There's a Wildness In God's Mercy

Twenty First Sunday After Pentecost, Year B
October 21, 2012
Job 38:1-7 and 34-41

Who is this darkening counsel with words lacking knowledge? Prepare yourself like a man; I will interrogate you, and you will respond to me. Job 38:2-3

Job is in many ways one of the most accessible books in the Bible. By accessible I mean that its something that we understand because we've all been there. Job is a good and faithful man with riches and many children. In an instant all of his wealth and his children are taken away from him. He is left with questions and not a small bit of anger with God.

 Theologian Kathryn Schifferdecker notes that Job and his friends believed in a common view of suffering: if you're good, then God will bless you. If something bad happens to you, then it's because you did something wrong. When all of this happens, Job feels cheated. He has lived a righteous life, so none of this should be happening to him. His friends are of little help, accusing him of doing something wrong and telling him to repent of his sin.

 Job isn't really that different from us. Shcifferdecker notes that Job and other thought the world revolved around them. The world was an orderly place where good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. But the God comes to job in a whirlwind and sets Job right. Living the Midwest as I do, I can imagine God coming in a menacing tornado. God responds to Job not with answers, but with questions. God shows a created order that is rather wild, just like God. And humans are not at the center of anything. After a while Job gets it- things are not so ordered and sometimes bad things happen to good people.

If there is a takeaway from all this is that the world is not logical. Things happen that just doesn't make sense. We don't understand when a young woman dies in a traffic accident with a drunk driver. We don't understand the cancer diagnosis. We don't understand why we are laid off from a job. We don't understand when someone is raped. But in the midst of all this chaos, God stands with us. God took Job on, but he never left Job.

When I was training to become a pastor, I had to take a term of Clinic Pastoral Education. I spent time at a nursing home in Minneapolis. I remember seeing a young man who lost his leg in an ATV accident. You could see the anger on his face. I spent time sitting with him and saying a little. I always came away somewhat helpless. I still feel that feeling when I do pastoral care. But maybe being present is enough. Maybe it matters that God stands with us during the hard times, even when and especially when, we wonder, why?

Go and be church.  


 Dennis Sanders is the Associate Pastor at First Christian Church in Minneapolis.

iConsume

Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost, Year B
October 14, 2012
Mark 10:17-31

Every so often, I hear someone talking about the so-called Prosperity Gospel.  For the uninitiated, it's a message that states that God wants us to be wealthy.  If you have faith in God, then God will bless you financially.

The Prosperity Gospel has it critics...a lot of them.  When I googled "prosperity gospel," I came up with a ton of links denouncing the theology.  It didn't matter if you were liberal or conservative, there was an outright disdain for this belief in "pennies from heaven."

Whenever I hear all the criticism, I feel a bit uncomfortable.  It's not that I agree with the prosperity gospel, it's just that I don't know if any of us is that innocent ourselves.  I mean, it might feel good to look down on those preachers who peddle this garbage, but at some point you realize that God is pointing at you as well.

The fact is, we are caught up in having things as well.  We might look with contempt at the prosperity preachers, but most of us live in nice houses with nice cars, listening to tunes on our iPod/iPhone/iPad/iWhatever.  To paraphrase that old pop song, "We're not that innocent."

This week we find Jesus encountering a young man who's done pretty well financially.  He's also someone that has tried to be a good religious person. Jesus tells him to follow the commandments, which the young guy has done.  "You still need to do one thing," Jesus said. "Sell all of your possessions and give it the poor."

We know how the story ends.  The young guy walks away perplexed.  That's when Jesus remarks about how hard it is for a rich man to enter heaven.

Theologian Matt Skinner tells us that we shouldn't try to soften the message that this gospel is getting at.  We are pretty good at trying to soften the blow.  Jesus isn't really calling us to give up everything, we say to ourselves.  But yes, God is calling us to do just that.  Jesus is calling us to be true disciples and give up everything to follow him.

Of course, we live in the real world.  Very few of us are going to give up our stuff and go and live in a yurt somewhere.

And yet, Jesus is still calling us to give up everything, give up our call to be prosperous and follow him.

I don't have an easy answer to this quandry.  I know that I am saved by grace through faith.  I know that I am love by God even though I fall short.  And yet, you and I are still called to give our whole selves to God, because that's exactly what God did through Jesus on the cross.

Go and be church.

  Dennis Sanders is the Associate Pastor at First Christian Church in Minneapolis.

Pentecost and Mother's Day... Hmmmm

As we continue to grow the use of this online lectionary Blog I am sure that each of our unique perspectives will become visable to one another. I hesitate to require a formal format that all must use but hope with the Holy Spirit we will all understand each other.

On a week in which most may punt and run away from the lectionary in favor of a mothers day theme let me suggest the following for the beginning of our conversation on Acts 2:1-21... The Story of Pentecost!

I gravitated to verse 14 and particularly the phrase: "But peter, standing with the eleven raised his voice and addressed them: 'Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say."

Peter, in a moment of confusion and fear stands up and leads, teaches, interprets and guides his people through an event that in truth could have gone either way. It could have turned into a riot or into a witch trail. God breaking into our lives is sometimes a very scary time even when it is a good thing. I must say that I have in the past tended to focus in on the spirit and tongue thing and the obvious overtones toward unity and diversity as a Disciple.

However, this time, though I did not set out to link mothers day and Pentecost, it seems if I were going to do this what I would do is talk about my mother and how she and others have been the one who stood up and raised her voice and guided me through those potentially confusing moments of life.

I have writen a story about everyone else in the family but my mother. Im not sure why I have been unable to catch my mothers presence in my life in a paragraph of letters and words. Everytime I sit down to write something about her I seem to fall short with just the right emphasis that tells my soul that "Yes, this is my mother."

Yet, she has always been there! Other then a moment when my mother stood up and dump an entire huge bowl of peas on my head to emphasize the point that I was being annoying and selfish to all around, I dont remember my mother as the person who would have been like Peter standing up and saying LISTEN to me for I know what this means!

What I remember about my mother and what I would share this Sunday is a mother who has struggled with the loss of 3 of her six children. A mother who allowed me to make butter and sugar sandwiches even though it was not her particular favorite food. A mother who for her own reasons believed in a God who has a plan for all people including hers and mine. An idea of God that she focused on but never talked to me about during the rough times of her life. A mother who still claimed me, when I, her son, came home from seminary, now a well trained theologian and had writen a paper that articulated an understanding of God as one who is neither in full control or has an overall plan for our lives [because if God did have a plan or that much control than things that happened to my mother would not have happen ever.] I was passionate and proud and like any good son I let her read my paper; I needed her to read my paper on "How I see God in this world." She took an hour to read it and then said, "I am proud of you, your paper is very Good and I understand how you see God." However, then she said, "As for me, I still see God as one who, has a plan and purpose for our lives." We smiled and at butter and sugar sandwiches together... Ok maybe not that last part but we did spend the rest of the day sitting in lawn chairs talking about all the other things that we never knew that we did not know about each other...

We did not speak the same langauge or have the same understanding of how God is working in our world... So my mother is no Peter in the sense of telling me to LISTEN to what he has to say! But she has often stood up next to me and said I am listening to what you have to say about God and that has encouraged me to be willing to listen to her and others as well who may speak of God differently.

Thank God for Pentecost, for mothers who stand up and listen and congregations willing to worship together particularly when we DO hear each others understandings of God clearly for the first time...

Those are my thoughts on pentecost and mother's day... what do you all think.. continue the conversation by clicking on the comment button below....