Time after Pentecost - Lectionary 10
1 Kings 17:17-24
Psalm 30
Galatians 1:11-24
Luke 7:11-17
I distinctly remember the day in Grade Eight when my class's math teacher, Mr. Mason, taught us how to multiply integers, and how to remember what combination of positives and negatives ended in what. He started with two plus signs on the board ( + x + = ?) and said, "When something good happens to a good person, we're happy." ( + x + = + ) Then he wrote two minus signs on the board ( - x - = ? ) and said, "When something bad happens to a bad person, we're happy." ( - x - = + ) Then he wrote a plus and a minus ( + x - = ?) and said, "When something good happens to a bad person, we're sad." ( + x - = - ) And lastly he wrote a minus sign and then a plus sign ( - x + = ?) and said, "When something bad happens to a good person, we're sad." ( - x + = -) Although to be honest, I've never found multiplying integers to be particularly helpful in my line of work, I've certainly never forgotten his lesson.
I think the reason his lesson was so memorable is because of the way it echoes how we think the world operates. When something good happens to someone who's generally known to be a good person, the usual response is, "Oh, how nice, I'm sure they deserved it." And when something bad happens to someone who's kind of a jerk to everyone, we tend to gleefully think, "I guess they had it coming." That is to say, we tend to think that good things rightfully happen to people who are good, and bad things rightfully happen to people who are bad.
Well, today in our readings we hear about two widows, and the first widow, from the Old Testament, who was from Zarephath, certainly seemed to think that's the way the world operated. When her son became deathly ill, she thought that God was punishing her for something, for some sin or another that she had committed. "You have come to bring my sin to remembrance," she cried to Elijah, "and to cause the death of my son" It's pretty certain that she already felt as if she had done something wrong since she was a widow, and people tended to believe that widowhood was the result of some sin or another, so it's no surprise that she thought her son's illness was God's crowning punishment for whatever it was she had done - in her case, she probably thought it was due to her not worshipping God. She wasn't an Israelite, after all, so of course God wouldn't hesitate to afflict her son with illness and take him away from her. She was a bad person, she thought, and thus deserving of bad things.
We all tend to believe this - that something good happens because of something good we've done, and that something bad happens because of something bad we've done. Karma, we call it, in the pop cultural sense. But why? Why do we believe that this is the way things work?
Well, part of the reason is because there are so many stories in our Bible where that seems to be the case. Just before our reading today, Elijah meets the widow of Zarephath for the first time. Because he asks, she gives him the what was to be her and her son's last meal, and is rewarded with a neverending supply of flour and oil that she and her son live on for the next few years. So clearly, the widow has experienced, and we have seen, that in this case God does reward good deeds with more good fortune. There are other Bible stories of God rewarding good and punishing bad. The Bible tells us that God saved Noah because he was righteous, and wiped out everyone else because they were wicked. The Bible tells us that God saved the Israelites from foreign invasions while they remained faithful worshippers, but allowed them to be invaded when the Israelites turned away from their faith. With stories like these, it's no wonder that what we think God makes the same connections between good things and good people, and bad things and bad people that we do.
And then, of course, there's our experience in the real world. Maybe it's because we get it from others, but even we tend to conform to the good deserves good, bad deserves bad model. It's well-known that people tend to help out individuals that already seem to have everything together and that we treat poorly people whom we think deserve it. I know that, for instance, when I'm driving on the road, and I see someone speed up the right-hand lane on the 401 and bully their way past other cars, I don't let them into the space in front of me or give them room to pass me. And, if I'm being a good driver, and obeying the speed limit, and allowing people in front of me, and showing my signal to change lanes, then I expect that people will let me into their lane if I need it, and I get mad when they don't. I act and expect others to act under the same mathematical principles that good goes with good and bad goes with bad. And I don't think I'm alone in my expectations - we all tend to work that way.
So it's no surprise that when it comes to how God acts in the world, we tend to think God works by the same principle: that God will cause good things to happen to good people, and bad things to happen to bad people. "Good people go to heaven, bad people go to hell," sums up what we generally believe about how God works. And so we work as hard as we can at being good, with the hope that that good will be returned to us. We do our best to ensure that when God checks our balance sheets, we will be solidly in the positive column, with positive things waiting to happen to us in order to complete the equation.
Now, I'm going to explain why this way of thinking is incorrect in a moment, but first I have to say that this way of thinking is a sin. There's one simple reason for this. If we think that our good behaviour causes God to reward us with good things, or that our bad behaviour causes God to punish us with bad things, who are we making the subject of our thought? That is, whose behaviour is controlling whose? In this scenario, our behaviour ends up controlling God. If we think that doing good causes God to reward us with good things, then that means that we think that our good behaviour is the centre, is the focus of everything, is the deciding factor for God's actions. Likewise, if we think that doing bad causes God to punish us with bad things, then we're still thinking that our behaviour, bad in this case, influences God's behaviour towards us. And this is a sin. To think that our behaviour governs God's actions, to put our activities and intentions at the centre of God's world is a sin. "You shall have no other gods before me," says the First Commandment. "You are to fear, love, and trust only God," is how Luther explains it in the Small Catechism. Meaning we are not to make our own actions God - we are not to trust in or fear that our good or bad actions will change the way God relates to us. Only God can change the way God relates to us, only God can decide whether or not our actions are deserving of reward or punishment, only God can decide whether or not to bestow good or bad on us.
Fortunately for us, God bestows good. Which brings me to why our previous way of thinking about good and bad is not only a sin, but it's just incorrect. "Give us this day our daily bread," we pray in the Lord's Prayer. "God does this without our prayer to good and evil alike," is how Luther explains it in the Small Catechism. God gives good things, bestows good gifts, on people who are good, on people who are bad, on people who are indifferent. God does this because of the steadfast, neverending love that God has for God's people. For us. For you. God healed the widow of Zarephath's son, despite the fact that she was not one of God's followers. Jesus resurrected the widow of Nain's son, without knowing whether or not she believed in him. God gives you sunshine and rain, gave life to your bodies, forgives your sins, even when you commit the sin of thinking that your actions determine God's, all regardless of whether you are good or bad,.
That's not to say that we should stop doing good things for people. Even though God might not operate under the same math as us, other people do, and doing good makes the world a better place. It does nothing for how God sees us, but we interact with hundreds of people in our lifetime, in addition to God, so good behaviour naturally goes a long way here on earth. It's just that we shouldn't fool ourselves into believing that our behaviour, good or bad, affects how God treats us, that it affects God's orientation of steadfast, neverending love towards us.
In the end, despite how memorable my math teacher's lesson was, God's math is different from ours. In God's math, when good things happen, to good or bad people, God is happy. And when bad things happen, to good or bad people, God is sad. Karma isn't a Christian concept. Jesus Christ died for us "while we were yet sinners," is what we confess. This wonderful good thing happened to us while we were bad, and it made God happy. So, this coming week, and through the summer, may God continue to bless you with all good things, whether you have been good or bad. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Sunday, June 03, 2007
June 2, 2007 - Trinity Sunday
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Psalm 8
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15
"God has a plan." That's a phrase we hear a lot among religious people, isn't it? "God has a plan." This phrase is most often uttered during high stress situations, when someone (not always the speaker), when someone's world is falling apart and everything is upside down. We hear that God has a plan when someone's grandparent dies, when a baby is born too early and doesn't make it, when an unexpected diagnosis of cancer is made. When our life is not going the way we thought it would, when in fact it's going the way we prayed it wouldn't, there is always someone who will tell us that God is out there, working behind the scenes, and that everything is meant to happen for a reason.
Sometimes this is reassuring. Sometimes it helps to hear that the One who created this world, the One who, as our first reading from Proverbs tells us, established the heavens, drew a circle on the face of the deep, made firm the skies above, established the fountains of the deep, assigned to the sea its limits, marked out the foundations of the earth, it helps to hear that this One is still there, still active. It can be a comfort to be told that the One who established the moon and the stars isn't finished with the universe yet, that God is working all things towards a greater good, and that every single thing that happens was meant to be.
This way of looking at the world sees God outside of time, as it were, unrestrained by the relentless plod towards death that we experience. God, the One who created time, isn't bound by things like the past, or the future. When God is outside of time, God sees not just the whole of the universe, from before it was created until after it disappears, but also every single moment within it. God, the great Creator, can bring someone into being, watch them die, and see them receive new life all in the same instant. This eternal, omniscient, unfathomable God looks at our yesterdays, todays, and tomorrows, although not necessarily in that order, and arranges things to achieve perfection.
As I said, sometimes during times of despair and crisis, knowing that God is outside of time, pulling the strings and putting the master plan into place can be comforting. When things are overwhelming, this God-outside-time can be turned to, with the faith that everything is under control and everything will be okay. It can be good to hear that God has a plan.
But not always.
Sometimes, for some people, hearing, "God has a plan," can be a knife-twist in their heart. Sometimes, to hear that God is out there, directing things the way God wants, pulling strings and arranging plans, is too impersonal. Well, more than that. A God who is unaffected by the flow of time, to whom yesterday, today, and tomorrow make no difference, to some people this God is harsh and cold. A God who hasn't come into the world the way we have, or feared leaving it the way we do, is inaccessible. This One who creates the world but isn't a part of it is foreign to us, and in times of deep pain and confusion, is completely beyond our reach.
For these people, for me at times, God Incarnate is who we need to hear about. We need to hear, "God has been through it." It can be a comfort to hear about the One who was born, lived, and died as a human. To know that God peed on his mom and dad, threw up his food all over the floor, to know that God felt left out by his friends as a teenager, to know that God lost his temper, ached to kiss a girl, got headaches, to know that God got hungry, needed to sleep, got sore feet, to know that God's heart broke when his friend Lazarus died, that it warmed when he held a little child, to know these things about God can make a difference when things are tough. To know that God cared for his mother, to know that God wept and pleaded not to die, to know that there were times when God felt that things were beyond his control, to know these things can make hardships easier to bear. When it's a struggle to see the big picture, when it's hard to believe that things are going to be okay, then it can help to know that God has also gone through anguish and uncertainty and doubt.
Seeing God as incarnate, as a human, means seeing God inside time, as opposed to outside of it. God inside time experienced things the way we do, with yesterday, today, and tomorrow flowing from one to the next. The One who was inside time knew only what had happened, and what was happening, but not what was about to happen. (Just to be clear, he had faith about what was going to happen, but he didn't know, not the way God outside time does.) In any case, he went through life just as we do, contained in a one-way timeline.
So hearing about God-inside-time, that God the human has been through it, can also be a great comfort when times are difficult, when we're confronted by human mortality, when we're face-to-face with death.
But not always.
Sometimes neither God-outside-time nor God-inside-time is enough. God-outside-time isn't touched by the human experience, and God-inside-time, well, being restricted by his human limitations, God-inside-time wasn't able to experience everything a human can experience. For one thing, God-inside-time was male. He didn't have the experience that women have. For me, personally, I struggled a great deal to relate to the idea of both God-outside-time and God-inside- time when I was pregnant and after our baby was just born. Neither of these ways of looking at God helped me to feel that God was present during pregnancy, or labour, or nursing. In fact, the entire parenthood experience is beyond what God-inside-time personally lived through, as is marriage, or the difficulties of getting old, or the challenges of dealing with addictions. For some people, it does not help to hear that God-outside-time has a plan, or that God-inside-time has been through it.
What is needed at these times, at specific, personal, in-this-moment times, is to hear about God-throughout-time. God-throughout-time was there at the moment of creation, God- throughout-time lived and died in Israel two thousand years ago, God-throughout-time was with King David when he danced in front of the Ark, God-throughout-time was with the first disciples gathered on Pentecost. God-throughout-time was with Martin Luther when he struggled against his own church, God-throughout-time was with Mother Teresa when she wept for the dying in Calcutta. God-throughout-time is here, now, with the teen parent struggling to care for a baby alone, with the homeless person despairing in the streets, with the child fighting leukemia, with the senior who can no longer walk. God-throughout-time is not only with these people, but inside them, experiencing all of the things they experience, all of the things we experience; hurting when we hurt, rejoicing when we rejoice, hoping when we hope.
This One was with every believer from the beginning of time, is with every believer alive right now on earth, and will be with every believer until the dominion of God comes down to us. This One can help us when our lives seem too complicated to bear. This One can be with us when we are alone. When our pain seems unique to us, hearing that God-throughout-time is experiencing our pain, and living through our particular situation can bring comfort.
But not always.
Sometimes it can be too much to handle to think of God going through what we're going through, to think that God is trapped in us, trapped by the same circumstances that have bound us. Sometimes it doesn't help to think that God is as out of control as we are. Sometimes we need to know that God is outside of our situation and has a plan. Which brings us back to the beginning. Which brings me to today.
God-outside-time, God-inside-time, and God-throughout-time - none of these ways of looking at God are enough, on their own, to comfort us in every time and at every place. Sometimes we need to know that God has a plan. Sometimes that's the last thing we want to hear. Sometimes we need to know that God has been through it. Sometimes that's not enough. Sometimes we need to know that God is with us right now. Sometimes that doesn't do us any good at all.
But here's the thing: God-outside-time, God-inside-time, and God-throughout-time are one and the same God. We are not talking about three different gods, we are talking about the Three-in-One, the One-in-Three, the God we know most fully as the Holy Trinity. Yes, it's all a great mystery as to how the Trinity can be, how God can be outside time, inside time, and moving through time all at the same time, and yes, it's annoying for those of us who like neat and tidy explanations for everything to just leave it at that, but that's another sermon for another day. God is what God is, and what God is is the Trinity. When you need to hear that there is larger meaning to your life, I tell you, God, who is called the Father, has a plan. When you who need to hear that someone has been through what you're going through, I tell you, God, who is called the Son, has been through it. When you who need to hear that you are not alone in your particular situation, I tell you, God, who is called the Holy Spirit, is with you.
So, as we celebrate and proclaim this good news, may the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, comfort you now and always. Amen.
Psalm 8
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15
"God has a plan." That's a phrase we hear a lot among religious people, isn't it? "God has a plan." This phrase is most often uttered during high stress situations, when someone (not always the speaker), when someone's world is falling apart and everything is upside down. We hear that God has a plan when someone's grandparent dies, when a baby is born too early and doesn't make it, when an unexpected diagnosis of cancer is made. When our life is not going the way we thought it would, when in fact it's going the way we prayed it wouldn't, there is always someone who will tell us that God is out there, working behind the scenes, and that everything is meant to happen for a reason.
Sometimes this is reassuring. Sometimes it helps to hear that the One who created this world, the One who, as our first reading from Proverbs tells us, established the heavens, drew a circle on the face of the deep, made firm the skies above, established the fountains of the deep, assigned to the sea its limits, marked out the foundations of the earth, it helps to hear that this One is still there, still active. It can be a comfort to be told that the One who established the moon and the stars isn't finished with the universe yet, that God is working all things towards a greater good, and that every single thing that happens was meant to be.
This way of looking at the world sees God outside of time, as it were, unrestrained by the relentless plod towards death that we experience. God, the One who created time, isn't bound by things like the past, or the future. When God is outside of time, God sees not just the whole of the universe, from before it was created until after it disappears, but also every single moment within it. God, the great Creator, can bring someone into being, watch them die, and see them receive new life all in the same instant. This eternal, omniscient, unfathomable God looks at our yesterdays, todays, and tomorrows, although not necessarily in that order, and arranges things to achieve perfection.
As I said, sometimes during times of despair and crisis, knowing that God is outside of time, pulling the strings and putting the master plan into place can be comforting. When things are overwhelming, this God-outside-time can be turned to, with the faith that everything is under control and everything will be okay. It can be good to hear that God has a plan.
But not always.
Sometimes, for some people, hearing, "God has a plan," can be a knife-twist in their heart. Sometimes, to hear that God is out there, directing things the way God wants, pulling strings and arranging plans, is too impersonal. Well, more than that. A God who is unaffected by the flow of time, to whom yesterday, today, and tomorrow make no difference, to some people this God is harsh and cold. A God who hasn't come into the world the way we have, or feared leaving it the way we do, is inaccessible. This One who creates the world but isn't a part of it is foreign to us, and in times of deep pain and confusion, is completely beyond our reach.
For these people, for me at times, God Incarnate is who we need to hear about. We need to hear, "God has been through it." It can be a comfort to hear about the One who was born, lived, and died as a human. To know that God peed on his mom and dad, threw up his food all over the floor, to know that God felt left out by his friends as a teenager, to know that God lost his temper, ached to kiss a girl, got headaches, to know that God got hungry, needed to sleep, got sore feet, to know that God's heart broke when his friend Lazarus died, that it warmed when he held a little child, to know these things about God can make a difference when things are tough. To know that God cared for his mother, to know that God wept and pleaded not to die, to know that there were times when God felt that things were beyond his control, to know these things can make hardships easier to bear. When it's a struggle to see the big picture, when it's hard to believe that things are going to be okay, then it can help to know that God has also gone through anguish and uncertainty and doubt.
Seeing God as incarnate, as a human, means seeing God inside time, as opposed to outside of it. God inside time experienced things the way we do, with yesterday, today, and tomorrow flowing from one to the next. The One who was inside time knew only what had happened, and what was happening, but not what was about to happen. (Just to be clear, he had faith about what was going to happen, but he didn't know, not the way God outside time does.) In any case, he went through life just as we do, contained in a one-way timeline.
So hearing about God-inside-time, that God the human has been through it, can also be a great comfort when times are difficult, when we're confronted by human mortality, when we're face-to-face with death.
But not always.
Sometimes neither God-outside-time nor God-inside-time is enough. God-outside-time isn't touched by the human experience, and God-inside-time, well, being restricted by his human limitations, God-inside-time wasn't able to experience everything a human can experience. For one thing, God-inside-time was male. He didn't have the experience that women have. For me, personally, I struggled a great deal to relate to the idea of both God-outside-time and God-inside- time when I was pregnant and after our baby was just born. Neither of these ways of looking at God helped me to feel that God was present during pregnancy, or labour, or nursing. In fact, the entire parenthood experience is beyond what God-inside-time personally lived through, as is marriage, or the difficulties of getting old, or the challenges of dealing with addictions. For some people, it does not help to hear that God-outside-time has a plan, or that God-inside-time has been through it.
What is needed at these times, at specific, personal, in-this-moment times, is to hear about God-throughout-time. God-throughout-time was there at the moment of creation, God- throughout-time lived and died in Israel two thousand years ago, God-throughout-time was with King David when he danced in front of the Ark, God-throughout-time was with the first disciples gathered on Pentecost. God-throughout-time was with Martin Luther when he struggled against his own church, God-throughout-time was with Mother Teresa when she wept for the dying in Calcutta. God-throughout-time is here, now, with the teen parent struggling to care for a baby alone, with the homeless person despairing in the streets, with the child fighting leukemia, with the senior who can no longer walk. God-throughout-time is not only with these people, but inside them, experiencing all of the things they experience, all of the things we experience; hurting when we hurt, rejoicing when we rejoice, hoping when we hope.
This One was with every believer from the beginning of time, is with every believer alive right now on earth, and will be with every believer until the dominion of God comes down to us. This One can help us when our lives seem too complicated to bear. This One can be with us when we are alone. When our pain seems unique to us, hearing that God-throughout-time is experiencing our pain, and living through our particular situation can bring comfort.
But not always.
Sometimes it can be too much to handle to think of God going through what we're going through, to think that God is trapped in us, trapped by the same circumstances that have bound us. Sometimes it doesn't help to think that God is as out of control as we are. Sometimes we need to know that God is outside of our situation and has a plan. Which brings us back to the beginning. Which brings me to today.
God-outside-time, God-inside-time, and God-throughout-time - none of these ways of looking at God are enough, on their own, to comfort us in every time and at every place. Sometimes we need to know that God has a plan. Sometimes that's the last thing we want to hear. Sometimes we need to know that God has been through it. Sometimes that's not enough. Sometimes we need to know that God is with us right now. Sometimes that doesn't do us any good at all.
But here's the thing: God-outside-time, God-inside-time, and God-throughout-time are one and the same God. We are not talking about three different gods, we are talking about the Three-in-One, the One-in-Three, the God we know most fully as the Holy Trinity. Yes, it's all a great mystery as to how the Trinity can be, how God can be outside time, inside time, and moving through time all at the same time, and yes, it's annoying for those of us who like neat and tidy explanations for everything to just leave it at that, but that's another sermon for another day. God is what God is, and what God is is the Trinity. When you need to hear that there is larger meaning to your life, I tell you, God, who is called the Father, has a plan. When you who need to hear that someone has been through what you're going through, I tell you, God, who is called the Son, has been through it. When you who need to hear that you are not alone in your particular situation, I tell you, God, who is called the Holy Spirit, is with you.
So, as we celebrate and proclaim this good news, may the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, comfort you now and always. Amen.
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