From the Pastor |
2 Samuel 6: 1-15
Today we have a story that seems a little strange. In our Old Testament reading we are told about how the Ark of the Covenant was being returned to the Israelites. During the reign of King Saul, the Ark of the Covenant was used as a talisman. The Israelites often carried it into battle to ensure a successful outcome. Like a very big good luck charm. However on one occasion, it was taken to battle and lost to the Philistines who remained in possession of it for 20 years. One of David’s first acts as king was to see that it was returned. Thirty thousand men of Israel were assembled for this purpose; only instead of suiting up for war, they went on a holy pilgrimage. They retrieved the Ark and placed it on a new cart accompanied by a procession of Israelites celebrating the Ark's return. This was the beginning of trouble, because there were rules in place… the Ark was to be carried, by designated people, on poles threaded through the rings on its side as stated in the law. As a result a man dies along the way. David gets angry, and then scared, and he leaves the Ark behind for 3 months. Then David hears how the house where the Ark was left has been blessed, and David overcomes his fear and remembers that it was God’s blessings he wanted for all the people of Israel. So he went back and brought the ark into Jerusalem and with it the power of God. Now, history had demonstrated that the presence of God was so powerful that lives were at stake. There was supposed to be specific protocols of respect for the Lord… This had been forgotten. David forgot about the rules that said to treat the ark with the utmost respect, to not touch it, to carry it in a certain way, with poles, with reverence, not on some cart. But not the second time around. This time… When he retrieved the Ark… David did it right. And not only did David worship and celebrate… but David danced before the Ark with all his might. What David remembered, and what we need to remember too, is that the presence of God is a blessing and is to be celebrated, even in the midst of all of its power. “David danced before the LORD with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.” David was King but there was no private, quiet, dignified worship for him. NOOO… He led the way with trumpets and dancing. In fact, the verses that follow this reading tell us that it was such a spectacle that his wife reprimanded him for it telling him that it was an embarrassment that a king would act in such a manner. But David simply reminded her that he was celebrating before the Lord who had chosen him to be king. When was the last time you worshipped the Lord by truly celebrating… with joy and exuberant praise? When was the last time you jumped to your feet… cried out Alleluia and danced before God? Can you even imagine dancing before the Lord… let alone with all your might? Definitely seems like a strange concept considering the debates we have simply over what music is “appropriate” in church. Classic traditional hymns vs. contemporary selections, pipe organ or praise band. But Dancing? That would make so many people in our churches cringe like David’s wife… its inappropriate… undignified… unheard of. Maybe the problem for us is that we have forgotten that when the community gathers together for worship, we gather in the very presence of the Holy and Living God. Instead of celebrating this amazing fact, we play it safe… we restrain ourselves and become spectators instead of full-fledged participants. We tend to turn worship into a routine event… one that fills an hour and maybe even entertains us a bit. The problem is that when we do this… it makes our time of worship about US… NOT about celebrating and praising God. We fail to connect with the God who created us, loves us and sustains us. We need to spend time truly worshiping God in spirit and in truth. We live in our heads much of the time these days... there are times we need to just let loose… to let the problems of this world slip away as we rejoice and celebrate in the Lord. Our God is amazing and more powerful than we can ever imagine… God is mighty and is to be feared… we stand in awe of this powerful deity… the Lord of all creation… and yet, this is the God of love and grace… worthy to be praised… the God of mystery to be worshipped and celebrated. Like David we need to dance before the Lord with all our might. We need to come before the Lord with an air of celebration and joy. Now I am not suggesting we all get up and do the Hokey Pokey, but worshipping God is more than coming to church and sitting (sometimes sleeping) in the pews. We need to joyfully, exuberantly praise God with our whole selves. Our celebrations reveal the God of love and joy to the world around us… and as we celebrate and rejoice before God we pass on the inheritance of our faith to the generations yet to come. We are to celebrate the love and grace we have received through Jesus the Christ. We are to express our gratitude because the Christian life is a life of joy and celebration. When our lives are touched by the love of God, God’s grace flows into our hearts and enable us to better demonstrate God’s love to the world around us through our acts of compassion and grace to others... providing a channel for love and healing. It is through our worship of God that we can become a visible symbol of God’s presence to others outside these walls. Let is remember that life is a gift from God… a joyous dance and Jesus our savior is the Lord of the Dance!! If our hearts are moved, so our bodies, our lips, our voices and our very lives will be. So “Dance, then, wherever you may be, I am the Lord of the Dance, said he, And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be, And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said he” Dance and Let all the world see God within you.
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Deuteronomy 10:12 –13, 17–21 & Galatians 5: 1, 4-6, 13-15
The Pentateuch… the 1st 5 books of our Old Testament, contain the Torah… the Law of God revealed through Moses to the Hebrew people. The book of Deuteronomy is basically a final listing of God’s Laws. Moses gives this final listing as the people, who have been delivered from their time of oppression and slavery in Egypt, are poised to finally enter into the Promised Land. Through the grace and mercy of God, they have been granted their freedom and have entered into a covenant with their God… their deliverer. “So now… what does the Lord your God require…” of the people who would become Israel? Now that they have their freedom and have agreed to be God’s chosen people? After all… the Lord your God is God of gods… mighty and awesome… impartial and fair. The God who will not only elevate Israel to the status of “chosen” and blessed, but will deal with all nations fairly and equally. The God who has promised to execute justice for widows and orphans and strangers… in other words the least and lowest of society… the God who is caring enough to provide for their needs… whose people are called to do the same. So what does God require of them? What requirements does freedom bring? Only this… “Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God…” Simple right? Except that the Torah contains over 600 laws. 600! That seems a bit daunting to me. It proved to be difficult for the people of Israel as well. We see this throughout the remainder of the Old Testament… Especially from the prophets. They tried… but time and time again they failed to follow even the basic command to love and worship ONLY the God of Israel. And they paid the price. If that wasn’t bad enough, by the times of Jesus, the laws had been twisted … the religious leaders had imposed so many rules, restrictions and regulations around them that had made it very difficult for the people to succeed in following them. It was like they were set up to fail. They became, what Paul referred to as slaves to the law… They were bound and chained to the letter of the law. But thankfully, Jesus did come… Jesus taught the word of God… he preached the ways of God and he demonstrated through his living what it was to truly follow the commands of the Lord. He revealed a God who was not scary and looking to condemn… but a God who was Love. A God who was looking to reconnect with all people and save all the people. This is why when he was asked which command was the greatest he replied: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” [Matt. 22: 37-40] See… Jesus came to break the chains that bound the people to the strict letter of the law… from what Paul refers to as the “yoke of the law.” Jesus simplified things for us… he put the laws into the proper perspective. You see… when we look at those 600+ laws… they can all be broken into 3 categories. 1. Loving and Worshiping God 2. Loving and caring for yourself 3. Loving and caring for your neighbors… It is in following these simplified commands that freedom can be found. After all… the law was never meant to bind people in chains… the law was meant to set them free. Free to live… free to love… free to serve God and others. Jesus came to provide freedom. But it is not the kind of freedom that implies personal independence; the ability to do whatever we want, whenever we want. That is not the freedom that Jesus promised. Think about it… Jesus did not come to end the oppression of the Roman Empire… he did not drive out the enemy… Yet Jesus came to bring True Freedom. Jesus was not setting us free to do whatever we wanted; He was freeing us to do what we ought to do. After all… Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” [John 8: 31-32] The truth Jesus taught was the truth of love, compassion, justice and mercy… Christ’s truth calls his followers to share love, light and life with others… to Love God and Neighbor and one another and even the enemy… because the only thing that matters is faith working in love. That is the message Paul provides… “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.” [Gal. 5:13] So now that we have been set free… what does God requires of us? What does our freedom require? Only that we “fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God.” That has not changed… what has changed is that we are no longer chained by the letter of the law… “the only thing that counts is faith working through love”. To be truly free, to experience the freedom Christ brings, is to be able to move beyond the self… beyond the idea of me, me, me… and instead to focus on love and service to others. True freedom is what you get when you live your life in loving service to others. The only way to truly find freedom is to give yourself away in love. For “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free…. [so] serve one another humbly in love” utilizing the “fruit of the Spirit… love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 2 Samuel 1: 17-27 & Mark 5: 21-43
Have you ever noticed how much “us versus them” thinking has affected our world? Our society? Our churches? It seems to be a part of who we are as human beings. We love our friends and hate our enemies. We are accepting of those who are like us and separate ourselves from those who are different. We draw lines… creating boundaries… across racial, socio-economic, political, national, religious, sexual, and generational lines… withholding dignity, respect, compassion and generosity… preferring to “save” those things for people who are like “us”… not “them”. These divisions… this “us vs. them” mentality is what leads to so many of the problems in the world. It leads us to becoming violent against those we perceive as enemies. It causes us to celebrate the downfall of those we oppose. It can cause us to dent grace and service to anyone we may feel does not deserve or warrant it. We exploit… neglect or outright ignore those who are different or who cannot offer anything in return. The problem for us, as Followers of Christ, is that the Gospel message, and our readings for today, not only speak out against this behavior… but challenge us all to change. And you know how much we all love change! C.S. Lewis, is said to have been one of the intellectual giants of the early 20th century and was a very influential writer and theologian. One Day, he walked in on an academic discussion about what made Christianity distinctive from other religions of the world. The men present could not decide what truly set it apart from the rest. So, they asked Lewis what he thought. He paused only a moment and said, “That’s easy, it’s grace.” Grace is what truly sets the Christian religion apart from all others. Grace is unmerited favor… it is being granted something we simply do not deserve. Grace reveals the goodness of God, and the only condition of grace is that we show up and accept what God is giving. And Grace is what is we see in our readings today. You see… in our reading from 2 Samuel, David mourns the passing of Saul and Jonathon. Now it is not at all surprising that David mourns Jonathan. The two shared a close, loving relationship, but he also grieves for King Saul… the man who has persecuted and drove him from his home, but who spent years trying to kill him. His lament over Saul’s death is shocking. David even goes so far as to remind the people that Saul was their king… God’s chosen… even if he had fallen from God’s ways. He orders then to learn the song he sings and honor Saul. TO remember that his leadership had not been all bad. Talk about compassion… talk about Grace. Saul did not deserve David’s forgiveness… most of us would agree his actions did not deserve honor and respect. Yet he received these things from David. And that is the thing we need to remember. There are 2 dimensions to grace: 1. There is Vertical Grace. That is the grace that we receive from God… Grace that comes down from God to you and me. 2. There is Horizontal Grace. That is the grace we extend out to others. That’s right… we are not only recipients of grace… we are givers of grace as well. But WHO are we to offer grace to? That is where the Gospel comes in because Jesus demonstrates grace in our healing stories. These are not two simple stories of healing… one imbedded within the other. No, Mark has carefully assembled this dual story to make a point. That God’s grace is available to all people. Let’s look at both the women who received healing. The daughter of Jairus is a young… 12 years old… she is the daughter of a prominent leader of the synagogue. Her father is rich and powerful… and he comes to Jesus begging for him to bring healing upon hus daughter. She is a child of privilege who has her whole life ahead of her. Going to heal her at the father’s request is within the bounds of social propriety. However, when we look at the story tucked in the middle of this one… we see a completely different scenario. Here we find a woman who has been bleeding for 12 years. All of Jarius’ daughter’s life this woman has suffered. “She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.” Now we have to remember that a, under the Jewish law, a woman is considered unclean for about 2 weeks of every month, the week of her menstrual cycle and the week following needed for purification. Any man who came into contact with her or anything she touched would also be rendered “unclean”. So this nameless woman is alone, destitute AND an outcast… and she is DESPARATE. She hears about Jesus and decides to take matters into her own hands… breaking the bounds of what was socially and religiously appropriate by daring to reach out in faith to touch the hem of Jesus’ robe. She had to be terrified when Jesus noticed and called her out for doing so. I mean… she could be stoned for such a transgression and she had no one to plead her case. He was not angered by this woman who, by the religious laws, had just made him “unclean” by touching him… instead “He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” Then he went on his way and healed to daughter of Jarius. You see, Jesus… well… Jesus defied convention… he crossed every cultural boundary… he was a friend to women and honored children. He spent time with outcasts and sinners… with Samaritans and lepers. He offered grace to everyone who needed it no matter their background, status or position in society. Remember… grace is getting what we do not deserve. And as Christians we are called to offer grace to others… underserving though they may be… just as we have received grace from God… underserving though WE be. Grace is what makes us who we are as followers of Jesus. Grace is what motivates us to respond with love and joy and hope. However, Grace is dangerous. It pulls us away from business as usual. It goes against the status quo. Grace looks beyond our success, our appearance, our race or ethnicity… it ignores our accomplishments, and our failures… even our politics. Grace recognizes there is more to you and who you are than what you have done or left undone. Grace seeks unity and inclusion. Showing grace to others is about showing love and kindness and forgiveness to others even when they don’t deserve it. It is forgiving and mourning the death of one who has persecuted you as David did. It is offering help and healing to all even if society deems them unworthy. This is exactly the grace God has shown us. We are called to show grace to one another… especially to those who are undeserving. Our scriptures encourage us to put our trust in God. The God who offers salvation and forgiveness… mercy and love… even though we certainly do not deserve it… Our God who offers grace freely despite our tendency toward unfaithfulness, sin and rebellion. We are called to live with generosity, forgiveness, care and concern for others… no matter who they are or what they deserve. Called to share God’s grace, and love. Unfortunately, the truth is that our failure have led to so much division, suffering and insecurity in our homes, communities, and countries. By focusing on “us” and failing to offer grace, love and forgiveness to “them”… we have failed to live as Disciples of Christ… because Grace seeks unity and inclusion for all people. However, when we are willing to look past the differences and offer love, acceptance, forgiveness, generosity and understanding to those who are different, or unworthy… we offer grace and a glimpse of the loving, peaceful Kingdom of God. If we can be more like David and honor and respect those who have wronged us… when we act like Jesus and treat both rich and poor, deserving and undeserving with equal grace and dignity… when we are willing to share what we have with others… the world becomes a friendlier, more compassionate, more gracious, and more secure place for all. Just as we don't deserve God's grace, love and forgiveness, someone you know probably does not deserve yours. But that doesn't matter… offering grace, love and forgiveness is what we are commanded to do. Loving enemies, strangers and outcasts is never easy, but it remains a central call of the Gospel message, and a central mark of the truly Christ-centered life. SO… who needs your grace today? Amen. |
Yeon Shin
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