/accuser/prosector. I see him as amember of the heavenly council, not the devil, but it is difficult to shake the suspicion for many readers and hearers.

 

5) Pay attention to the word integrity (tumma).

 

6) In vain (hinnam probably means for no good reason, for no good cause.

7) In v. 7 Job is silent. we could do well to speak of the silence of suffering, its difficulty in being communicated.

 

8) Mrs. Job breaks the silence., with a viciuos declaration. One should be careful to note that she is speaking out of unimaginable loss and grief herself.

 

9) Shall we accept good from Giod and not trouble question touoched Calvin of course. Again, we are told Job is blameless, the embodiment of innocent, senseless suffering.

 


 

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-2

 

1) I'm not sure if other pieces of the book are in the lectionary. I will recommend Patricia Tull's Esther's Feast, as an adult study book. One of the right-wing women's groups disliked it, so it has to be superior work.

 

2) If this is the only piece from the lectionary, one could go over the back story. One could pay special attention to her makeover, the reason she replaces a wife in the first place, the longstanding enmity between the tribe of one of the king's counsellors and Israel.

 

3) For me, the book is like Brer Rabbit. it is a look from the underside that cast aspersions on the colonial culture.

 

4) Esther has lost her name. It sounds like the goddess Ishtar, also the name of one of the worst, so called comedies, ever with Beatty and Hoffman. What do women lose to please men? What do we all lose to fit into an alien culture? Mordecai, to, is named after Marduk.

 

5) Esther's feast is a different one than the opening of the book.

 

6) the king reminds me of Herod with his grandiose promises.

 

7) Esther uses a good ploy as she starts small and builds up. Notice how courtly is her language.

 

8) she quotes the decree against the Jews but recasts it.

 

9)The king misreads Haman's state. i don;'t know if it says more about Haman or the king. the king's surprise certainly shows how easily he delegated power.

 

 

10) .Haman gets his comeuppance, see Prov.26:27.

 

11) The eunuch, unable to be a full  participant in Israel, is very helpful here.

 

12) Esther is about seeking the hand of god under human response.

 

11) Address ethics of the underclass here. Should she show mercy to Haman? Would that be realistic?

 

12) Esther faces her moment of truth. Have you had a moment of truth?

 

13) Esther has to summon courage. What are examples of courage in acts large and small?

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Our youngest daughter is hosting an exchange student from South Korea. Understandably, she is curious abut foods, cultural differences, and government and politics. She's eaten tofu all of her life, but she has seen soybeans for the first time outside Greensburg. Lately, I've been embarrassed about some of our discussions. Living in a place, we take some things as normal. An outside perspective may shake us up a bit.

 

"Why is there controversy over the president's speech to schools?"  I admitted that I did not recall any controversy for Reagan or Bush some years ago for similar addresses.The answer seems to be that we are granting legitimacy to elements of the political spectrum that we dismissed not long ago as out of main currents of thought and discussion. The Republican party center of gravity is in danger of tilting. I think of Sen. Lugar's civility. I am so impressed with the careful, reasoned issue reports his sends when one writes a letter on an issue.At times, he seems as a reasoned voice crying in a new wilderness of folks who scream rage and look for ways to enrage others, without much evidence.  Against that style, we are getting more people on the far margin, the death panels in health care folks. Maybe better put, media coverage is emphasizing the sizzle of anger and bombast over the steak of analysis. Instead of reasoned opposition, balance is called having someone on who shouts no and makes unsubstantiated charges. That's why we know a lot more about Jon and Kate's marital woes than we do about health care proposals.

 

How on earth have we reached the point where an address to school children on the virtues of studying hard, by the very embodiment of that maxim, becomes "controversial?" How could the school systems use potential disruption of schedule as an excuse to bow to pressure when disruption doesn't seem to be an issue for pep rallies or field trips? This gives less legitimacy to a civic ritual of welcoming students to a new school year. the very place that socializes us into political life, where the flag is saluted, now turns around and becomes an arena for  the office of the presidency to be disrespected. I fear then that the controversy" legitimates the inchoate anger of groups and denies the students an opportunity to engage in public life together. I am ashamed when brown-shirt types disrupt meeting with member so Congress, uninterested in discussing issues but only in venting rage.

 

"Why is medicine so expensive here? Back home I pay five dollars for medicine." Well, we are the only industrialized nation that doesn't have health care for all of its citizens.Your medicine is subsidized by the health programs in your country. We prize individual choice, even when costs are so high that they require social sharing, as with health insurance. We cover many of the poor, many children, and those over 65. One of five Americans can't afford health insurance and have no coverage for doctors, hospitals, or medicines. To protect our sense of individual responsibility, we are willing to have a system that provides excellent care, advanced technology, but we limit access to it. In the name of the market, we permit insurance companies to dictate the care we receive. When Jocelyn was born, her mother was only allowed to stay in the hospital one day. To try to provide good health care for everyone and to make it affordable is a difficult matter of public policy. Instead of looking at it carefully, we've been content to hurl slogans at each other, content with making small changes over the years. it's time for us to take a long, reflective look at the direction of our policies and how we  arrive at them.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Proverbs 31:10-31

 

1) Does this address the issue of having it all in our time?

2) Note the woman of worth could be translated as warrior woman or woman of valor. think of her possessing martial virtues, a sort of Marine.

3) Note her public work. Is she religious?

4) She is virtuous, but these extend to her family.

5) Other than having arms like the First Lady, where are the physical attributes?

6) Who are role models, public and private for you?

7) Proverbs starts with Lady Wisdom, in chs 1-9 as a personification of wisdom. Now it closes with a human emboiment of wisdom, again female.

8) With older folks, recall how hard women worked with laundry or dressing fowl. Today, talk about the running in cars or putting hours at workaway from home and at home

9) What virtue do you prize in her?

10) Again recall that Jesus is seen as Wisdom Incarnate. Does that change reading of the passage?

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Sermon James 2 for September 6,2009

 

Both of our passages reflect wisdom literature, advice from the sages to the rest of us. Wisdom literature has faith walk the talk. Wisdom literature is concerned about lived human experience. We are in part of the Scriptures that speaks of making judgements that discriminate. James imagines an ideal church where we look at everyone equally and as equals.  We are equal in that all of us fall short of the royal law of love of God and neighbor. Being judgemental prevents us from doing that.  For James , we do have an impartial judge and lover of us all: God. We should not arrogate to ourselves God's role as a judge. We cannot walk a mile in another's shoes. We lack the insight to truly grasp intent. Our judgments may seek objectivity, but subjective standards come into play. Indeed, I sometimes think judgment is applying our standards to everyone else, as if we should control action, intent, and even preferences.

 

Both Proverbs and James remind us that we find it easy to discriminate on the basis of social class based mostly on money. Proverbs reminds us that both rich and poor are made in the image and likeness of God. Since we are all made in the image and likeness of God, it is difficult to fathom that we would elevate one group and disparage another. Proverbs also knows a social reality, that the poor have some responsibility for their plight, but it is also within a system structured against them. In 2009, Proverbs have words that may chill most of us; God is on the side of the poor.

 

Judgement blinds us to the person underneath appearances. That applies both to elevating people who may not deserve it and denigrating people who may not deserve it. We have gotten better as a society of being aware of our tendency to make invidious discrimnations. Society has taught the church lately. We have not changed since James wrote in that we often make judgments based on social class, especially income level. We blame people for their plight, even as we blame outside forces for our own failures.

 

I think the temptation to judge comes from our own insecurities. Vulnerable to the opinions of others, we shield ourselves by making judgements about others, usually invidious ones.Beaten down, we are unsure of our own worth. When we judge someone harshly, that elevates our standing in our own minds, buttresses our uncertain opinion of ourselves. It's the same impulse that makes us feel better when someone is behind us in a long line, the feeling of resentment when we switch lines and ours becomes longer.

 

In the end, James is a version of the Lord's Prayer. We will be judged by the measuring stick of our own judgement. We may give others the short end of the stick but not God. If we realize that, we will b e induced to be more generous in our measurements of others out of self-interest. It is the same as wanting our measure of forgiveness to move toward God's measure,  as we cannot face God using our own stingy levels of forgiveness.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Proverbs 1:20-33

Note that the current issue of Interpretation is on Proverbs and they have a piece on this very section.

 

1) Wisdom (hokmah, sophia) is personified as Lady/Dame Wisdom through ch. 9. Wisdom is a gift of the Spirit (Is.11), but it is personified in Jesus, as well. Wisdom. One could choose to use its structure and flow for the actual sermon.

3) Wisdom does not speak in secret (v. gnostics) but in public. Moral life is played out in public as well as in private.

4) The closing emphasizes the sense that the way of Wisdom leads to life and the the way of folly leads to chaos and death. That includes physical death but can include death of relationships, the death of happiness as well.

5) Why do we reject wisdom's call to us? The wisdom of Jesus was not heeded and continues to be ignored. We prefer to be seduced by Dame Folly

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Sermon James 3:1-12 for September 13, 2009

 

When we consider speech in church, it is usually in a word of waring. We could also consider speech as a Christian practice. We could make it a habit to consider how we use our words as a reflection of our Christian commitments.In time, it can become a habit, a natural way of employing the gift of language. Isn't hospitality an extension of saying hello? Isn't dying well an extension of a proper goodbye?

 

James  wants Christians to be consistent, to have a laser-like focus on the ways of God without becoming distracted. Being double minded is cursing and blessing with the same mouth. His emphasis, his expectation, is  on the creative and saving word of God. Johnson speaks of world defining capacity (205:NIB). After all Genesis 1 has God creating with a word.. In Proverbs, Lady Wisdom speaks to a public that rarely wants to hear her life-giving words. What we say can help affect the atmosphere of our experience to be easy or tense, pleasurable or painful. We live with distorted language-Maybe we should take a media sabbath every week, or even every day. Especially when the words are propaganda or distorted or designed only to fuel frustration.

 

James plays with the idea of little things having big impact. First, he speaks of small things acting to steer large things,  of bridle and rudder. In our time the tiny computer chip helps process the ones and zeros that make up computer code. Carrie Newcomer has a cute little song, Don't Push Send, about the dangers of that little button when a private e-mail can get published to the entire office. I heard the senior Senator from Minnesota say yesterday that it was time to press the reset button on health care plans. Maybe it's best to go back to Luther's hymn, A Mighty Fortress, where he says that one little word can fell the devil.

 

Speech can indeed become demonic-it breathes hellfire when we get angry. Anger seems to bypass the filter we all have between mind and mouth.If we go back to chapter one, anger doesn't produce God's righteousness. As James says, those same lips that pray, those same lips that say I love. We can say hurtful things that cut to the marrow. I'm of the age when children had their mouths washed out with soap. I'm not troubled by its method, but I am troubled that it was used exclusively for vulgarity. Far more threatening are hateful words, cruel words. When we are the recipient of angry words, we may be able to dismiss them more easily. The ones that have been practiced, that come from some deep place can be even more threatening.  

 

Quotes and proverbs are often examples of good words-"words, once spoken, can never be recalled." It's similar to a children's sermon I heard where words were compared to toothpaste being squeezed out, and they tried to shove it back in. I filled in at a wedding yesterday, and when people starting stressing about little things intoned the words of my grandmother-"a smart person won't notice and a dumb person will think that's the way it's supposed to be." The tongue can offer so much blessing: a word of encouragement, of sympathy. To say I love you is a powerful set of three small words,  almost as powerful as the words I do at a wedding that celebrates that love. What if we sought to say a kind word every day, to ingrain it as a habit? Maybe some of us  had a family gathering here at the last Holiday of the summer, blessed Labor Day. What if we spent some time over the grace before meals, what if we labored a bit over the toast? What if we said something kind along with the teasing? After this Labor Day weekend, we do well to take a break from a discouraging word and labor on some encouraging ones.