Reading: Luke 18:9-14
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, October 27th 2013
A printable PDF file can be found here
I'd like to start with a story. Visualize a pool hall. Around the tables are the usual Pool Hall sort of crowd trying to get that white ball to hit the other balls and knock them into the pockets. Some kind of country music is coming out the Jukebox. And seated at a corner table is God, dressed up as a normal guy.
Through the door enters the Pharisee. He looks disdainfully around the room at the kind of company God is keeping these days and seeks out the Almighty. He slams some coins down on the table; “Next game, God, it's me and You!” God says nothing, shrugs His shoulders, and beckons to a couple of folk at the nearest Pool table. They give God a nod and a thumbs up, stop their game, and start setting up the balls.
A feisty looking girl with a twinkle in her eye comes over, looks straight at the Pharisee and says, “You call”. She flips a coin into the air. “Heads” says the Pharisee. It lands. It’s Tails. God gets to break. He picks out a cue from the rack on the wall and as He’s rubbing chalk onto the end, a country version of the Hallelujah Chorus starts playing on the Jukebox. ‘Ding ding ding ding a ding, ding ding ding a ding, Arrleylooyarh!’
As a Master of the Game He propels the white towards that triangle of colored balls. Bang, bang, bang, like some carefully choreographed ballet the balls roll into the pockets. He then slowly and deliberately pots the others, concluding with an awesome ‘around the table ricochet’ that causes the Black Ball to mark the shape of a Cross before leaping into the upper right hand pocket.
The Pharisee is standing ashen faced at the side of the table. He’s glancing around at the others, as if to say, 'That’s not fair, I didn’t get a chance'. God has hung His cue back on the rack and is walking over to the Pharisee. He grabs the cue from out of the Pharisees sweaty, clammy, hands. “You Fool” says God, “Don’t you realize that when you 'play me' there is only one rule?” God sighs, shakes His head and walks away. “Tell Him people, what's the result whenever people play God?”
As one voice the assorted characters in the Pool Hall shout “You Lose!” before bursting out into laughter and returning to their games and conversations. The Pharisee, spits on the floor, straightens himself up and haughtily exits the way he came in. As he leaves he turns and says, “Next time, next time, You’ll see, I can win this one”. End of story. Let's move to a bible story.
Jesus tells a parable about two men, not in a pool hall, but praying in the temple. One of them, a tax collector, hanging his head and beating his chest from anguished frustration. “God, be merciful to me, a sinner”. The other, a Pharisee, is not praying to God, he’s playing God and He’s about to lose.
He foolishly thinks that the cards are stacked in his favor. He is thankful that he is not like other people in their irreligious ways. He knows the sorts of things that go on, double dealing and swindling in the business world, people treating others unjustly so as to make a profit or win an argument, people sleeping around and not honoring their marriage vows. He’s thankful that his life is free from all of that.
He has a particular contempt for that hopeless tax gatherer over in the shadows. He knew what sort of people tax collectors were. Collaborators with Rome. Cheaters who took the cream of the taxes to line their own pockets. Friends to low-life’s and crime bosses. No sir, he was way above all that. His cards were on the table for everybody to see.
He fasted twice a week, and he gave a tithe, not just of the things that the law proscribed but a tithe of everything that he received. Such an elevated moral status, so above many of his peers, and a life which manifested such exemplary characteristics, surely, oh surely, it had to count for something in God’s eyes. Surely that’s got to buy you a little slice of God’s good favor, right there.
Well, you’d think so! But Jesus tells us that the Pharisee leaves the temple with a life that is unjustified before God. Unjustified means:- Out of line. Out of shape. Missing the mark. Distorted. Out of focus. Not connected. Separated from. Divorced from. Far from. He had played God and he had lost.
Pharisees come in many shapes and forms. The frightening thing is the one that you see the most of, but recognize the least, is the one that stares back at you from the mirror. As Parables always seem to have a sting in their tales. The moment we start thinking, “Well, thank God I’m not like that Pharisee”, is precisely the moment that we have started to play God.
Thank God we are not like those evangelicals who think that if they don’t have an altar call and nobody gets saved that it hasn’t been a proper worship service. Thank God we’re not like those folk at such and such a church with all that fire and brimstone and ‘Jesus is coming Soon’ attitude hovering around. Thank God we’re not like those colorful folk at the Pentecostal Church who wave their hands around and shout out ‘Hallelujah’ and have services that last for hours on end.
Thank God we’re not like those Methodists and Episcopalians and Lutherans (well actually we are kind like those Methodists and Episcopalians) and Lutherans... but thank God we get to choose our preachers, they’re not imposed on us by some high and mighty Bishop. And thank God we’re not like those Catholics who have to bend the knee to the Pope. Thank God that we are not like any of them!
Ouch.
We just played God and lost.
As with so many of Jesus parables the long-term conclusions are left open. Does the Pharisee ever grow beyond his vanity? Does the Publican ever get his life together and become a little more …well… like the Pharisee in action if not in attitude? And if he does amend his ways a little, how much would it count, in comparison to the heights that the Pharisee had scaled?
All we are told is that right there, on that day, one man went home having obtained reconciliation with God, whilst the other went home thinking that they were God’s main man, but in reality was far from God's love.
So what do we do with this parable?
What is it saying?
That it’s O.K to be the bad guy as long as we are sorry about it?
That we shouldn’t try and live decent lives
because in God’s eyes they don’t count for anything?
Seems to me it’s a parable about the heart. It’s a story that digs down deep to the center of our being and challenges us to consider what we are really all about. It’s a parable about faith and the actions that faith produces. Most of all it’s a parable about Grace. Scandalous Grace. Unmerited, undeserved, uncompromising Grace.
Let’s go back to the Pool Hall. Over in the far corner, back in the shadows, a man, completely frustrated, throws his cue to the floor. He slumps into a hard wooden chair, holds his head in his hands and his mouth is moving like he’s cussing himself out. He sits alone. Doesn’t seem the sort of guy to make friends easily. God walks over to him. “What’s up?”
“This game, this game, I’ll never get the hang of this stupid game”. Slowly the story spills out. How he was never allowed to go near a Pool Hall when he was younger. How he ran with the wrong sort of crowd and had made bad decisions. How, on a day some years ago, he’s had his chance, but he’d slipped on his first try with the cue and tore into the surface of a perfect new green table top, and how mad people had been and how they didn’t want him around them anymore, because he just didn’t play the game like them.
“I’ll give you a game,” offered God. The man drew back. “You going to do me, like you did that Pharisee?” “Over here,” said God. “Look at the angle on this shot”. The two of them lower themselves down to table height. “You hit that white ball just a tad to the left of center, it’s going to slide down the table, miss the blue and hit that one with the spot on it right into the corner pocket”.
The man shook his head. “You don’t understand. I never hit anything straight. Life never works out like that for people like me. There will be a curve, or an ill wind or somebody will nudge the table or cause some kind of distraction just as I’m going to shoot”. “Trust me on this one” says God and moves around the table pointing to the exact spot where He wants the man to hit the white ball with the cue. “Right there.”
The man picks up his stick from the floor. He puts one hand down on the table, but it’s shaking so bad, you’d think he was recovering from an overdose. His other hand is doing no better holding the cue. A crowd has started to gather around the table. Not that he notices. His heart is pounding so hard he hasn’t even heard that the jukebox has ceased to play.
Hush descends on the room. It’s as tense as the deciding putt at the U.S. Open Golf Championships. Under his breath he’s pleading, “I can’t do this. I don’t do this. I’m not in this game”. God moves around the table and stands behind him. He reaches over and steadies the man’s hand that rests on the table. He reaches around with his other arm and holds the cue with him, His hand over the mans hand. “Breathe Deep” says God, “1,2,3, she rides..’
Everything goes into slow motion. The cue sliding towards the white ball. The dull click as it makes contact. The curve it makes safely around the Blue before impacting the spotted ball. Slowly the spotted ball is heading towards the corner pocket. But wait! Not enough velocity. It’s going to slow. It’s too far. The ball stops, right on the lip of the pocket. The man is turning his head and mouthing to God, “I told you” but the ball teeters and drops right in.
The crowd around the table goes wild. They’ve got the man up on their shoulders, giving him a few victory laps around the Pool Hall. Someone puts that confounded country music version of the Hallelujah Chorus back on the jukebox. ‘Ding ding ding ding a ding, ding ding ding a ding, Arrleylooyarh!’ God has a smile on His face that spreads from ear to eternity.
Luke 18, verse 14, as it reads in the Message Bible “Jesus commented, "This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you're going to end up flat on your face, but if you're content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself."
Or as it appears in more traditional language,
“For all who exalt themselves will be humbled,
But all who humble themselves will be exalted”
To God’s name be the Glory.
AMEN.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Monday, October 21, 2013
The Unjust Judge
Readings: Psalm 119:97-104, Jeremiah 31:27-34, 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5, Luke 18:1-8
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, October 20th 2013
A printable PDF file can be found here
There are some verses of Scripture that guys probably relate to better than their spouses. Indeed I hesitate to mention these particular passages, but well, they do kind of fit in with today’s bible story. I’m thinking of a couple in the Book of Proverbs. I’ll give you them as they appear in the Good News Bible, a Bible that when it was first released had the title “Good News for Modern Man”.
Proverbs 19:13 “A nagging wife is like a tap that goes drip, drip, drip.”
Proverbs 25:24 “Better to live in a corner, out on the roof, then share the house with a nagging wife”
Hey, it’s the inspired, infallible, unchanging, Word of God, don’t get mad at me! Just telling it like it is. And you may well verify this word if when you get home, there’s somebody saying, “Well, did you hear what the preacher said this morning, Can you believe that? I mean for goodness sake, are you listening to me? I mean I pity his poor wife, having to put up with that sort of behavior, which reminds me, have you taken the trash out yet? Are you paying attention? You said you were going to do it last night, but there it is still sitting right there. Now you just better get off that couch, put down that remote and get busy, Bubba!”
According to tradition King Solomon, the compositor of Proverbs words of wisdom, had seven hundred wives, princesses and three hundred concubines. (1 Kings 11:3). You could say he was pretty experienced in the wife department. In fact it was some of his wives, wives who had come from foreign lands and wanted temples set up to their favorite deities, who eventually led Solomon away from the path of the Lord his Father David had hoped he would follow and weakened his reign.
“Go on Solomon give me a temple to my god. You’ve got a great big temple for your God. How about a little one for mine. I mean you gave whatshername a temple for her god. That’s not fair. I want one. I need one. And I’ll never ask you for anything ever, ever, ever again. Please Solly baby, please, pretty please, it’s just a little god, just a little temple, that’s all I’m asking”
Words. Endless torrents of words. Waterfall like, gushing, crushing floods of words have a habit of breaking a person down. “Allright, Allright, Allright, I’ll do it. Please just BE QUIET!”
Of course you ladies know that we guys don’t give up so easily. Oh no. We give it the silent treatment. “Well why don’t you say something?” and we know that what ever we say it’s going to be exactly the thing we shouldn’t have said. “You don’t love me anymore. All I wanted was for you to take out the trash!” As comedian Jeff Foxworthy says, “I have learnt that when my wife says, “We need to talk” I’m not going to be saying a whole lot”.
Jesus gives us a parable, not about a man and a wife, but an indifferent Judge and a poor widow. The woman has very little, in terms of wealth or social position or prestige. But she has one thing that wears the corrupt judge down. She is what in Liverpool they’d call a “Motor-Mouth”. “Ag-Ag-Ag Ag-Ag-Ag- Ag-Ag-Ag”
We are told at the start of the parable that it is a parable about our need to ‘pray and not to lose heart.’ (Luke 18:1). As is often the case with parables, the characters involved are greatly exaggerated. The man is not simply a judge, but a judge whose characteristics question his ability to do the job.
In a society where the two most important commandments were about loving God and loving your neighbor, this guys saying, “God? Whatever! Who cares what God thinks, I’m the main man around here. You’ve got a problem? Here’s the problem – You are a loser! Get over it. I have better things to do.” Just the sort of judge you want on your case. Right?
Then there’s the widow. As the parable unfolds the widow represents the chosen ones, ‘the elect’, of God. The widow stands for all those who, though chosen by God to enjoy God’s blessings, live outside of those blessings and feel powerless to bring about any change.
The parable focuses on a relationship that has gone wrong because one of the parties, the judge, is failing to fulfill his duties. It challenges us to consider how we see God. Is God this “I answer to nobody” –Distant – barely moveable force out there – who really isn’t concerned about us – because He has more important – God-focused things to do in the world?
Do we, building upon such an image, concede that the only way to ever get an answer to our prayers is to keep going on and on and on and on and on until God gets tired of hearing us and caves in to our demands?
On the contrary Jesus is quite clear that God is the total opposite of the Judge pictured in the parable. God is the one who does step in and who honors justice and lifts up those who have fallen. God does not drag His feet when it comes to things that concern His people. Verse 7 poses the question, “Will not God grant justice to His chosen ones?”
As is often the case with the parables of Jesus, there is a sting in the tale. It’s as though we are set up for a fall! Follow the argument through to the last sentence.
God (the God who is not like a bad judge who ignores a needy widows prayer) hears us and will meet us in our needs when we pray to Him. We should therefore be persistent in prayer and everything will work out right. Simple! Until you get to the last line. The last sentence throws the whole thing out of perspective.
Verses 18. “And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”
What a set up! Here we are being told that prayer and asking are as straightforward as dialing 1-800-GOD LOVES U. That it’s not complicated. That we ask and we receive. But then comes this disturbing rhetorical question. “When the Son of man comes will He find faith on the earth?”
The implication is “No, He won’t”. That if a faith evaluation had taken place on the earth back in Jesus day, or were to take place in the midst of our busy days, or anywhere in between, the last thing to be found would be found was faith. That in spite of this business of persistently asking and graciously receiving from a good and great God, we still miss the mark.
What I’m thinking, where this parable is pushing me, is to consider that faith, real faith, has very little to do with getting God to do anything or even God getting us to do certain things. That faith is really about allowing God to be God and allowing ourselves to ‘live and move and have our being' in God's love. That persistence in prayer has little to do with asking and asking and asking, but has a whole lot to do with resting in God’s love and accepting ourselves and the situations of our lives as only finding meaning through their relationship to God.
In the parable, what creates the situation that causes the woman to ask, ask, ask, ask, and ask again, is the character of the unjust Judge. So, Jesus explains, God is completely the opposite of such a judge. God is ready to help, always does the right thing, and is way above such a tawdry character as the unjust judge.
The implication is that if God is not like this bad judge, then we don’t have to be like the widow, whom can only get things done though incessant talking. That we have a God who elsewhere is pictured as having every hair on our head accounted for and knows intimately what is going on in His Creation to such an extent that even if a little sparrow falls to the ground it does not go unnoticed.
By picturing for us a bad relationship, the parable attempts to push us to consider what a right relationship may look like. We laugh about nagging wives and retreating husbands, because there is part of us that realizes that although that’s not the way relationships should be, that’s the way they sometimes go.
Putting it in that way, opens the door then for us to go beyond the kind of relationships built upon asking and receiving, towards relationships that are built upon accepting and believing.
Often times in long-term relationships it starts to be, that less is said, and a whole lot more is understood. Communication becomes not a matter of words, but a matter of understanding. The one partner doesn’t have to tell the other what’s going on, because the other has come to a point where they recognize the problem even before it can be framed into words.
When the Son of Man comes, will He find those who know in their lives the depth of relationship that Jesus had with the Father? Will people be at the point Jesus prayed for in His High Priestly prayer; “Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one, as We are one.” (John 17:11)
This parable tells us that faith should not function after the manner of a nagging widow badgering an unjust Judge, but rather within a framework of mutual respect and understanding. We are called to be persistent in prayer. Persistence in the light of a God who knows our every need, is not about asking and asking and asking till we get what we want, but trusting and trusting and trusting in God in such a way as we become quietly confident that God is working out God’s purposes in the situations of our lives.
Nagging wives and Idle husbands, Persistent Widows and Unjust judges, these situations do not offer us role models to be copied. They show us the reverse side so we can flip things around and discover how to approach troubling situations in a positive way.
And there is no more positive approach to life than placing our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, than believing that God is in control, and seeking to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us and lead us through the varied situations that come to our lives.
For there is no greater name than that of the Lord Jesus Christ, and no greater endeavor than to be involved with others in the work of His kingdom. To God’s name be the glory. AMEN.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, October 20th 2013
A printable PDF file can be found here
There are some verses of Scripture that guys probably relate to better than their spouses. Indeed I hesitate to mention these particular passages, but well, they do kind of fit in with today’s bible story. I’m thinking of a couple in the Book of Proverbs. I’ll give you them as they appear in the Good News Bible, a Bible that when it was first released had the title “Good News for Modern Man”.
Proverbs 19:13 “A nagging wife is like a tap that goes drip, drip, drip.”
Proverbs 25:24 “Better to live in a corner, out on the roof, then share the house with a nagging wife”
Hey, it’s the inspired, infallible, unchanging, Word of God, don’t get mad at me! Just telling it like it is. And you may well verify this word if when you get home, there’s somebody saying, “Well, did you hear what the preacher said this morning, Can you believe that? I mean for goodness sake, are you listening to me? I mean I pity his poor wife, having to put up with that sort of behavior, which reminds me, have you taken the trash out yet? Are you paying attention? You said you were going to do it last night, but there it is still sitting right there. Now you just better get off that couch, put down that remote and get busy, Bubba!”
According to tradition King Solomon, the compositor of Proverbs words of wisdom, had seven hundred wives, princesses and three hundred concubines. (1 Kings 11:3). You could say he was pretty experienced in the wife department. In fact it was some of his wives, wives who had come from foreign lands and wanted temples set up to their favorite deities, who eventually led Solomon away from the path of the Lord his Father David had hoped he would follow and weakened his reign.
“Go on Solomon give me a temple to my god. You’ve got a great big temple for your God. How about a little one for mine. I mean you gave whatshername a temple for her god. That’s not fair. I want one. I need one. And I’ll never ask you for anything ever, ever, ever again. Please Solly baby, please, pretty please, it’s just a little god, just a little temple, that’s all I’m asking”
Words. Endless torrents of words. Waterfall like, gushing, crushing floods of words have a habit of breaking a person down. “Allright, Allright, Allright, I’ll do it. Please just BE QUIET!”
Of course you ladies know that we guys don’t give up so easily. Oh no. We give it the silent treatment. “Well why don’t you say something?” and we know that what ever we say it’s going to be exactly the thing we shouldn’t have said. “You don’t love me anymore. All I wanted was for you to take out the trash!” As comedian Jeff Foxworthy says, “I have learnt that when my wife says, “We need to talk” I’m not going to be saying a whole lot”.
Jesus gives us a parable, not about a man and a wife, but an indifferent Judge and a poor widow. The woman has very little, in terms of wealth or social position or prestige. But she has one thing that wears the corrupt judge down. She is what in Liverpool they’d call a “Motor-Mouth”. “Ag-Ag-Ag Ag-Ag-Ag- Ag-Ag-Ag”
We are told at the start of the parable that it is a parable about our need to ‘pray and not to lose heart.’ (Luke 18:1). As is often the case with parables, the characters involved are greatly exaggerated. The man is not simply a judge, but a judge whose characteristics question his ability to do the job.
In a society where the two most important commandments were about loving God and loving your neighbor, this guys saying, “God? Whatever! Who cares what God thinks, I’m the main man around here. You’ve got a problem? Here’s the problem – You are a loser! Get over it. I have better things to do.” Just the sort of judge you want on your case. Right?
Then there’s the widow. As the parable unfolds the widow represents the chosen ones, ‘the elect’, of God. The widow stands for all those who, though chosen by God to enjoy God’s blessings, live outside of those blessings and feel powerless to bring about any change.
The parable focuses on a relationship that has gone wrong because one of the parties, the judge, is failing to fulfill his duties. It challenges us to consider how we see God. Is God this “I answer to nobody” –Distant – barely moveable force out there – who really isn’t concerned about us – because He has more important – God-focused things to do in the world?
Do we, building upon such an image, concede that the only way to ever get an answer to our prayers is to keep going on and on and on and on and on until God gets tired of hearing us and caves in to our demands?
On the contrary Jesus is quite clear that God is the total opposite of the Judge pictured in the parable. God is the one who does step in and who honors justice and lifts up those who have fallen. God does not drag His feet when it comes to things that concern His people. Verse 7 poses the question, “Will not God grant justice to His chosen ones?”
As is often the case with the parables of Jesus, there is a sting in the tale. It’s as though we are set up for a fall! Follow the argument through to the last sentence.
God (the God who is not like a bad judge who ignores a needy widows prayer) hears us and will meet us in our needs when we pray to Him. We should therefore be persistent in prayer and everything will work out right. Simple! Until you get to the last line. The last sentence throws the whole thing out of perspective.
Verses 18. “And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”
What a set up! Here we are being told that prayer and asking are as straightforward as dialing 1-800-GOD LOVES U. That it’s not complicated. That we ask and we receive. But then comes this disturbing rhetorical question. “When the Son of man comes will He find faith on the earth?”
The implication is “No, He won’t”. That if a faith evaluation had taken place on the earth back in Jesus day, or were to take place in the midst of our busy days, or anywhere in between, the last thing to be found would be found was faith. That in spite of this business of persistently asking and graciously receiving from a good and great God, we still miss the mark.
What I’m thinking, where this parable is pushing me, is to consider that faith, real faith, has very little to do with getting God to do anything or even God getting us to do certain things. That faith is really about allowing God to be God and allowing ourselves to ‘live and move and have our being' in God's love. That persistence in prayer has little to do with asking and asking and asking, but has a whole lot to do with resting in God’s love and accepting ourselves and the situations of our lives as only finding meaning through their relationship to God.
In the parable, what creates the situation that causes the woman to ask, ask, ask, ask, and ask again, is the character of the unjust Judge. So, Jesus explains, God is completely the opposite of such a judge. God is ready to help, always does the right thing, and is way above such a tawdry character as the unjust judge.
The implication is that if God is not like this bad judge, then we don’t have to be like the widow, whom can only get things done though incessant talking. That we have a God who elsewhere is pictured as having every hair on our head accounted for and knows intimately what is going on in His Creation to such an extent that even if a little sparrow falls to the ground it does not go unnoticed.
By picturing for us a bad relationship, the parable attempts to push us to consider what a right relationship may look like. We laugh about nagging wives and retreating husbands, because there is part of us that realizes that although that’s not the way relationships should be, that’s the way they sometimes go.
Putting it in that way, opens the door then for us to go beyond the kind of relationships built upon asking and receiving, towards relationships that are built upon accepting and believing.
Often times in long-term relationships it starts to be, that less is said, and a whole lot more is understood. Communication becomes not a matter of words, but a matter of understanding. The one partner doesn’t have to tell the other what’s going on, because the other has come to a point where they recognize the problem even before it can be framed into words.
When the Son of Man comes, will He find those who know in their lives the depth of relationship that Jesus had with the Father? Will people be at the point Jesus prayed for in His High Priestly prayer; “Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one, as We are one.” (John 17:11)
This parable tells us that faith should not function after the manner of a nagging widow badgering an unjust Judge, but rather within a framework of mutual respect and understanding. We are called to be persistent in prayer. Persistence in the light of a God who knows our every need, is not about asking and asking and asking till we get what we want, but trusting and trusting and trusting in God in such a way as we become quietly confident that God is working out God’s purposes in the situations of our lives.
Nagging wives and Idle husbands, Persistent Widows and Unjust judges, these situations do not offer us role models to be copied. They show us the reverse side so we can flip things around and discover how to approach troubling situations in a positive way.
And there is no more positive approach to life than placing our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, than believing that God is in control, and seeking to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us and lead us through the varied situations that come to our lives.
For there is no greater name than that of the Lord Jesus Christ, and no greater endeavor than to be involved with others in the work of His kingdom. To God’s name be the glory. AMEN.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
The Exasperation of Jonah
Readings: Colossians 3:1-4, Jonah 3:1-5 & 4
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on October 13th, 2013
A printable PDF file can be found here
Can I ask you something? Does your experience of life, of people, of the Church, or even of God ever leave you exasperated? Do you ever have days when you feel like shaking your fists at the sky and shouting “It's not right! It's not fair! And it's certainly not fun!”
Well you are in good company. You won't be the first and you won't be the last. I want to look today at a passage of Scripture that talks about a man who was absolutely at the end of his tether. A man called Jonah. For a text, these words of Jonah 4:9 “God said to Jonah 'Do you do well to be angry for the plant?'”
As we explore his exasperation I want to ask questions.
1. Why was Jonah exasperated?
2. Why do we get exasperated?
3. What can we do about it?
Why was Jonah exasperated?
Jonah was a prophet. But not a prophet like Isaiah or Jeremiah. There was no sense of “Here I am, send me” or “Speak Lord, your servant is listening” With Jonah it was more a case of “Here I am. Send somebody else” or “LA-LA-LA...” And when it did become clear God was on his case, he hopped on the nearest boat in port and headed in the opposite direction.
Hopefully you are familiar with the story. The ship runs into a storm. Jonah is dispatched over the side and with the unlikely aid of a big sea creature ends up in the place God asked him to go, namely a city full of people he didn't like called Ninevah. His task is to walk through the city telling them that if they didn't change their ways, trouble was coming. This he does. Much to Jonah's annoyance they listen. Our reading found him sulking under a tree, which then goes and dies. All of this makes Jonah even sulkier. He proclaims 'I wish I were dead!”
That's where our text kicked in; “God said to Jonah 'Do you do well to be angry for the plant?'” Jonah wasn't doing well. He was exasperated.
Part of his exasperation sprang from his knowledge of God. He knew enough about God's ways to suspect that, when it came to the crunch, God would not completely annihilate the Ninevites. Jonah had a sneaking suspicion that God's mercy was greater than God's anger... and this didn't please him. Jonah felt that he knew those Ninevites better than God did. They were the scum of the earth. It would be a good thing to get rid of them.
But he had gone and, reluctantly, done as God asked him. And, as he suspected all along, he had been made to look foolish. He had gone through the city, telling them what terrible people they were and how God was going to destroy them all. And what happens? They put on a few sackcloth and ashes, say a few prayers, and suddenly they are back in with God again! Jonah had wanted fireworks! A fire and brimstone display. He wanted to see his enemies destroyed, not forgiven!
Have you ever been in the situation where you know somethings the right thing to do, but it just doesn't fit in with what you want out of the situation? Have you ever said of somebody “Y'know what really makes me mad? They are right and I'm wrong!” Maybe you've even done it with the Bibles teachings. 'I know Scripture says this, but I just can't forgive so and so or give this up or let those sort of thoughts in right now!'
So Jonah sits and sulks under the tree. A tree God has provided for him. God takes the tree away and Jonah is so angry! “That's it - I wish I were dead!”. The book of Jonah concludes by God telling Jonah that he had, once again totally lost his perspective on things.
Jonah 4:10-11 “The LORD said, "You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left--and also many animals?"
What was more important? A plant or a population? What mattered most? Jonah's reputation for accurate prediction or the fact that a whole population had discovered God's mercy? At the root of Jonah's exasperation... he was wrong. God was right!
Why do we get exasperated?
Probably for many reasons, but permit me to suggest a few things we share with Jonah.
a) Our inability to see the bigger picture. Though as Christians we are invited to view life from an eternal perspective, we usually stick with our own perceptions. That's the way of the world. Always has been, always will be. Our near-sightedness brings self judgment.
Jonah had a fixed expectation about both God and about Ninevites. God demands on him were unreasonable, and Ninevites were bad people. He could see no need for changing the way he saw things. Even when he realized that his perception needed modifying, he was far more comfortable with what he knew than with God's grace. Such is a recipe for exasperation, both within ourselves and for those we share our lives with.
Faith communities are legendary for their inability to embrace new ways of doing things. 'This is is the way it's always been done, and this is the way it always will be done'... even when it's obvious that things just aren't working. But change? Heaven forbid. We would rather stick with what we can control than leap beyond our comfort zone. We pay a heavy price for failing to discern the larger framework in which our lives move and have there being!
b) We become exasperated because we seek the wrong things in life.
Jesus said “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God”. The Jonah in each of us responds 'That's fine as long as it doesn't involve to much commitment on my part... just don't ask me to actually go anywhere I don't want to go, be involved with people I don't get along with or have to say or do things that may make me less than popular'.
How do we measure our days? By our acquisitions? By who our friends are? By our jobs? By the letters after our name or the achievements of our children? None of these things are bad things. But if we spend our whole lives seeking these things alone, then we are setting ourselves up for a fall. They can never be a substitute for the security we are offered in the love of Jesus Christ. There is a God-shaped hole in all of our hearts that remains unfilled until we surrender ourselves to God. Only then does the joyful, living water of the Spirit, that enables us to reach beyond ourselves, start to flow through us and move us.
c)We become exasperated because we trust in the wrong things.
When he was feeling down Jonah trusted in a plant. It gave him shade, it made him feel good. It is worth considering what 'plants' we rely on. We all have them. Our own personal places we go when life refuses to cooperate with our personal agenda. A worm got at Jonah's plant and it died. He was more than exasperated. He wished he were dead. Again we need to hear Jesus words. “Trust in God always – Trust also in Me”. (John 14:1 NLT)
We don't see the bigger picture. We go after the wrong things. We trust in the wrong things. In such pursuits we find ourselves sharing in the exasperation of Jonah.
What can we do about it?
“God said to Jonah 'Do you do well to be angry for the plant?'” Jonah wasn't doing well. The only way he could ever get out of the pit he had dug for himself was to change. It is no different for us. If we live our lives riding a wave of exasperation it will eventually cause us to despair, maybe even like Jonah, of life itself. One of the underlying messages of this bible story is that we need to recognize exasperation as a sign that change needs to be made.
If our exasperation is with our self, we would do well to remember our baptism and reclaim our identity as a child of God and seek to channel our energy in a constructive way. The message of the Gospel is not only that change is necessary, but that change is possible. It is possible because Jesus came to set us free.
It is possible because through His forgiveness, past mistakes find forgiveness. It is possible because He lives and intercedes for us before God. It is possible because He sends His Holy Spirit to empower us, change us and direct us. It is possible because the changes He calls us to make, we are called to make with His power, under His influence and with His glory in mind. It is possible because we believe in a God of second chances.
When Jesus went to the temple and found it had become a trading post for thieves and swindlers rather than a place of prayer, He was rightly exasperated and angry at the things taking place in his Father's house. But that anger was turned, in a constructive way, to empty the temple of it's offense. It's OK to get mad! Just make sure the energy is focused in achieving God's glory.
If our exasperation is with others, we need try and see the image of God in them. Actor Peter Ustinov once made the comment 'People are very good. Its what life does to them turns them bad” Nobodies perfect. Life does do things to us that make us into the infuriating individuals we can sometimes be. Be gentle with each other.
If our exasperation is with the Church, be patient. Because God is building God's church with the flawed material of human clay. A man was once church shopping looking for the perfect congregation to join. At one church he visited the pastor told him “If you find it, I hope you don't join it, because then it won't be perfect anymore”. The Church is not a showplace of saints, but a place for grace. Often that only happens as we encounter each others most irritating habits, prejudices and failings!
If our exasperation is with God, the scriptures urge us to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord. God's ways are not as our ways, God's thoughts are not as our thoughts. God is great. We are not so great. We are flawed. We are unfinished symphonies. We need help. We need to get off our high horse if we to allow Jesus to be Lord of our lives.
The exasperation of Jonah. The exasperation’s that inflict our daily lives. Always a sign that change is needed. The challenge laid before us is as to whether we dare allow our lives to be embraced by the love of God in such a way as we see possibilities where previously we saw only problems. The challenge is as to how deeply we allow God to invade our settled views and deepest convictions. The challenge, as God put it to Jonah, is to how deeply we allow the grace of God to dominate our outlook on life.
“God said to Jonah 'Do you do well to be angry for the plant?'” … “Should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left?”
May God lead us to know God's love in a deeper and fuller way, through the action of the change-bringing, exasperation-breaking Holy Spirit and to the glory of the One, true Savior, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on October 13th, 2013
A printable PDF file can be found here
Can I ask you something? Does your experience of life, of people, of the Church, or even of God ever leave you exasperated? Do you ever have days when you feel like shaking your fists at the sky and shouting “It's not right! It's not fair! And it's certainly not fun!”
Well you are in good company. You won't be the first and you won't be the last. I want to look today at a passage of Scripture that talks about a man who was absolutely at the end of his tether. A man called Jonah. For a text, these words of Jonah 4:9 “God said to Jonah 'Do you do well to be angry for the plant?'”
As we explore his exasperation I want to ask questions.
1. Why was Jonah exasperated?
2. Why do we get exasperated?
3. What can we do about it?
Why was Jonah exasperated?
Jonah was a prophet. But not a prophet like Isaiah or Jeremiah. There was no sense of “Here I am, send me” or “Speak Lord, your servant is listening” With Jonah it was more a case of “Here I am. Send somebody else” or “LA-LA-LA...” And when it did become clear God was on his case, he hopped on the nearest boat in port and headed in the opposite direction.
Hopefully you are familiar with the story. The ship runs into a storm. Jonah is dispatched over the side and with the unlikely aid of a big sea creature ends up in the place God asked him to go, namely a city full of people he didn't like called Ninevah. His task is to walk through the city telling them that if they didn't change their ways, trouble was coming. This he does. Much to Jonah's annoyance they listen. Our reading found him sulking under a tree, which then goes and dies. All of this makes Jonah even sulkier. He proclaims 'I wish I were dead!”
That's where our text kicked in; “God said to Jonah 'Do you do well to be angry for the plant?'” Jonah wasn't doing well. He was exasperated.
Part of his exasperation sprang from his knowledge of God. He knew enough about God's ways to suspect that, when it came to the crunch, God would not completely annihilate the Ninevites. Jonah had a sneaking suspicion that God's mercy was greater than God's anger... and this didn't please him. Jonah felt that he knew those Ninevites better than God did. They were the scum of the earth. It would be a good thing to get rid of them.
But he had gone and, reluctantly, done as God asked him. And, as he suspected all along, he had been made to look foolish. He had gone through the city, telling them what terrible people they were and how God was going to destroy them all. And what happens? They put on a few sackcloth and ashes, say a few prayers, and suddenly they are back in with God again! Jonah had wanted fireworks! A fire and brimstone display. He wanted to see his enemies destroyed, not forgiven!
Have you ever been in the situation where you know somethings the right thing to do, but it just doesn't fit in with what you want out of the situation? Have you ever said of somebody “Y'know what really makes me mad? They are right and I'm wrong!” Maybe you've even done it with the Bibles teachings. 'I know Scripture says this, but I just can't forgive so and so or give this up or let those sort of thoughts in right now!'
So Jonah sits and sulks under the tree. A tree God has provided for him. God takes the tree away and Jonah is so angry! “That's it - I wish I were dead!”. The book of Jonah concludes by God telling Jonah that he had, once again totally lost his perspective on things.
Jonah 4:10-11 “The LORD said, "You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left--and also many animals?"
What was more important? A plant or a population? What mattered most? Jonah's reputation for accurate prediction or the fact that a whole population had discovered God's mercy? At the root of Jonah's exasperation... he was wrong. God was right!
Why do we get exasperated?
Probably for many reasons, but permit me to suggest a few things we share with Jonah.
a) Our inability to see the bigger picture. Though as Christians we are invited to view life from an eternal perspective, we usually stick with our own perceptions. That's the way of the world. Always has been, always will be. Our near-sightedness brings self judgment.
Jonah had a fixed expectation about both God and about Ninevites. God demands on him were unreasonable, and Ninevites were bad people. He could see no need for changing the way he saw things. Even when he realized that his perception needed modifying, he was far more comfortable with what he knew than with God's grace. Such is a recipe for exasperation, both within ourselves and for those we share our lives with.
Faith communities are legendary for their inability to embrace new ways of doing things. 'This is is the way it's always been done, and this is the way it always will be done'... even when it's obvious that things just aren't working. But change? Heaven forbid. We would rather stick with what we can control than leap beyond our comfort zone. We pay a heavy price for failing to discern the larger framework in which our lives move and have there being!
b) We become exasperated because we seek the wrong things in life.
Jesus said “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God”. The Jonah in each of us responds 'That's fine as long as it doesn't involve to much commitment on my part... just don't ask me to actually go anywhere I don't want to go, be involved with people I don't get along with or have to say or do things that may make me less than popular'.
How do we measure our days? By our acquisitions? By who our friends are? By our jobs? By the letters after our name or the achievements of our children? None of these things are bad things. But if we spend our whole lives seeking these things alone, then we are setting ourselves up for a fall. They can never be a substitute for the security we are offered in the love of Jesus Christ. There is a God-shaped hole in all of our hearts that remains unfilled until we surrender ourselves to God. Only then does the joyful, living water of the Spirit, that enables us to reach beyond ourselves, start to flow through us and move us.
c)We become exasperated because we trust in the wrong things.
When he was feeling down Jonah trusted in a plant. It gave him shade, it made him feel good. It is worth considering what 'plants' we rely on. We all have them. Our own personal places we go when life refuses to cooperate with our personal agenda. A worm got at Jonah's plant and it died. He was more than exasperated. He wished he were dead. Again we need to hear Jesus words. “Trust in God always – Trust also in Me”. (John 14:1 NLT)
We don't see the bigger picture. We go after the wrong things. We trust in the wrong things. In such pursuits we find ourselves sharing in the exasperation of Jonah.
What can we do about it?
“God said to Jonah 'Do you do well to be angry for the plant?'” Jonah wasn't doing well. The only way he could ever get out of the pit he had dug for himself was to change. It is no different for us. If we live our lives riding a wave of exasperation it will eventually cause us to despair, maybe even like Jonah, of life itself. One of the underlying messages of this bible story is that we need to recognize exasperation as a sign that change needs to be made.
If our exasperation is with our self, we would do well to remember our baptism and reclaim our identity as a child of God and seek to channel our energy in a constructive way. The message of the Gospel is not only that change is necessary, but that change is possible. It is possible because Jesus came to set us free.
It is possible because through His forgiveness, past mistakes find forgiveness. It is possible because He lives and intercedes for us before God. It is possible because He sends His Holy Spirit to empower us, change us and direct us. It is possible because the changes He calls us to make, we are called to make with His power, under His influence and with His glory in mind. It is possible because we believe in a God of second chances.
When Jesus went to the temple and found it had become a trading post for thieves and swindlers rather than a place of prayer, He was rightly exasperated and angry at the things taking place in his Father's house. But that anger was turned, in a constructive way, to empty the temple of it's offense. It's OK to get mad! Just make sure the energy is focused in achieving God's glory.
If our exasperation is with others, we need try and see the image of God in them. Actor Peter Ustinov once made the comment 'People are very good. Its what life does to them turns them bad” Nobodies perfect. Life does do things to us that make us into the infuriating individuals we can sometimes be. Be gentle with each other.
If our exasperation is with the Church, be patient. Because God is building God's church with the flawed material of human clay. A man was once church shopping looking for the perfect congregation to join. At one church he visited the pastor told him “If you find it, I hope you don't join it, because then it won't be perfect anymore”. The Church is not a showplace of saints, but a place for grace. Often that only happens as we encounter each others most irritating habits, prejudices and failings!
If our exasperation is with God, the scriptures urge us to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord. God's ways are not as our ways, God's thoughts are not as our thoughts. God is great. We are not so great. We are flawed. We are unfinished symphonies. We need help. We need to get off our high horse if we to allow Jesus to be Lord of our lives.
The exasperation of Jonah. The exasperation’s that inflict our daily lives. Always a sign that change is needed. The challenge laid before us is as to whether we dare allow our lives to be embraced by the love of God in such a way as we see possibilities where previously we saw only problems. The challenge is as to how deeply we allow God to invade our settled views and deepest convictions. The challenge, as God put it to Jonah, is to how deeply we allow the grace of God to dominate our outlook on life.
“God said to Jonah 'Do you do well to be angry for the plant?'” … “Should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left?”
May God lead us to know God's love in a deeper and fuller way, through the action of the change-bringing, exasperation-breaking Holy Spirit and to the glory of the One, true Savior, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Monday, October 7, 2013
Unfinished Symphonies
Readings: Matthew 28:16-20, Acts 1:1-8, Genesis 28:10-19,
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on October 6th 2013
A printable PDF file can be found here
One of actor Johnny Depp's earliest movies was an adult fairytale called 'Edward Scissorhands'. The story is about 'Edward' a 'boy' created by a benevolent scientist (actor Vincent Price's final movie appearance) who suffers a heart-attack during the creation process, leaving Edward as an unfinished human who instead of having hands, has scissors where his hands should be.
Edward is discovered in the ruins of the scientists Gothic mansion by the local Avon lady, who takes him home to live with her family. He turns out to have an uncommonly gentle nature and uses his seeming disability, his scissor-hands, to create things of great beauty. However, to cut a long story short, in the end Edward is rejected. He just doesn't fit in. He's too strange. If only he had real hands things may have been different. The Creators work was unfinished.
The movie functions on many different levels. One of the perspectives the movie offers is that we are all, like Edward Scissorhands, unfinished works of our Creator. We all have our peculiarities as well as our gifts. We all struggle to maintain our innocence in a corrupt world. We all experience both love and rejection. The challenge is to discern how, as broken, unfinished people, we can live in a way that reflects our God-given beauty and the many blessings God has freely given to us.
As we come to the table on World Communion Sunday I'd like to focus on some words God spoke to Jacob when he was commissioned for his life work at Bethel, words from Genesis 28:15 “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."
When we place our lives in God's hands then God promises to be with us. Wherever we are are, whatever we are doing, God promises not to leave us but stay with us till the end and beyond.
Jacob was by no means a finished work of God. At Bethel he had an amazing revelation; a vision of glory... angels reaching down to earth, a vision of people and places and possibilities... that would profoundly effect the rest of the life he lived on earth.
It was like that for the first disciples of Jesus. In Matthew 28, after the crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus meets with the eleven in Galilee. He commissions them with what seems like an impossible task; to make all people, all over the world, His disciples. Then He leaves them with this tremendous promise: “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 8:20 NIV)
It wasn't easy for the disciples. It wasn't easy for Jacob. They knew they were flawed. They knew they were unfinished works. They couldn't see exactly where things would lead them or how it was all going to work out. Their faith did not lie in what their flawed lives could achieve, but in the promises of God that God would be with them and that because they walked with God then beautiful things could be created though their brokenness.
In our lives, we sit in church on a Sunday, hear about and give assent to believing in our God. Then out we go into our daily worlds, and somehow the practice is never as easy as the theory. Nobody ever said it was meant to be easy. But God has said, that when we place our lives into His hands, He will be with us, in all things, through all things, to the end of all things.
Every time we meet around this table of Holy Communion, it is a time and a place to place our lives in God's care. Around this table is our Bethel, our meeting place, our place of promise.
Here is our opportunity to catch glimpses of angels, to muse over possibilities, to embrace the notion that out of brokenness can come beauty, that out of crucifixion can come resurrection, that when and where we are willing to be poured out then God's Spirit comes pouring in. Here at this table we can acknowledge that though our lives are unfinished symphonies the God of all Creation is conducting our journey.
God will complete the work Christ has begun within us. Like Jacob we are on a journey. We have reached this point because something of the grace and love and hope of glory has called us to this place. Like the disciples, Jesus is drawing us to Himself.
I know we all struggle with our brokenness. I know sometimes life brings dark and difficult days. Such experiences are common to us all. We are full of questions. We fight against our doubts. We battle against our habits. We seek release from our worries. Sometimes we feel as though we can't do right for doing wrong, that we are so close, but so very far away.
We have tough decisions to work through, hard choices to make. We know that our actions can be misinterpreted, our perspectives can be flawed, our aspirations can be misguided. We also know that God is calling us to something more, but struggle to visualize what that can possibly look like or what it may mean for our lives and our communities.
Take courage. God knows our situations. Stay close to God and God will see us through. That was God's promise to Jacob. Stay with me and we'll see things through to a glorious conclusion. Jacob had a glimpse of glory at Bethel. It moved him. It inspired him. Yet it was the days after Bethel that eventually defined his life. It was his continued faithfulness and struggle that led him home.
So it is with us. It seems we have never quite arrived, but we can find places of nurture along the way. This can be one of them. And at times we may never even get to see the results of what we have endeavored to achieve bear fruit. Sometimes we have to leave that to those who will come after us.
In 1823 the Graz music society made their annual award for excellence to a composer of the day. That year it turned out to be Franz Schubert. Schubert felt obliged to dedicate a symphony to them in return, and sent his friend Anselm Hüttenbrenner, a leading member of the Society, an orchestral score he had written the previous year. It consisted of two completed movements and the first two pages of the start of a third movement.. Symphonies, by the custom of the times, normally consisted of four movements.
Just a few years later, in 1828 Schubert unexpectedly passed away. As far as most music historians can discern he never completed a fourth movement and the third movement remained incomplete. Although it's official title was 'Symphony No. 8 in B minor' it became known after his death as the 'Unfinished Symphony'. Various composers have tried to recreate what the fourth movement may have sounded like, but the truth is that we can never know.
What we do know, is that despite it being unfinished it is still a very beautiful, and ground breaking, piece of music. It is sometimes called the first 'Romantic' symphony. It broke from the normal form of the day in terms of it's structure. It had an expressive melody, vivid harmonies and used combinations of orchestral tones that hadn't been tried before. Later composers would develop these ideas in symphonies that came after.
For many biblical characters there is a sense of their journey being unfinished. Moses never gets to see the promised land he strives to reach throughout his life. David never sees the temple of his dreams constructed. We know little about many of the earliest disciples of Jesus, other than through legends that have passed on throughout the ages. But none of that detracts from the power or the message of their lives.
Like Edward Scissorhands, we can be broken but beautiful. There are tasks for us to do and we may never know exactly how things are going to turn out. We are all unfinished symphonies, and can never truly know the impact of our stumbling attempts to live the kinds of lives we feel God is calling us to live.
But we can know this. God calls us to walk with Christ and offers to us the same promises as were offered to Jacob and to the first disciples. “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go... I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." (Genesis 28:15) “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 8:20).
Let us come to the table, and join with people all around the world, seeking for the presence of God to be our help and inspiration, for the love of Jesus to be our motive and guide and for the strength of the Holy Spirit to be our sustaining and empowering.
Rev. Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on October 6th 2013
A printable PDF file can be found here
One of actor Johnny Depp's earliest movies was an adult fairytale called 'Edward Scissorhands'. The story is about 'Edward' a 'boy' created by a benevolent scientist (actor Vincent Price's final movie appearance) who suffers a heart-attack during the creation process, leaving Edward as an unfinished human who instead of having hands, has scissors where his hands should be.
Edward is discovered in the ruins of the scientists Gothic mansion by the local Avon lady, who takes him home to live with her family. He turns out to have an uncommonly gentle nature and uses his seeming disability, his scissor-hands, to create things of great beauty. However, to cut a long story short, in the end Edward is rejected. He just doesn't fit in. He's too strange. If only he had real hands things may have been different. The Creators work was unfinished.
The movie functions on many different levels. One of the perspectives the movie offers is that we are all, like Edward Scissorhands, unfinished works of our Creator. We all have our peculiarities as well as our gifts. We all struggle to maintain our innocence in a corrupt world. We all experience both love and rejection. The challenge is to discern how, as broken, unfinished people, we can live in a way that reflects our God-given beauty and the many blessings God has freely given to us.
As we come to the table on World Communion Sunday I'd like to focus on some words God spoke to Jacob when he was commissioned for his life work at Bethel, words from Genesis 28:15 “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."
When we place our lives in God's hands then God promises to be with us. Wherever we are are, whatever we are doing, God promises not to leave us but stay with us till the end and beyond.
Jacob was by no means a finished work of God. At Bethel he had an amazing revelation; a vision of glory... angels reaching down to earth, a vision of people and places and possibilities... that would profoundly effect the rest of the life he lived on earth.
It was like that for the first disciples of Jesus. In Matthew 28, after the crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus meets with the eleven in Galilee. He commissions them with what seems like an impossible task; to make all people, all over the world, His disciples. Then He leaves them with this tremendous promise: “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 8:20 NIV)
It wasn't easy for the disciples. It wasn't easy for Jacob. They knew they were flawed. They knew they were unfinished works. They couldn't see exactly where things would lead them or how it was all going to work out. Their faith did not lie in what their flawed lives could achieve, but in the promises of God that God would be with them and that because they walked with God then beautiful things could be created though their brokenness.
In our lives, we sit in church on a Sunday, hear about and give assent to believing in our God. Then out we go into our daily worlds, and somehow the practice is never as easy as the theory. Nobody ever said it was meant to be easy. But God has said, that when we place our lives into His hands, He will be with us, in all things, through all things, to the end of all things.
Every time we meet around this table of Holy Communion, it is a time and a place to place our lives in God's care. Around this table is our Bethel, our meeting place, our place of promise.
Here is our opportunity to catch glimpses of angels, to muse over possibilities, to embrace the notion that out of brokenness can come beauty, that out of crucifixion can come resurrection, that when and where we are willing to be poured out then God's Spirit comes pouring in. Here at this table we can acknowledge that though our lives are unfinished symphonies the God of all Creation is conducting our journey.
God will complete the work Christ has begun within us. Like Jacob we are on a journey. We have reached this point because something of the grace and love and hope of glory has called us to this place. Like the disciples, Jesus is drawing us to Himself.
I know we all struggle with our brokenness. I know sometimes life brings dark and difficult days. Such experiences are common to us all. We are full of questions. We fight against our doubts. We battle against our habits. We seek release from our worries. Sometimes we feel as though we can't do right for doing wrong, that we are so close, but so very far away.
We have tough decisions to work through, hard choices to make. We know that our actions can be misinterpreted, our perspectives can be flawed, our aspirations can be misguided. We also know that God is calling us to something more, but struggle to visualize what that can possibly look like or what it may mean for our lives and our communities.
Take courage. God knows our situations. Stay close to God and God will see us through. That was God's promise to Jacob. Stay with me and we'll see things through to a glorious conclusion. Jacob had a glimpse of glory at Bethel. It moved him. It inspired him. Yet it was the days after Bethel that eventually defined his life. It was his continued faithfulness and struggle that led him home.
So it is with us. It seems we have never quite arrived, but we can find places of nurture along the way. This can be one of them. And at times we may never even get to see the results of what we have endeavored to achieve bear fruit. Sometimes we have to leave that to those who will come after us.
In 1823 the Graz music society made their annual award for excellence to a composer of the day. That year it turned out to be Franz Schubert. Schubert felt obliged to dedicate a symphony to them in return, and sent his friend Anselm Hüttenbrenner, a leading member of the Society, an orchestral score he had written the previous year. It consisted of two completed movements and the first two pages of the start of a third movement.. Symphonies, by the custom of the times, normally consisted of four movements.
Just a few years later, in 1828 Schubert unexpectedly passed away. As far as most music historians can discern he never completed a fourth movement and the third movement remained incomplete. Although it's official title was 'Symphony No. 8 in B minor' it became known after his death as the 'Unfinished Symphony'. Various composers have tried to recreate what the fourth movement may have sounded like, but the truth is that we can never know.
What we do know, is that despite it being unfinished it is still a very beautiful, and ground breaking, piece of music. It is sometimes called the first 'Romantic' symphony. It broke from the normal form of the day in terms of it's structure. It had an expressive melody, vivid harmonies and used combinations of orchestral tones that hadn't been tried before. Later composers would develop these ideas in symphonies that came after.
For many biblical characters there is a sense of their journey being unfinished. Moses never gets to see the promised land he strives to reach throughout his life. David never sees the temple of his dreams constructed. We know little about many of the earliest disciples of Jesus, other than through legends that have passed on throughout the ages. But none of that detracts from the power or the message of their lives.
Like Edward Scissorhands, we can be broken but beautiful. There are tasks for us to do and we may never know exactly how things are going to turn out. We are all unfinished symphonies, and can never truly know the impact of our stumbling attempts to live the kinds of lives we feel God is calling us to live.
But we can know this. God calls us to walk with Christ and offers to us the same promises as were offered to Jacob and to the first disciples. “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go... I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." (Genesis 28:15) “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 8:20).
Let us come to the table, and join with people all around the world, seeking for the presence of God to be our help and inspiration, for the love of Jesus to be our motive and guide and for the strength of the Holy Spirit to be our sustaining and empowering.
Rev. Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
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