Memorial Day Sermon
May 30, 2010
Rev. Michael Burch
The sermon I have for you this morning, on this Memorial Day weekend, is neither an uncritical defense of war and militarism, nor a naive explanation of how we can end all war by a romanticized application of a peace and love. We need to be more scrutinizing than choosing sides. The memorializing of the fallen in battle is an important act that begs for thoughtful consideration of war and human sacrifice. What really are we saying when we honor those who have died in battle?
Origins of Memorial Day Remembrances –
The Origins of Memorial Day go back to the Civil War, when at the conclusion of this war almost 600,000 lie dead, a staggering 2% of the United States population at the time. This would be the equivalent of the United States fighting a war today that would lead to more than six million dead. Imagine it, six million. Memorial Day grew almost spontaneously within a year of the end of the civil war because the losses could not be forgotten, ever. The human tragedy of that war affected every family in the United States. War is vicious, brutal, and the damages often permanent.
In spite of the heroism we can point to in war time, Memorial Day is a remembering of tragedy, and there has been no tragedy relative to the loss of life, as horrific as the Civil War.
Memorial Day has also, over the generations, grown into a general time of respect for troops, for the soldier who puts so much at risk in the course of civic duty. There has long been an ideal of the “good soldier.” Reaching back into the ancient period, there was a clear notion of a good soldier, which mirrored the notion of a good citizen. The reason was because virtually all Greek and Roman citizens were soldiers too – only men held citizenship, and warfare for all men was an honor and the most expedient way to a noble or glorious death that could have afterlife benefits. The protection and survival of the city-state was essential, and first in importance. The virtues championed for such a priority were popularized through Stoic philosophy, but were foundational in Greco-Roman culture – there were four chief virtues that led one to ultimate virtue; Wisdom, Justice, Bravery, Self-Control, the latter two were especially applicable to warfare. To fight in the ancient style of battle one had to keep rank and file. The armies typically fought in columns that weakened when they dispersed. One had to0 exercise the utmost in bravery and self-control to hold your station in your column as bodies dropped all around you. The temptation to flee was great, but death on the battlefield was the ultimate personal accomplishment in many ways. So much was this case that countless soldiers in ancient battle chose to run themselves through with their own sword, perhaps falling over their sword, rather than flee when the encroaching enemy was about to overrun their adversary.
From the ancient perspective, battle made one a more virtuous and better person. It defined men, and prevented women from ever truly being recognized as having a capacity for virtue.
That was then, this is now – and we have to ask ourselves if warfare really makes us better people. We can and should both commemorate the fallen soldier in U.S. history and ask if we cannot do better by that soldier. Is death on the battlefield what soldiers long for today? Or is it to complete their service honorably and return home to their families safely?
Honor by warfare requires an enemy. The violence of warfare must be justified by the creation of a deserving enemy – an enemy so evil their destruction is not only warranted, but demanded. Yes, warfare demands a justifiable violence. Thus honor can require the creation, the construction, of the “perfect enemy.” How many foreign rulers have you heard likened to Hitler?
Creating, defining the enemy – a tried and true means of recruiting troops
We are no longer living in the ancient past when it comes to warfare – too much has changed. At the same time, we can hardly make a case that war has never accomplished a good – a relative good, albeit, but a good that people recognize as such. Who here would claim the Revolutionary War did not have a positive outcome? Who here would stand up and declare the Civil War a bad war when it led to the emancipation of millions of African slaves? And who here wants to argue the United States should not have gotten involved in WWII, and led the liberation so many from the inhumane Nazi concentration camps?
You might not like it, but there is a compelling case for war. We live in a world where we unfortunately believe we can only end some kinds of injustices with violence. We smash violence with more violence – and sometimes we would say, “it worked.”
As the popular 20th century theologian Reinhold Neibhur stated, humans have a capacity for justice, but an inclination for injustice
Is he right? Can anyone claim otherwise that humans have a capacity for injustice, but an inclination for justice?
We live in a world where peace songs and peace protests don’t make evil go away – but also live in a world where good intentions with the use of force often rarely go as planned.
Today, not only do soldiers think differently about service and battle, but our wars are so profoundly different than wars prior to the 20th century, much different than wars in the ancient world, though the perspective and ethic of ancient cultures regarding soldiers and war have survived in part until today.
But the wars we fight are beyond words. WWI and WWII combined, just two decades apart killed over 100 million people by many estimates! 100 million people! This is truly a new world, a new kind of warfare. All War is not the same. It’s almost as if we need a name for war before our era, and contemporary war – they represent different tragedies and have far longer lasting implications This is a new age – total war not realistic. There has to be a better way.
Or am I just being naïve? Perhaps, but I still believe that Jesus teachings are relevant here, although I recognize that his words are not those of a person schooled in international diplomacy, nor does Jesus give much nation state advice. Nevertheless, how can we read the gospels and not think that Jesus would at least say, “we can do better than this, and we must do better than this?
Stop for just one moment, and think of our collective national history. Not a single generation has passed and there not been warfare – it is astounding – follow me through history and see that longest period of peace we have seen was between 1865 and 1898, only 33 years. We are a militaristic state, as much as one would rather opt for the words, “a leader of democracy in the world.”
• The American Revolutionary War, (1775-1783)
• The War of 1812 (1812-1815)
• The Mexican-American War (1846-1848)
• The Civil War (1861-1865)
• The Spanish-American War (1898)
• WWI (1914-1919)
• WWII (1939-1945)
• Korean War (1950-1953)
• Vietnam War (1955-1973)
• Persian Gulf War (1990-91)
• Iraq War (2003 - )
• Afghanistan-Taliban War (2001 - )
This is a sobering realization, and one that must compel all of us to say, “we can do better.”
I’ve never served in the military. I have never had the experience of warfare. There is no doubt that that experience changes a person, forever – and understandably so. There is no experience to which one can liken warfare. It is brutal, merciless, ruthless, and tragic. And it has indeed taken the lives of many.
And yet, we have this real dilemma in trying to live by a blanket principle of condemning all war. We have seen war prevent what we believe to be greater evils. Who can criticize what the allies prevented in WWII, stopping a deranged Nazi dictator, halting Jewish atrocities, saving Europe? Who can criticize what was accomplished in the bloodiest of battles the civil war, a war that not only ended slavery in the United States but had a ripple effect in the western hemisphere crippling the slave trade elsewhere, and allowing America to begin its path of healing racial hostility and beginning the building of one society – And who can criticize the American Revolutionary war that led to the founding of America, a world shaping experiment in democracy and new found freedoms.
We can defend war well - and we do.
But my reflection on this Memorial Day, in 2010, is focused particularly upon the soldier – the service men and women who lives were cut short, and our memorial to them is not just a passing thought but an invitation each and every year to consider the lives of these many, so, so many service persons, who lost promising lives at young ages – for others. But we would all be exercising neglect if we did not take this time to contemplate very seriously the place of war in our world.
Some say war is inevitable as long as human beings are human beings. Some say war is preventable and that we can build a world without such forms of destruction, and loss of life.
My message this morning encourages us to remember the fallen in a way that causes us to take seriously the question of war, violence, ethnic and religious hatred – these are things for which the Gospel calls us to take up, and remedy.
I believe war is still and will continue to be a real and constant threat. Many Christians have concluded that participating in war can represent a greater good than non-resistance or pacifism. They might be right, but to fail to try to disprove that is wrong. That’s right, it’s wrong. We cannot afford a world wide conflict. The potential devastation with modern warfare technology is unimaginable.
I believe today, what I have not always believed - that one day the world will be without war. I’m not talking about a pie-in-the-sky, when Jesus comes back and makes the world a better place, idea – I’m talking about human beings, deciding that we can dispense with war as a punitive tool or a means to solving disputes. There will still be conflicts in this world, that will not go away. There may still be ways for one group to deliver punitive damage to another, but not necessarily by warfare. Not by way of nuclear disaster that can potentially destroys hundreds of millions of people in days and set cultures back by generations
We have to give consideration to the steps we need to take to end war as a political tool. We are called to strive for that faith. Governments ought to be held accountable for wars, and our criticisms of government can be productive to be certain – but, it is easy to blame governments for wars. We are not powerless before any government.
How do I start with me? How do I begin to break down the walls of hostility, hatred, and fear within me? How do I begin to finally say the best way I can honor the fallen is to do my part in making sacrifices for peace, in coming to understand my world as a world that does not just belong to me and those like me, but is a world shared by billions, in a world where war has devastated millions.
Listen to this Pauline letter, a synopsis of his words in the letter to the Ephesians. How can one deny that part of the Gospel’s mandate is not just peace with God, but for groups in hostile relationships, to break down the walls of hostility and peacefully co-exist, even work together.
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles… were at one time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth and strangers to the covenants of promise... But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near, For Jesus himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility… that he might create in himself one new human in place of the two, so making peace…killing the hostility. So then you are…fellow citizens… being built together into one dwelling place by the Spirit.
In closing, we are called to respect the conscience of our sisters and brothers, those who take up arms and sacrifice their lives – those who refuse and not just hope for fewer fallen soldier to memorialize, but take up the labor within, the spiritual quest for a better day. There has been no simple solution or easy 1-2-3 steps to take, offered in this sermon. This quest must be a spiritual journey we all as individuals take up individually, and do better on our own account first. That journey, that commitment will lead to better ideas, better tools, better conflict resolution – it will allow us just to do better. I recognize that I am open to criticism for being too naïve. Perhaps… Perhaps….
On this day, Memorial Day, we pay tribute to those who have fallen, and we ask of ourselves what more can we do, what more can I do, to carry out the Gospel that Jesus has called us to – the Gospel of Peace and Reconciliation.
Let those who have ears to hear, hear -
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
SERMON: Reverence for Life April 18, 2010
April 18, 2010
SERMON: Reverence for Life
TEXTS:
Old Testament Reading: Numbers 22:22-35
New Testament Reading: Matthew 10:24-31
Who Was Albert Schweitzer? (1875 – 1965)
• Minister
• New Testament Theologian
• Medical Doctor
• Author
• Scholar of Bach – a mystical sense of the eternal
• Respected Organ Builder – organ revival movement
• Noble Peace Prize 1952 – for his Reverence for Life, ideals, and his work on nuclear non-proliferation
BEYOND THE POLITICIZING OF THE EARTH
The Environmentalism argument can sometimes be put forth in contention with progress and development pitted against the preservation of the Earth and the non-human life it sustains.
The debate of energy sources and how our technologies and resources can best be used to raise standards of living and secure a stable economy – and to what degree we should weigh our concerns for other life on the Earth and our intentions to co-inhabit this planet for millennia to come.
But none of these things prevent us from asking the question, “What does it mean to embrace a “Reverence for Life?” We cannot use a politicized debate about our relationship to the environment and the ethical questions of respecting life. In certain contexts our actions in relations to the life surrounding us supercedes political positions, and is a question about our image of the divine and our respect for the very source that sustains our own human life – Schweitzer’s pursuit if understanding the Jesus of History led him to an ethic about respecting life in its broadest sense. Reverence of life, Schweitzer said, was the fundamental human ethic to follow when attempting to live with moral integrity.
Three qualities capture Schweitzer’s “Reverence for Life.”
AWE
CURIOSITY
RESPECT
• To be in AWE of the magnificence of life
When we lose our awe for this life, even for a day, we are in need of renewal – and it is easy to do so that the Reverence of life tells us to remember each day the awe-inspiring life we wake up to that can be realized or captured in that bee buzzing outside the window, the opening of the tulips, a leaf tumbling across the grass, and the respectful greeting of a pet.
Reflect on the words in Job (select verses from chapter 39)
1"Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the does? 4Their young ones become strong; they grow up in the open 5"Who has let the wild donkey go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey, 6to whom I have given the arid plain for his home and the salt land for his dwelling place? 8He ranges the mountains as his pasture, and he searches after every green thing. 9"Is the wild ox willing to serve you? 11Will you depend on him because his strength is great, 19 "Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane? 20Do you make him leap like the locust? He laughs at fear and is not dismayed; he does not turn back from the sword in battle. 24With fierceness he swallows the ground; he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet. 26 "Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south? 27Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high? 28 On the rock he dwells and makes his home 29 From there he spies out the prey; his eyes behold it from far away.
*********************************************
• CURIOUS about the wonderment of life
(Wisdom of life, It is our teacher)
SCHWEITZER SAYS ONE MUST TAKE TIME TO LEARN FROM LIFE EXPRESSIONS AROUND US – AS JESUS TEACHES IN THE PARABLE OF THE VINE & THE BRANCHES, SO WE TOO ARE BRANCHES THAT ARE SUSTAINED BY OUR INVESTMENT – OUR AWE AND CURIOSITY OF LIFE – LIFE AS A FORCE, AS SPIRITUALITY, AS THE ESSENCE OF GOD’S NATURE. IF WE ARE NOT SEEKING TO BE CONNECTED TO LIFE, TO DRAW FROM IT LIKE A BRANCH DOES ALL ITS NOURISHMENT FROM A VINE – WE BEGIN TO WITHER…
SCHWEITZER:
"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats."
• RESPECT the will to live in its multifarious expressions (Embracing the will to live in present in all of life’s biodiversity)
"We are truly ethical when we obey the compulsion to help all life which we are able to assist, and shrink from injuring that which lives around us." Schweitzer
****************************
Reverence for Life says that the only thing we are really sure of is that we live and we “will-to-live,” according to Schweitzer.
This is something that we share with everything else that lives, from elephants to blades of grass – and, of course, every human being.
We are brothers and sisters to all living things, and owe to all of them the same care and respect, that we wish for ourselves.”
Schweitzer’s ethic of Reverence for life grew out of his quest for a deep and meaningful understanding Jesus. Schweitzer’s years of medical service among the poor, his fascination and love for music, including the time spent in mastering the art of organ building and the understanding and playing of Bach, all led to his personal epiphany…. that when he possessed, in all humility, a Reverence for life, it did not provide every answer for life, but it established a principle for living that was reflective of the gentle way in which Jesus lived in the midst of death and destruction, a principle which serves as a guide for us - to strive for the best expression we can put forward of revering the life god has given us, the life God has placed around us, and the spirit of life that gives us joy, enthusiasm, and purpose.
We walk upon this earth with deep respect Schweitzer says because the goodness of life is all around us and that spirit which enlivens it we sense within ourselves when we are listening
"Therefore search and see if there is not some place where you may invest your humanity…. Do something wonderful for life, and people may imitate it."
SERMON: Reverence for Life
TEXTS:
Old Testament Reading: Numbers 22:22-35
New Testament Reading: Matthew 10:24-31
Who Was Albert Schweitzer? (1875 – 1965)
• Minister
• New Testament Theologian
• Medical Doctor
• Author
• Scholar of Bach – a mystical sense of the eternal
• Respected Organ Builder – organ revival movement
• Noble Peace Prize 1952 – for his Reverence for Life, ideals, and his work on nuclear non-proliferation
BEYOND THE POLITICIZING OF THE EARTH
The Environmentalism argument can sometimes be put forth in contention with progress and development pitted against the preservation of the Earth and the non-human life it sustains.
The debate of energy sources and how our technologies and resources can best be used to raise standards of living and secure a stable economy – and to what degree we should weigh our concerns for other life on the Earth and our intentions to co-inhabit this planet for millennia to come.
But none of these things prevent us from asking the question, “What does it mean to embrace a “Reverence for Life?” We cannot use a politicized debate about our relationship to the environment and the ethical questions of respecting life. In certain contexts our actions in relations to the life surrounding us supercedes political positions, and is a question about our image of the divine and our respect for the very source that sustains our own human life – Schweitzer’s pursuit if understanding the Jesus of History led him to an ethic about respecting life in its broadest sense. Reverence of life, Schweitzer said, was the fundamental human ethic to follow when attempting to live with moral integrity.
Three qualities capture Schweitzer’s “Reverence for Life.”
AWE
CURIOSITY
RESPECT
• To be in AWE of the magnificence of life
When we lose our awe for this life, even for a day, we are in need of renewal – and it is easy to do so that the Reverence of life tells us to remember each day the awe-inspiring life we wake up to that can be realized or captured in that bee buzzing outside the window, the opening of the tulips, a leaf tumbling across the grass, and the respectful greeting of a pet.
Reflect on the words in Job (select verses from chapter 39)
1"Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the does? 4Their young ones become strong; they grow up in the open 5"Who has let the wild donkey go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey, 6to whom I have given the arid plain for his home and the salt land for his dwelling place? 8He ranges the mountains as his pasture, and he searches after every green thing. 9"Is the wild ox willing to serve you? 11Will you depend on him because his strength is great, 19 "Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane? 20Do you make him leap like the locust? He laughs at fear and is not dismayed; he does not turn back from the sword in battle. 24With fierceness he swallows the ground; he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet. 26 "Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south? 27Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high? 28 On the rock he dwells and makes his home 29 From there he spies out the prey; his eyes behold it from far away.
*********************************************
• CURIOUS about the wonderment of life
(Wisdom of life, It is our teacher)
SCHWEITZER SAYS ONE MUST TAKE TIME TO LEARN FROM LIFE EXPRESSIONS AROUND US – AS JESUS TEACHES IN THE PARABLE OF THE VINE & THE BRANCHES, SO WE TOO ARE BRANCHES THAT ARE SUSTAINED BY OUR INVESTMENT – OUR AWE AND CURIOSITY OF LIFE – LIFE AS A FORCE, AS SPIRITUALITY, AS THE ESSENCE OF GOD’S NATURE. IF WE ARE NOT SEEKING TO BE CONNECTED TO LIFE, TO DRAW FROM IT LIKE A BRANCH DOES ALL ITS NOURISHMENT FROM A VINE – WE BEGIN TO WITHER…
SCHWEITZER:
"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats."
• RESPECT the will to live in its multifarious expressions (Embracing the will to live in present in all of life’s biodiversity)
"We are truly ethical when we obey the compulsion to help all life which we are able to assist, and shrink from injuring that which lives around us." Schweitzer
****************************
Reverence for Life says that the only thing we are really sure of is that we live and we “will-to-live,” according to Schweitzer.
This is something that we share with everything else that lives, from elephants to blades of grass – and, of course, every human being.
We are brothers and sisters to all living things, and owe to all of them the same care and respect, that we wish for ourselves.”
Schweitzer’s ethic of Reverence for life grew out of his quest for a deep and meaningful understanding Jesus. Schweitzer’s years of medical service among the poor, his fascination and love for music, including the time spent in mastering the art of organ building and the understanding and playing of Bach, all led to his personal epiphany…. that when he possessed, in all humility, a Reverence for life, it did not provide every answer for life, but it established a principle for living that was reflective of the gentle way in which Jesus lived in the midst of death and destruction, a principle which serves as a guide for us - to strive for the best expression we can put forward of revering the life god has given us, the life God has placed around us, and the spirit of life that gives us joy, enthusiasm, and purpose.
We walk upon this earth with deep respect Schweitzer says because the goodness of life is all around us and that spirit which enlivens it we sense within ourselves when we are listening
"Therefore search and see if there is not some place where you may invest your humanity…. Do something wonderful for life, and people may imitate it."
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
November 2009
SERMON: Remembering the “Middle Ages,” or Forgetting the Unholy Stuff Between Paul and Luther.
TEXTS:
New Testament Reading: Acts 28:17-22
Old Testament Reading: Numbers 25:5-9
Before there was a sacred text called the New Testament, there were storytellers. Before Paul’s letters, before the Gospels, there were storytellers. It was the first preaching of a new utopian vision where Jesus’ expected return would bring a new world of peace and justice. Imaginations of a world with no war, a world of Peace have some to us since the days of Plato and his imagining a Philosopher-King who could rule in perfect peace and justice.
From the early Greeks through the modern period there is a traceable history of utopian hopes and visions expressed through stories, doctrines, laws, and yes, even wars. It seems we will do anything to move forward with our goal to create the perfect and just society – ironically, even kill.
Christianity passionately continued the utopian hopes, but important details were different. Utopia would not hang on the Greek idea of a perfect Philosopher-King, rather, these utopian hopes now hung on Jesus, the one sent by God, the Messiah. The history of Christendom is filled with the utopian dreams that began with Jesus’ preaching of the coming Kingdom of God –
“The Kingdom of God is coming! Repent!” preached by every generation until this day.
The church has largely seen itself and portrayed itself as the vehicle through which God has been building a more just and peaceful society, met with much cynicism even from Christians. From late antiquity to the early modern period the Church built monasteries and missions, to showcase if you will, mini-utopias, examples of religious community devotion that could yield utopian-like societies. The Amish and Quakers serve demonstrative Protestant examples. We can look to Judaism as well in the message is of the modern Jewish Kibbutz communities.
These traditions influenced early American founders and religious sentiments until today. We have heard many times America described as a “shining city on a hill” to the rest of he world – words uttered even in the most recent presidential inauguration speech of President Obama. The Church in the West has undoubtedly seen itself as a kind of savior for the world - bringing justice and equality to all.
But Colonialist Europe and early American history used language that divided the world into the “civilized” and the “savage” and explained the benefits of colonialism to themselves, but neglected to see its own contribution to injustice and in equality around the world.
Today, we have a broader view of the world and a different understanding of what Democracy means. In fact our idea of democracy has laid the theological foundation for the church. We cannot conceive of a good Christianity that does not also promote democracy and equality. We have moved beyond the Christianity that seeks foremost to alienate those outside the church with accusations of heresy or paganism – No, instead we have learned the importance and value of religious tolerance to the evolution of a more just and peaceful society. Whatever ideals we may still have of a utopian future, will include more open and tolerant views of religions and cultures different than ourselves.
But in this evolution of the church in the past several hundred years in particular can be for some a lesson we are apt to forget if not want to forget. The Christianity of the early modern period is one we sometimes feel we can easily forget. For we have a better understanding now of democracy, human rights, and equality.
But the hope of a better future is tied to our refusal to forget our failures. As it is in our own personal life so goes it with church – growth and moral development must always include remembering what we aren’t proud of so that we might make something we can be proud of.
We are today, the beneficiaries of Baptists, Quakers, early American seekers, like Roger Williams and that’s why we recognize the important contributions of Judaism as well with writers like Baruch Spinoza who advanced principles of Religious tolerance ahead of his time. This is an age of a more mature Democracy, still maturing. We can no longer limit our view of ethical religion to Christianity alone, no more than we would limit Christianity to one particular church – that fact tells us that we are in an important new place in history. And though we have been here for some decades now, we should not fail to acknowledge that we share a world with people of different faiths, and people with no faith. The early Church through the Reformation preserved ideas, traditions, and rituals that still define us today. But some of history we critique for growth, some of it we preserve for practice.
But we should also keep in mind, for the purposes of living out our faith gently, humbly, and with “ears to hear,” that the thousand years between Augustine and Christopher Columbus, makes up roughly half of the history of the Church – and while one kind of popular view of history tells some contemporary Protestants, including Baptists, that the most significant persons in Church history are truly Paul and Luther. Such a view of our history is far too limited, not to mention the oversights of these figures themselves – whether it be Paul’s low view of women, not shared by everyone in the ancient period, or Luther’s condemnation of Jews and Judaism to the extent of favoring serious measures of persecution against Jews in the name of God. Luther failed to add the unjustifiable persecution of Jews to his 95 objections against the Church – an unimaginable oversight from where we sit post-Hitler.
The lesson is that we learn immensely important things when we refuse to ignore the inexcusable periods of our history. I don’t know a dominating empire, nation, or religion that does not of moments in their histories that they would like to be forgotten. But we can learn much from that period that we most want to ignore, and I believe it is the exact exercise of faith that Jesus places such a premium upon… forgiveness, humility, and reconciliation.
To forget our past is to fail to practice our Christian faith as Jesus taught it. The individualized concerns of contemporary Christians are important, but the gospel lesson, in keeping with its ancient cultural values had many more communal or corporate concerns - mission there is a lesson in considering ALL of our past, even the past we don’t like, especially the past we don’t like. It is an opportunity to reflect on a past that is still part of who we are, a past that only benefits us to remember, and a past we seek to make better in the present. Shame and guilt should not prevent us – the consequences of reconciliation, under the watch of a gracious God and the wisdom that follows humility should draw us toward it.
We can celebrate Baptist soul freedom, expressed in the courage of Roger Williams, and the insistence of the early Baptist on religious freedom in political contexts. The examples of early Baptist and Quakers, should serve to inspire us to go further with the message they paid a price to preserve –
That seems to me to be one of the resounding lessons that comes to us as Baptists, and Christians – that we are still learning – we are still undoing dogmatic faith – we are still making lifting up the marginalized– we are still listening – we are still seeking.
In all this, our past inspires us not only through the lives of heroes who set examples of courage and innovation, but we are also moved by a past that could have been better, could have been more just - Both the heroically just and the shockingly inhumane are important histories to preserve. In them we are compelled to live out a faith that reaches back to its origins in Jesus and is contiguous with the present so that we see it with our eyes wide open and our hearts anticipating change. In this the Good News of the Gospel is celebrated.
Recommended Reading: “On the Jews and their Lies” by Martin Luther
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Luther_on_Jews.html
SERMON: Remembering the “Middle Ages,” or Forgetting the Unholy Stuff Between Paul and Luther.
TEXTS:
New Testament Reading: Acts 28:17-22
Old Testament Reading: Numbers 25:5-9
Before there was a sacred text called the New Testament, there were storytellers. Before Paul’s letters, before the Gospels, there were storytellers. It was the first preaching of a new utopian vision where Jesus’ expected return would bring a new world of peace and justice. Imaginations of a world with no war, a world of Peace have some to us since the days of Plato and his imagining a Philosopher-King who could rule in perfect peace and justice.
From the early Greeks through the modern period there is a traceable history of utopian hopes and visions expressed through stories, doctrines, laws, and yes, even wars. It seems we will do anything to move forward with our goal to create the perfect and just society – ironically, even kill.
Christianity passionately continued the utopian hopes, but important details were different. Utopia would not hang on the Greek idea of a perfect Philosopher-King, rather, these utopian hopes now hung on Jesus, the one sent by God, the Messiah. The history of Christendom is filled with the utopian dreams that began with Jesus’ preaching of the coming Kingdom of God –
“The Kingdom of God is coming! Repent!” preached by every generation until this day.
The church has largely seen itself and portrayed itself as the vehicle through which God has been building a more just and peaceful society, met with much cynicism even from Christians. From late antiquity to the early modern period the Church built monasteries and missions, to showcase if you will, mini-utopias, examples of religious community devotion that could yield utopian-like societies. The Amish and Quakers serve demonstrative Protestant examples. We can look to Judaism as well in the message is of the modern Jewish Kibbutz communities.
These traditions influenced early American founders and religious sentiments until today. We have heard many times America described as a “shining city on a hill” to the rest of he world – words uttered even in the most recent presidential inauguration speech of President Obama. The Church in the West has undoubtedly seen itself as a kind of savior for the world - bringing justice and equality to all.
But Colonialist Europe and early American history used language that divided the world into the “civilized” and the “savage” and explained the benefits of colonialism to themselves, but neglected to see its own contribution to injustice and in equality around the world.
Today, we have a broader view of the world and a different understanding of what Democracy means. In fact our idea of democracy has laid the theological foundation for the church. We cannot conceive of a good Christianity that does not also promote democracy and equality. We have moved beyond the Christianity that seeks foremost to alienate those outside the church with accusations of heresy or paganism – No, instead we have learned the importance and value of religious tolerance to the evolution of a more just and peaceful society. Whatever ideals we may still have of a utopian future, will include more open and tolerant views of religions and cultures different than ourselves.
But in this evolution of the church in the past several hundred years in particular can be for some a lesson we are apt to forget if not want to forget. The Christianity of the early modern period is one we sometimes feel we can easily forget. For we have a better understanding now of democracy, human rights, and equality.
But the hope of a better future is tied to our refusal to forget our failures. As it is in our own personal life so goes it with church – growth and moral development must always include remembering what we aren’t proud of so that we might make something we can be proud of.
We are today, the beneficiaries of Baptists, Quakers, early American seekers, like Roger Williams and that’s why we recognize the important contributions of Judaism as well with writers like Baruch Spinoza who advanced principles of Religious tolerance ahead of his time. This is an age of a more mature Democracy, still maturing. We can no longer limit our view of ethical religion to Christianity alone, no more than we would limit Christianity to one particular church – that fact tells us that we are in an important new place in history. And though we have been here for some decades now, we should not fail to acknowledge that we share a world with people of different faiths, and people with no faith. The early Church through the Reformation preserved ideas, traditions, and rituals that still define us today. But some of history we critique for growth, some of it we preserve for practice.
But we should also keep in mind, for the purposes of living out our faith gently, humbly, and with “ears to hear,” that the thousand years between Augustine and Christopher Columbus, makes up roughly half of the history of the Church – and while one kind of popular view of history tells some contemporary Protestants, including Baptists, that the most significant persons in Church history are truly Paul and Luther. Such a view of our history is far too limited, not to mention the oversights of these figures themselves – whether it be Paul’s low view of women, not shared by everyone in the ancient period, or Luther’s condemnation of Jews and Judaism to the extent of favoring serious measures of persecution against Jews in the name of God. Luther failed to add the unjustifiable persecution of Jews to his 95 objections against the Church – an unimaginable oversight from where we sit post-Hitler.
The lesson is that we learn immensely important things when we refuse to ignore the inexcusable periods of our history. I don’t know a dominating empire, nation, or religion that does not of moments in their histories that they would like to be forgotten. But we can learn much from that period that we most want to ignore, and I believe it is the exact exercise of faith that Jesus places such a premium upon… forgiveness, humility, and reconciliation.
To forget our past is to fail to practice our Christian faith as Jesus taught it. The individualized concerns of contemporary Christians are important, but the gospel lesson, in keeping with its ancient cultural values had many more communal or corporate concerns - mission there is a lesson in considering ALL of our past, even the past we don’t like, especially the past we don’t like. It is an opportunity to reflect on a past that is still part of who we are, a past that only benefits us to remember, and a past we seek to make better in the present. Shame and guilt should not prevent us – the consequences of reconciliation, under the watch of a gracious God and the wisdom that follows humility should draw us toward it.
We can celebrate Baptist soul freedom, expressed in the courage of Roger Williams, and the insistence of the early Baptist on religious freedom in political contexts. The examples of early Baptist and Quakers, should serve to inspire us to go further with the message they paid a price to preserve –
That seems to me to be one of the resounding lessons that comes to us as Baptists, and Christians – that we are still learning – we are still undoing dogmatic faith – we are still making lifting up the marginalized– we are still listening – we are still seeking.
In all this, our past inspires us not only through the lives of heroes who set examples of courage and innovation, but we are also moved by a past that could have been better, could have been more just - Both the heroically just and the shockingly inhumane are important histories to preserve. In them we are compelled to live out a faith that reaches back to its origins in Jesus and is contiguous with the present so that we see it with our eyes wide open and our hearts anticipating change. In this the Good News of the Gospel is celebrated.
Recommended Reading: “On the Jews and their Lies” by Martin Luther
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Luther_on_Jews.html
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
SERMON:
First Sunday of Advent 11/29/09
The message and meaning of “Advent” is associated with the most important values of Christian faith; Peace, Hope, Joy, Salvation, and Charity - Advent is a time of reflection. It is a contemplative waiting for the coming and eventual arrival of something good, but the unfolding of this new thing is hidden in the details. As the story goes - that thing we so greatly anticipate is something different than our expectations, but far more than anything we could have we imagined. It is the story of Immanuel – “God with us.”
The story of Jesus’ birth is told in a simple, but dramatic and captivating way. It unfolds in mystery, amid spectacular claims about the significance of this coming birth. The advent story is, in my opinion, a text for all times, a story that is at once beautiful and strange – and most of all honest.
The story of Jesus’ birth is in two of the four Gospels, Matthew and Luke. They both tell a story that is partially about anticipation, mystery, hope, joy, peace and life - but it is also a story of rejection, disappointment, tragedy, and loss. It is in the details of these two Gospel stories where we find profound and powerful Advent lessons for today.
TWO STORIES – TWO TESTIMONIES
There are two different birth stories of Jesus, found in Luke and Matthew. There are few stories unique to Matthew or Luke, but the birth stories as told by each of them stand as unique narratives not found in any of the other gospels. In Matthew Chapter 2 one of the first things we learn in the Advent story is that the approaching appearance of God, the coming of the hope from heaven – was not without its costs. The unexpected element of the story we often overlook is not just that the King is an infant. No the “unexpected” element is far more than the birth itself. The Advent story is filled with anticipations but is also filled with details we wish didn’t have to be there.
It was an unlikely path from the beginning – according to the Gospel of Matthew: How would such an outrageous proclamation be validated? God is coming? Really? Who believes such a claim, and more importantly who can be believed about such a claim? Who among us, has the reputation that can confirm this miraculous story of God’s appearance with credibility? One would think it must come from someone we trust, someone or some place I am used to getting reliable information, because this story is hard to believe.
But Matthew sends the Magi from the east! Who are these “Magi” from the east, these three men who followed a star according to Matthew. Non-biblical sources lead most historians to conclude that Matthew’s reference to the Magi form the East was likely a reference to Persian astrologers or philosophers, or perhaps persons espousing Persian religious views, such as the Zoroastrians, one of the oldest surviving religions in the world.
In other words Matthew claims that the announcement of God’s coming into the world was made not by whom we might expect at the time. He does not day it is Jewish Priests, it is not Greeks relying upon Oracles, nor is wise Philosophers. It is people outside the Jewish tradition, from the Persian East who recognize the coming of God’s mystery. It was people from another land, another tradition, from another ethnic heritage.
Meanwhile, near Jerusalem, Herod, the Greek ruler over Judea, a Governor of sorts serving under the Roman Government, or Caesar, sought to protect his power. According to Matthew, no sooner is Jesus born than Herod, fearful of his future influence, seeks to kill him as an infant.
The result, told to us only by Matthew, is that Jesus was whisked off to Egypt where he would be raised for his first years. Matthew says, “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
This is the immediate result of the coming of Jesus? The death of countless infants?! Where is God in this? Where is redemption, hope and peace is this? Is the coming of God what we expected, or something that we really want? And couldn’t this have been prevented? Did this have to occur? Why couldn’t Jesus have been born in Egypt in the first place? Or why did anyone even have t know about Jesus until his adult years? The Gospel of Mark says nothing about Jesus’ birth. Why was it so important? There are so many more questions when tragedy abounds.
Is there a lesson here for our personal, contemporary lives....? Many already know, unfortunately by experience, that there are things, horrific tragedies that discourage us and prevent us from recognizing God’s existence or presence. Sometimes the most rewarding and illuminating paths are at first fraught with the most risk, the most uncertainty, the most danger, and the most mystery. As a result, sometimes, sometimes, the decisions and choices we make may not be the most obvious, but our intuition may tell us to go down the path that appears least inviting to others. It makes the least sense. But sometimes we are compelled to go, or prompted to explore. But we can’t predict the outcome and the outcome may not be as we expected. Am I suggesting that God teaches through tragedy and suffering? No, but strangely, we learn from it at the same time we may try to forget get for personal survival purposes. Regardless, we learn and we are different after tragedies.
When it come to getting to God we cannot makes claims to having special insight or knowledge just because we read or study the Bible, just because we call ourselves Christians, or just because we go to any particular church – no this will not automate wisdom and insight for anyone.
No, the Persian Magi from the East have a message for us in this. It is not just a message that God has arrived in the life of an infant, but that Good news and the spirit of God moves through Persian seekers of God just as willingly as the spirit moves through the faith we are most familiar with. God is truly found in unexpected places, unexpected events, and most of all in unexpected people. But we will find God if we are willing to let God be truly appear where God and how God wants to appear. Are we ready? Are we open? Are we true seekers or are we hangers on to narrow and comfortable expectations of who God is supposed to be?
This is the time to reconsider- reconsider the manner in which we entrap God to be one kind of God and one kind of God only. Matthew chapter 3 tells those who think they have God’s favor just because they are descendants of Abraham, to think again. Matthew says that means little. Religion is more than heritage and right belief. Religion is right human action no matter Jew, Christian, Muslim, or Magi from the Persian East – the path less ventured down may have outcomes of insight and enlightenment that surpass our expectations, if we are willing to explore where most people would not – if we are willing to contemplate unsuspecting possibilities, or even an unfamiliar God – at first.
“When we don’t like what we wished for” or “Searching for God in all the Wrong Places”
First Sunday of Advent 11/29/09
The message and meaning of “Advent” is associated with the most important values of Christian faith; Peace, Hope, Joy, Salvation, and Charity - Advent is a time of reflection. It is a contemplative waiting for the coming and eventual arrival of something good, but the unfolding of this new thing is hidden in the details. As the story goes - that thing we so greatly anticipate is something different than our expectations, but far more than anything we could have we imagined. It is the story of Immanuel – “God with us.”
The story of Jesus’ birth is told in a simple, but dramatic and captivating way. It unfolds in mystery, amid spectacular claims about the significance of this coming birth. The advent story is, in my opinion, a text for all times, a story that is at once beautiful and strange – and most of all honest.
The story of Jesus’ birth is in two of the four Gospels, Matthew and Luke. They both tell a story that is partially about anticipation, mystery, hope, joy, peace and life - but it is also a story of rejection, disappointment, tragedy, and loss. It is in the details of these two Gospel stories where we find profound and powerful Advent lessons for today.
TWO STORIES – TWO TESTIMONIES
There are two different birth stories of Jesus, found in Luke and Matthew. There are few stories unique to Matthew or Luke, but the birth stories as told by each of them stand as unique narratives not found in any of the other gospels. In Matthew Chapter 2 one of the first things we learn in the Advent story is that the approaching appearance of God, the coming of the hope from heaven – was not without its costs. The unexpected element of the story we often overlook is not just that the King is an infant. No the “unexpected” element is far more than the birth itself. The Advent story is filled with anticipations but is also filled with details we wish didn’t have to be there.
It was an unlikely path from the beginning – according to the Gospel of Matthew: How would such an outrageous proclamation be validated? God is coming? Really? Who believes such a claim, and more importantly who can be believed about such a claim? Who among us, has the reputation that can confirm this miraculous story of God’s appearance with credibility? One would think it must come from someone we trust, someone or some place I am used to getting reliable information, because this story is hard to believe.
But Matthew sends the Magi from the east! Who are these “Magi” from the east, these three men who followed a star according to Matthew. Non-biblical sources lead most historians to conclude that Matthew’s reference to the Magi form the East was likely a reference to Persian astrologers or philosophers, or perhaps persons espousing Persian religious views, such as the Zoroastrians, one of the oldest surviving religions in the world.
In other words Matthew claims that the announcement of God’s coming into the world was made not by whom we might expect at the time. He does not day it is Jewish Priests, it is not Greeks relying upon Oracles, nor is wise Philosophers. It is people outside the Jewish tradition, from the Persian East who recognize the coming of God’s mystery. It was people from another land, another tradition, from another ethnic heritage.
Meanwhile, near Jerusalem, Herod, the Greek ruler over Judea, a Governor of sorts serving under the Roman Government, or Caesar, sought to protect his power. According to Matthew, no sooner is Jesus born than Herod, fearful of his future influence, seeks to kill him as an infant.
The result, told to us only by Matthew, is that Jesus was whisked off to Egypt where he would be raised for his first years. Matthew says, “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18"A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."[g]
This is the immediate result of the coming of Jesus? The death of countless infants?! Where is God in this? Where is redemption, hope and peace is this? Is the coming of God what we expected, or something that we really want? And couldn’t this have been prevented? Did this have to occur? Why couldn’t Jesus have been born in Egypt in the first place? Or why did anyone even have t know about Jesus until his adult years? The Gospel of Mark says nothing about Jesus’ birth. Why was it so important? There are so many more questions when tragedy abounds.
Is there a lesson here for our personal, contemporary lives....? Many already know, unfortunately by experience, that there are things, horrific tragedies that discourage us and prevent us from recognizing God’s existence or presence. Sometimes the most rewarding and illuminating paths are at first fraught with the most risk, the most uncertainty, the most danger, and the most mystery. As a result, sometimes, sometimes, the decisions and choices we make may not be the most obvious, but our intuition may tell us to go down the path that appears least inviting to others. It makes the least sense. But sometimes we are compelled to go, or prompted to explore. But we can’t predict the outcome and the outcome may not be as we expected. Am I suggesting that God teaches through tragedy and suffering? No, but strangely, we learn from it at the same time we may try to forget get for personal survival purposes. Regardless, we learn and we are different after tragedies.
When it come to getting to God we cannot makes claims to having special insight or knowledge just because we read or study the Bible, just because we call ourselves Christians, or just because we go to any particular church – no this will not automate wisdom and insight for anyone.
No, the Persian Magi from the East have a message for us in this. It is not just a message that God has arrived in the life of an infant, but that Good news and the spirit of God moves through Persian seekers of God just as willingly as the spirit moves through the faith we are most familiar with. God is truly found in unexpected places, unexpected events, and most of all in unexpected people. But we will find God if we are willing to let God be truly appear where God and how God wants to appear. Are we ready? Are we open? Are we true seekers or are we hangers on to narrow and comfortable expectations of who God is supposed to be?
This is the time to reconsider- reconsider the manner in which we entrap God to be one kind of God and one kind of God only. Matthew chapter 3 tells those who think they have God’s favor just because they are descendants of Abraham, to think again. Matthew says that means little. Religion is more than heritage and right belief. Religion is right human action no matter Jew, Christian, Muslim, or Magi from the Persian East – the path less ventured down may have outcomes of insight and enlightenment that surpass our expectations, if we are willing to explore where most people would not – if we are willing to contemplate unsuspecting possibilities, or even an unfamiliar God – at first.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
"Lessons from the Ancient Storytellers"
November 1, 2009
SERMON: “Lessons from the Ancient Storytellers”
TEXTS:
New Testament Reading: Luke 1:1-4
Old Testament Reading: Ezekiel 2:8 – 3:3
This is the first of four sermons following a theme of “Lessons from the Past,” where I will attempt to draw some basic, but important lessons from our Christian history. While the span of thousands of years is too vast a time to span in a few short sermons, I’ll do my best to identify some valuable lessons from reflecting upon our past, from the ancient period, through the middle ages and into the modern period finally ending up here at Lime Rock Baptist Church.
When we think of our Christian past, the ancient history of the church, we are understandably inclined to think of the scriptures as carrying, this rich history of the origins of Christianity. There is no question that what is contained in the New Testament are words that capture for us a most critical time in the development and growth of the earliest Christians, struggling to proclaim and preserve the message of Jesus. For this reason alone, regardless of our differing views of the sacred text, the New Testament remains an indispensable record for the church.
But the Church did not begin with these New Testament Scriptures. The Church began with story telling and storytellers. For decades the story of Jesus life and ministry were made known through an oral tradition, the process of telling and re-telling the many stories and teachings that make up the gospel story of Jesus. Nearly 40 years or more will elapse after Jesus death, before his story is recorded in a written form.
But this is the way it has always been – the storytellers have had an important role in most cultures. It’s easy, living in a highly literate culture such as ours, to forget the importance and value of story telling, passing on stories by word of mouth – not in a book, not even in an email, but in our common, everyday stories
In a world where more than 100 nations have literacy rates of 95% or higher. It can mistakenly lead us to associate all forms of knowledge with the written form. Many people today often associate reading ability with intelligence, but this is an oversight, as important as reading skills are, and as important as literacy is for social success. It still can cause us to fail to appreciate the importance of things that are known through the telling and hearing of stories.
Most of human history is marked by oral cultures, not literate cultures. The Homeric tales are themselves the products of once circulated oral stories of the Greek gods. Some of these stories could have been passed on for a hundred years or longer before becoming part of a literary collection of sacred texts.
The power of “the story” is still with us and it happens when we tell our own stories, each of us. One of the first important tasks of a parent is the telling of stories to their children, whenever those traditional parent-child opportunities for story telling arise.
I can’t help but imagine that Paul must have been a great storyteller. He takes time to tell us in some places that he is not a person who makes a great impression on his speech or appearance, but his language and artistry with the language tell me that there is a good chance that Paul gained adherents partly because his story was impassioned and his story telling perhaps charismatic. The story of Jesus would be passed along for several decades by a compelling oral story.
As simple as this sermon lesson is, it is nevertheless, easy to underestimate the value of oral stories of our lives that will never be written, but when shared and re-told in different context to different people, our personal life stories serve as a means of strength, support and inspiration. We are all storytellers; we have family stories, friendship stories, stories of struggle, stories of triumph.
The lesson from those voices of the ancient past – is not to forget our story, and not to forget the simple but profound power that lies in our story telling.
**Next week’s sermon, the third in a series of five, will talk about “The Lesson of the “Middle Ages,” the stuff in between that we would like to forget”
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SERMON: “Lessons from the Ancient Storytellers”
TEXTS:
New Testament Reading: Luke 1:1-4
Old Testament Reading: Ezekiel 2:8 – 3:3
This is the first of four sermons following a theme of “Lessons from the Past,” where I will attempt to draw some basic, but important lessons from our Christian history. While the span of thousands of years is too vast a time to span in a few short sermons, I’ll do my best to identify some valuable lessons from reflecting upon our past, from the ancient period, through the middle ages and into the modern period finally ending up here at Lime Rock Baptist Church.
When we think of our Christian past, the ancient history of the church, we are understandably inclined to think of the scriptures as carrying, this rich history of the origins of Christianity. There is no question that what is contained in the New Testament are words that capture for us a most critical time in the development and growth of the earliest Christians, struggling to proclaim and preserve the message of Jesus. For this reason alone, regardless of our differing views of the sacred text, the New Testament remains an indispensable record for the church.
But the Church did not begin with these New Testament Scriptures. The Church began with story telling and storytellers. For decades the story of Jesus life and ministry were made known through an oral tradition, the process of telling and re-telling the many stories and teachings that make up the gospel story of Jesus. Nearly 40 years or more will elapse after Jesus death, before his story is recorded in a written form.
But this is the way it has always been – the storytellers have had an important role in most cultures. It’s easy, living in a highly literate culture such as ours, to forget the importance and value of story telling, passing on stories by word of mouth – not in a book, not even in an email, but in our common, everyday stories
In a world where more than 100 nations have literacy rates of 95% or higher. It can mistakenly lead us to associate all forms of knowledge with the written form. Many people today often associate reading ability with intelligence, but this is an oversight, as important as reading skills are, and as important as literacy is for social success. It still can cause us to fail to appreciate the importance of things that are known through the telling and hearing of stories.
Most of human history is marked by oral cultures, not literate cultures. The Homeric tales are themselves the products of once circulated oral stories of the Greek gods. Some of these stories could have been passed on for a hundred years or longer before becoming part of a literary collection of sacred texts.
The power of “the story” is still with us and it happens when we tell our own stories, each of us. One of the first important tasks of a parent is the telling of stories to their children, whenever those traditional parent-child opportunities for story telling arise.
I can’t help but imagine that Paul must have been a great storyteller. He takes time to tell us in some places that he is not a person who makes a great impression on his speech or appearance, but his language and artistry with the language tell me that there is a good chance that Paul gained adherents partly because his story was impassioned and his story telling perhaps charismatic. The story of Jesus would be passed along for several decades by a compelling oral story.
As simple as this sermon lesson is, it is nevertheless, easy to underestimate the value of oral stories of our lives that will never be written, but when shared and re-told in different context to different people, our personal life stories serve as a means of strength, support and inspiration. We are all storytellers; we have family stories, friendship stories, stories of struggle, stories of triumph.
The lesson from those voices of the ancient past – is not to forget our story, and not to forget the simple but profound power that lies in our story telling.
**Next week’s sermon, the third in a series of five, will talk about “The Lesson of the “Middle Ages,” the stuff in between that we would like to forget”
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"Finding our Past in the Present"
October 25, 2009
SERMON: “Finding our Past in the Present”
TEXTS:
New Testament Reading: John 21:25
Old Testament Reading: Psalm 142
This sermon is dedicated to an old friend from 20 years ago, when I was in seminary. This friend was Lumen Marsh, known by most people only as Swampy Marsh. Swampy passed about five years ago at the age of 99. He was a Baptist minister and missionary to India for more than half a century, preaching at the Seminary chapel well into his eighties when I was a seminary student there in my late twenties, in Berkeley, CA.
************************************************
I met Swampy Marsh in Seminary and we became close friends one summer in particular, in 1991. I spent many summer days with Swampy, helping him a little around his house for pay, and also getting to know him as a friend. We would take a walk almost everyday to a small local bank, which always held a copy of the Wall Street Journal for him. During these walks Swampy would talk of his many experiences and lessons in life. I heard a lot about his stretching and breathing exercises that he learned in the Navy, and the impact he claimed these exercise had on his ability to preach with a strong preaching voice. And it was apparently true, even into his late 80’s many a young preacher would have benefited from the clear, strong preaching voice of Swampy Marsh. Swampy told me many stories of ministry and life, including one of his most memorable moments when he had the opportunity to have dinner with Gandhi while serving as a missionary in India. Swampy could tell a story, and he had many of them – many important and meaningful stories.
As we get older life changes – for many reasons and many of these are good reasons. Life is suppose to change as we get older.
At some point it eventually becomes clear that most of our life is behind us (Unless I live to be 95 – most of my life is behind me now… I understand). It makes sense that we/I would think about or even long for the past on some days, or just become nostalgic more often than before. Nostalgia comes from two Greek words that can essentially mean “returning home” & “pain” – a homesickness of sorts but not always a pain for home per se, but also a pain for something in the past. And though we’re often advised, by trusted friends “don’t live in the past” – as good as this advise is in some circumstances, everyone is subject to the temptation to long occasionally long for a time in the past – the good ‘ol days, the days when I was younger, or the Golden Age that captures the imagination of many people.
The manner in which we remember this past is obviously important. The things we remember and the things we choose to forget are both equally a part of who we are. There is today a lot of attention given to questions about memory, whether it be historical questions about telling the past or medical questions about enhancing one’s ability to remember. Many millions of dollars are spent on research about remembering and memory loss.
And while that research is very important and will benefit many people, in one very general sense, not remembering is not a mystery at all, it is part of what humans do over time – we forget.
We forget and we deal with our capacity to forget different from other species. We are not ants for instance. That’s right, Ants – we are not Ants. With many species of ants, there is a dramatic life expectancy difference between queen ants, workers ants, and the run of the mill ant-ant. The difference in life expectancy can be a mater of 30 years vs. a few weeks or days. Can you imagine living in a society where certain classes of persons loved thousands of times longer than the rest of the population? How strange would it be if some people among us had been alive for tens of thousands of years!? While the rest of us lived to be about 90 or a 100 even. Well, that is the experience of ants. Can you imagine how that would change how a society related to the past? Certain persons would be the sole interpreters of that past, because only they were there! It would be very, very different. We are not ants and we carry our past through a different process.
I know the scientists who conduct research are very concerned with the question “why do we forget?” ever since Freud we have heard that there is a forgetting process, that much of our forgetting is subconsciously intentional so as to repress things not desirable to recall. No doubt, an element of this is true for all of us. There are things we would rather not remember and so we forget.
But a different question than “why do we forget?” might be “why do we remember?” That is the question I’m talking about here. I’m not a neurologist or a social biologist, and they have some great responses to these questions, but from a point of view of the spiritual journey of life there is something to be said for becoming aware of two very important parts of life that sustain our pasts. One is that literature is not the end all of preserving the past – the life of the past needs story telling, the stories of aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas, parents and children, friends and strangers – and these stories are recalled and re-told through the simplest vehicles of life – the actions we do everyday and every week are actions that we have repeated with the generations before us. It is the life of the human community in which we all participate and find our meaning. Whether through moments of struggle or times of celebration, stories are told. That’s what we do.
Memory is not just in remembering, not just a process of the head, it is in the things we DO. Memory or remembering is not necessarily a motionless act of concentration or contemplation, but it is bound up in our story of living acts. I remember that one particular story from Swampy Marsh….as we were eating a bowl of soup. The memory is in the living of it.
In more than just a metaphorical sense, our past is carried around in our bodies and played out in our sometimes unconscious, repetitive actions. Religious ritual is another important example – baptism and communion are actions Christians have performed as they have recalled a 2,000-year history. History has been carried forward through the ritual performances of Christians. We are always living “with” the past. One could say we carry it in the “DNA of our souls.”
Memory is powerful. Reinvigorating this memory can happen in part through our living. Our actions tie us to multiple pasts – Personal – Familial – National – Ethnic – and even our most basic Human past. Prophets, Gurus and Sages from multiple traditions have told us many times that an important part of spirituality lies in the simple things we do every day. The beauty in life is in some of the most simple daily habits that make up “living” – a cup of coffee, a walk, watering plants, feeding a pet, making a meal, getting ready for bed, waking up, driving to work. I call these Living Rituals – things that have great repetition, things that create rhythm in life – from the heartbeat in the womb to the drumbeat of meaningful music. There is a rhythm in daily life and in the annual calendar of life as well. Interspersed within this rhythm are those other markers of memory – the community and national Memorials, former homes, hymns, old friends, an old book, a neighborhood tree, and yes, old stories once conveyed to us in a meaningful way – stories we cherish and pass on, stories that will never be in a book.
The most basic, shared human activities tie us together, activities that engage simple objects and simple actions
A wheel, fire, a sewing needle, a pounding Tool, a dish & cup – these are the things of life that keep the past present, and facilitate the simple stories we tell… when we were by a fire with a cup of cocoa.
We live in the past and present simultaneously. Our memory is in our hands as much as it is in our heads. The events of our lives are connected in what we do, just as the things that ties us to one another. Whoever we are today, regardless of what we remember or have forgotten, we are inextricably linked to our past. We might forget the past, we might repress the past, or we might choose to not talk about the past – but we will always carry the past about - in our speech, in our hands, in our bodies, and in our souls.
It is sometimes nostalgia that takes us back and sometimes an activity that jogs our memory. Everyday we can look forward without the fear that the past is gone. There is no present without the past, and the past lives in everyday of our present.
**Next weeks Sermon, the second in a series of four sermons on “Lessons from our Pasts” will talk about the art of storytelling.
SERMON: “Finding our Past in the Present”
TEXTS:
New Testament Reading: John 21:25
Old Testament Reading: Psalm 142
This sermon is dedicated to an old friend from 20 years ago, when I was in seminary. This friend was Lumen Marsh, known by most people only as Swampy Marsh. Swampy passed about five years ago at the age of 99. He was a Baptist minister and missionary to India for more than half a century, preaching at the Seminary chapel well into his eighties when I was a seminary student there in my late twenties, in Berkeley, CA.
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I met Swampy Marsh in Seminary and we became close friends one summer in particular, in 1991. I spent many summer days with Swampy, helping him a little around his house for pay, and also getting to know him as a friend. We would take a walk almost everyday to a small local bank, which always held a copy of the Wall Street Journal for him. During these walks Swampy would talk of his many experiences and lessons in life. I heard a lot about his stretching and breathing exercises that he learned in the Navy, and the impact he claimed these exercise had on his ability to preach with a strong preaching voice. And it was apparently true, even into his late 80’s many a young preacher would have benefited from the clear, strong preaching voice of Swampy Marsh. Swampy told me many stories of ministry and life, including one of his most memorable moments when he had the opportunity to have dinner with Gandhi while serving as a missionary in India. Swampy could tell a story, and he had many of them – many important and meaningful stories.
As we get older life changes – for many reasons and many of these are good reasons. Life is suppose to change as we get older.
At some point it eventually becomes clear that most of our life is behind us (Unless I live to be 95 – most of my life is behind me now… I understand). It makes sense that we/I would think about or even long for the past on some days, or just become nostalgic more often than before. Nostalgia comes from two Greek words that can essentially mean “returning home” & “pain” – a homesickness of sorts but not always a pain for home per se, but also a pain for something in the past. And though we’re often advised, by trusted friends “don’t live in the past” – as good as this advise is in some circumstances, everyone is subject to the temptation to long occasionally long for a time in the past – the good ‘ol days, the days when I was younger, or the Golden Age that captures the imagination of many people.
The manner in which we remember this past is obviously important. The things we remember and the things we choose to forget are both equally a part of who we are. There is today a lot of attention given to questions about memory, whether it be historical questions about telling the past or medical questions about enhancing one’s ability to remember. Many millions of dollars are spent on research about remembering and memory loss.
And while that research is very important and will benefit many people, in one very general sense, not remembering is not a mystery at all, it is part of what humans do over time – we forget.
We forget and we deal with our capacity to forget different from other species. We are not ants for instance. That’s right, Ants – we are not Ants. With many species of ants, there is a dramatic life expectancy difference between queen ants, workers ants, and the run of the mill ant-ant. The difference in life expectancy can be a mater of 30 years vs. a few weeks or days. Can you imagine living in a society where certain classes of persons loved thousands of times longer than the rest of the population? How strange would it be if some people among us had been alive for tens of thousands of years!? While the rest of us lived to be about 90 or a 100 even. Well, that is the experience of ants. Can you imagine how that would change how a society related to the past? Certain persons would be the sole interpreters of that past, because only they were there! It would be very, very different. We are not ants and we carry our past through a different process.
I know the scientists who conduct research are very concerned with the question “why do we forget?” ever since Freud we have heard that there is a forgetting process, that much of our forgetting is subconsciously intentional so as to repress things not desirable to recall. No doubt, an element of this is true for all of us. There are things we would rather not remember and so we forget.
But a different question than “why do we forget?” might be “why do we remember?” That is the question I’m talking about here. I’m not a neurologist or a social biologist, and they have some great responses to these questions, but from a point of view of the spiritual journey of life there is something to be said for becoming aware of two very important parts of life that sustain our pasts. One is that literature is not the end all of preserving the past – the life of the past needs story telling, the stories of aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas, parents and children, friends and strangers – and these stories are recalled and re-told through the simplest vehicles of life – the actions we do everyday and every week are actions that we have repeated with the generations before us. It is the life of the human community in which we all participate and find our meaning. Whether through moments of struggle or times of celebration, stories are told. That’s what we do.
Memory is not just in remembering, not just a process of the head, it is in the things we DO. Memory or remembering is not necessarily a motionless act of concentration or contemplation, but it is bound up in our story of living acts. I remember that one particular story from Swampy Marsh….as we were eating a bowl of soup. The memory is in the living of it.
In more than just a metaphorical sense, our past is carried around in our bodies and played out in our sometimes unconscious, repetitive actions. Religious ritual is another important example – baptism and communion are actions Christians have performed as they have recalled a 2,000-year history. History has been carried forward through the ritual performances of Christians. We are always living “with” the past. One could say we carry it in the “DNA of our souls.”
Memory is powerful. Reinvigorating this memory can happen in part through our living. Our actions tie us to multiple pasts – Personal – Familial – National – Ethnic – and even our most basic Human past. Prophets, Gurus and Sages from multiple traditions have told us many times that an important part of spirituality lies in the simple things we do every day. The beauty in life is in some of the most simple daily habits that make up “living” – a cup of coffee, a walk, watering plants, feeding a pet, making a meal, getting ready for bed, waking up, driving to work. I call these Living Rituals – things that have great repetition, things that create rhythm in life – from the heartbeat in the womb to the drumbeat of meaningful music. There is a rhythm in daily life and in the annual calendar of life as well. Interspersed within this rhythm are those other markers of memory – the community and national Memorials, former homes, hymns, old friends, an old book, a neighborhood tree, and yes, old stories once conveyed to us in a meaningful way – stories we cherish and pass on, stories that will never be in a book.
The most basic, shared human activities tie us together, activities that engage simple objects and simple actions
A wheel, fire, a sewing needle, a pounding Tool, a dish & cup – these are the things of life that keep the past present, and facilitate the simple stories we tell… when we were by a fire with a cup of cocoa.
We live in the past and present simultaneously. Our memory is in our hands as much as it is in our heads. The events of our lives are connected in what we do, just as the things that ties us to one another. Whoever we are today, regardless of what we remember or have forgotten, we are inextricably linked to our past. We might forget the past, we might repress the past, or we might choose to not talk about the past – but we will always carry the past about - in our speech, in our hands, in our bodies, and in our souls.
It is sometimes nostalgia that takes us back and sometimes an activity that jogs our memory. Everyday we can look forward without the fear that the past is gone. There is no present without the past, and the past lives in everyday of our present.
**Next weeks Sermon, the second in a series of four sermons on “Lessons from our Pasts” will talk about the art of storytelling.
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