Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] January 21, 2024 “She Ministered to Jesus” Mark 1: 29-39 – Common English Bible After leaving the synagogue, Jesus, James, and John went home with Simon and Andrew. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed, sick with a fever, and they told Jesus about her at once. 31 He went to her, took her by the hand, and raised her up. The fever left her, and she served them. 32 That evening, at sunset, people brought to Jesus those who were sick or demon-possessed. 33 The whole town gathered near the door. 34 He healed many who were sick with all kinds of diseases, and he threw out many demons. But he didn’t let the demons speak, because they recognized him. 35 Early in the morning, well before sunrise, Jesus rose and went to a deserted place where he could be alone in prayer. 36 Simon and those with him tracked him down. 37 When they found him, they told him, “Everyone’s looking for you!” 38 He replied, “Let’s head in the other direction, to the nearby villages, so that I can preach there too. That’s why I’ve come.” 39 He traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and throwing out demons. I grew up in a little country church with very traditional gender roles. Women cooked and served. Men built and repaired. In fact, the men of the church, mostly farmers, literally built our church. Boys helped the men fix things. Girls helped in the kitchen, which is why it was a little odd, as I’ve mentioned before, that I preferred to be in the kitchen washing and drying dishes after a potluck or a community supper, but I thought their conversations were much more interesting than fertilizer and crop rotation. In our rural North Dakota setting, churches often had an annual dinner for the whole community. The small town where I went to school only had two churches: Lutheran and Lutheran. One Lutheran church had an annual ham dinner and the other Lutheran church always served a dinner of Swedish meatballs, which is odd since they were all Norwegians. People drove from miles around for those meatballs and boiled potatoes. One year, one of the organizers had a hip replacement and couldn’t be there to supervise the potatoes. She worried they would use boxed potatoes to avoid the pain of peeling them all. The pastor went to visit Helen a few days before the event and assured her that there were women at the church that very morning peeling potatoes. He said, “You must sure love cooking.” She replied, “Oh heavens no. I don’t love cooking at all, but I love Jesus, and this is what I can do for him.” I love Jesus and this is what I can do for him. We all have our ways. So, speaking of those traditional gender roles, today’s scripture passage makes me a little uncomfortable because it seems to affirm them – or at least not question them. Of course, it’s the Bible so what should I expect? The men were at the synagogue and came home hungry, likely expecting to be fed, but the one expected to feed them was in bed with a fever. Fevers were a big deal and couldn’t be addressed by simply taking an Advil. But Jesus had other ideas. He knelt down, took her hand, and raised her up. He restored her to health and she jumped right up to serve them. Even so, for the life of me, I can’t understand why Simon couldn’t have just said, “Hey ma, take it easy. I’ll make some sandwiches for the guys.” Maybe because she loved Jesus and this is what she could do for him. Yet, it still makes me uncomfortable, so let’s dig a little further. Does Jesus intend to reinforce traditional gender roles? Let’s go back to the beginning of Mark. Mark’s always in a hurry. No stories about Jesus’ birth like Matthew and Luke. No placing him in the context of the cosmic universe like the Gospel of John. Mark 1, verse 1, begins with how John the Baptist fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy of a messenger sent to prepare the way for the Messiah and, bam, by verse 4, John is already baptizing people, calling them to change their hearts and lives. Five short verses later, Jesus is baptized and then immediately, one of Mark’s favorite words – always in a hurry – Jesus was forced into the wilderness for 40 days and tempted by Satan. Mark doesn’t bother with any details, however, except to say this: He was among the wild animals and the angels took care of him. Now, just 14 verses in, John was arrested and Jesus began preaching, “This is the time! Change your hearts and lives!” He passed by some fishermen and called out to them to follow him and suddenly he had his first four disciples. They went to the synagogue and Jesus started teaching. And the people were amazed. Why? He wasn’t like the legal experts who simply read interpretations of the law – imagine the excitement of listening to someone read from the phone book. But nothing dull about him, Jesus stood there and said, “Now is the time! Change your hearts and lives!” In the midst of this, someone with an “evil spirit” yelled out to him. Jesus told the demon to be silent and come out of the man. The demon shook and screamed and it did leave the man, leaving everyone shaken who watched this happen. How can he do such a thing? And immediately news about Jesus spread throughout the region. That’s when Jesus and his four disciples left the synagogue and went to Simon’s house to eat and rest. Only a couple days on the job, I can only imagine those four new disciples wondering what they had gotten themselves into. But at least it wouldn’t be boring! They arrived at Simon’s house and discovered his mother-in-law was in bed with a fever. Jesus healed her and so now news about the demon at the synagogue and news about Simon’s mother-in-law spread and by that night the whole town was crowded outside the door of the house, begging to see Jesus. People brought loved ones and neighbors who were sick or demon-possessed to have Jesus heal them. It went on all night. In the morning Jesus tried to find a deserted place where he could pray alone, imagine the exhaustion of so many desperate people crying out in need. But they tracked him down and so Jesus and his 4 disciples left town so they could go spread the good news in other places. We’re not even in chapter 2 yet, but Mark’s in a hurry for Jesus to share this good news – “You too can change your hearts and lives.” But back to Simon’s unnamed mother-in-law – maybe we can give her a name like Blanche or Henrietta. She’s notable in part because she is the first woman who appears in the gospel. But why is she so defined by her traditional gender role? However, with Jesus, there’s often more than what’s on the surface, so let’s look a little deeper. The word that gets stuck in my craw is “serve.” On its own, it’s a great word. But in the context of, “there’s hungry men so go serve them some dinner,” well, that’s another thing. But it turns out, Mark chose a word that does indeed have deeper meaning. In fact, it’s the same word used just a few verses before when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness and the angels “served” him. Another way to translate that one Greek word used in two different settings is “ministered.”[1] As in, angels ministered to Jesus. And in the same way, Simon’s mother-in-law “ministered” to Jesus. And with that, one commentator called her the first Deacon in the church. Another called her a “disciple,” one of the first to quietly demonstrate a way to follow Jesus. What’s the difference? To serve someone vs. ministering to someone. To me, it’s more. Synonyms for “ministered to” include, “tended to, nursed, and comforted.” Definitely more than “fixed him some dinner,” though maybe she did that too if that’s what he needed. To minister to someone is to listen to what they need, even if all they need is someone to listen. To minister to a community is to do what the community needs that you have the gift to fulfill. This church is full of ministers – not folks who are ordained, though we have our share. Folks like you who see a need and do it – and often, never noticed. To be clear, to serve is not a bad thing. And I’m not saying gender roles are necessarily a bad thing, but there is much more to Simon’s mother-in-law than jumping up to fix dinner. That’s a lesson that James and John, who were there that day, didn’t understand. They saw the whole thing happen but still had the nerve to approach Jesus one day and say, “We want you to do whatever we ask of you.” Um, OK, what’s that? “We want to sit next to you in your glory, one at your right hand and one at your left.” Facepalm. Holding back the desire to curse them out, OK – my desire for Jesus to curse them out – he replied, “Whoever wishes to be great must be your servant.” And added, “Even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” Yes, Jesus said about himself the same thing, used the same word, as Simon’s mother-in-law. She is an extraordinary example of a disciple. In fact, one more extraordinary thing about her. Remember how she lay on the bed with a fever? Jesus came, took her hand, and “raised her up.” The only other time Mark uses that specific word “raised” is about Jesus himself. At the very end of Mark, the second to the last verse, the women who came to prepare the body of Jesus for burial were told he was not there because he has been “raised” up. Simon’s mother-in-law is definitely not a gender stereotype. This passage is not confirmation that a woman’s place is in the kitchen as, if you can believe it, but of course you can, some male commentators have said that this passage proves. So again, to minister to someone is to listen to what they need, even if all they need is someone to listen. To minister to a community is to do what the community needs that you have the gift to fulfill. As I said, this church is full of ministers. Folks like you who see a need. Some out front, others in ways that no one knows. Jere McInerney highlighted this in her Moderator’s column a few months ago. All the somebodies that no one knows about. People who want no recognition, so we started recognizing them in our weekly Mission Minute.
It’s dangerous to begin naming people, but these are just four examples of extraordinary people, like Simon’s mother-in-law, who do what they can do to minister to our community. For them and everyone of you who does what only you and Jesus know, inside the church and out in our community, thank you. We see you. [1] Mary Ann Tolbert, Women’s Bible Commentary, Westminster John Knox, 1992, page 267. Also in commentary from Feasting on the Word
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Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] January 21, 2024 “Get a Grip, Jonah” Jonah 3: 1-10 – Common English Bible The Lord’s word came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city, and declare against it the proclamation that I am commanding you.” 3 And Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, according to the Lord’s word. (Now Nineveh was indeed an enormous city, a three days’ walk across.) 4 Jonah started into the city, walking one day, and he cried out, “Just forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and put on mourning clothes, from the greatest of them to the least significant. 6 When word of it reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, stripped himself of his robe, covered himself with mourning clothes, and sat in ashes. 7 Then he announced, “In Nineveh, by decree of the king and his officials: Neither human nor animal, cattle nor flock, will taste anything! No grazing and no drinking water! 8 Let humans and animals alike put on mourning clothes, and let them call upon God forcefully! And let all persons stop their evil behavior and the violence that’s under their control!” 9 He thought, Who knows? God may see this and turn from wrath, so that we might not perish. 10 God saw what they were doing—that they had ceased their evil behavior. So God stopped planning to destroy them, and didn’t do it. God had a job for Jonah to do. Get up, go to Nineveh, and tell ‘em to shape up or ship out. Tell them to change their ways or they’re going to face the music. But Jonah was not happy about this assignment. Nineveh? Of all places!! Those people??! Jonah wanted them to face the music, to get what should be coming to them. He thought about it for a minute and then took a couple of steps forward… to make it look like he was going to do what God asked, but then he ducked around the corner and ran down to the docks to get on the next ship going anywhere in the opposite direction of Nineveh. As though that would get him anywhere!! God’s used to dealing with obstinate people, so God hurled a great wind upon the sea and immediately the ship slammed up and down on enormous waves so wildly that the sailors thought the ship was going to break apart in pieces. They frantically threw all the cargo overboard to try to lighten the ship, but to no avail. Somehow Jonah slept through all this until someone finally woke him up and dragged him up on deck to join the rest of them in pleading to their god, any god, for mercy. It had to be someone’s fault. The sailors cast lots to see who would be holding the shortest stick. “It’s you!” they screamed at Jonah. “What have you done?! Tell your God to stop!” Jonah admitted that he was trying to slip away from his responsibility and they looked at him in horror – why would you test your god like that? To his credit, Jonah told the sailors to throw him overboard. They did and the sea became as calm as glass. And they all worshiped Jonah’s God, while he sank until he hit bottom. But, God wasn’t going to just let Jonah drown, let him off the hook, so God sent a big fish to save Jonah; save him by swallowing him up! Give him a time out and let him think about what he had done, to stew in his own juices, as my mother would say, or rather sit in the warm gooey juices of the insides of a fish. At least, I would guess it would be warm and gooey and wet inside… He sat there for three days and three nights and finally prayed – who wouldn’t, right? Jonah promised, pretty please, that he had learned his lesson and would turn his life around and never disrespect God ever again. God accepted his word and as soon as Jonah finished saying “Amen,” the fish, according to the Common English Bible, “vomited Jonah onto the dry land.” While lying there, wiping fish guts out of his hair and pulling goo out of his pockets, God repeated, “OK, Jonah. Get up. Go to Nineveh and tell them to shape up or ship out. Tell them to change their ways or they’re going to face the music.” This time, Jonah got up and went. At least in the right direction. Nineveh is several hundred miles east so he had many days to walk and think and plot… how to do a bad job. To do what God asked, but just the bare minimum. He rehearsed it all in his head. Go to Nineveh, but not all the way in. Speak in a quiet enough voice that maybe they won’t hear. He practiced how to condense his message into as few words as possible – eight. The shortest sermon ever. “Forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown.” But sadly, for him, it was the most effective sermon ever. They believed him. Like a wildfire out of control, within minutes, the entire city was convinced that their actions needed to change and all the people from the king on down to the youngest child and even the cattle fasted from eating and drinking, and covered themselves with sack cloth and ashes. They went in all the way. No requests for appeal, no ifs, ands, or buts. God saw what they were doing and accepted that they were indeed sincere about changing their ways and called off any plans to destroy them. Jonah, on the other hand, thought God’s change of mind was utter hogwash. “Come on, God. This is why I didn’t want to come here in the first place. I knew you are a merciful and compassionate God and how very patient you are. It’s terrible. It’s dreadful that you’re so full of faithful love; it’s a travesty that you are willing not to destroy those who should be destroyed. Since it’s your right to do what you want, go ahead. But please, just let me die. I can’t stand to see this… It’s just not fair.” God let Jonah have his temper tantrum and when he had finished his rant, God calmly asked Jonah, “Is your anger a good thing?” Isn’t that a great line? Not judgmental. God let him have his say, get it out of his system, and asked, OK, do you feel better now? But, of course, he didn’t. He stomped his way out of the city and sat sulking on a hillside across from Nineveh hoping to see fireworks, praying that God would get some sense and do what Jonah thought the Ninevites deserved – like sinners in the hand of an angry God dangling over a pit of burning coals of fire and brimstone. As he sat there watching, Jonah put up a little hut to shade himself from the hot sun. God had compassion on the retribution-craving Jonah and grew a little bush next to him, big enough to provide some shade and save Jonah from his misery. Jonah was very pleased about the shade from that bush. The next day, however, God sent a worm that attacked the bush and it died. And then, like the violent winds on the sea, God sent a dry east wind and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head. Once again, he begged to die. “It’s better for me to die than to live.” A second time, God calmly asked, “Is your anger a good thing? Why get angry over a bush?” But Jonah felt no remorse and replied, “Yes! My anger is a good thing!” The Book of Jonah ends with just two more verses. God said, “You’re angry about a bush? In one night, you went from feeling pleasure about a bush to anger about a bush that you didn’t plant, that you didn’t water. It just grew up one night and died the next. Now, if your feelings can change so quickly, why can’t mine? Why can’t I change my mind about how I feel about Nineveh – a city of more than 120,000 people who don’t yet know right from wrong, plus all those innocent animals. Why can’t I change my feelings from anger to pleasure about saving this great city?” That’s it, the end. God asked Jonah, “Why can’t I have compassion?” and the story ends there because what else can Jonah say? The story ends by requiring us to answer the question. But first of all, let’s make it clear that this is an exaggerated tale. I’m sure you already know that a man named Jonah didn’t literally sit in the belly of a fish that God had told to swallow and give the poor thing indigestion. I will say, however, that this is a true story, by which I mean – it tells something very true about human behavior. And it’s a deliberately funny story because truth often makes us uncomfortable. Oh, that Jonah, we may chuckle. Until we recognize ourselves.
So, I’m curious, what made Jonah think Nineveh was so sinful? Why was he so against helping them? Nineveh is, or at least was, a real city, basically in the suburbs of the modern-day Mosul in Iraq. For centuries, Nineveh was a major city of high culture and learning – about 700 years before the Common Era, around the time of Jonah, it was home to the largest library of inscribed clay tablets in the world. A cosmopolitan, educated city of art and statuary and tremendous wealth from commerce, traders interacting with cultures and people from all over the world. But between earthquakes and repeated destructive wars, the city rose and fell over and over until it was buried in the dust, only discovered again in the mid-1800s. Anthropologists now suggest Nineveh was home to the famous hanging gardens of Babylon. But what was their great sin? Did you know that San Diego is the 41st most sinful place in the US? At least according to a survey that purports to measure sin by categories of anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, lust, vanity, and laziness. Surprisingly, Denver is more sinful in 6th place – unexpectedly more sinful than New York - 14th. Vegas of course is #1, but if you’re looking for a more wholesome place to live, no need to move to Boise. Chula Vista is 164th out of 180. Measured (somehow!) by anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, lust, vanity, and laziness. What was the great sin of Nineveh? Well, think about what some very religious people today think makes a city, for example like New York, “sinful.” Imagine Jonah gasping at seeing inter-racial couples, or same-gender, or "inter-racial same-gender!" couples walking down the street holding hands. Stopping at Starbucks and sputtering about gender inclusive bathrooms. Shocked at books in the library. Like some religious people, Jonah might have thought it’s sinful to see women working outside the home. Or angry about people who are informed, educated and conscious of social injustice and racial inequality. Come to think of it, perhaps calling the people of Nineveh “sinful” might be a little like calling someone today “woke.” Was Nineveh so sinful or did the Israelites have a very dim view of those they viewed as less religious – all that art, education, and openness poisoning people. The kind of thing Jonah might think God should stop. Now, there was something about how the Ninevites were acting that God wanted to see changed. Remember this started with “change your ways or face the music.” That’s what Jonah was trying to avoid. Might it have been the way they treated widows and orphans – the classic tale of biblical prophets? Not welcoming strangers? Had they been worshiping idols or disrespecting the Lord God of Israel? But they weren’t Israelites. Their form of worship wouldn’t have mattered to God. In fact, why would the Lord God of Israel have even cared about what these foreign people hundreds of miles away were doing anyway? The king of Nineveh seemed to understand, though. In announcing his decree to fast and put on sack cloth and ashes, he said: “Let all persons stop the violence that’s under their control.” Perhaps including the violence that comes from anger and a desire for people to suffer. But this story isn’t actually about the Ninevites at all, is it? It’s about what Jonah, or any one of us, wants to happen to whomever “they” may be. And so, the bottom line question at the end of this true story: Why can’t God have compassion and mercy on people we think don’t deserve compassion and mercy? Jonah said it himself. Because God is merciful and compassionate and very patient, full of faithful love; willing not to destroy. Jonah thought that was terrible, dreadful. But the moral of the story? Let God love everyone God loves. Which is everyone. Or maybe the moral is: do what God asks in the first place. Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] January 14, 2024 “The Kitchen Table” Photo above is the parsonage of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery Alabama Amos 5: 14-15, 21-24 – Common English Bible Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of heavenly forces, will be with you just as you have said. 15 Hate evil, love good, and establish justice at the city gate. Perhaps the Lord God of heavenly forces will be gracious to what is left of Joseph. 21 I hate, I reject your festivals; I don’t enjoy your joyous assemblies. 22 If you bring me your entirely burned offerings and gifts of food-- I won’t be pleased; I won’t even look at your offerings of well-fed animals. 23 Take away the noise of your songs; I won’t listen to the melody of your harps. 24 But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Before or after you read, I suggest you listen to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFVmvVFRaGY Michael King was born in the second-floor master bedroom of a lovely house on a beautiful street lined with elm and sycamore trees, an oasis in Atlanta where many Black middle-class families lived.[1] The house was perched on a small hill, set back almost forty feet from the street with a covered porch wrapped around two sides and big windows through which sunlight beamed in the afternoon. It was a house his parents shared with the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta – the associate pastor upstairs, the senior pastor downstairs, who is also the father in-law – an arrangement I would not find appealing! Michael’s childhood was absolutely idyllic in comparison to his father who was born the son of a sharecropper in a tiny shack – literally dirt poor. His father’s early life was brutal and their survival a miracle. Through all this, as a teenager, Michael’s father saw his potential in becoming a preacher, even though he could barely read or write or even speak clearly. He walked without shoes to Atlanta where he met his future wife, Alberta, who made him the force he became. Her father, A.D. Williams, was a prominent pastor, her husband his associate. But M.L. King didn’t serve long as the associate. His father-in-law died and suddenly he was the senior pastor of a large church with a good reputation that paid pretty well and he could provide a good life for his growing family. Yet, despite some relative privilege, Little Mike, as he was called, couldn’t be shielded from indignity. He learned an early lesson at age 6 when suddenly the little white boy he played with every evening told him that his parents wouldn’t let them play together anymore. Mike’s name was changed to Martin after his father had a powerful experience in front of the doors to the Wittenberg Church where Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses. Martin Jr. was smart and at the end of his junior year in high school he tested to gain early admission to Morehouse College and because of that was afforded an opportunity to go north with other college students to work in Connecticut for the summer. They were tobacco fields, but he experienced a whole other way to be a young black man in the world outside of the South. With both his father and grandfather as pastors, Martin may have been expected to become a pastor but he imagined other callings – like practicing law or a professor. His parents were happy when he called home during his second summer in Connecticut to announce his intention to become a pastor. But friends teased that maybe this was more a preemptive attempt to avoid getting in trouble with his parents for something that had happened than a call from God. King described his calling not as miraculous or supernatural but that he recognized the central importance of the church in Black life and at age 18, he could imagine a career as a “rational” minister, one who dedicated his life to God and justice and new ideas, perhaps on a college campus. These stories and many more are part of a new biography called King: A Life by Jonathan Eig. I especially appreciated the stories that revealed his and his parents childhood and young-adulthood. Upon graduation from Morehouse, Martin made an unpopular choice in the eyes of his father. He chose to go to a predominantly-white seminary in a small town in Pennsylvania – Crozer Theological Seminary – which embraced liberal ideas and accepted Darwin’s theory of evolution and prepared students to think with a modern mind. Listen to this quote from one of his sermons in the 1950s. “Science investigates; religion interprets. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.”[2] Not necessarily what you might expect coming from a Baptist pulpit in Alabama. That pulpit was Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, a small church two blocks from the Alabama State Capital with a highly educated congregation. His father wanted him back in Atlanta, but he reluctantly accepted his son’s desire to go out on his own, so he pulled some strings in Montgomery in a church he thought would appreciate his son as a pastor-scholar, a place that would appreciate his frequent references to philosophers as often as biblical texts. But a year into his pastorate, things changed drastically. The young preacher with a PhD fresh from Boston University went to a meeting of ministers that was prompted by Rosa Parks refusal to give up her seat for a white man. The ministers were considering organizing a bus boycott, but who would lead the group? No one wanted to take charge – at least out front. And then they pointed to the new 27-year-old pastor in town with less to lose. It was a huge responsibility to thrust upon anyone, but he picked up the mantle, never imagining their boycott would drag out for over a year or that many people would want to call it off to get back to normal even if normal was wrong. And never knowing the full extent of vitriolic opposition from white residents in Montgomery. Martin Luther King, Jr., grew up in a house perched on a small hill with a covered porch and big windows through which sunlight beamed in the afternoon. He attended the prestigious Morehouse College where he studied with the best professors and the brightest students. He spent summers away from the soul-crushing oppression of Jim Crow South. He went to an intellectually challenging seminary, earned a PhD in Boston, and envisioned ministry surrounded by books and stimulating conversations. He never expected the life of a prophet. Neither did Amos envision his life as a prophet. He also grew up in relative privilege, perhaps a shepherd within a royal household or maybe the owner of flocks and groves – it’s not quite clear.[3] He was obviously educated during a time when few people were literate. He lived in the southern part of the divided kingdom and traveled north to the great marketplaces of flocks and wool. While he was there, Amos observed the moral excesses of the people and the influence on paganism on their shared religious practices. Reluctantly, he felt compelled to warn the people of impending disaster. He was a prophet for only a few months before being kicked out, but surprisingly his writings survived. It was this prophecy of Amos and other biblical prophets that impacted Martin Luther King Jr’s view of the role of religion in society. Amos claimed God hated religious rituals that were disconnected from doing good, seeking life. Amos wrote, “Hate evil, love good, and establish justice at the city gate.” “Take away the noise of your songs but instead let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Words that Dr. King quoted often. The phone rang a lot at the King family residence, the church parsonage. Between organizers calling about a meeting or opponents calling to harass, without caller ID or answering machines, you picked up the phone. And so it was one night around midnight, after a long night of meetings, Dr. King answered the phone. It was another racist spewing hatred, but this one was different. It was a threat to bomb his house and kill his family if he didn’t leave Montgomery. He said, “I sat at the kitchen table with my cup of coffee and was ready to quit. How could I step aside without appearing to be a coward?” With all courage gone, he decided to pray. Now, Pastor King was a man of faith but he was more likely to wrestle intellectually with questions of faith rather than turn to prayer. This is not to disparage him or suggest he wasn’t a prayerful man, but it simply wouldn’t have been his first impulse and shows how desperate he felt. “I’m afraid. I have no more strength and courage. I’m at the end of my powers. I have nothing left.” Have you ever gotten to that point? He said, “I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it alone.” What do we do? We may believe in God, we may pray in church and take our faith seriously, but while some people feel very comfortable turning to God in prayer and can speak about it confidently, for many people, like Dr. King, it would take a lot to conclude: “all I can do is pray.” For this man of rational faith, it was a real turning point that he felt so discouraged that he would turn to prayer. Something I think some of us can relate to. And for us to be encouraged by, because that’s the moment he heard an answer to his desperate plea – the voice of God, an inner voice, saying: “Stand up for justice, stand up for truth; and I will be at your side forever.” He said, “Almost at once my fears began to go, my uncertainty disappeared, and I was ready to face anything.” Not that he didn’t have any fears ever again, not that he wasn’t repeatedly uncertain over the course of the years to come, and not that he was always ready and willing to face anything, but he had been reassured, when you stand up for justice, when you stand up for truth, God will be at your side forever because that is what God desires over any kind of outward displays of religion. Take away the noise of your songs and stand for justice. But it didn’t take away the danger. A few days later his home was indeed bombed. Fortunately, providentially, no one was home at the time. When we’re sitting at our own kitchen table, when our resolve is almost gone and our way is unclear, when we are afraid and feel alone and ready to give up, you can turn to God in prayer too. God will be at your kitchen table, at your bedside, in your car, at the oceans edge, when you finally conclude, all I can do is pray. We remember this every year when we renew our baptismal vows: the moments when our fear of death is overcome by our commitment to keep choosing new life in Christ. First, I invite you to join me in a prayer of honesty: [1] This description and those to follow are based on stories in Jonathan Eig’s new biography King: A Life, 2023 [2] “A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart,” 1959, preached at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church [3] Richard R. Losch, All the People in the Bible, Eerdmans, 2008 Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] January 7, 2024 “The Quest” Ecclesiastes 3: 1-13 – The Message There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth: 2-8 A right time for birth and another for death, A right time to plant and another to reap, A right time to kill and another to heal, A right time to destroy and another to construct, A right time to cry and another to laugh, A right time to lament and another to cheer, A right time to make love and another to abstain, A right time to embrace and another to part, A right time to search and another to count your losses, A right time to hold on and another to let go, A right time to rip out and another to mend, A right time to shut up and another to speak up, A right time to love and another to hate, A right time to wage war and another to make peace. 9-13 But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I’ve had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he’s left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he’s coming or going. I’ve decided that there’s nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life. That’s it—eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It’s God’s gift. Here is how the Book of Ecclesiastes begins in chapter 1: 1 2-11 Smoke, nothing but smoke. [That’s what the Quester says.] There’s nothing to anything—it’s all smoke. What’s there to show for a lifetime of work, a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone? One generation goes its way, the next one arrives, but nothing changes—it’s business as usual for old planet earth. The sun comes up and the sun goes down, then does it again, and again—the same old round. The wind blows south, the wind blows north. Around and around and around it blows, blowing this way, then that—the whirling, erratic wind. [Here’s a question for you:] All the rivers flow into the sea, but the sea never fills up. [What’s with that?] The rivers keep flowing to the same old place, and then start all over and do it again. [grunt] Everything’s boring, utterly boring-- no one can find any meaning in it. Boring to the eye, boring to the ear. What was will be again, what happened will happen again. There’s nothing new on this earth. Year after year it’s the same old thing. Does someone call out, “Hey, this is new”? Don’t get excited—it’s the same old story. Nobody remembers what happened yesterday. And the things that will happen tomorrow? Nobody’ll remember them either. Don’t count on being remembered. I think this guy might want to consider getting some therapy. Or a prescription for something. They say the author was an old king but it also kind of sounds like a 15-year-old with an attitude. “Boring to the eye, boring to the ear.” Either way, it might sound like the rants of a pessimist or a realist, but I don’t think so. Perhaps they are the uncomfortably honest reflections of someone who has seen it all – honest questions we may not dare ask. Not a rant but the human quest. What’s the point of all our efforts, our hard work and striving? He continues: 12-14 Call me “the Quester.” I’ve been king over Israel in Jerusalem. I looked most carefully into everything, searched out all that is done on this earth. And let me tell you, there’s not much to write home about. God hasn’t made it easy for us. I’ve seen it all and it’s nothing but smoke, smoke, smoke and spitting into the wind. 15 Life’s a corkscrew that can’t be straightened, 16-17 I said to myself, “I know more and I’m wiser than anyone before me. I’ve stockpiled wisdom and knowledge.” However, what I’ve finally concluded is that so-called wisdom and knowledge are mindless and witless—nothing but spitting into the wind. 18 Much learning earns you much trouble. The more you know, the more you hurt. Smoke, smoke, nothing but smoke. [That’s what the Quester says.] There’s nothing to anything—it’s all smoke. You may know the opening statement of Ecclesiastes as, “Vanity. Vanity. It’s all vanity.” Or, “Futility. Absolute futility. Everything is futile.” Or, “Utterly meaningless! Nothing matters!” We get the perfectly pointless point! He moves on to chapter 2: 2 1-3 [So], I said to myself, “Let’s go for it—experiment with pleasure, have a good time!” But there was nothing to it, nothing but smoke. What do I think of the fun-filled life? My verdict on the pursuit of happiness? Who needs it? With the help of a bottle of wine and all the wisdom I could muster, I tried my level best to penetrate the absurdity of life. 4-8 Oh, I did great things: built houses, planted vineyards, designed gardens and parks and planted a variety of fruit trees in them, I acquired large herds and flocks. I piled up silver and gold, loot from kings and kingdoms. I gathered a chorus of singers to entertain me with song, I had in my bed anyone I wanted. 9-10 Oh, how I prospered! I left all my predecessors behind in the dust. Everything I wanted I took—I never said no to myself. I sucked the marrow of pleasure out of every task—my reward to myself for a hard day’s work! 11 Then I took a good look at everything I’d done, looked at all the sweat and hard work. And I saw nothing but smoke. Smoke and spitting into the wind. There was nothing to any of it. Nothing. The Book of Ecclesiastes is sometimes attributed to the great King Solomon, son of King David. A man who had it all, 700 wives and 300 concubines. He wanted for nothing. However, this was written 700 years after Solomon, about 200 years before Christ. One clue: In the time of Solomon, people believed that wisdom would bring a good life. The Book of Proverbs is optimistic. But here we are 700 years later and what did wisdom get us? Especially after the community had been carried off to exile in Babylon, would wisdom have really made a difference? So, we return to chapter 2: 12-14 And then I took a hard look at what’s smart and what’s stupid. I did see that it’s better to be smart than stupid. Except that, even though the smart ones see where they’re going and the stupid ones grope in the dark, they’re all the same in the end. One fate for all—and that’s it. 15-16 When I realized that my fate’s the same as the fool’s, I had to ask myself, “So why bother being wise?” It’s all smoke, nothing but smoke. The smart and the stupid both disappear out of sight. In a day or two they’re both forgotten. Yes, both the smart and the stupid die, and that’s it. Just when we start to think, this is all too dark, pointless, where can he possibly be going, that’s when he offers this beautiful wisdom, this insight which so many of us find inspiring. As Pete Seeger wrote in the 60s: To everything turn, turn, turn There is a season turn, turn, turn And a time to every purpose under Heaven A time to be born, a time to die A time to plant, a time to reap A time to kill, a time to heal A time of war, a time of peace A time you may embrace A time to refrain from embracing – someone observed that time was Covid A time to gain, a time to lose A time for love, a time for hate A time for peace, I swear it's not too late – Seeger’s excellent addition to Ecclesiastes The Byrds recorded the song and it became a hit. It was the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 in December, 1965. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 is so popular because it is so universal. Wisdom from someone who has had it all and seen it all. Not a prescription that there should be a time to love and there should be a time to hate. It’s a description of life as he has experienced it – there have been times of love and hate, or war and peace. It’s true. It’s universal. But it is also wisdom for those still yet to experience it. An encouragement for the younger and inexperienced: Don’t worry. There is a time for everything under the sun. Don’t worry. The times will turn. It gets better. And it may get worse again. And there is often nothing we can do about it but observe. And not panic. Don’t stress. The quester in Ecclesiastes asks: 9-13 In the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I’ve had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but God’s left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether God is coming or going. I’ve decided that there’s nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life. That’s it—eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It’s God’s gift. 14 I’ve also concluded that whatever God does, that’s the way it’s going to be, always. God’s done it and that’s it. So simply worship God in holiness. 15 Whatever was, is. Whatever will be, is. That’s how it always is with God. This is what I find as the core of Ecclesiastes: In the face of all the changing times, the smoke and nothingness, the turns in life from gain to loss and loss to gain, from building up and tearing down and building up, before it’s torn down again, there is one thing that does not change: God. The only thing that is Eternal. And with all that, what then? In chapter 5, The Quester said, 18-20 After looking at the way things are on this earth, here’s what I’ve decided is the best way to live: Take care of yourself, have a good time, and make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life. And that’s about it. That’s the human lot. Yes, we should make the most of what God gives, both the bounty and the capacity to enjoy it, accepting what’s given and delighting in the work. It’s God’s gift! God deals out joy in the present, the now. I want to take a little issue with “just take care of yourself” and add a little Jesus – loving our neighbor and all that. Compassion and taking care of one another is closer to my philosophy of life than eat, drink and be merry. And yet I accept his point: There is often very little we can do to change anything even though I believe that is the way to have a meaningful life. But it’s true how he concludes chapter 6: It’s useless to brood over how long we might live. His concluding words from chapter 8: 8 16-17 I realized that if you keep your eyes open day and night without even blinking, you’ll still never figure out the meaning of what God is doing on this earth. Search as hard as you like, you’re not going to make sense of it. No matter how smart you are, you won’t get to the bottom of it. That’s how the Book of Ecclesiastes whimpers to the end. Lots of words that are just smoke. Pointless. Vanity. Really? No. Ecclesiastes is powerful because it speaks universal truth about the challenges of being human in an ever-changing world. And in the midst his insistence that it is all pointlessness, it points us forward: To pursue the only thing that doesn’t change. The only thing that is truly eternal. Someone on to whom we may hold strong when everything falls apart and the bottom falls out from beneath us. God is that unchanging foundation, our Rock. And the redeemer of all that has been and will be – both the good and the ugly. The quest is for God. Now, after hearing all this, what do you think is the message of Ecclesiastes? |
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March 2024
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