Biblical Limericks: Some Doubted

On Galilee’s mountain they shouted,
the disciples had seen death routed.
The eleven were true
followers of Jesu;
they worshipped, but some of them doubted.

Matthew 28: 16 – 17

Evensong and Darth Vader at the National Cathedral

We visited the National Cathedral today. I am somewhat ambivalent about the "National" Cathedral. I worry that any church that ties itself to the state is compromised. The Church (with a capital C) does not belong to any nation. I did, however, appreciate that the tour guides and service leaders affirmed to the folks visiting that "this is your cathedral."

We took the tour, visited the gift shop (where I bought a book of poems based on the gargoyles and grotesques of the cathedral (one of which is Darth Vader)). Then we stayed for the Evensong service by the choir.

Biblical Limericks: In “God” We Trust

Here is something we should examine
whether we’re ‘Merican or Roman:
it is frustrating and odd
that we can’t worship God
while given in service to Mammon.

Matthew 6: 24

Blasphemy and the Donald

I don’t like to throw around the word “Blasphemy”; it is used far too casually. But this video endorsement President-Elect Donald Trump is the most blasphemous thing I’ve seen in quite a while:

“Every critic, every detractor will have to bow down to President Trump. It’s everyone who’s ever doubted Donald, whoever disagreed, whoever challenged him. It is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe.”

Omarosa has (mis)appropriated the biblical language of the worship of God (Romans 14:11, Philippians 2:10) and applied to “the Donald.” This is blasphemy or I don’t know what is.


And, is anyone else concerned that becoming president of the United States is equated with revenge?  This is blasphemous and dangerous territory. 

Vinegar Ants

What’s that – there on the sidewalk?
Sparkling glass fragments among limp green spears,
a broken jar of pickles smashed upon the concrete.
Dali would be pleased.

            Now shift

Nurses rush in every hour
to observe and record your passive aggressive manipulations:
“See how much I endure! Now give me what I want!”
Security is called.  You’re too much.

            Shift again

This Sunday schizophrenia isn’t worship;
its chatter, its noise.  If you could be silent but a moment
all voices would cease, save the thunder of God,
rolling and booming at the horizon of your soul.

            And again

Step cautious, now to avoid
the vinegar ants swarming toward our feet.
This day’s been weird enough already
without being consumed by them.

We Are One

We are one in the Spirit, yes
and one in the Lord,
one blood, one body,
one love between us all

and yet I am alone

Shared faith and uniform
is not a shared experience
I do not know what you mean
when you say the Spirit moved

We move together
pray together
sing together

and yet I am alone
from you
from God

You are joyful, arms raised to heaven
what can I raise except doubt
and longing

but I am here
and you are here
and God is here

and we are one

The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the Worshipping Community

This is a sermon I wrote several years ago and recently rediscovered in going back through some of my files. I still like it, though if I were writing or delivering it today, I would say more about the probable origins of the book of Joshua during the reign of Josiah.

***

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) is a unique B-Movie science-fiction / horror / comedy / rock–n-roll musical based on the stage musical of the same name. It appears on the silver screen complete with the obligatory mad scientist -Dr. Frankenfurter- in a lonely castle, the “creature” created in the laboratory, aliens from another planet, and the infamous Time Warp dance.

It's astounding

Time is fleeting

Madness takes its toll

But listen closely

Not for very much longer

I've got to keep control.

I remember doing the Time Warp.

Drinking those moments when

The blackness would hit me.

And the void would be calling,
"Let's do the Time Warp again."

It has often been described as a “Cult Film” – the word “cult” as opposed to “occult” (which actually means “hidden” but is usually used to mean something to do with the demonic or satanic – though the argument could be made that the R.H.P.S is that too) Cult means worship and a religious group. And in some sense this is truly a “cult” film.

Millions of people around the world come together at midnight at local theatres to participate in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. They are a diverse group, male – female - transgendered, young and old, but they share an attraction to the movie.

It really is unlike all other movies. When the lights go down in the theatre for other films, the audience sits quietly in their seat watching as the actors on the screen enact a story. When the lights go up, the audience goes home. But when the lights go down for the midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show something entirely different begins. The audience doesn’t passively sit back to watch the film.

They, instead, begin to participate in the story.

Many of them have already arrived at the theatre dressed in the costumes of the various characters – each more outlandish than the last. And they’ve brought with them some props (lighters, rice, rubber gloves, etc…) to use during the show. When the young couple on screen gets married at the beginning of the film, the audience (both on screen and in the theatre) throws rice. When the Mad Scientist snaps his rubber gloves, the audience snaps theirs as well. They recite the lines with the actors on screen – and they interject  lines of their own – interacting and participating with the story… the audience becomes a part of The Rocky Horror Picture Show - even to the point that some members of the audience enact the entire show at the front of the theatre below the screen, as the movie plays above them.

It’s a story that (no matter how depraved) they feel that they connect with, and feel a part of. It is a story of weirdoes, misfits, and outsiders, and the fans of the R.H.P.S at some level feel that they, too, are weirdoes, misfits, and outsiders, so the R.H.P.S is a celebration of what they see in themselves.

Through their interaction and participation in the movie they worship at the theatre (and, it’s important to remember, all theatre began as religious ceremony) in the cult of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. They participate in the cultic worship the film is their sacred text. They have memorized its verses and they sing its hymns.

What they are worshipping, of course, is their own self, and the fulfillment of their own desires for unrestrained freedom (particularly sexual freedom) without constraints of any kind; moral or ethical.

Give yourself over to absolutely pleasure

Swim the warm waters of sins of the flesh

Erotic nightmares

Beyond any measure

And sensual daydreams

To treasure forever.

But we're not here to celebrate the R.H.P.S.  So why do I bring it up? Because of the way it can help us to understand what happened with the people of Israel as they renewed their covenant with Yahweh, and what happened after Joshua died. The fans of the R.H.P.S are not like other movie goers. The story is THEIR story – made so by their interaction with and participation in the sacred text / film. The same is true in the way that Joshua and the people of Israel renew their covenant.

In chapter 24 of Joshua the Israelites had conquered, divided up, and settled in the land. But now as Joshua is preparing to leave the people; for he is old and ready to die, he orders a national assembly: The tribes gathered at Shechem along with their elders, leaders, judges, and officials, and they, as a whole body, presented themselves in God’s presence.

And Joshua began to tell a story. Their story.

From time immemorial, your ancestors Terah, father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River, and served other gods. Then I brought your ancestor Abraham from beyond the River and led him through the length and breadth of Canaan. I increased his descendents and I gave him Isaac. To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I gave possession of the mountainous country of Sier.

Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. I then sent Moses and Aaron, and plagued Egypt with the wonders that I worked there; finally I brought you. I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and you came to the Sea; the Egyptians pursued your ancestors with chariots and horsemen, to the Sea of Reeds.

Note that: “finally I brought YOU out… YOU came to the Sea…”

The people that Joshua is speaking to were NOT the people who came out of Egypt, not the people who came to the Reed Sea. That generation of Israelites had perished in the wilderness during the 40 years of wandering because of their refusal to obey Yahweh. Yet Joshua deliberately says, “YOU.” Yahweh brought YOU out of Egypt.

They then called to Yahweh, and he spread a thick fog between you and the Egyptians, and made the sea go back on them and cover them.

You saw with your own eyes what I did in Egypt. Then, for a long while, you lived in the desert. I then brought you into the country of the Amorites, who used to live on the further side of the Jordan; they made war on you and I put them at your mercy; after which, you took possession of their country, since I destroyed them before you. Next, Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, rose to make war on Israel, and sent for Balaam son of Beor to come and curse you. But I would not listen to Balaam; instead he had to bless you, and I saved you from his power.

This is not just a story from Israelite History 101. This sacred story is THEIR story – even if they hadn’t been born when it happened, they are becoming a part of it through Joshua’s telling.

“You then crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho, but the inhabitants of Jericho made war on you: Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivities, and Jebusites, and I put them all at your mercy. I sent hornets ahead of you, which drove out the two Amorites kings before you; this was not the work of your sword or of your bow. And now I have given you a country for which you have not toiled, towns you have not built, although you live in them, vineyards and olive groves you have not planted, although you eat their fruit.

Many of those who gathered for this national assembly probably didn’t remember these events either. They had been born in and had grown up in the Promised Land. They did not remember the crossing of the Jordan or the fall of Jericho – but they are becoming a part of the story… YOU… This is their sacred story.

So now, fear Yahweh and serve him truly and sincerely; banish the gods whom your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt and serve Yahweh. But if serving Yahweh seems a bad thing to you, today you must make up your minds whom you mean to serve, whether the gods whom your ancestor served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are now living. As regards my family and me, we shall serve Yahweh.

The people replied, ‘far be it from us to desert Yahweh and serve other gods! Yahweh our God was the one who brought us and our ancestors here from Egypt, from the place of our slave labor, who worked those great wonders before our eyes and who kept us safe all along the way we traveled and among all the peoples through whom we passed. And Yahweh has driven all the nations out for us, including the Amorites who used to live in this country. We too shall serve Yahweh, for He is our God.”

They have become a part of the story – they are interacting with it. “Yahweh was the one who brought US out of slavery….from the place of OUR slave labor.” They could not physically remember the cruel lashes of the Egyptians whips on their backs – but through the story they can feel that pain. Through the story they can sense the awe and wonder of the plague and wonders Yahweh inflicted on Egypt. They can feel the amazement of seeing the walls of water part before them. And as they remember the story – they begin to participate in the ongoing story, “We too shall serve Yahweh, for he is our God.”

Through the story they have connected with the God of their ancestors. The stories are not dusty rehearsals of long forgotten events, but life-changing in their immediate relevance.

Joshua then said to the people, “You will not be able to serve Yahweh, since he is a holy God; he is a jealous God who will not tolerate either your misdeeds or your sins. If you desert Yahweh and serve the foreigners’ gods, he will turn and maltreat you anew and, in spite of having been good to you in the past, will destroy you.’

The people replied to Joshua, “No! Yahweh is the one we mean to serve.’

Joshua then said to the people: You are witnesses to yourselves that you have chosen Yahweh, to serve him.’

They replied, “Witnesses we are!”

“Then banish the foreign gods which you have with you and give your allegiance to Yahweh, God of Israel!”

The people replied to Joshua, ‘Yahweh our God is the one whom we shall serve; his voice we shall obey!”

That day Joshua made a covenant for the people; he laid down a statute and ordinance for them at Shechem. Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. The then took a large stone and set it up there, under the oak tree in Yahweh’s Sanctuary. Joshua then said to all the people, “Look, this stone will be a witness to us, since it has heard all the words that Yahweh has spoken to us; it will be a witness against you, in case you should deny your God.’ Joshua then dismissed the people, everyone to his own heritage.

The people, through their participation in the story of God’s deliverance of Israel, became the worshipping and covenantal community of God. The story of deliverance was their story. And the God of their ancestors was THEIR God.

Unfortunately it didn’t continue…

Joshua having dismissed the people, the Israelites then went away, each one to his own heritage, to occupy the country. The people served Yahweh throughout the lifetime of Joshua and throughout the lifetime of those elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the great deeds which Yahweh had done for the sake of Israel. Joshua son of Nun, servant of Yahweh, was one hundred and ten years old when he died. … And when that whole generation had been gathered to its ancestors, another generation followed it which neither knew Yahweh nor the deeds which he had done for the sake of Israel. Judges 2: 6 – 10

The generation that had participated in the crossing of the Jordan, and those who had seen the walls of Jericho topple died, and “went the way of all the earth,” and those who grew up after them, who could not remember the crossing of the Jordan, or the fall of the walls of Jericho – let alone the crossing of the Sea of Reeds or the slavery of Egypt – no longer participated in the story of deliverance.

They had forgotten the story. They no longer participated in it, and they no longer participated in the worship of God. As they forgot the story, they forgot their place in the covenant; just as Joshua predicted they would.

Why do we gather to worship? What’s the point? Are we here like people at a theatre who want only to passively watch a story performed on the screen in front of us? Or are we here like the fans of the Rocky Horror Picture Show – who, as misguided as their worship is, are frantic participants in the story; making it their story?

Our worship is not just listening to scripture as it is read, or the praying of prayers, or the singing of songs and hymns. We are here to make the Salvation Story, the story of Redemption, the story of how God rescues his people OUR story – to become one with the story, and to participate in the covenant community.

If the story becomes a dull recitation of things long ago – or merely something we do on Sunday mornings – irrelevant to our everyday lives, then we are in danger of forgetting OUR place in the ancient story. And when we’ve forgotten our place in the story, we’re forgetting our place in the covenant of God.

(words and music from the Rocky Horror Picture Show by Richard O'Brien)

Pentecost Worship Ideas and Bonus Free Background Image

This is something that I've done off and on for Pentecost Sundays in the past several years.  I tape red, yellow, and orange (this year orange, yellow, and pink) streamers to a fan.  Thus you have both the sound of the rushing wind and the tongues of fire.




























And - BONUS - here is an additional free background image for use in Powerpoint (or similar presentation program) for Pentecost.  You're free to download it and to use it in your own projects at home, work, school, or church.  I only ask that you share it freely and that you tell others that you found it here.

The Lord’s Breakfast

It is often noted that the meal of bread and fish that the resurrected Jesus shared with his disciples on the shore of the sea of Tiberias (John 21) is a sort of eucharistic meal - but it's rarely celebrated that way in churches.  So I've taken it upon myself to draft an Order of Worship for "The Lord's Breakfast."  I have used this book as a guide/template.

What do you think?  

THE OFFERTORY
All Standing

Minister: Beloved in Christ, the Gospel of John tells us that the resurrected Jesus appeared to his disciples by the Sea of Tiberius, and was made known to them in the sharing of bread and fish.  Come then to the joyful feast of the Lord.  Let us prepare his table with the offerings of our life and labor.

During the Offertory, a Hymn or Psalm may be sung.  Representatives of the congregation will receive and bring to the table the gifts of bread and fish, and other offerings of the people.

Minister: O LORD, yours is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory and the majesty:

People: For all that is in heaven and in earth is yours.

Minister: Yours is the Kingdom, O Lord,

People: And you are exalted as Shepherd over all.

THE THANKSGIVING

All Standing

Minister:  The Lord be with you.

People:  And also with you.

Minister:  Lift up your hearts.
People:  We lift them up.

Minister: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
People: It is truly right to do so.

Minister:  We give you thanks, holy Father, almighty and eternal God, always and everywhere through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, by whom you made the world and all things living and beautiful.

Minister: Holy Father, most glorious and gracious God, we give you thanks that our Savior Jesus  Christ, after he suffered and died and was raised up again, gave us this memorial of this work. For on that morning he welcomed his disciples and friends to join him on the seashore for a meal of fish and bread, reminding them that he is the Bread of Life for he said: “The bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world,” and, “He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Minister and People:

His death, O God, we proclaim.
His resurrection we declare.
The life he gives we receive.
Glory be to you, O Lord.

THE BREAKING OF BREAD

After period of silence, the Ministers shall break the bread and fish in preparation, during which time the following may be said or sung:

Minister: The fish that we share, is it not a sharing in the Kingdom of God?

People:  Because there are many fish but there is one Kingdom.

Minister: The bread which we break, is it not a sharing in the Body of Christ?
People: Because there is but one bread, and we who are many are one body.

THE MEAL

Before the Minister and people receive the elements, the following may be said or sung:

Minister: Alleluia.  Christ our Redeemer is risen for us.
People: Therefore let us keep the feast. Alleluia.

Minister: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

People:  Hosanna in the highest.

Minister:  The gifts of God for the people of God.

Then shall be said, either to the whole congregation or to each individual participant, by the Minister who gives the fish:

                The Fish that Jesus shared with his friends.

And by the Minister who gives the bread:

                The Bread of Heaven, given that we might have life.

During the mealtime, silence may be kept, or Hymns, Psalms and Anthems may be sung.

AN ACT OF LOVE

All standing

Minister:  Lord, let us know and love you and may we feed your lambs.

People:  Lord, let us know and love you and may we feed your lambs.

Minister and People:  Lord, let us know and love you and may we feed your lambs.

THE DISMISSAL

All standing

Minister: Go out into the world in peace.  Be strong and of good courage. Follow the Lord.  Love and serve him by caring for his people wherever you may find them.

People: Amen.

Come, Buy, Eat - A video for the Bread of Life

I made this little video for our Sunday worship service - we'll be focusing on the 'Bread of Life' discourse in John chapter six.  There's nothing really special about the video, no great special effects.  But I know that different people learn in different ways. Some people learn by watching. Some by hearing. Some by doing...
We try to include a variety of expressions in our worship so that everyone (hopefully) can feel comfortable in at least some part of the program.

This video is for those who find a plain 'reading' of scripture to be boring.  (Though, it will not be quite as beneficial to those who illiterate or visually impaired...)

Inspiration or Desperation?

I struggled all last week to write my sermon for this morning.  I read and re-read the text. I took notes and wrote down questions.  But nothing happened.  Whatever process or inspiration that usually works within me as I prepare to preach on Sunday did not happen this week.  No words. No thoughts. No ideas.  Nothing.

As Sunday loomed nearer and still nothing was coming out, I prepared myself to re-use an old sermon. I’ve saved many of my previous sermons (the ones I’ve felt were worth saving) and considered the possibility of using a “canned” sermon.  I’ve done that on occasion… not often, but when I’ve been overworked or out of town it has come down to just this – reusing one of my old sermons.

I don’t use other people’s sermons.  There are many wonderful preachers, but if reusing my sermons is a bit of a cheat, then using someone else’s work (even with credit) is even more so. 

At about 11:30 last night my wife asked me if I was ready.  I smiled weakly and said, “No. Not at all.”  Even as I walked into the church building this morning I was still blank. I had nothing and I knew it. I felt like an idiot.

For whatever reason, the attendance this morning was sparse – only a few of our congregation members were in the pews as we began the service.  And in the snarky part of my mind I said to myself, “well, at least I didn’t waste all that time preparing a sermon.”

And then something moved. I don’t know if it was inspiration or desperation.  Perhaps it was both. Instead of speaking from the pulpit, I moved down among the pews and began to speak a blessing over those in attendance.   I asked God to bless each of them personally and specifically. 

This seemed good to me – and to those few who were in attendance.  There was a positive reaction.  (Whether or not it was merely an emotional reaction, I cannot say…) 

Either way – desperation or inspiration – it was a good worship service.

At least I hope that God considers it so.

Ante-Nicene Fathers – Epistle to Diognetus – Christians are the Soul of the World

I have been packing these books with me for the last few years as I’ve moved from place to place.  I have ‘consulted’ them occasionally as I’ve prepared for sermons or bible studies.  I’ve double checked quotes and context of quotes from them as I’ve encountered them in other books I’ve read.  But, to date, I haven’t read these volumes.  And I’ve decided to change that.  I’ve made it my goal to read through the 10 volumes of the Ante-Nicene Fathers (that is, the writings of the Church Father before the council of Nicea.)

The second writing contained in the first volume is the Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus.

This little work is one of the earliest examples of Christian apologetics (not an “I’m sorry” but a “defense” of Christianity).  The author remains anonymous to us; “Mathetes” is not really a name, it simply means “a disciple.”  And, likewise, the recipient is unknown.  It contains 10 short ‘chapters’ (and two more extra chapters that seem to have been added later…)

The letter was written to persuade Diognetus that Christianity, though relatively new among world religions and so unlike other contemporary religions, is worthy of his investigation and acceptance.

The disciple begins by demonstrating the worthlessness of idol worship.  They are, he argues, made of stone, brass, silver, iron, and earthenware – all of which are corruptible materials, subject to rot and tarnish.  And they are all, quite obviously, the work of human hands, fashioned by smiths and carpenters and sculptors. And, what is more, these things are all completely senseless.  They cannot hear or see their worshippers.  They are lifeless. They are incapable of motion or emotion.  They are locked in rooms (to prevent them from being stolen) and all their food and drink is brought to them. If these are gods, they are pitiful. The disciple argues that no human would subject himself to the kind of trapped kind of existence these supposed gods endure. 

The disciple then turns and says that while Jews, like Christians, avoid this kind of worthless worship Christianity should not be likened to the Jewish “superstion.” 

Now, the editor of this particular set of volumes has written in his introductory remarks for this letter said that “Mathetes was possibly a catechumen of St. Paul or one of the apostle’s associates.”[i] But I can’t imagine Paul describing the Jewish faith in the way that Mathetes does; Mathetes seems to share the hostility towards “the Jews” of the sectarian John.  (And while the name “Jesus” and the title “the Christ” are never used in Mathetes’ letter to Diognetus, he does use John’s terms “the Word” and “only-begotten Son.”)

Christians, says the disciple, are unlike any other group; they are “distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe.”[ii]

They live in all parts of the world, speak different languages, follow the various customs and laws of the lands where they live, but they not subsumed into these cultures.

“As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as foreigners.  Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers…They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven.” And because they are so foreign and so strange, they are persecuted by everyone: “They are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.” [iii]

And then Mathetes makes the most astounding statement:

“What the soul is in the body, that Christians are in the world.”[iv]

I doubt that this argument would bear much weight today – that those who hate Christianity can find no reason for their hatred and that Christianity is the immaculate and incorruptible soul of the world.  We’ve too much scandal and violence in our Christian history.  Mathetes says that the while the flesh might war against the soul, “the soul loves the flesh that hates it…Christians likewise love those that hate them.”[v] Christians have been responsible for some of the worst acts of violence and hatred the world has ever seen.  We can point out all the good and noble things that Christians have done, but as long as our record of hatred remains unexamined, this soul is spotted.

This ideal Christianity (as the embattled soul that continues to love and bless the body that contains it) is no “earthly invention”  or “mere human system of opinion” says the disciple, but is a revelation from “God Himself, who is almighty, the Creator of all things, and invisible.” He has sent to us “the truth, and the holy and incomprehensible Word.”[vi]

Jesus of Nazareth isn’t named specifically, but the comparisons with John’s gospel are unmistakable.  This emissary from God is the Word.  He is not just a servant or an angel but is “the very Creator and Fashioner of all things.” This emissary is sent from God and is God. 

“As a king sends his son, who is also a king, so sent He Him; as God He sent Him; as to men He sent Him; as a Savior He sent Him…”[vii]

But this emissary has not come as a tyrant to compel us to belief by fear and terror and violence, “for violence has no place in the character of God”

This is not the kind of God we see demonstrated very often.  This God seeks to redeem and bless us, by persuading us of his goodness.  And this is not the Christianity we see very often.  This kind of Christianity seeks to bless the world with love, while patiently suffering the abuses that the world around inflicts upon it.
But what a compelling illustration.  I could believe in this kind of Christianity.  I could believe in this kind of God.

---

[i] Page 23

[ii] Chap. V

[iii] Chap. V

[iv] Chap. VI

[v] Chap. VI

[vi] Chap. VII

[vii] Chap. VII

He was "Cut" and "Not Cut" Where it Mattered - But it Didn't Matter

We don’t know his name. We don’t know his name, but we know a few things about him.  He was an Ethiopian eunuch, a treasury official in the court of the Candace – the queen of Ethiopia, and he had gone to Jerusalem in order to worship. We don’t know his name but five times within this short little narrative[i] Luke refers to him as “the eunuch.” We don’t know his name but for now I’ll call him Ebed. [ii]

It seems strange that Ebed would have gone to Jerusalem to worship.  He probably wouldn’t have been allowed.  It’s not likely that he wouldn’t have been welcomed.  Nearly everything about him would have excluded him from that very exclusive and exclusionary worshipping community. 

He was, quite obviously, foreign. He was a gentile. He was one of the “uncircumcised.”[iii] And as such, he could enter only the very outermost courtyard of the temple (provided that he behaved himself in a respectful manner); but he would not have been allowed to proceed any further. A low wall marked with a placard warning that transgressors would be punished by death blocked the way. 

No foreigner is to go beyond the balustrade and the plaza of the temple zone! Whoever is caught doing so will himself to blame for his death which will follow!

Animals marked for sacrifice were sold in these outer courts, but gentile worshippers like Ebed would not have been allowed to lead these sacrificial animals to the altar. 

And not only was he an uncircumcised gentile, but he was a Eunuch (as Luke reminds again and again).  He’d been emasculated, probably just before puberty.  Eunuchs often served as officials within royal courts, especially trusted to serve within the women’s quarters because of their lack of libido. Because their physical condition (usually inflicted upon them without their consent) lowered their social status, they could be easily killed and replaced without consequence.  A trusted eunuch might attain a lofted position within the royal courts, but only so long as he remained useful and obedient. 

But eunuchs were specifically (and repeatedly) barred from temple worship. “If a man’s testicles are crushed or his penis is cut off, he may not be admitted to the assembly of the LORD.” [iv]

The first century Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, had some pretty harsh words concerning the treatment of Eunuchs:

“Let those that have made themselves eunuchs be had in detestation; and do you avoid any conversation with them who have deprived themselves of their manhood… let such be driven away, as if they had killed their children, since they beforehand have lost what should procure them; for evident it is, that while their soul is become effeminate, they have withal transfused that effeminacy to their body also.” [v]

Ebed had travelled some 1,200 miles (a journey that would have taken him about two months, even travelling in relative comfort and speed on a chariot, as he was) in order to worship the God of the Universe, but I have to wonder what his experience would have been once he arrived. Because he was both “uncut” (not circumcised) and “cut” (emasculated) he would have been cut off from the worshipping community.

Would he have been stared at? Would people have pointed at him? Would they have whispered about his dark skin, his strange accent?  Would they have bristled at his effeminate voice or pulled away in repugnance from his touch and his soft, un-calloused skin?

Or might Ebed have been welcomed (at least by some)? The torah of the Jews had pretty clear laws concerning the disbarment  of eunuchs from worship, yet within the tradition of the prophets came these words from God:

“Don’t let foreigners who commit themselves to the LORD say, ‘The LORD will never let me be part of his people.’ And don’t let the eunuchs say, ‘I’m a dried-up tree with no children and no future.’

For this is what the LORD says: I will bless those eunuchs who keep my Sabbath days holy and who choose to do what pleases me and commit their lives to me.

I will give them—within the walls of my house— a memorial and a name far greater than sons and daughters could give. For the name I give them is an everlasting one. It will never disappear!” [vi]

The Hebrew bible included much that would have led the Jews to welcome and to embrace gentiles and eunuchs in their worship, but it doesn’t seem likely that he would have been welcomed.[vii]

Ebed was now on his way home again, travelling by chariot back along the road that would take him through the desert regions between Israel and the African continent.  As he rode in the chariot along that deserted desert road, near the ruins of the city of Gaza (once a proud Philistine city, now a nearly empty desolation), Ebed was reading from the Hebrew bible – specifically from the prophet Isaiah.  I wonder if he was drawn to that particular prophet because of his conciliatory words for the gentile and the eunuch. 

He was reading from a Greek translation of the Hebrew bible:

“He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.

Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream.” [viii]

These words come from passages about the “Suffering Servant” of Yahweh, but Ebed was having trouble understanding what he was reading.  Who was this oppressed servant?  Why had he been treated so harshly?  How could it be that no one cared that he died without the blessing and sign of God’s favor - descendants?  (Surely this was a point of concern for the eunuch Ebed….)

Ebed’s reverie was interrupted with a question: “Do you even understand what you’re reading there?”  The voice was breathless and panting.  Ebed looked up from the scroll and saw a man running alongside the chariot. This man was Philip the Evangelist[ix] who had been lead by an angelic spirit of the Lord to this wild and desolate place. 

Ebed answered his question with a question: “How can I understand it unless someone guides me?” And with that he invited Philip to join him in the chariot and the two of them poured over the words of the prophet.  Philip explained the words and interpreted them and “brought good Jesus news”[x] to the Ethiopian eunuch.

And as they went along that desert road they came to some water. It was probably not a lush garden oasis, but a muddy and already evaporating water-hole.  Ebed ordered the chariot driver to halt the horses and then turned to Philip and said, “Look, water!  What is to prevent me from being baptized?”

Well – just about everything. By the commonly accepted standards of the religious worshipping community, Ebed - who was both “cut off” and not “cut” where it mattered - should have been cut off from the worship of God.  He should have been detested and avoided by the faithful.  Philip had contaminated himself by merely stepping into the chariot with this foreign eunuch. But none of this mattered to Philip on that dusty road. The two of them went down from the chariot to the water and Ebed was baptized by Philip.

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
For as many of you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor [Ethiopian], there is neither [Eunuch nor virile father].
For you are all one in Christ Jesus.[xi]

The “good Jesus news” brought to the Ethiopian eunuch in that desert place was that the Kingdom of God welcomes those who have been oppressed, and those who have suffered.  The Kingdom of God embraces those who have been cut and cut off. The Kingdom of God is open to those who would have been shut out – precisely because the Christ, the Messiah himself was a suffering servant of Yahweh. He was led, like a silent lamb, to the slaughter.  He was unjustly condemned and has, by virtue of his perfect obedience as the suffering servant, taken all of our condemnation upon himself.

This is the “good Jesus news” that we all need to hear, and we all need to share.

---

[i] Acts 8: 26 – 40

[ii] Based on the Ethiopian eunuch who rescued the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 38: 7 – 13)

[iii] It is possible that this Ethiopian Eunuch was Jewish but not certain.

[iv] Deuteronomy 23:1

[v] Flavius Josephus, The Works of Flavius Josephus, trans. William Whiston, 1905.

[vi] Isaiah 56:3-5

[vii] And this is not a slur against Jews in general.  The condemnation is equally applied to many Christian congregations as well.

[viii] Isaiah 53:7-8 (NLT) The NIV also translates verse 8 with reference to progeny.

[ix] Not to be confused with Philip the Apostle of the Gospels.  The Evangelist Philip was one of seven chosen to be the first deacons of the Church (Acts 6).

[x] http://leftbehindandlovingit.blogspot.com/2012/05/silence-of-lamb-and-proclamation-of.html

[xi] A slight paraphrase of Galatians 3: 26 – 28 for this occaision.

To Him Be All Glory

To Him be all glory! Hallelu!


To create this atmospheric song of praise I used two sounds from the Freesound Project (and several things that I recorded myself.)

Thermals 

Yeti 47

I've put the song into the Public Domain, so download it, use it and share it freely.

Quit Imagining and Do Something

I can only imagine

What it will be like

When I walk

By Your side

I can only imagine

What my eyes will see

When Your face

Is before me

This is the point when I admit how far out of step I am with the rest of popular American Christianity, and you will be obligated to denounce me.

 I don’t like this song.

It’s been around for awhile now – MercyMe wrote it back in 1999 for their album The Worship Project, but I have never really liked it.  Musically, it’s not terrible.  It has a nice enough melody. What I don’t like is the song’s failure to be in the here and now.

It’s completely focused on a “heaven someday…” kind of view.  The song says that I can’t know anything of heaven now.  I can only imagine what it might be like in the future.  And the song says that I can’t do anything of heaven.  I can only imagine it.

The dominant cultural associations and
misunderstandings about heaven has been at work for
so long, it’s almost automatic for many to think of heaven
as ethereal, intangible, esoteric, and immaterial.

Floaty, dreamy, hazy,
Somewhere else.
People in white robes with perfect hair floating by on
clouds, singing in perfect pitch. [i]

But what I see in reading the scriptures is that Heaven isn’t something that we can “only imagine” in the far off future someday – but heaven is with us, in us, and we are in it now.

Check the gospels – how many times did Jesus say “the kingdom of heaven is here” is “within you.”   Or check out what Paul said in Ephesians 2 – God has raised us up with Christ “and seated us with him in the heavenly realms…”

Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel?

Will I dance for You Jesus or in awe of you be still?

Will I stand in Your presence or to my knees will I fall?

Will I sing hallelujah; will I be able to speak at all?

If we are “seated with him in the heavenly realms” we are – in the here and now – worshipping God in heaven.  If we dance for Jesus or if we are still – now – it is worship in heaven now.  Not heaven someday maybe.

We have –already – come to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.  We have come into the presence of thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of those whose names are written in heaven. (Hebrews 12: 22 -23)

So quit imagining what it might be like someday maybe…
Make it so – now.

“Making Heaven on earth is our business” – General William Booth –founder of The Salvation Army  

---

[i] Bell, Rob Love Wins pg. 56 -7

Like a Crown

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to perform as part of a fundraiser concert for a local charitable organization.  Various church choirs, ensembles, and soloists were asked to sing or play a song.  I was originally going to play a  song on my guitar, but decided (at nearly the last minute) to do something different.

Instead, I performed Like a Crown - a selection from The Odes Project.  The Odes Project has set some of Christianity's earliest hymns - from the Odes of Solomon - into contemporary music.



This is Ode number 1

1. The Lord is on my head like a crown, and I shall never be without Him.
2. Plaited for me is the crown of truth, and it caused Your branches to blossom in me.
3. For it is not like a parched crown that blossoms not;
4. For You live upon my head, and have blossomed upon me.
5. Your fruits are full and complete; they are full of Your salvation....

To download a copy of the odes project version of this song click here.

I used two sounds from the Freesound Project
Polar
N Dimensional Parallel Space 

Walk With Me

Walk with me now through this solitary place

and show me the rose that blooms
beneath moonless skies and winter’s chill.
Teach me to sing the songs of praise
that echoed from the desert hills
when half spent was the lonely prophet’s night.
Strengthen my feeble arms,
bind up my wounded feet.
Speak courage to my fearful heart
that I might find the joy of this holy night.

  (based on Isaiah 35)

The Gift of Myrrh

The Gift of Myrrh by thatjeffcarter was here




The Magi brought myrrh as a gift for the infant Jesus - a strange gift for a newborn.  Myrrh was a spice used in the preparation of corpses for burial.  They brought something associated with death to the newly-born messiah. 


Myrrh – that third gift mentioned by Matthew – is an aromatic gum, the sap of a tree that grows in Arabia and Eastern Africa. The trees are cut with a knife; the sap oozes out and hardens into “tears” that are collected.  The tears of myrrh were sometimes crushed into powder and worn by women as an aromatic sachet.  Or the myrrh powder could be mixed with wine.  Wine mixed with myrrh was used as a palliative or pain killer – and was offered to Jesus as he was dying on the cross.
Myrrh, though quite expensive (valued more than its weight in gold) was commonly used in the embalming of corpses and burned to mask the stench of death.  Myrrh is a symbol of death and dying.


But even this was appropriate.

***

I used a few sounds from The Freesound Project:
Instant 02 

Gong 

Steampipe 7 Darkpad E2

Snimaju 225 

Stretched Theremin 
If you like this (and I hope you do) feel free to download it and share it with others. It's my gift to you.

The prophet Joel says "Jubilate"

The prophet Joel remains a strange enigma to us. We know very little about him. The only concrete thing we know about him is that his father was named Pethuel – and that’s it. That is all that we know for certain about Joel.

We don’t know where he was born, where he lived, or even when he lived. We don’t know if he was married or if he had children. We don’t know what he did for a living. Was he farmer, a merchant, or a rabbi? We don’t know. We don’t even know specifically when he composed the lines that have come down to us as the book of Joel. As I said, we know very little about Joel.

Yet his writings have survived.

Working from certain clues within the book of Joel, it seems likely to Biblical scholars that he wrote sometime during the fourth century B.C. during the time when Persian Empire ruled the world (though some have argued for an earlier date, pushing Joel as far back as the ninth century B.C.). During this period of time the nation of Israel was only an insignificant province within the expansive Persian Empire.

But even still, his writings have survived; we can read them in our bibles today these 2,400 some odd years later. And, what is more, they have survived in such a way that even though we know next to nothing about the prophet Joel as an historical figure, we can still understand the message of his book.

One thing is immediately apparent as we read through the book of Joel: he (whoever he was) wrote to an agrarian society. And this is something we can understand in our present community. Even though not all of us gathered here tonight are farmers, we certainly understand the urgent necessity of our agriculturalists. We understand that the strength and security of our country rises and falls with the farmers. When farmers do well, everyone does well. When the farmers suffer, everyone suffers.

This is something we understand. And Joel’s original audience understood this as well.

He wrote his message to them during a period of urgent distress and national crisis. Vast swarms of locusts had overwhelmed the country side and billions of these malevolent insects had devoured the crops. They ate the leaves, stalks, bark, flower, fruits, seeds, and stems of every green and growing thing. Joel compared them to an invading army of horses and chariots destroying everything in their path.

As the swarm moved on to devastate other regions, the people of Judah began to relax, but not for long. While the locust swarms filled the sky, and destroyed the fields the male and female locusts were also busy mating. The pregnant females then deposited clumps of 50 – 80 eggs in the uncultivated ground.

And after about a month (30 – 40 days) these young locusts began to hatch and grow. Their appetites increased proportionally as they increased in size. Every day they grew a little larger and everyday they ate a little more than the day before. From birth to death, the locust is an eating machine that leaves only destruction in its wake. A full grown locust can eat more than its own weight each day. That might not be much for one locust, but when you have to remember that it’s a swarm of millions of these ravenous insects devouring everything in sight. This was round two of the locust plague. (Eyewitness description of a locust swarm that descended on Palestine in the spring of 1915 – Anchor Bible Dictionary vol. 6 pg. 1150)

What the chewer left the swarming locusts consumed;
and what the swarming locusts left the jumpers ate;
what the jumpers left the finisher devoured. - Joel 1: 4

And then to compound their already desperate misery – the devastation of the locust swarm was immediately followed by a severe and lingering drought. The sky withheld rain for month after month and slowly the watercourses all dried up. The once flowing streams and brooks of clear cold water became trickles of goopy mud, and then hard packed clay.

Their cattle wandered the barren fields lowing in distress and hunger. Sheep stood perplexed.

Seeds have shriveled under their shovels;
storage bins are desolate,
granaries ruined;
for the grain has dried out.
How the beasts moan,
the herds weep,
for lack of fodder;
even the flocks of sheep are hurting. – 1: 17-18

As the drought held week after week and month after month, the land dried out, and the countryside became a dangerous tinderbox waiting for a spark – then – Conflagration! Fires blazed across the dry fields, burning and blazing and leaving ashy destruction across the land. The sky was filled with acrid smoke and the burnt out landscapes were devoid of life. There had been nothing like this in their collected memories– even the elders had never witnessed anything comparable in their time.

To you, YHWH, I cry out;
for fire has consumed the pasture land,
a flame has licked all the trees in the field.
Even the beasts in the field
complain to you;
for the waters sources have all dried up,
and fire has devoured the pasture land. – 1: 19 - 20

And here, I think, we can understand their predicament. Our culture is distinctly different from Joel’s in nearly every respect, but we can still relate to their plight. We don’t speak the same language but we can certainly understand their complaints.

Our society hasn’t been devastated by a plague of locusts followed by drought and fire, but we certainly have suffered a series of crippling economic disasters. And maybe we’ve started to feel like the people of Joel’s 4th century B.C. audience.

We may not have a plague of locusts, but we have collapsing banks. We may not be suffering through a period of drought, but we do have an increasing number of people who are unemployed. We may not be dealing with catastrophic firestorms, but the general feeling is that our country is in serious trouble.  We haven’t shared the exact same circumstances as Joel’s original audience, but we share their desperation, their confusion, their angst for the future.

Stand dismayed, you farmers,
wail you vinedressers,
for the wheat, the barley!
The harvests of the field have been lost!
The vine is withered,
the fig tree wilts away;
pomegranate, palm tree, apple tree,
every tree in the countryside is dry,
and for human beings
joy has run dry too. (Joel 1:11-12)

That last line catches at me “and for human beings, joy has run dry too.”

How many have said that recently? They’ve been laid off, their car has been repossessed their home has been foreclosed and the joy of life has just run dry.

And what did the prophet have to say to his audience in the forth century B.C and what does he have to say to people suffering today? What does Joel have to say to people who have lost everything, to a nation on the verge of collapse?

Land, do not be afraid;
be glad, rejoice,

This is counterintuitive. In the aftermath of horrific destruction Joel says “Do not be afraid” and “Be glad, rejoice.” In one rabbinic translation of this text the translation reads, “…be glad, jubilate.”

Jubilate.
What a great word.

Jubilate leads me to the Latin phrase “Jubilate Deo” from Psalm 100 “Acclaim (Jubilate) Yahweh all the earth, serve Yahweh with gladness, come into his presence with songs of joy.” And that leads me to the hymn tune Old 100th known simply as The Doxology, written in 1674 by Thomas Ken, a clergyman in the Church of England. “Praise God from whom all blessings flow…”

Jubilate is the verb that Joel uses. Joel writes to the very soil of the land and he says,

Soil, do not be afraid;
be glad, jubilate,
for Yahweh has done great things.

He writes to the wild animals of the country and he says to them,

…do not be afraid.
the desert pastures are green again,
the trees bear fruit,
vine and fig tree yield their richness.

And after addressing the soil that has been ravaged by locusts and drought and flame, and addressing the wild beasts who have lost their food and their homes because of the locusts and drought and flames, Joel finally turns his attention to the Sons of Zion.

Sons of Zion, be glad,
rejoice in Yahweh your God;
for he has given you
autumn rains as righteousness demands
and he will send the rains down for you,
the autumn and the spring rains as of old.
The threshing-floors will be full of grain,
the vats overflow with wine and oil.

Joel says that the people of Zion should rejoice and give thanks – Jubilate – and he promises that God will restore the regular cycle of rains and that the green growth of the fields will return.

Joel says that the regular rains will be restored because Righteousness demands it.

And I have to ask, whose righteousness? Mine? Ours? The people of Joel’s 4th century B.C? No. We have no righteousness of our own, “there is no one righteous, no not one.”

So whose righteousness demands that the regular cycle of rains should be restored and that the devastated crops re-established? Whose righteousness demands that all that has been destroyed will be returned?

It is Yahweh’s righteousness that demands it.

The restoration of the land is a return to the covenantal blessings that God made with his people – the devastated fire blasted land would once again become the Edenic paradise. When the people of Zion – the people of God – have been restored to relationship with God then the land itself will be blessed. And the people of God would never again be ashamed.

When the people of Zion – the people of God – are in their proper place, in their proper relationship with God, there is rejoicing and jubilation, and there is restoration. And this is cause for our thanksgiving. This is cause for our celebration. This is cause for our Jubilation.

Do not be afraid
be glad,
jubilate.

Amen