the church geek

Jan’s post this morning stirred up some things I’ve been thinking about for a while now…

I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately on the Emergent Church and have also been delving into N.T. Wright’s work on the scriptures. As a result, I’m becoming more and more convinced that there is really something to the power of seeing the bible as narrative; as seeing it articulating the story of God’s work in the world and empowering the church in its calling within that story.

For the Easter season I’ve been studying and preaching on the texts in First Peter. Within that letter, Peter helps the gentile converts see how they’ve been enfolded into God’s story. How through the new birth of Israel the doors have been opened for them to enter into the fold of God’s chosen people.

It’s a brilliant move that gives ‘those people who were not a people’ an identity. It also helps them frame their struggles and persecutions within the larger story of God’s work; encompassing their present in what has happened in the past and the hope of what God will do in the future.

All of this has helped me begin to make a little more sense of those passages (especially in Matthew) that point to the ‘prediction’ of events in the Old Testament prophets that have been ‘fulfilled’ in Jesus Christ. In some sense, the early Christians took the themes of the prophets and framed the Jesus movement within the context of God’s work in history.

They enfolded their own story within the context of the much larger story of God’s work in Israel and in history. When it comes to Christians today, I think this has much to say to us. It helps us find our own identity in that much greater story. That is powerful stuff.

But here’s my struggle: Before I began engaging in the emergent church and exploring the scripture as narrative, I read Amy Jill-Levine’s book The Misunderstood Jew. I came away both impressed and convicted by the way the church can mis-read some of the New Testament texts and how they have often been mis-interpreted in ways that have done violence to the Jewish community of faith.

But, at the same time, I can’t see the Bible as telling an over-arching narrative without seeing that story as a comprehensive one detailing God’s continuous work encompassed in both the Old and the New Testament; seeing it as a somewhat seamless story, from the call of Abraham, to the rise of the church, to my own life today.

Maybe I don’t go so far - as Matthew seemed to have no problem with doing - as to use the word fulfillment, but I still in the end lean toward seeing it as a somewhat seamless story. At the very least, the New Testament gives voice to what happened in Jesus Christ by picking up and giving new life to all the shattered hopes and dreams of the people of Israel following their return from exile.

So does the way I see that over-arching story necessarily imply that I am doing violence to the Jewish faith? Is there someway to tell that story that still honors the Jewish faith, that doesn’t say the Jewish faith has been replaced? I don’t know. I’m still working on that, and I don’t have an answer. But at the very least Levine’s book reminds me to be much more careful about the ways I choose to tell that story.

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1.) Carol has some wonderful and moving thoughts on why pastors stay in the ministry in spite of some of the troubles and heartaches.

2.) Minnesota pastor, Greg Boyd, has been doing some thoughtful reflections on God and violence in the Old Testament.

3.) The most recent Christian Century has a great article on the “handshake ritual” following the morning worship service. Read it if you want to know what goes through a pastor’s mind on a Sunday morning following the service.

4.) I believe in the power of story and have been trying more and more to frame my sermons around narrative. This article points to the power of story to win a war.

5.) Here is another photo I’ve been enjoying this week. I’m waiting for some blooming like this to happen around here - though my sinuses aren’t particularly looking forward to it!!

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Here’s week two of my weekly roundup:

1.) Suicides are some of the most forgotten types of casualties of war; they aren’t reported in battle related statistics nor are they mentioned in the press. Here is an insightful post at God’s Politics on suicide and other sorely neglected issues related to the mental health of our soldiers.

2.) Scot McKnight at the Jesus Creed is one of the most prolific bloggers out there. One thing he does that I appreciate a lot is to provide thorough summaries of books he his reading. In this post, Scot, offers a summary of a chapter from Goldingay’s book Israel’s Gospel which highlights God’s unpredictability.

3.) Another one of my favorite bloggers, Julie Unplugged, offers a moving reflection about gift-giving for Christmas as her children have been growing up and establishing their own lives.

4.) Are you a coffee addict? Well now it seems you may be justified in your addiction! A study in France has revealed that coffee is better than a nap in terms of keeping you safe on the road. So, drink up, my friends!!

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The text for this sermon is Micah 6:1-8 and is from today, November 25th.

To start us off this morning I want to paint two pictures for you.

The first picture comes from the recent movie called, American Gangster, which tells the true story of Frank Lucas, a black man in the early 1970. Lucas rises to the top of the drug trade in New York City and becomes enormously wealthy by finding a way to sell a purer product at a lower price than his competition.

Initially Lucas avoids detection by law enforcement, by bribing police and other authorities. However he is eventually found out by Richie Roberts a federal drug agent.

At the point in the movie, when we are certain the whole house of cards is going to crash in on Lucas and that all things have fallen in place for him to be brought to justice, Lucas takes his mother and his wife to worship at their family church.

As he gathers his family to leave, Lucas pushes open the front doors of the church only to find that Roberts is waiting there with all of his police back-up, ready to apprehend him and to bring him to justice.

A few times throughout the movies, we are given the impression that church for Lucas is a regular sort of thing, though we don’t know exactly why that is so.

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The text for this sermon is Jeremiah 31: 31-34 and is from Sunday Nov 18.

Do you ever have one of those days where you just want to start over? That proverbial day where you wake up on the wrong side of the bed and things just never seem to get on the right track? You spill your cup of coffee on the table or drop the jug of milk on the floor and the rest of your day is down hill from there?

Remember that classic Bill Murray Movie Groundhog Day? The one where Bill plays weather man Phil Connors who is assigned to cover Ground Hog Day ceremonies in Punxsutawney, PA for the fifth year in a row.

Phil begrudgingly goes about serving his duty, reporting the activities of the famous Punxsutawney Phil. He goes to bed that day, only to wake up the next morning and discover that it is February 2nd – Ground Hog Day - all over again.

When he tries to explain to his producer that they are repeating yesterday all over again, she just returns his explanation with a blank stare. It seems he’s the only one repeating that miserable day. And each night he goes to bed, only to wake up to face February 2nd all over again.

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The text for this sermon is Isaiah 55: 1-9, and is from Sunday Nov 11th.

Imagine stepping into a restaurant and discovering there are no prices listed on the menu. As you look around to figure out what’s going on, you see signs on the wall that read, “Pay what you can afford!” You’d probably think you were in a dream, maybe living in a fantasy world.

Well if you were in Los Angeles – which is a dream or fantasy world in and of itself - you may just have stepped into a small café operated by Libby and Brad Birky. The name of their little café is called, SAME, or “So All May Eat.”

In soup kitchens the hungry are rounded up and they are publicly identified. In contrast, this place is different, the hungry are treated with dignity and with respect and its tables are open to all without distinction.

The “No Price” policy means those who have a little more wealth help shoulder the burden for those who have little or none. Some who come to the café may not be able to pay, but if they choose, they can go to the kitchen to dice onions, to wash dishes, or they can wait on tables.

Before Dee discovered the café, she lived on instant noodles and cold cereal. Every once in a while, for a treat, she’d buy a burger from a fast-food joint. Now she lunches at the cafe four times a week. When she can, Dee pays $3 or $4 and when she can’t, she mops the floor.

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The text is Job 1:1, 2:1-13 but really the sermon covers the entire book of Job.

The book of Job my friends is tough stuff! I know I say this a lot in relation to any number of the scriptures I preach on. But really the book of Job is one of the most difficult books to grapple with in all the scripture.

Despite its difficulty it is an important book for us to wrestle with.

It gets to the heart of one of the most basic questions of life; the nature of suffering and evil in this world. Rabbi Harold Kushner summed it up best with the title of his famous book written just over 20 years ago called, “When bad things happen to good people.”

Job begins with the tale of God and Satan – or more literally the Accuser - conversing in the heavenly courts about the nature of faith and what motivates humans to fear God. In that conversation God points to Job as a blameless and upright man, and then allows the Accuser to test him.

The test is severe. The accuser afflicts Job with the loss of his livestock, his servants, and worst of all the tragic death of his seven sons and three daughters. Remarkably, Job responds not by cursing God, but by saying “The Lord gives and the Lord has taken away.”

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The text for this sermon is 2 Kings 5:1-15. This is one of my favorite stories in the Old Testament.

According to all accounts Naaman was a truly great man. No matter what you sent him to do – as a military commander – he got the job done. As a patriot and a citizen, there wasn’t a person more loyal to the King.

His great military success made him a popular hero in Aram. From the highest to the lowest, everyone knew the name of Naaman. He was indeed the General Schwarzkopf of the Aramean Army.

His army was fierce and powerful. Their great advances in technology and strategy confounded their enemies. In their current campaign against the forces of the northern Israeli army they were swiftly gaining ground and conquering vast amounts of territory.

Opposing armies usually took one look at Naaman’s forces, quivered in their boots, and ran the other direction.

Everybody loved Naaman. He was at the top of his game. When his superiors had questions about what steps to take next in battle or how the progress of the war was going, they knew there was only one person who would give the straight answer.

With Naaman, there was no monkey business – he said what he meant. If he said a job could be done, everyone knew it would get done. If he said there were obstacles, they knew he would come up with a good plan of attack.

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The text for this sermon is 1 Samuel 8 and 1 Samuel 9:15-16

Today we continue on in our journey through the scriptures as many of us have been reading through the Bible in 90 Days. Over the past week or so, I’ve had a number of people ask me how folks are doing with the program. My guess is that I could probably draw a chart of the progress something like a bell shaped curve:

• A handful of folks would be on this side; probably a day or two ahead of the game.
• Another handful of other folks would be on the other side, way behind or given up.
• And a bunch of folks would be right in the middle, keeping pace or a bit behind by a day or two.

While I hope to see lots of folks finish on time, I don’t expect that everyone will be able to finish. We all have lots of stuff going on in our lives and it is difficult to carve out the time needed to read an hour or so each and every day.

Regardless of whether or not folks finish, there are all sorts of benefits from what we are doing. They go way beyond racing to the end and saying, “Look we did it!”

This morning, I have a few questions for you to consider as we press on in our journey.

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The text for this sermon is Ruth 1

Today we continue on our whirlwind tour of the bible, as many of us have been reading together the Bible in 90 days. As part of our tour, each Sunday, I’ve been preaching on a passage that comes from that week’s reading assignments.

Now, I probably shouldn’t admit this to you, but after the great success of the first couple of weeks, this week, I’ve fallen a bit off the wagon and have gotten a little bogged down, so now I’m lagging behind many of you by a few days.

For those of you who are keeping up; congratulations! And, for those of you who are a bit behind, maybe you can take solace in the fact that even “the pastor” has fallen a bit behind too!

In last week’s sermon, we strayed a bit form the overall story line so we could look more closely at the purpose of the Torah or the Law. We looked at the Torah and saw it as a Suzerainty Treaty between God and Israel.

We saw that the stipulations of that treaty could be summarized, just as Jesus did, by saying the greatest commandment is to love the lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself.

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The text for this sermon is Deuteronomy 6:1-9

For all you folks who’ve been reading along in our 90 days through the Bible program, you should finally be out of the wilderness and somewhere in the Promised Land. Having read through all the details for building the tabernacle and the Ark, the list of over 600 different laws and the various genealogies, you’ve made it through some of the toughest parts of the Bible to wade through.

So if you’ve made it this far you get a special medal of honor for perseverance. Congratulations! But don’t rest on your laurels, you still have a long way to go!!

For those of you still wandering in the wilderness, perhaps you can find some hope and encouragement from the Israelites. After all it only took them 40 years to get out of the wilderness! So here’s hoping you find your way out and it won’t take you quite as long!!

The first five books of the bible you read are sometimes called the “Books of Moses.” But in the Jewish faith they go by another name. They are called the “Torah,” a word that basically means “law” or better yet the “teaching.”

In Christianity today the word “law” often gets a bad rap. We sometimes look at all the rules and regulations of the Old Testament that the Jews were supposed to keep and we think of them as faith by works. We then point to Jesus and say he replaced all of that, bringing us faith by grace instead.

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Any former Dubuquers and former students of Dr. Elizabeth Platt out there reading this blog?!?

Do you ever hear or learn something in class and say to yourself, “When am I ever going to use that?” Well, I’m eating my words and can hardly believe it, but part of my sermon on Sunday will be to preach on the suzerainty treaty!

Thank you Dr. Platt for hammering home this insight into the OT Torah that helps frame and make a whole lot of sense out of the bible!

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The text for this sermon is Exodus 3:1-15

A couple of weeks ago, in my overview of the Bible, I encouraged you to see the Bible as the place where God’s story intersects with our own story. I also said that when you look at the bible as a whole there are a number of key themes. And one of those themes is that God calls and uses ordinary, even flawed, people to do his will and his work.

If you’ve been reading along with us in our journey through the Bible in 90 Days, I’m sure you’ve seen this particular theme first hand in the stories you’ve been reading in Genesis and Exodus.

One thing that often comes as a surprise to folks who pick up and start reading their bibles is the raw, uncut, and earthy nature of the Old Testament. The first book alone is full of more murder, gossip, backstabbing, trickery, and sexual intrigue than you’d ever find in any hour of General Hospital.

Many of you have told me over the last couple of weeks that you are finding the Bible to be fascinating, surprising, confusing, and frustrating; all of those things all at the same time. If you ask me, the Bible is kind of like real life. The scriptures don’t shy away from the complexity of human life. Instead they embrace it and help illuminate it.

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This is last week’s sermon (I got a little behind…) It is the first of a series of preachings based on a passage from the week’s readings in our Bible in 90 Days program. The text is Gen 11:27-12:9.

It had been a long time since Abram had given any thought to the hopes and dreams he and his father once held. Ever since Terah died, Abram had little interest in picking things up and moving on. Years before, the whole family left their beloved homeland of Ur in the Chaldeans. They hoped and dreamed for a new life in the land of Canaan. But for Abram, that dream died along with his father.

Far short of their original goal they settled in Haran, a little town in the middle of nowhere. They only meant to stay a short time; for a month or two of rest. They were just going to gathering a few supplies for the final push to Canaan. But, as it often does with these sorts of things, a month or two turned into a year. And then Terah got ill. At first he recovered and it looked like they might push on. But then things took a turn for the worse. He never got better and that final leg of the trip never happened.

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