A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on September 30, 2007, based on Luke 16: 19-31
Imagine for a moment that you are living in the 1190’s in Italy – Umbria to be exact. Your father, Pietro di Bernardone, has created a financial empire and you are the young heir to this fortune. Let’s call this enterprise Dives Inc. The core business of the company is high-end Cloth Sales, mostly woolens, but also fancy silks and brocades, purchased by Pietro at the market in Champagne, France and brought back to your town with great care and at great risk –over the mountains – a distance of some 700 miles.
Now, your father is a sharp business man and he prospers and does quite well in his business. People are just beginning to have coined money, and through the course of doing business, it happens that Pietro ends up with a lot of coins, gold and silver. The old families, the landed gentry, have lots of land but very little actual coinage.
Yours is a time of turmoil. Civil war in Italy has created a situation in which a lot of the servants attached to the land have gone off to war and eventually gained their ‘free-agency’, taking their labor with them. Now there is an increased need to hire labor to work the farms of the gentry. But the gentry don’t have a lot of coins, gold or silver laying around. Most of their wealth is in the land. So they’re in a bind. As the need for ready cash increases some, of the poorer gentry end up approaching Pietro with offers to sell their farms to get needed cash. He buys up a dozen farms at a good price and begins to grow crops, and to breed horses and mules. His workers begin to make their own tack- bridles, bits, saddles, etc and later on to make carts for the animals to pull.
With every new product line, Dives Inc. rakes in the cash. Pretty soon, other small business men in the town come to ask Pietro for loans to help their businesses. So Dives Inc. gets into financial services, offering loans and banking services. On his annual trips to France to buy cloth, Pietro realizes that carrying around large sums of cash, or gold and silver is cumbersome, so he collaborates with the other international merchants, rulers, and even the Pope to create instruments of credit and other vehicles that make international trade easier.
Now the journey to France is dangerous, and Pietro has to hire men to provide security for his entourage. He soon realizes that he can also provide security services to other merchants and townspeople, and so is born the Security Services division of Dives, Inc.
The organizational chart of this company would likely look something like this:
Cloth Sales (Core Business)
AG Division:
-Farm Holdings
- Produce -
- Animal Breeding
- Tack Items
- Carts
Financial Services:
-Loans
-Banking
-International Instruments of Credit
-Joint Ventures
Security Services:
-Caravan Protection
-Private Security
-Estate Monitoring.
All in all, a very modern, diversified operation. And best yet, family owned – which means that you, dear heir, stand to inherit everything! Not only that but Papa Pietro is very indulgent and does out the money like it was going out of style! This in turn means lots of partying and new clothes and Fun!
The only hitch is that Papa expects you to work in the family business – to stock the shelves, make deliveries, to visit the peasants that do the sewing of garments and to cajole them into producing more in their miserable little huts, and in general to prepare to take your place as one of the leading citizens of the town.
If you haven’t guessed already, your name, lucky heir, is Francis di Bernardone of Assisi, Umbria, Italy, son of Pietro, an archetypal Dives. By an ironic twist of ‘fate’, one of the “world’s most persuasive exponents of poverty… first played a part in the birth of capitalism” (Francis of Assisi: A Revolutionary Life by Adrian House, pg. 31).
One of Francis’ friends, Angelo di Tancredi relates how initially Francis was “so intent on the business of making money” that he ignored a beggar man who had come into the shop asking for alms. ‘On reflection, he realized that if the beggar had asked for money in the name of some prince he would have given it. After that he decided he would never refuse anything asked in God’s name… ( House, pg. 32).
God was also working on Francis’ attitude towards lepers. Angelo tells us that “Besides being incapable of looking at them [the lepers] he would not even approach the places where they lived… and if he gave them alms he would do it through someone else, turning his face away and holding his nose… (House pg. 57). Now these houses where the lepers lived were called ‘lazar’ houses, after the biblical beggar Lazarus in our reading today. The rich man is often called ‘Dives’, Latin for ‘rich’.
Francis was determined to overcome his distaste for the lepers, but ‘it took a huge effort to stifle his revulsion. One day he met a leper when he was riding near Assisi. Despite his overpowering horror he dismounted, gave the man a coin and kissed his hand. The leper gave him the kiss of peace in return. Francis then knew that to win a complete victory he must follow this first attack on his phobia with a second.
Anglelo writes, “ Some days later he took a large sum of money to the lepers hospital and gathering all the inmates together, he distributed it, kissing each of their hands.” On his deathbed, Francis referred to this episode in the opening words of his Testament: “This is how God inspired me, Brother Francis, to embark upon a life of penance.” (House pg. 58).
And this dear friends is one of the things caused French scholar and agnostic Ernest Renan, to say, “After Jesus, Francis of Assisi has been the only perfect Christian’ (House, pg. 9).
Now contrast Francis’ reaction to that of Dives, the rich man in our reading, who went about in extravagant purple clothes (that could have come from Pietro’s shop in another era) and fine linen underwear, feasting sumptuously and ignoring the poor man, Lazarus.
If you’ll remember from last week, we talked about the four levels of charity according to Ancient Hebrew wisdom:
-The highest is to provide a job for one in need without his knowledge that you provided it.
-The next, lower level is to provide work that the needy one knows you provided.
-The third level is to give an anonymous gift to meet an immediate need.
-The lowest level of charity, to be avoided if at all possible, is to give a poor person a gift with his full knowledge that you are the donor.” (pg. 26 in Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life, Lupton).
Any of the above gestures may have saved the Rich man from Hades. Instead, Dives ignores the poor man, who had specifically been placed at the rich man’s door in order to find help. This earns him the angel-escort to his place in Hades that he so richly deserves.
(By the way, this is the place that teaches us that Angels do indeed attend us on our way to eternity. Also, there is what we can call an intermediate state between death and our final resurrection. During this state we are conscious of our existence and surroundings, whether torment or enjoying Father Abrahams’ presence. There is a gap fixed between heaven and hell such that there can be no traffic between the two – and by extension it is forbidden for the living to try to contact the dead.)
In contrast to Dives, Francis confronts his revulsion in obedience to the Lord and while technically, Francis gave at the lowest level, the radical nature of his gift actually seems to have fractured the giving schema altogether, elevating his gift into the realm of legend, or hall-of-fame status.
The teaching of Jesus is that if you’re rich, you better enjoy it now, because if you unjustly ignore the poor, then God will not forget! Remember Christ’s words in Matthew 25:40…” as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” And to the rich young ruler he says, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Mt. 19:21, Lk 18:22.
Francis is our picture in the flesh of someone who actually did literally what Jesus said. His example is awesome and intimidating. While most of us really cannot quite fathom this level of self-giving, perhaps we can relate to this:
The other night, I was listening to the “Infinite Mind” as I was coming home from work. John Hockenberry was commenting on a time in his life when he became fascinated with shoplifting. He observed that shoplifting became attractive, not because he was in great need, or was seeking thrills, but because he could change his identity so easily. With different stuff came a different sense of who he was in the world. His stuff defined him as a person. When he realized how easy and artificial this was, he was brought up short. It suddenly became all too clear that he needed a more intentional approach to things, so he stopped stealing and started paying for things. In this way, he was able to regain an appropriate sense of himself in relationship to stuff.
Now this is not to say that every one of us can do exactly what Francis did. Even those who came after him within his lifetime often could not keep the same radical lifestyle. Many wanted to be able to live in monasteries and to have the use of things just as other monks did. There were also those who desired to remain in their homes and families but to follow the ideals of the Christ-man Francis. For them, he wrote what we call a Third Order rule. The emphasis here regarding things is, as it is with the CoJ ‘detachment’ from things. In other words, we don’t get our sense of meaning or fulfillment from our stuff, we get it in relationship with God first, then in other relationships – our spouses, families and friends.
The Miracle of Change
The rich man learned too late to care about his five brothers. He was also brought up short by the rebuke, “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. vs. 27). This is a clear reference to Christ and his resurrection. People who are completely materialistic will not be inclined to believe miracles, even when they see them with their own eyes. This is why I believe that the change of the human heart is the greatest miracle of all.
We should be about the business of trying to help our materialistic friends and neighbors realize that this world is not all there is; that there is a relationship with God available through Jesus Christ and that to ignore this mandate to divine relatedness is to court eternal separation from God.
Justice for the Poor
Following Francis’ example, it’s also important to call for justice for the poor because the plight of the poor is an indication of the overall quality of life in a society. If the poor get justice, then so do the middle class.
Righteousness exalts a nation and a society, while injustice tears it down.
Brothers and sisters, I pray that we may be a people who have a true sense of ourselves as people created in the image of God, who live to enjoy our relationship with him and with other people. I pray that we might serve Christ in every person we meet. I pray that we might be wise in our attempts to help those we meet, and I pray that we might be a people who are known as generous givers, who delight in trying to outgive God. You needn’t walk off naked into the forest as Francis did, but this week, make an effort to notice the poor around you. Do something personally to relieve their plight at any of those four levels we talked about. Look beyond the stuff that makes your life comfortable and think how you may lead others to the eternal comfort that comes from knowing Christ as Savior and Lord.
I close with the prayer that we use in the Company of Jesus rosary:
Almighty God, who by the example of blessed St. Francis…moves your people to love of simple things, grant that after his pattern we may hold lightly to the things of this world and lay up for ourselves treasure in heaven. Amen.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Two Masters?
A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on September 23, 2007 and based on Luke 16:1-13
It seems that last week, God received a batch of mail from a group of school kids. One writes:
Dear God,
If you give me a Genie Lamp like Aladdin, I will give you anything you want except my money or my chess set.
Raphael
Well, it seems that our young Raphael might have mentored under the Unrighteous Steward in today’s reading! He seems a bit confused about who is serving whom. He seems to think that God is similar to a Genie that one calls up out of a magic lamp; one that grants you three wishes. And, of course, the owner of the lamp retains control over the nature of the wishes or grants. It’s a bargain with certain understood rules governing the bargain.
Sounds pretty much like the way that many people approach God today doesn’t it?
Here’s another example from the American Anglican Council weekly update:
“Congregants at Pro-Cathedral of St. Clement's Episcopal Church, one of the city's oldest places of worship with hundreds of members and more than a dozen ministries, is leaving the Episcopal Church to carry on with doctrines members said no longer fit those of its former denomination.
The church recorded a 460-41 vote from its congregation on Sunday to dissolve its relationship with Episcopal Church USA and remain part of the Anglican Communion Network.
Late Friday, St. Clement's reached an agreement with Bishop Jeffrey Steenson of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande that will allow the local church to hang on to its property for $2 million.
Who would you say is serving Whom? …
In other news, this past week, I attended a conference in Charleston, with Dr. John Perkins, author of the seminal book “Let Justice Roll Down”. It was sponsored by the City Impact Roundtable, a group of ministers that meets regularly to prayer for the Transformation of the Charleston Area and to support one another in the ministry.
In one of the first sessions, Dr. Perkins was commenting about the various problems in the inner city: drugs, violence, teen pregnancy, etc. He made the striking statement that “Our biggest problem is Materialism”, going on to clarify that this is actually a species of Me-ism or Narcissism. “Ours,” he said, “Is the first generation that has put material things if front of life itself”.
When we see young men decked out with gangsta rap clothes – hats turned sideways, sunglasses big shirts, bling-bling, pants down to the ankle over shoes that cost $200, we’re seeing the signs of a generation that has nothing else besides material things in which to find meaning. And as Jesus says in Luke 16:13, “You cannot serve God and Mammon”.
This sentiment is echoed in numerous other Biblical passages:
Philippians 3:18,19:
18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
Romans 8:5:
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
Romans 16:18:
18 For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.
Colossians 3:2
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
As Christians, we are to be people who have our sights set higher than the stuff of the world. When somebody asks us “Who’s your Daddy?!” we ought not to answer Snoop Dog, Michael Jordan, or Ralph Lauren. It ought to be clear to us that God is our maker and not we ourselves (Ps. 100.) We are those who have named Jesus Christ as Lord (Kurios) of our lives and therefore we have a different sense of accountability than the worldlings around us.
Our accountability is based on an expectation of a Heavenly reward or consequence for everything we do here on earth. We understand that we are a Pilgrim people whose citizenship is not here, but in Heaven (Heb. 11:16) and that our highest priority is to worship God and seek to become like Christ Jesus. Because of this we are to walk by faith and not by sight – we trust in God as our Provider, not in money or Mammon. So here are some guidelines to determine which we in fact follow:
Faith
Faithful usage of money
Little is the same as much
Able to ‘detach’ from things
Ability to empty oneself for others
Kingdom guides spending priorities
Giving is sign of God’s LordshipDiscernment in giving
Sight
Seeking unjust gain
More is better
Money and things make us feel secure
Using others to get more
Status guides our consuming
Giving as “marketing” our goodness
Attempts at leveling to stop injustice
This last area gets us into heavy going, because it is possible to attempt to fulfill Kingdom priorities in the flesh. We can sincerely try to serve God by alleviating human suffering, but end up in the clutches of the slippery god Mammon nonetheless. This is all too apparent in looking at charitable giving and in the government’s attempts to create a Great Society.
Our basic problem is that we are a fallen race. We have a sin nature and we have an inborn propensity to turn away from the True Master of the Universe and to put our Selves on the throne of our lives. We are inherently prone to doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons – and even in doing the right things with the wrong motive. This is part of the human condition. It cannot be improved or eradicated. Any program of human improvement must take into account this sin nature and the sometimes paradoxical effects that result from attempting to “Do Good”.
In his book, Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life, Robert, Lupton, PH.D., rethinks 35 years of ministry to the poor and concludes that much if not most Christian attempts to minister to the poor actually fail because they inadvertently put the donor or giver of resources in Control over the receiver, demeaning the recipient and condemning them to the permanent, prideless role of receipient. (pg. 22).
In the process, says Lupton, the sin nature rears its ugly head and Mammon receives his due. You may have seen in the news that the Cridlin Food pantry ran low on funds and that a young man had the idea to have a pancake breakfast at First Presbyterian to raise money. Cindy and I went and were talking with a woman at the table about how the service works through the Information and Referral service located at the Cabell County Library. Like virtually all other free clothing and food pantries, Cridlin must impose rules to prevent their clients from greedily grabbing up every loose item, leaving nothing for others in need. There is a limit to how much you may receive and how often.
It’s great to offer relief to people who are in desperate throes, but there is a paradoxical effect at work here. Programs that seek to lift people from poverty unwittingly create dependency and destroy family structures, resulting in a permanent, bitter underclass. Noble attempts to alleviate suffering end up leaving both the giver and the receiver with a sour feeling in the gut. “A subtle, unintentional message slips through: “You have nothing of worth that I desire in return.” Lupton painfully observes, ”Perhaps the deepest poverty of all is to have nothing of value to offer in exchange.”
We’ve all the heard the aphorism, “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he will sit in the boat and drink beer all day.”—OldFox
But seriously… “Ancient Hebrew wisdom”, reports Lupton, “describes four levels of charity. The highest is to provide a job for one in need without his knowledge that you provided it. The next, lower level is to provide work that the needy one knows you provided. The third level is to give an anonymous gift to meet an immediate need. The lowest level of charity, to be avoided if at all possible, is to give a poor person a gift with his full knowledge that you are the donor.” (pg. 26 in CJCL).
Do not most of our attempts at Christian Charity fall into the latter category?
Yesterday, around noon, Cindy excitedly informed me that there was a yard sale/ hotdog sale being held at the projects near my home. The residents had banded together to raise money for some upcoming activities they wanted to do for their children. In good resourceful fashion, they had taken it upon themselves to work and make some money the old fashioned way. In sixteen years of living in my neighborhood, I had never seen anything like this. So I went with my young friend Eric to the sale, and we happily snarfed some hotdogs and bought some miscellaneous items.
I was happy to participate in the sale, because the exchange of fair value, freely agreed upon by the traders is inherently ennobling and empowering to both parties. It recognizes reciprocity between the parties and can even create friendship amongst equals. Unrighteous Mammon, honestly pursued can be a means of gain in human relationships.
Illustrating this, we got acquainted with the ladies who organized the sale, learning at the same time that they participated in a Resident’s Council, the Fairfield West Improvement Council, and the local Crime and Safety Committee. We also learned that there is a long-term plan to raze the current crop of old housing units and replace them with new single family dwellings that can be purchased for a discount, thus creating real ownership and a basis for self-help, self-respect and self-governance.
These are examples of people banding together to help themselves –even though they are also receiving assistance with their housing. It appears that in the City of Huntington, there is the beginning of awareness that people must be involved in their own improvement. There must be reciprocity in helping, not just one-way giving. We must not only teach people to fish, we must help them to take ownership of the pond and learn to restock the pond in the process. We can combat Mammon by taking into account the very sin nature whose effects we try to eradicate and use worldly resources to help people help themselves, also coming to the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, without whom, all the stuff in the world is mere trifle.
I believe that buying Hope House has put us in a unique position to participate in the restoration and preservation of a neighborhood. Though it has “not yet appeared what we shall be”, I think God has given us an opportunity to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ into a needy neighborhood by becoming good neighbors who act in community friendly ways and who participate in developing the spiritual and financial resources of the community we seek to impact. As we get to know the people of our area better, we can help them come to know the Master of the Universe. We can also assist them to put things in their right place – not as Mammon to be worshipped, but as useful tools that assist people to live better lives.
May God help us to be faithful to the call to make friends for ourselves by the use of Mammon – for the sake of the Gospel. AMEN.
It seems that last week, God received a batch of mail from a group of school kids. One writes:
Dear God,
If you give me a Genie Lamp like Aladdin, I will give you anything you want except my money or my chess set.
Raphael
Well, it seems that our young Raphael might have mentored under the Unrighteous Steward in today’s reading! He seems a bit confused about who is serving whom. He seems to think that God is similar to a Genie that one calls up out of a magic lamp; one that grants you three wishes. And, of course, the owner of the lamp retains control over the nature of the wishes or grants. It’s a bargain with certain understood rules governing the bargain.
Sounds pretty much like the way that many people approach God today doesn’t it?
Here’s another example from the American Anglican Council weekly update:
“Congregants at Pro-Cathedral of St. Clement's Episcopal Church, one of the city's oldest places of worship with hundreds of members and more than a dozen ministries, is leaving the Episcopal Church to carry on with doctrines members said no longer fit those of its former denomination.
The church recorded a 460-41 vote from its congregation on Sunday to dissolve its relationship with Episcopal Church USA and remain part of the Anglican Communion Network.
Late Friday, St. Clement's reached an agreement with Bishop Jeffrey Steenson of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande that will allow the local church to hang on to its property for $2 million.
Who would you say is serving Whom? …
In other news, this past week, I attended a conference in Charleston, with Dr. John Perkins, author of the seminal book “Let Justice Roll Down”. It was sponsored by the City Impact Roundtable, a group of ministers that meets regularly to prayer for the Transformation of the Charleston Area and to support one another in the ministry.
In one of the first sessions, Dr. Perkins was commenting about the various problems in the inner city: drugs, violence, teen pregnancy, etc. He made the striking statement that “Our biggest problem is Materialism”, going on to clarify that this is actually a species of Me-ism or Narcissism. “Ours,” he said, “Is the first generation that has put material things if front of life itself”.
When we see young men decked out with gangsta rap clothes – hats turned sideways, sunglasses big shirts, bling-bling, pants down to the ankle over shoes that cost $200, we’re seeing the signs of a generation that has nothing else besides material things in which to find meaning. And as Jesus says in Luke 16:13, “You cannot serve God and Mammon”.
This sentiment is echoed in numerous other Biblical passages:
Philippians 3:18,19:
18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
Romans 8:5:
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
Romans 16:18:
18 For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.
Colossians 3:2
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
As Christians, we are to be people who have our sights set higher than the stuff of the world. When somebody asks us “Who’s your Daddy?!” we ought not to answer Snoop Dog, Michael Jordan, or Ralph Lauren. It ought to be clear to us that God is our maker and not we ourselves (Ps. 100.) We are those who have named Jesus Christ as Lord (Kurios) of our lives and therefore we have a different sense of accountability than the worldlings around us.
Our accountability is based on an expectation of a Heavenly reward or consequence for everything we do here on earth. We understand that we are a Pilgrim people whose citizenship is not here, but in Heaven (Heb. 11:16) and that our highest priority is to worship God and seek to become like Christ Jesus. Because of this we are to walk by faith and not by sight – we trust in God as our Provider, not in money or Mammon. So here are some guidelines to determine which we in fact follow:
Faith
Faithful usage of money
Little is the same as much
Able to ‘detach’ from things
Ability to empty oneself for others
Kingdom guides spending priorities
Giving is sign of God’s LordshipDiscernment in giving
Sight
Seeking unjust gain
More is better
Money and things make us feel secure
Using others to get more
Status guides our consuming
Giving as “marketing” our goodness
Attempts at leveling to stop injustice
This last area gets us into heavy going, because it is possible to attempt to fulfill Kingdom priorities in the flesh. We can sincerely try to serve God by alleviating human suffering, but end up in the clutches of the slippery god Mammon nonetheless. This is all too apparent in looking at charitable giving and in the government’s attempts to create a Great Society.
Our basic problem is that we are a fallen race. We have a sin nature and we have an inborn propensity to turn away from the True Master of the Universe and to put our Selves on the throne of our lives. We are inherently prone to doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons – and even in doing the right things with the wrong motive. This is part of the human condition. It cannot be improved or eradicated. Any program of human improvement must take into account this sin nature and the sometimes paradoxical effects that result from attempting to “Do Good”.
In his book, Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life, Robert, Lupton, PH.D., rethinks 35 years of ministry to the poor and concludes that much if not most Christian attempts to minister to the poor actually fail because they inadvertently put the donor or giver of resources in Control over the receiver, demeaning the recipient and condemning them to the permanent, prideless role of receipient. (pg. 22).
In the process, says Lupton, the sin nature rears its ugly head and Mammon receives his due. You may have seen in the news that the Cridlin Food pantry ran low on funds and that a young man had the idea to have a pancake breakfast at First Presbyterian to raise money. Cindy and I went and were talking with a woman at the table about how the service works through the Information and Referral service located at the Cabell County Library. Like virtually all other free clothing and food pantries, Cridlin must impose rules to prevent their clients from greedily grabbing up every loose item, leaving nothing for others in need. There is a limit to how much you may receive and how often.
It’s great to offer relief to people who are in desperate throes, but there is a paradoxical effect at work here. Programs that seek to lift people from poverty unwittingly create dependency and destroy family structures, resulting in a permanent, bitter underclass. Noble attempts to alleviate suffering end up leaving both the giver and the receiver with a sour feeling in the gut. “A subtle, unintentional message slips through: “You have nothing of worth that I desire in return.” Lupton painfully observes, ”Perhaps the deepest poverty of all is to have nothing of value to offer in exchange.”
We’ve all the heard the aphorism, “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he will sit in the boat and drink beer all day.”—OldFox
But seriously… “Ancient Hebrew wisdom”, reports Lupton, “describes four levels of charity. The highest is to provide a job for one in need without his knowledge that you provided it. The next, lower level is to provide work that the needy one knows you provided. The third level is to give an anonymous gift to meet an immediate need. The lowest level of charity, to be avoided if at all possible, is to give a poor person a gift with his full knowledge that you are the donor.” (pg. 26 in CJCL).
Do not most of our attempts at Christian Charity fall into the latter category?
Yesterday, around noon, Cindy excitedly informed me that there was a yard sale/ hotdog sale being held at the projects near my home. The residents had banded together to raise money for some upcoming activities they wanted to do for their children. In good resourceful fashion, they had taken it upon themselves to work and make some money the old fashioned way. In sixteen years of living in my neighborhood, I had never seen anything like this. So I went with my young friend Eric to the sale, and we happily snarfed some hotdogs and bought some miscellaneous items.
I was happy to participate in the sale, because the exchange of fair value, freely agreed upon by the traders is inherently ennobling and empowering to both parties. It recognizes reciprocity between the parties and can even create friendship amongst equals. Unrighteous Mammon, honestly pursued can be a means of gain in human relationships.
Illustrating this, we got acquainted with the ladies who organized the sale, learning at the same time that they participated in a Resident’s Council, the Fairfield West Improvement Council, and the local Crime and Safety Committee. We also learned that there is a long-term plan to raze the current crop of old housing units and replace them with new single family dwellings that can be purchased for a discount, thus creating real ownership and a basis for self-help, self-respect and self-governance.
These are examples of people banding together to help themselves –even though they are also receiving assistance with their housing. It appears that in the City of Huntington, there is the beginning of awareness that people must be involved in their own improvement. There must be reciprocity in helping, not just one-way giving. We must not only teach people to fish, we must help them to take ownership of the pond and learn to restock the pond in the process. We can combat Mammon by taking into account the very sin nature whose effects we try to eradicate and use worldly resources to help people help themselves, also coming to the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, without whom, all the stuff in the world is mere trifle.
I believe that buying Hope House has put us in a unique position to participate in the restoration and preservation of a neighborhood. Though it has “not yet appeared what we shall be”, I think God has given us an opportunity to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ into a needy neighborhood by becoming good neighbors who act in community friendly ways and who participate in developing the spiritual and financial resources of the community we seek to impact. As we get to know the people of our area better, we can help them come to know the Master of the Universe. We can also assist them to put things in their right place – not as Mammon to be worshipped, but as useful tools that assist people to live better lives.
May God help us to be faithful to the call to make friends for ourselves by the use of Mammon – for the sake of the Gospel. AMEN.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Practicing the Presence of Jesus
A Sermon delivered to the Company of Jesus at the September 15, 2007 Profession Service, Chattanooga Vineyard, Chattanooga, TN. It is based on
John 20:19-31
v. 19: And Jesus came and stood in their midst.
In 1977, I was going to school at Marshall University and played the electric bass in the jazz orchestra. That year, Stan Kenton brought his band to Marshall to do a master class for us and to play a concert. We were rehearsing for our own part of the concert when suddenly; the side door opened and in came the Stan Kenton band into our rehearsal. Each band member walked over and took his place by his counterpart in our band. The band came and stood in our midst!
It was an unnerving sense of a Presence flowing into the room. The band members didn’t say “Peace” when they walked in. We were somewhat rattled at first, but then we relaxed as the band members chatted with us. The Presence of the Band entered our rehearsal and super-charged the atmosphere.
So too, the Presence of Jesus coming into the room with the disciples was the Eternal (Kairos) of God breaking into the temporal Chronos of the disciples. The scripture tells us that they were afraid of the Jews and were huddled together behind closed doors. But can you imagine the disciples attitudes when Jesus came and stood in their midst? They must have jumped out of their skins!
So Jesus Greets them with “Peace be with you.”, comforting them and immediately commissioning them to their task of going out into the world in the power of the Holy Spirit and Making Christ Known to the world.Truly this is the task of every disciple of Christ…
That being so, what is this strange activity that we’re involved in today? Why has this motley group of people come here to dress up in odd clothes and profess to a way of life that is so…anachronistic, so medieval?
David Stendal-Rast OSB, in his book “Music of Silence”, says, “The monastic venture is commonly misunderstood as an effort to be super-pious, to be more holy than other people. But the rationale for monasticism could be most succinctly described as an effort to live in the NOW”
“To live in the NOW” sounds like such a truism, so good and …innocuous. But as humans we are terrified of NOW. As a counselor, I am constantly working with people who are either preoccupied with the wounds, grief and regrets of the past – or the fear of terrible imagined events in the future, things that have not happened yet. A sense of foreboding grips us when we are not Somewhere Else mentally.
Because of this, cloistered monasteries are places where everything is arranged in such a way as to make it easy to be present in the NOW – to be available to the One who lives in the NOW. Sometimes this is referred to as the Contemplative Life. But this doesn’t mean that one spends the entire time in meditation. According to Stendal-Rast, contemplation literally means a ‘continuous putting together according to some measure.”
What is being put together? The two realms of Chronos and Kairos. We are ‘continuously measuring what we are doing in Time against the Now that doesn’t’ pass away,” says Stendal-Rast. Contemplative Life is putting together of Vision and Action. Vision alone is not true Contemplation. We must put Vision into Action. Not just cloistered monks, but all of us as Christians are called to contemplation in this sense.
So this is another aspect of the Third Order life that attracts those of us called to it – the desire to bring together Vison and Action, the Sacred into the Secular; the desire to find a Sacred way of living daily life. This means being intentional about the way we order our days – spending time in focused prayer – both the offices of the day, and our own private reading and study, or “Lectio”, all of which helps us to progress toward the goal of being Christ like.
St. Benedict’s desire was to create a ‘School for God’s service”. This was not to be a school in the usual sense we know it, but one of gathering together a group of people for a specific work or purpose. So the Company of Jesus is a ‘school’ in much the same way we could speak of the “Hudson River” school of American artists for instance – a group of like-minded people, kindred spirits who associate for the purpose of encouraging and stimulating one another to love and good works; in a word, to be Christlike.
Monasticism usually entails leaving or renouncing the world in its classical sense. But those in the COJ are not called to leave, but to stay in the world, living out the ideals of our patrons Francis and Benedict in the context of family and everyday work.
Joan Chittister refers to what she calls “A barefooted soul” – awake, alert, aware and only partially at home. This is a poetic way of understanding the Third Order profession – a magnetic, irresistible tug in our hearts to live life in a more intentional and conscious fashion; a pull to bring together the Sacred and the Secular; a desire to practice the Presence of Jesus at all times.
Of course, there is also the draw of personality in which the personal style of our patron appeals deeply to us – Benedict with his ordered, disciplined, balanced approach to life; Francis in his abandonment to God’s moment-by-moment provision and immanent Lordship in all things,, most famously summed up in his relationship with the animals and in becoming a living Icon of the suffering Christ.
In each case there is a beauty that draws us up and out of our American mainstream pursuit of the ‘good life’ and challenges us to live life in a more deeply human fashion, one in which the Presence of Christ in our midst is tangible, almost palpable.
Being an order with two patron saints, I suppose we could call ourselves BENEFRISCANS or FRANCIDICTINES to reflect the influence of both charisms. Whatever we call ourselves, we are called to live in the NOW, to realize that there really is no separation between Sacred and Secular, but that all of life is OPUS DEI, or ‘work of God”. We are called to practice the Presence of Jesus standing in our midst and then to go into the world and serve as he did, sacrificially and whole-heartedly.
To quote Francis, “Wherever you go, preach the Gospel, if necessary use words.” Jesus sends us into the world, just as He Himself was sent – to love and serve the world. May God bless you on the way, brothers and sisters. And may people wherever you go recognize that Jesus is standing in their midst. AMEN.
John 20:19-31
v. 19: And Jesus came and stood in their midst.
In 1977, I was going to school at Marshall University and played the electric bass in the jazz orchestra. That year, Stan Kenton brought his band to Marshall to do a master class for us and to play a concert. We were rehearsing for our own part of the concert when suddenly; the side door opened and in came the Stan Kenton band into our rehearsal. Each band member walked over and took his place by his counterpart in our band. The band came and stood in our midst!
It was an unnerving sense of a Presence flowing into the room. The band members didn’t say “Peace” when they walked in. We were somewhat rattled at first, but then we relaxed as the band members chatted with us. The Presence of the Band entered our rehearsal and super-charged the atmosphere.
So too, the Presence of Jesus coming into the room with the disciples was the Eternal (Kairos) of God breaking into the temporal Chronos of the disciples. The scripture tells us that they were afraid of the Jews and were huddled together behind closed doors. But can you imagine the disciples attitudes when Jesus came and stood in their midst? They must have jumped out of their skins!
So Jesus Greets them with “Peace be with you.”, comforting them and immediately commissioning them to their task of going out into the world in the power of the Holy Spirit and Making Christ Known to the world.Truly this is the task of every disciple of Christ…
That being so, what is this strange activity that we’re involved in today? Why has this motley group of people come here to dress up in odd clothes and profess to a way of life that is so…anachronistic, so medieval?
David Stendal-Rast OSB, in his book “Music of Silence”, says, “The monastic venture is commonly misunderstood as an effort to be super-pious, to be more holy than other people. But the rationale for monasticism could be most succinctly described as an effort to live in the NOW”
“To live in the NOW” sounds like such a truism, so good and …innocuous. But as humans we are terrified of NOW. As a counselor, I am constantly working with people who are either preoccupied with the wounds, grief and regrets of the past – or the fear of terrible imagined events in the future, things that have not happened yet. A sense of foreboding grips us when we are not Somewhere Else mentally.
Because of this, cloistered monasteries are places where everything is arranged in such a way as to make it easy to be present in the NOW – to be available to the One who lives in the NOW. Sometimes this is referred to as the Contemplative Life. But this doesn’t mean that one spends the entire time in meditation. According to Stendal-Rast, contemplation literally means a ‘continuous putting together according to some measure.”
What is being put together? The two realms of Chronos and Kairos. We are ‘continuously measuring what we are doing in Time against the Now that doesn’t’ pass away,” says Stendal-Rast. Contemplative Life is putting together of Vision and Action. Vision alone is not true Contemplation. We must put Vision into Action. Not just cloistered monks, but all of us as Christians are called to contemplation in this sense.
So this is another aspect of the Third Order life that attracts those of us called to it – the desire to bring together Vison and Action, the Sacred into the Secular; the desire to find a Sacred way of living daily life. This means being intentional about the way we order our days – spending time in focused prayer – both the offices of the day, and our own private reading and study, or “Lectio”, all of which helps us to progress toward the goal of being Christ like.
St. Benedict’s desire was to create a ‘School for God’s service”. This was not to be a school in the usual sense we know it, but one of gathering together a group of people for a specific work or purpose. So the Company of Jesus is a ‘school’ in much the same way we could speak of the “Hudson River” school of American artists for instance – a group of like-minded people, kindred spirits who associate for the purpose of encouraging and stimulating one another to love and good works; in a word, to be Christlike.
Monasticism usually entails leaving or renouncing the world in its classical sense. But those in the COJ are not called to leave, but to stay in the world, living out the ideals of our patrons Francis and Benedict in the context of family and everyday work.
Joan Chittister refers to what she calls “A barefooted soul” – awake, alert, aware and only partially at home. This is a poetic way of understanding the Third Order profession – a magnetic, irresistible tug in our hearts to live life in a more intentional and conscious fashion; a pull to bring together the Sacred and the Secular; a desire to practice the Presence of Jesus at all times.
Of course, there is also the draw of personality in which the personal style of our patron appeals deeply to us – Benedict with his ordered, disciplined, balanced approach to life; Francis in his abandonment to God’s moment-by-moment provision and immanent Lordship in all things,, most famously summed up in his relationship with the animals and in becoming a living Icon of the suffering Christ.
In each case there is a beauty that draws us up and out of our American mainstream pursuit of the ‘good life’ and challenges us to live life in a more deeply human fashion, one in which the Presence of Christ in our midst is tangible, almost palpable.
Being an order with two patron saints, I suppose we could call ourselves BENEFRISCANS or FRANCIDICTINES to reflect the influence of both charisms. Whatever we call ourselves, we are called to live in the NOW, to realize that there really is no separation between Sacred and Secular, but that all of life is OPUS DEI, or ‘work of God”. We are called to practice the Presence of Jesus standing in our midst and then to go into the world and serve as he did, sacrificially and whole-heartedly.
To quote Francis, “Wherever you go, preach the Gospel, if necessary use words.” Jesus sends us into the world, just as He Himself was sent – to love and serve the world. May God bless you on the way, brothers and sisters. And may people wherever you go recognize that Jesus is standing in their midst. AMEN.
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Up from Slavery
A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church, based on the book of Philemon,
September 9, 2007
Intro and Background
On April 4, 1864, in a letter to Albert Hodges, Abraham Lincoln wrote, “If Slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” Today this seems obvious to us, but as Thomas Sowell points out in his essay, ‘The Real History of Slavery’ (in Black Rednecks and White Liberals), “…for thousands of years, slavery was simply not an issue, even among the great religious thinkers or moral philosophers of civilization around the world.” (pg. 116).
Slavery has been common throughout the world and actually gets its English name from the Slavs of Eastern Europe, who were so often taken as servants to the rest of the world that their very name became synonymous with servitude. While we typically think of white traders taking Africans to America to be sold, it must also be remembered that between 1500 and 1800 “At least a million Europeans were enslaved by North African pirates.” In India, the original Thugs kidnapped children for the purposes of enslavement, and “the Ottoman Empire regularly enslaved a percentage of the young boys from the Balkans, converted them to Islam and assigned them to various duties in the civil or military establishments. (Sowell, pg. 112).
And down to today, there are Christians in Sudan being kidnapped and sold into slavery, often sexual slavery, to their Muslim neighbors.
We will remember of course, that the Hebrews were slaves of the Egyptians for 400 years. The Bible even contains various regulations concerning the ownership of slaves. And both the Greeks and the Romans kept slaves without scruple. It is within this context that Paul writes to Philemon, the owner of a runaway slave.
It seems that a young slave named Onesimus had stolen some money from his owner, Philemon, and run from Colossae to Rome. Some four or five years later, he met up with Paul, who was in prison awaiting trial before Caesar. Onesimus becomes a Christian and makes himself useful to Paul, learning from him all the while.
Paul’s Appeal to Philemon
Now Philemon was an intimate friend of Paul’s. He was a well-to-do man and had a house big enough to hold church meetings – a common practice in the early church. In fact, the Roman basilica style church is based on the early Roman homes. Paul shows the depth of his relationship with Philemon in verse 7, “I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.”
He thanks God ‘always when he remembers Philemon in his prayers, because he has heard of Philemons’ love and of the faith that he has toward the Lord Jesus and all the saints, and he prays that the sharing of Philemon’s faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing…for the sake of Christ” (v.4,5).
Paul’s object in writing to Philemon is to intercede on behalf of Onesimus urging him to accept the runaway as a new brother in Christ. The tone of the letter is full of deference, courtesy, tact and humility.
Notice he appeals, he does not demand Philemon to comply. He could command obedience but he prefers to appeal on behalf of his child in the faith,Onesimus.
I think that Paul knew he was skating on delicate ice in dealing with this runaway slave. Against the background of our own American slavery, we can easily imagine what might have awaited Onesimus as a returned runaway. Therefore, he approaches Philemon gently –not in a heavy handed manner, but with love and remonstrations.
Paul appeals to the common bond in Jesus Christ to bring these two men together. We can imagine Paul saying, as he did to the Galatians: There is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus…(Gal.3:28). He says to Philemon that Onesimus was dead and useless to him, but through the Lord, there has come to be a unity between the two men that transcends the bounds of the secular law. The challenge to Philemon is to look to the higher law and recognize the claims of the Brotherhood in Christ – a brotherhood which supercedes the dead requirement of the law. And there is the reminder in the word ‘forever’, that the Kingdom of God is eternal, that our relationships with our Christian brothers and sisters go on without end.
Paul then offers to pay any debt that Onesimus has incurred with Philemon, but the implied message is that Philemon owes Paul big time, and Paul is now calling in his favors from Philemon. “You owe me your own self, and I want some benefit from you in the Lord…so refresh my heart,” he says. “ And by the way, prepare me a place, because I’m going to come visit you soon…
The Christian Response
This very short letter, with its gracious spirit, was read throughout the world for 18 centuries before circumstances allowed for the formulation of a document asserting that, “All men are created Equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…” Only in America and England did these ideas gain a substantial foothold, causing the end of the slave trade within 100 years of that first declaration.
In this country, we alone fought a bloody civil war to decide this issue. The English eventually paid the slave owners for their ‘property’ much in the same way the government would reimburse a land holder for taking his property to build a bridge or road.
The English then used their worldwide hegemony to force the abandonment of the slave trade in places as far flung as Brazil and Zanzibar. The Gospel imperative, pushed by conservative Christians, forced the end of the slave trade all over the world.
The Contemporary Challenge
The excellent movie, Amazing Grace portrayed the 40- year struggle by William Wilberforce and others to end this vicious trade. Wilberforce stood as a prophet crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord! Make straight in the desert a highway for our God!
We too are called to stand as prophets crying in the wilderness. We are called to stand against the apostasy of those church leaders who use their positions of authority to tear down the church and promote other religions.
We are called to advocate for the weak and the defenseless, the unborn who face the butcher’s knife, and those who, even today are being forcibly taken into slavery. We are called to help people find freedom from other forms of slavery such as legalism and addictions of all sorts.
And, as Paul demonstrates, we are challenged to do all these things in a spirit of love and grace towards those we seek to change. I love the words of St. Francis, “Wherever you go preach the Gospel; if necessary, use words.”
Friends, this week, let us seek the Lord and ask him how we may serve Him in winning the lost to Christ and also in winning Christians to a higher standard of faith and behavior. AMEN.
September 9, 2007
Intro and Background
On April 4, 1864, in a letter to Albert Hodges, Abraham Lincoln wrote, “If Slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” Today this seems obvious to us, but as Thomas Sowell points out in his essay, ‘The Real History of Slavery’ (in Black Rednecks and White Liberals), “…for thousands of years, slavery was simply not an issue, even among the great religious thinkers or moral philosophers of civilization around the world.” (pg. 116).
Slavery has been common throughout the world and actually gets its English name from the Slavs of Eastern Europe, who were so often taken as servants to the rest of the world that their very name became synonymous with servitude. While we typically think of white traders taking Africans to America to be sold, it must also be remembered that between 1500 and 1800 “At least a million Europeans were enslaved by North African pirates.” In India, the original Thugs kidnapped children for the purposes of enslavement, and “the Ottoman Empire regularly enslaved a percentage of the young boys from the Balkans, converted them to Islam and assigned them to various duties in the civil or military establishments. (Sowell, pg. 112).
And down to today, there are Christians in Sudan being kidnapped and sold into slavery, often sexual slavery, to their Muslim neighbors.
We will remember of course, that the Hebrews were slaves of the Egyptians for 400 years. The Bible even contains various regulations concerning the ownership of slaves. And both the Greeks and the Romans kept slaves without scruple. It is within this context that Paul writes to Philemon, the owner of a runaway slave.
It seems that a young slave named Onesimus had stolen some money from his owner, Philemon, and run from Colossae to Rome. Some four or five years later, he met up with Paul, who was in prison awaiting trial before Caesar. Onesimus becomes a Christian and makes himself useful to Paul, learning from him all the while.
Paul’s Appeal to Philemon
Now Philemon was an intimate friend of Paul’s. He was a well-to-do man and had a house big enough to hold church meetings – a common practice in the early church. In fact, the Roman basilica style church is based on the early Roman homes. Paul shows the depth of his relationship with Philemon in verse 7, “I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.”
He thanks God ‘always when he remembers Philemon in his prayers, because he has heard of Philemons’ love and of the faith that he has toward the Lord Jesus and all the saints, and he prays that the sharing of Philemon’s faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing…for the sake of Christ” (v.4,5).
Paul’s object in writing to Philemon is to intercede on behalf of Onesimus urging him to accept the runaway as a new brother in Christ. The tone of the letter is full of deference, courtesy, tact and humility.
Notice he appeals, he does not demand Philemon to comply. He could command obedience but he prefers to appeal on behalf of his child in the faith,Onesimus.
I think that Paul knew he was skating on delicate ice in dealing with this runaway slave. Against the background of our own American slavery, we can easily imagine what might have awaited Onesimus as a returned runaway. Therefore, he approaches Philemon gently –not in a heavy handed manner, but with love and remonstrations.
Paul appeals to the common bond in Jesus Christ to bring these two men together. We can imagine Paul saying, as he did to the Galatians: There is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus…(Gal.3:28). He says to Philemon that Onesimus was dead and useless to him, but through the Lord, there has come to be a unity between the two men that transcends the bounds of the secular law. The challenge to Philemon is to look to the higher law and recognize the claims of the Brotherhood in Christ – a brotherhood which supercedes the dead requirement of the law. And there is the reminder in the word ‘forever’, that the Kingdom of God is eternal, that our relationships with our Christian brothers and sisters go on without end.
Paul then offers to pay any debt that Onesimus has incurred with Philemon, but the implied message is that Philemon owes Paul big time, and Paul is now calling in his favors from Philemon. “You owe me your own self, and I want some benefit from you in the Lord…so refresh my heart,” he says. “ And by the way, prepare me a place, because I’m going to come visit you soon…
The Christian Response
This very short letter, with its gracious spirit, was read throughout the world for 18 centuries before circumstances allowed for the formulation of a document asserting that, “All men are created Equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…” Only in America and England did these ideas gain a substantial foothold, causing the end of the slave trade within 100 years of that first declaration.
In this country, we alone fought a bloody civil war to decide this issue. The English eventually paid the slave owners for their ‘property’ much in the same way the government would reimburse a land holder for taking his property to build a bridge or road.
The English then used their worldwide hegemony to force the abandonment of the slave trade in places as far flung as Brazil and Zanzibar. The Gospel imperative, pushed by conservative Christians, forced the end of the slave trade all over the world.
The Contemporary Challenge
The excellent movie, Amazing Grace portrayed the 40- year struggle by William Wilberforce and others to end this vicious trade. Wilberforce stood as a prophet crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord! Make straight in the desert a highway for our God!
We too are called to stand as prophets crying in the wilderness. We are called to stand against the apostasy of those church leaders who use their positions of authority to tear down the church and promote other religions.
We are called to advocate for the weak and the defenseless, the unborn who face the butcher’s knife, and those who, even today are being forcibly taken into slavery. We are called to help people find freedom from other forms of slavery such as legalism and addictions of all sorts.
And, as Paul demonstrates, we are challenged to do all these things in a spirit of love and grace towards those we seek to change. I love the words of St. Francis, “Wherever you go preach the Gospel; if necessary, use words.”
Friends, this week, let us seek the Lord and ask him how we may serve Him in winning the lost to Christ and also in winning Christians to a higher standard of faith and behavior. AMEN.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Hospitality
A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on September 2, 2007, based on Hebrews 13:1-3
A preacher from Kansas relates the following story in his blog: “One time… a man came by the church needing some clothes and a meal. We had a clothes ministry and gave him clothes and I went down and got him some KFC and visited for a while. We had a wonderful visit. My wife was church secretary at the time and I was youth minister and were between ministers. He gave me and my wife encouragement that we really needed to hear at the time. After a long visit and done with his warm meal; he said he had to be on his way. I always gave Bibles away to those who came by the church so I went to my office to give him a Bible for his journey. When I returned he was gone. No cars had been in the parking lot to pick him up, a field of wheat was the only thing for a quite a while. He was there and then gone. (Blogger Preacherman @ blogger.com).
Such stories of fairly typical of belivevers who may have ‘entertained angels unawares’. A person appears at your door, seeming not unusual. He does something unusual and then disappears without a trace. Such experiences are fairly common in the Bible. In Genesis 18, we read the story of how Abraham was sitting in his tent in the heat of the day and suddenly he saw three men standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, “O, Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brougth and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on – since you have come to your servant.” So they stay and wait while Abraham prepares a meal for them. They deliver the prophesy about Sarah having a son, Isaac, and then they lead Abraham to a vantage point overlooking Sodom, where Abraham bargains with them over sparing the city.
But there is some curious language in this passage. Verse 1 of chapter 18 says, “ And the Lord appeared to him…” Then in verse two, it says, “three men were standing in front of him.” Throughout the rest of the passage there is an alternation between the phrases, “The Lord said…” and the phrase, “the men”. As Abraham bargains, he says, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord (vv. 27, 31). Finally the story concludes and ‘the Lord went his way’ (v.33).
Here then, is a very interesting illustration of entertaining angels. In it, we learn that ‘the men’ or the angles, are sometimes not just angels, or messengers, but they may be the Lord Himself! In Abraham’s case, it appears he may have been entertaining the Trinity itself!
Beginning in the 1980’s sometime, there began to be a surge of interest in Angel stories. I have several books from Guideposts describing inspiring encounters with angels. Often these encounters have to do with bringing a message of encouragement to the person visited. Sometimes the stories recount amazing rescues from danger, or warnings to avoid danger. In all the instances in these books, the stories deal with what appears to be ‘mere angels’ - not the Lord himself, but a messenger sent to deliver a message or give protection of some sort.
While these stories are wonderful in and of themselves – and we should indeed be mindful of the possibility that an angel may one day come to us, I’d like us to think about an even more profound thought – that we may sometime entertain the Lord Jesus himself – just like Abraham did. More, that we do indeed encounter Jesus Christ every time we meet another human being!
Talk about a disturbing thought! If you really start meditating on this and think about how to apply it, you will be deeply changed as a person yourself. Mother Teresa used to talk about ministering to Jesus ‘in distressing disguise”. This captures the paradox of welcoming Jesus in others. In their book, “Radical Hospitality, Benedict’s Way of Love”, Fr. Daniel Holman, OSB, and Lonnie Pratt delve into this paradox in depth. “The stranger at next door, and at our door, is particularly frightening,” they say (pg. xxii).
After 911, we learned that the apparently innocuous foreigner can be a terrorist bent on mass destruction. “When we speak of the depth of hospitality, we are proposing something scary and radical,” say Homan and Pratt. But they go on to challenge us to take the risk. “Unless we find a way to open ourselves to others, we will grow even more isolated and frightened. If we do not find and practice ways of hospitality we will grow increasingly hostile. Hospitality is the answer to hostility. Jesus said to lover your neighbor; hospitality is how.” (pg. xxii).
The other evening my young friend Eric and I went down to Pullman Sqaure and were sitting outside enjoying a cold bottle of water and talking about our lives together. Suddenly, a cartoonish figure in a wheelchair appears at my right hand and asks me for money for breakfast.
My first response was to shudder and think, “Ugh. Go away leave me alone. Can’t you see I’m trying to live my life here?!” But then my Benedictine (read ‘Christian’) training took over and I remembered to welcome this person AS CHRIST… “for he himself will say: ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”(RB 53:1).
I began to talk to “Speedy” about his life and I quickly learned that he had been living down by the river for 11 YEARS! Speedy obviously had an alcohol problem, and he was apparently violent at times. He told me that he had tried to live in various housing situations in the past, but he had gotten into fights and had been kicked out. In the recent clean sweep of the river-front by city officials, Speedy was either overlooked or purposefully slipped under the radar, maintaining his open-air way of life, and even trying to provide some manner of comfort to others who joined him there on the river bank.
I asked him about the condition of his soul, and he grudgingly told me that he had at one time been ‘saved’ but that he wasn’t going to church much these days.
Speedy smelled bad and he looked like a shriveled, balding troll. He had a white beard and was blind in one eye – a sort of film visibly clouding his right eye. And he was known by the security guards. No sooner had Speedy engaged me for a few moments, than the guard came and stood over him, telling him to move on. Speedy was clearly a nuisance to people like myself and Eric who were not looking to be accosted by Jesus in disguise, but merely wanted to enjoy a pleasant evening together.
With the guard standing over us, I quickly gave Speedy the last two bucks in my wallet and watched him speedily roll off back to the river front. I wondered if I had welcomed him ‘as Christ’ or not. I had tried to engage him in conversation – to begin to know him as a person. I had opened my wallet to him,but I wasn’t sure that I had actually opened my heart to him, for this is what we are challenged to do as Christians. Homan and Pratt again: [we are to]‘offer an open heart, a stance of availability, and to look for God lurking in every single person who comes through the door.” To fail to do this is to close ourselves off to the Divine.
But we are faced with an ‘existential dilemma’: We are essentially alone in this life and because of our sin nature, we tend to draw back from others. We fear connecting with others, but we desperately need to do so at the same time. This dilemma becomes particularly acute when we encounter the stranger – the different ‘other’.
Speedy was definitely ‘different’ and ‘other’ than me. He made me as an easy mark for money, and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t interested in my life at all. But in a very real way, Speedy is me! For a brief moment, he was my guest. “We are all guests,” say Fr. Daniel and Lonnie, “we are all travelers, we are all a little lost, and we are all looking for a place to rest a while.” In life, “God is the host, but God also becomes the guest we receive in others. (Radical Hospitality, pg. xxxvi).
Benedict tells his monks to “Never give a hollow greeting of peace, or turn away when someone needs your love… Great care and concern are to be shown in receiving poor people and pilgrims, because in them more particularly, Christ is received… (RB. 53:15)
To receive Christ in every person is to live counter-culturally and to open oneself wide to the transforming power of love. Indeed, if you want to be whole, you have to let others into your heart. We are told in Hebrews 13:2 to ‘show hospitality to strangers”. And while this doesn’t necessarily mean bringing Speedy home to live with, it does mean letting Speedy connect with us, to stir us and to share his humanity with us.
Showing hospitality means acknowledging the Image of God in the other person and accepting that Image however it may be disguised.
A number of years ago, my wife and I read a book entitled, “Open Heart, Open Home: The way to make others feel welcome and wanted” by Karen Burton Mains. I profoundly influenced us to open our home to our neighbors and actively minister to them. We’ve also been deeply influenced by Francis and Edith Shaeffer, who opened their homes to an entire generation of seekers drifting through the Swiss Alps, looking for Truth.
In the process of trying to emulate the Shaeffers and Mains, we have extended ourselves and our home to some rough and very needy characters. It has always been a challenge and an effort to welcome the disguised Jesus. Often, we have grown weary with the extreme needs that have come to the door. But we have also been warmed and enriched by welcoming strangers into our hearts – strangers like Sue Buzbee – who was someone we met while living in Illinois - someone who was unattractive in every possible way, but who managed to work her way into our hearts and our family for many years – someone who was Jesus in Distressing disguise, but who brought more love to us than we gave out to her, someone who taught us what it is to be truly hospitable – even when we didn’t want to!
Friends, the world needs Christians Innkeepers – people who have room for Jesus, in whatever guise he presents himself. I challenge us all to dig down deep and practice hospitality to a world desperately in need of shelter and acceptance. As we practice welcoming each person as Christ, we fulfill both commands to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We may in fact entertain angels unawares and be delighted with their support and help, but we might just also fulfill the Great Commission and change our world! AMEN.
A preacher from Kansas relates the following story in his blog: “One time… a man came by the church needing some clothes and a meal. We had a clothes ministry and gave him clothes and I went down and got him some KFC and visited for a while. We had a wonderful visit. My wife was church secretary at the time and I was youth minister and were between ministers. He gave me and my wife encouragement that we really needed to hear at the time. After a long visit and done with his warm meal; he said he had to be on his way. I always gave Bibles away to those who came by the church so I went to my office to give him a Bible for his journey. When I returned he was gone. No cars had been in the parking lot to pick him up, a field of wheat was the only thing for a quite a while. He was there and then gone. (Blogger Preacherman @ blogger.com).
Such stories of fairly typical of belivevers who may have ‘entertained angels unawares’. A person appears at your door, seeming not unusual. He does something unusual and then disappears without a trace. Such experiences are fairly common in the Bible. In Genesis 18, we read the story of how Abraham was sitting in his tent in the heat of the day and suddenly he saw three men standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, “O, Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brougth and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on – since you have come to your servant.” So they stay and wait while Abraham prepares a meal for them. They deliver the prophesy about Sarah having a son, Isaac, and then they lead Abraham to a vantage point overlooking Sodom, where Abraham bargains with them over sparing the city.
But there is some curious language in this passage. Verse 1 of chapter 18 says, “ And the Lord appeared to him…” Then in verse two, it says, “three men were standing in front of him.” Throughout the rest of the passage there is an alternation between the phrases, “The Lord said…” and the phrase, “the men”. As Abraham bargains, he says, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord (vv. 27, 31). Finally the story concludes and ‘the Lord went his way’ (v.33).
Here then, is a very interesting illustration of entertaining angels. In it, we learn that ‘the men’ or the angles, are sometimes not just angels, or messengers, but they may be the Lord Himself! In Abraham’s case, it appears he may have been entertaining the Trinity itself!
Beginning in the 1980’s sometime, there began to be a surge of interest in Angel stories. I have several books from Guideposts describing inspiring encounters with angels. Often these encounters have to do with bringing a message of encouragement to the person visited. Sometimes the stories recount amazing rescues from danger, or warnings to avoid danger. In all the instances in these books, the stories deal with what appears to be ‘mere angels’ - not the Lord himself, but a messenger sent to deliver a message or give protection of some sort.
While these stories are wonderful in and of themselves – and we should indeed be mindful of the possibility that an angel may one day come to us, I’d like us to think about an even more profound thought – that we may sometime entertain the Lord Jesus himself – just like Abraham did. More, that we do indeed encounter Jesus Christ every time we meet another human being!
Talk about a disturbing thought! If you really start meditating on this and think about how to apply it, you will be deeply changed as a person yourself. Mother Teresa used to talk about ministering to Jesus ‘in distressing disguise”. This captures the paradox of welcoming Jesus in others. In their book, “Radical Hospitality, Benedict’s Way of Love”, Fr. Daniel Holman, OSB, and Lonnie Pratt delve into this paradox in depth. “The stranger at next door, and at our door, is particularly frightening,” they say (pg. xxii).
After 911, we learned that the apparently innocuous foreigner can be a terrorist bent on mass destruction. “When we speak of the depth of hospitality, we are proposing something scary and radical,” say Homan and Pratt. But they go on to challenge us to take the risk. “Unless we find a way to open ourselves to others, we will grow even more isolated and frightened. If we do not find and practice ways of hospitality we will grow increasingly hostile. Hospitality is the answer to hostility. Jesus said to lover your neighbor; hospitality is how.” (pg. xxii).
The other evening my young friend Eric and I went down to Pullman Sqaure and were sitting outside enjoying a cold bottle of water and talking about our lives together. Suddenly, a cartoonish figure in a wheelchair appears at my right hand and asks me for money for breakfast.
My first response was to shudder and think, “Ugh. Go away leave me alone. Can’t you see I’m trying to live my life here?!” But then my Benedictine (read ‘Christian’) training took over and I remembered to welcome this person AS CHRIST… “for he himself will say: ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”(RB 53:1).
I began to talk to “Speedy” about his life and I quickly learned that he had been living down by the river for 11 YEARS! Speedy obviously had an alcohol problem, and he was apparently violent at times. He told me that he had tried to live in various housing situations in the past, but he had gotten into fights and had been kicked out. In the recent clean sweep of the river-front by city officials, Speedy was either overlooked or purposefully slipped under the radar, maintaining his open-air way of life, and even trying to provide some manner of comfort to others who joined him there on the river bank.
I asked him about the condition of his soul, and he grudgingly told me that he had at one time been ‘saved’ but that he wasn’t going to church much these days.
Speedy smelled bad and he looked like a shriveled, balding troll. He had a white beard and was blind in one eye – a sort of film visibly clouding his right eye. And he was known by the security guards. No sooner had Speedy engaged me for a few moments, than the guard came and stood over him, telling him to move on. Speedy was clearly a nuisance to people like myself and Eric who were not looking to be accosted by Jesus in disguise, but merely wanted to enjoy a pleasant evening together.
With the guard standing over us, I quickly gave Speedy the last two bucks in my wallet and watched him speedily roll off back to the river front. I wondered if I had welcomed him ‘as Christ’ or not. I had tried to engage him in conversation – to begin to know him as a person. I had opened my wallet to him,but I wasn’t sure that I had actually opened my heart to him, for this is what we are challenged to do as Christians. Homan and Pratt again: [we are to]‘offer an open heart, a stance of availability, and to look for God lurking in every single person who comes through the door.” To fail to do this is to close ourselves off to the Divine.
But we are faced with an ‘existential dilemma’: We are essentially alone in this life and because of our sin nature, we tend to draw back from others. We fear connecting with others, but we desperately need to do so at the same time. This dilemma becomes particularly acute when we encounter the stranger – the different ‘other’.
Speedy was definitely ‘different’ and ‘other’ than me. He made me as an easy mark for money, and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t interested in my life at all. But in a very real way, Speedy is me! For a brief moment, he was my guest. “We are all guests,” say Fr. Daniel and Lonnie, “we are all travelers, we are all a little lost, and we are all looking for a place to rest a while.” In life, “God is the host, but God also becomes the guest we receive in others. (Radical Hospitality, pg. xxxvi).
Benedict tells his monks to “Never give a hollow greeting of peace, or turn away when someone needs your love… Great care and concern are to be shown in receiving poor people and pilgrims, because in them more particularly, Christ is received… (RB. 53:15)
To receive Christ in every person is to live counter-culturally and to open oneself wide to the transforming power of love. Indeed, if you want to be whole, you have to let others into your heart. We are told in Hebrews 13:2 to ‘show hospitality to strangers”. And while this doesn’t necessarily mean bringing Speedy home to live with, it does mean letting Speedy connect with us, to stir us and to share his humanity with us.
Showing hospitality means acknowledging the Image of God in the other person and accepting that Image however it may be disguised.
A number of years ago, my wife and I read a book entitled, “Open Heart, Open Home: The way to make others feel welcome and wanted” by Karen Burton Mains. I profoundly influenced us to open our home to our neighbors and actively minister to them. We’ve also been deeply influenced by Francis and Edith Shaeffer, who opened their homes to an entire generation of seekers drifting through the Swiss Alps, looking for Truth.
In the process of trying to emulate the Shaeffers and Mains, we have extended ourselves and our home to some rough and very needy characters. It has always been a challenge and an effort to welcome the disguised Jesus. Often, we have grown weary with the extreme needs that have come to the door. But we have also been warmed and enriched by welcoming strangers into our hearts – strangers like Sue Buzbee – who was someone we met while living in Illinois - someone who was unattractive in every possible way, but who managed to work her way into our hearts and our family for many years – someone who was Jesus in Distressing disguise, but who brought more love to us than we gave out to her, someone who taught us what it is to be truly hospitable – even when we didn’t want to!
Friends, the world needs Christians Innkeepers – people who have room for Jesus, in whatever guise he presents himself. I challenge us all to dig down deep and practice hospitality to a world desperately in need of shelter and acceptance. As we practice welcoming each person as Christ, we fulfill both commands to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We may in fact entertain angels unawares and be delighted with their support and help, but we might just also fulfill the Great Commission and change our world! AMEN.
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