Archive for October 2006
Iowa blogs
Here’s an interesting idea: a list of blogs written by Iowans. You can find it here. And I’ve added it to my blogroll under number 7, below right. You might know of one to add!
Learning from those on the margins
Proper 25 (30)
October 29, 2006
Job 42:1-6,10-17; Psalm 126;Hebrews 7:23-28;Mark 10:46-52
Order:
Call to Worship
Blessed Be The Lord God Almighty
Blessed Be Your Name
Holy is the Lord
Give Thanks
Prayer
Welcome
Sermon: Learning from those on the margins
Giving
Blessing
——————
Sermon: Learning from those on the margins (with special thanks for the excellent exegesis of Lawrence at Disclosing New Worlds):
Let’s start with the Master himself.
[Ask someone to read Mark 10:46-52, others to follow along in the pew Bible.]
Seems so ordinary in terms of Jesus stories! But let’s look deeper.
Previous passage: “Give us positions of power.” “Not mine to give.”
Subsequent thing: Entry into Jerusalem. Thus, this is the last stop before the city of death.
[Now read again, acting out:]
Mark 10:46-52
46-48They spent some time in Jericho. As Jesus was leaving town, trailed by his disciples and a parade of people, a blind beggar by the name of Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, was sitting alongside the road. When he heard that Jesus the Nazarene was passing by, he began to cry out, “Son of David, Jesus! Mercy, have mercy on me!” Many tried to hush him up, but he yelled all the louder, “Son of David! Mercy, have mercy on me!”
Rebuking him! Wait a minute – haven’t we heard of shushing before? Yep – remember the children they were keeping from him?
49-50Jesus stopped in his tracks. “Call him over.”
They called him. “It’s your lucky day! Get up! He’s calling you to come!” Throwing off his coat, he was on his feet at once and came to Jesus.
His coat – his only possession! Wait a minute – where have we heard about possessions before? Yep – remember the rich young man who couldn’t leave all he had?
51Jesus said, “What can I do for you?” [see 10:36]
Wait a minute – haven’t we heard that question before? Yep – when the disciples wanted positions of power.
The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”
52″On your way,” said Jesus. “Your faith has saved and healed you.”
In that very instant he recovered his sight and followed Jesus down the road.
But he doesn’t go “on his way” at all! He was begging for Jesus to help him – now he follows Jesus without being asked.
[on flip chart: list who gets it – who doesn’t get it in these incidents:]
9:36 the child – also shushed, yet owner of the kingdom; Jesus says he’s an example to learn from – they don’t get it
10:22 rich man – “Now there’s an example,” they figure – but the rich man goes away, clinging to his possessions. They hadn’t kept him from coming to Jesus, but he gets no strokes! Someone they approved of – they’re stunned.
10:32-34 again Jesus responds by telling them of the cross – no reaction from them – followed by
10:36: “What do you want me to do for you?” to the disciples – No way, about power, Jesus doesn’t do that kind of power
Once again, someone they call no-count, Bartimaeus [remember the warning of 10:31 – the first shall be last and the last first?]. What could they have learned from him? – and from the children (whom Jesus said owned the Kingdom) – and from the faith Syro-Phoenician woman – and the courage of the menstruating woman?
Now, let’s go to Job. Put your finger anywhere in Job, it’ll probably fall on a story of someone trying to straighten Job out. Try it. They’re so certain that Job had a spiritual problem somewhere, if only they could get him to fess up. But Job honestly doesn’t think so. His wife wants him to curse God and die – to admit God hates him.
And he questions God, and complains that it doesn’t seem fair. Finally God comes near, and, indeed, has some words of rebuke – Job 38. But here’s how it ends: 42. And Job’s friends who were setting him straight?
See, Job – the one everyone wanted to fix, ended up praying for them.
Now, how is that like what’s going on in Mark? The disciples are busy pretending to be Jesus’ handlers – the ones who really have a corner on what’s going on – while Bartimaeus is doing whatever it takes to put himself in Jesus’ hands. They could have learned from him!
So who’s my teacher?
We are learning that we are to help the poor. But I wonder if we have gone to the poor as fixers. We are the prestigious – the have-it-togethers – and in Mark, the prestigious ones are the ones who go away empty. What the disciples could have gained if they had gone to the unprestigious to learn. Not to instruct, but to serve. Truly, Jesus turns the world upside down.
This is a different way of looking at life. He says, “Inasmuch as you do it to the least of these, you do it unto me.” So, for instance, here’s a new reason not to deport the poor immigrant: I’m deporting Jesus.
And here’s how this affected me, as recording in a blog post earlier this week:
I’m a pastor.
So I was in a Board meeting, listening (not my strong suit, BTW!). Each of us told a bit about what God was doing in our lives recently. And then we began to ponder our life together as a church.
This church that I serve is smaller than it once was. And we don’t offer all the ministries that we once did. Consequently, there is a temptation to run out and do something – anything – to fulfill our own expectations of what churches ought to be doing.
Yet, as we listened to each other, we found we were mostly in a similar place. It seemed like God was saying, “Have courage. Wait. Listen.”
Now this was intriguing to me, because my sense of where the church is goes something like this: It is as if God is saying to us, “I want you, New Oaks Church, to be among the ones who figure out what church now needs to be.” And I doubt that we could do that when we were flooded with people and furiously busy.
And then I came across this thought-provoking writing of Claude Nikondeha on the Emergent Village e-mail. I wrote my friends on the Board a little intro, like so:
Today, this piece arrived from Emergent. It suggests we are not alone. Maybe it will be reassuring to you, as it was to me. . . .
We don’t know the answers. But seems like one of many confirmations that asking the questions – rather than just pressing ahead – is the call we’re experiencing.
Peace to you today!
Monte
And then I tacked on the email and sent it along. For the whole piece, click here .
Look to the Margins: Hope for Leadership amid Liminality!
AMAHORO AFRICA GATHERING MAY 7 – 18, 2007
KAMPALA – UGANDA, EAST AFRICA
According to Alan Roxburgh, the North American church in late modernity is firmly in liminal space…meaning that there is little that is firm or solid as we transition into a post-modern or post-colonial era. In truth, the North American church has been on the margins for some time now . . .
. . . we need a compass, a remnant of a map or, truth be told, the leading of the Spirit. Alert and thoughtful leaders are trying to chart a new course…but with a very vague map and an atrophied sense of direction. How can we find our way in liminal space? Who knows the terrain of the margins?
There is a hint of direction in Roxburgh’s text…look to the margins! He suggests that resources for navigating liminal space for the North American church will include reengaging Scripture and, to the current point, ‘…listening to the voices of those Christian groups that have long lived outside the center of culture.” He believes that the future direction of the church will be discovered as we engage with ‘dissenting churches’ and ‘ethnic groups.’ “They understand the position of the underling and the outsider. Liminality requires us to listen attentively to their ecclesiologies.” This is one of the most valuable insights gleaned from a reading of Roxburgh’s treatment of liminality – there are leaders who are capable of leading us and who know the terrain…because they have been operating on the margins for years.
Around the world, many denominations are struggling to survive. As regular church attendance wanes, leaders are looking for strategies to bring people back into the fold. Roxburgh would say that many of these renewal strategies and church growth seminars are attempts to return to the hay-day [sic] of modernity/colonialism which is not going to happen. [Remember our temptation to activity?] . . We don’t need a new coach to help us to start new programs (the preferred modern methodology), but we need a conversation, suggestions, personal antidotes [sic – probably “anecdotes” was meant] from churches around the world, partnerships between churches/leaders to walk together through this disorienting time. Friendships among missional churches/leaders could be the greatest gift for this season, if we can take the time to be together and listen. . . . [and he goes on to recommend the Amahoro conference in Africa as a place for us to do so]
From whom should I learn? And am I humble enough to do so?
By faith, maybe it’s time to learn from those on the margins.
Technorati Tags: Amahoro, poor, poverty, prestige, Job+42, Mark+10, Lectionary+B+25, , sermon,
Bible readings for Sunday, Nov. 5, 2006
Scriptures for Sunday follow. Your first impressions wanted!
Monte
Mark 12:28-34
The Most Important Commandment
28One of the religion scholars came up. Hearing the lively exchanges of question and answer and seeing how sharp Jesus was in his answers, he put in his question: “Which is most important of all the commandments?”
29-31Jesus said, “The first in importance is, ‘Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.’ And here is the second: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ There is no other commandment that ranks with these.”
32-33The religion scholar said, “A wonderful answer, Teacher! So lucid and accurate—that God is one and there is no other. And loving him with all passion and intelligence and energy, and loving others as well as you love yourself. Why, that’s better than all offerings and sacrifices put together!”
34When Jesus realized how insightful he was, he said, “You’re almost there, right on the border of God’s kingdom.”
After that, no one else dared ask a question.
Hebrews 9:11-14
Pointing to the Realities of Heaven
11-15But when the Messiah arrived, high priest of the superior things of this new covenant, he bypassed the old tent and its trappings in this created world and went straight into heaven’s “tent”—the true Holy Place—once and for all. He also bypassed the sacrifices consisting of goat and calf blood, instead using his own blood as the price to set us free once and for all. If that animal blood and the other rituals of purification were effective in cleaning up certain matters of our religion and behavior, think how much more the blood of Christ cleans up our whole lives, inside and out. Through the Spirit, Christ offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice, freeing us from all those dead-end efforts to make ourselves respectable, so that we can live all out for God.
Ruth 1:1-18
1-2Once upon a time—it was back in the days when judges led Israel— there was a famine in the land. A man from Bethlehem in Judah left home to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The man’s name was Elimelech; his wife’s name was Naomi; his sons were named Mahlon and Kilion—all Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They all went to the country of Moab and settled there.
3-5 Elimelech died and Naomi was left, she and her two sons. The sons took Moabite wives; the name of the first was Orpah, the second Ruth. They lived there in Moab for the next ten years. But then the two brothers, Mahlon and Kilion, died. Now the woman was left without either her young men or her husband.
6-7 One day she got herself together, she and her two daughters-in-law, to leave the country of Moab and set out for home; she had heard that God had been pleased to visit his people and give them food. And so she started out from the place she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law with her, on the road back to the land of Judah.
8-9 After a short while on the road, Naomi told her two daughters-in-law, “Go back. Go home and live with your mothers. And may God treat you as graciously as you treated your deceased husbands and me. May God give each of you a new home and a new husband!” She kissed them and they cried openly.
10 They said, “No, we’re going on with you to your people.”
11-13 But Naomi was firm: “Go back, my dear daughters. Why would you come with me? Do you suppose I still have sons in my womb who can become your future husbands? Go back, dear daughters—on your way, please! I’m too old to get a husband. Why, even if I said, ‘There’s still hope!’ and this very night got a man and had sons, can you imagine being satisfied to wait until they were grown? Would you wait that long to get married again? No, dear daughters; this is a bitter pill for me to swallow—more bitter for me than for you. God has dealt me a hard blow.”
14 Again they cried openly. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye; but Ruth embraced her and held on.
15 Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back home to live with her own people and gods; go with her.”
16-17 But Ruth said, “Don’t force me to leave you; don’t make me go home. Where you go, I go; and where you live, I’ll live. Your people are my people, your God is my god; where you die, I’ll die, and that’s where I’ll be buried, so help me God—not even death itself is going to come between us!”
18-19 When Naomi saw that Ruth had her heart set on going with her, she gave in. And so the two of them traveled on together to Bethlehem.
When they arrived in Bethlehem the whole town was soon buzzing: “Is this really our Naomi? And after all this time!”
Psalm 146
1-2 Hallelujah! O my soul, praise God!
All my life long I’ll praise God,
singing songs to my God as long as I live.
3-9 Don’t put your life in the hands of experts
who know nothing of life, of salvation life.
Mere humans don’t have what it takes;
when they die, their projects die with them.
Instead, get help from the God of Jacob,
put your hope in God and know real blessing!
God made sky and soil,
sea and all the fish in it.
He always does what he says—
he defends the wronged,
he feeds the hungry.
God frees prisoners—
he gives sight to the blind,
he lifts up the fallen.
God loves good people, protects strangers,
takes the side of orphans and widows,
but makes short work of the wicked.
10 God’s in charge—always.
Zion’s God is God for good!
Hallelujah!
The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson
Call to worship for 10.29.06
Georgann Haeffner’s call to worship for this week. Thank you, Georgann!
Good morning, People of the Lord!
Did the Lord restore you this week?
Were you filled with laughter?
Did you sing for joy?If so, praise the Lord!
If not, praise the Lord, for He will do this for you!He promises to restore us as streams renew the desert.
He promises that those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy!
He promises that while we may weep as we go to plant our seeds, we will sing as we return with the harvest!Praise Him for His promises!
Praise Him for the ones you’ve seen come true in your life!
Praise Him for the ones yet to be fulfilled.
Praise Him, for He tells us that no matter how many His promises, they are YES! in Christ Jesus!Praise Him with joy today, Church, for the Lord has done amazing things!
Technorati Tags: Call+to+worship, Proper+25
“Give me your tired, your poor . . .”
Today, the 28th of October, is the 120th anniversary of the official acceptance (by U.S. President Grover Cleveland) of the Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France.
I give you Emma Lazarus’ noble words (attached to the base in 1903) in ironic observance of this week’s signing of legislation calling for a new fence on our southern border.
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Related posts:
Jesus’ Preference for the Poor
Cartoon: Reclaiming America from Illegal Immigrants
Christ in the Migrant
But they broke the law!
We are citizens of another nation
Tags: Statue+of+Liberty+poem, huddled+masses, border+fence, Emma+Lazarus, Immigration+reform, Monte Asbury
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The Least, First 