Nagoya Mission

Waiting - 12/6/2009

Mark 12: 38-44

 In the first year of office of Prime Minister Hatoyama, when Masaaki Kanda was governor of Aichi Prefecture, during the High Priesthood of Emperor Akihito, the word of God came to attendees of Meito Christ International Church, in the city of Nagoya, Japan.  They all went into all the country around the region of Chubu, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; “As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the Way of the Lord, make straight paths for him.  Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low.  The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth.  And all mankind will see God’s salvation.’”

 Does that not get your missionary zeal going?  Do not today’s words affirm that we need to put on our counter-cultural attitude, the mantle of John the Baptist and prepare the way of the Lord! 

 
 So what do you think?  Has not the word of God come to us?  Is it just a confidence thing?  Perhaps we are like the church to which the John of Revelation writes --- “lukewarm?”  Or is there something else?
 

 On many, many occasions we talk about the Christian life in terms of imitating Jesus … of following Jesus.  And I think that is right.  But, that makes we wonder, as we get ready once again for the arrival of the birth of our savior, what are we are to make of this “prepare the way” of the Lord --- because to “prepare” would somehow seem to ignore our reality.
 Did not what John in the wilderness do and say not already happen?  In other words has not Jesus already come?  Has not Jesus the Christ been crucified, resurrected and ascended into heaven?  Has not Jesus the Christ told us that he will come again?  Are we simply reviewing a historical event explained by Luke, a timeline for the history books: the Hebrew Prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus, the Apostles, and then Paul?  Nothing against those who have not heard about Jesus, but rather it seems to me the reality is we really are just waiting around.Well, let us think through this.

 For Luke, the appearance of John the Baptist signals the beginning of the end.  The time has come to a certain place and certain time; “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar …..”  Those words of Luke are similar to the opening lines of the other prophetic books, the beginning of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea and Isaiah.  As well as the time, we the readers know that the place and details of the birth, the growing up and adult hood of Jesus are complete.  Now we have come to the beginning of the end when the Word of God has come to the last of the Hebrew prophets, the son of Zechariah the priest, John.

 It does not come to John in the city or small town but in wilderness?  Is John an “Essene” a member of a strict, separatist Jewish sect living in Qumran by the Dead Sea who felt that the religious establishment in Jerusalem was corrupt?  Is it personal; John alone as if a hermit?  Is it metaphorical; being in the “wilderness?”  Does it re-call perhaps, the formation of a people into a covenantal relationship with God?  Whatever the case, Luke joins all the other gospels and reinforces not only that the time, John has come to prepare us for the messiah, but also emphasizes John’s call by quoting from Isaiah 40.  In the original Hebrew, “prepare the way” literally is to remove stumbling blocks.  For example, another reference for the phrase "prepare the way" is found in Isaiah 57: 14; “And it will be said: ‘Build up, build up, prepare the road!  Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.’”

 Moreover, Luke joins the other Gospels, in that John does not claim to possess anything that he can give; all John has is an act of preparation, the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins --- so the people will be ready when the holy one comes.

 Now let us return to us, in this time of Hatoyama.  For Luke and the other gospels John fulfilled scripture and created a favorable environment, making it easier for Jesus to enter into and operate in the lives of the people. But does this necessarily mean we are to do the same?  Are we not all just about waiting?  Or we about preparing the way?

 In short, yes … that is the paradox … it is both.  In Advent we await very aware, every single one of us, that things are just not as they should be.  We are also aware that what John prepared came among us and will come again.

 The key for us centuries later is that the Word of God is not only a history of God’s coming to humanity, and an event for the future but also for … now.  It is nothing other than the history of love, God’s love for us; a light that grows and one to which we follow in this darkness.  As we wait out this paradox of the Word of God our time is complicated by the fact that the world is full with a thousand voices all day long assaulting our hearts and souls.  For it is the world of the Satan --- the adversary, the accuser, the prosecution; or Lucifer --- the bringer of light and revelation that is really darkness and death; or Mephistopheles --- the self-doubt created by the questioner.

 For example, have you heard about the Death Clock?1  It is a site on the internet where you enter some simple information about yourself like your date of birth, your sex, your body mass index and whether or not you smoke.  It will then calculate when it is expected that you will die.

 I think that information is pretty morbid, so not only are we bombarded with voices taking us away from God, but I also know that time is passing for those of us who are waiting.  Whether it passes quickly or slowly, time is all we have.  The question is, how shall we use it.

 You see every year we go through this same routine right before Christmas, a child who will later to die on a cross; the revelation of God in a life; Jesus the Christ.  It is a revelation that is forgiving and loving as well as prophetic and healing.  It is a revelation that is paradoxically historical but through out all time.

 So we wait.  As author and pastor, Barbara Brown Taylor eloquently said, “there are all kinds of waiting.  There is the tense dread-filled waiting of those whose hope is gone.  There is the resigned waiting of those who for whom a spade is always a spade.  There is even a kind of waiting, in which one collects” signs of the end times “like souvenir spoons… get the whole set and the end comes!”2

 For me I wait in this paradox of the Word of God who came and who will come, at the same time living to “prepare the way” in my own life and in a small way in the lives of others.  So, what preparations do you and I need in this time in whatever way we are waiting?  How do we prepare for the coming of the savior in this age of Hatoyama and does it matter that some are totally oblivious?  You tell me … because I do not believe that I am the only one who feels that things are not just as they should be.  I do not believe I am the only one who has not interest in watching a death clock.  Do you think there is anyone else who feels that way?  Wait in comfort and joy and Prepare the way of the Lord.  Amen.

1 www.deathclock.com
2 Bread of Angels, Barbara Brown Taylor, Cowley Publications: Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, 1997. p. 160

Therefore - 11/29/2009

Matthew 6: 25-33

This sermon was developed for our annual Thanksgiving Celebration Worship.  We celebrate the US Thanksgiving event on the last Sunday of November at our English worship service at Meito Christ International Church where I serve as pastor.  After the worship we have a Thanksgiving potluck.  This year over 60 people attended.  The worship and potluck offers expats an opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Japan.

 “Therefore” Jesus begins tonight’s piece of teaching.  All of you, student of the Bible or student of the English language, or student of both, probably have already clued in on that word.  “Therefore” for that word recognizes that Jesus is providing a summary explanation in what follows for something Jesus has already said.
 So what did he already say?  Let’s refresh our memories as to what Jesus has already taught the crowds.  Matthew collects these and many other teachings into what we now call the “Sermon on the Mount” --- chapters 5 ? 7 of Matthew --- a setting in which Jesus says a lot about what it means to be called “blessed” and what it means and takes to be faithful followers of God.
 Along with such famous statements as “Blessed are the poor in Spirit” and “Blessed are the peacemakers,” Jesus included many other instructions, together with a form of what we now pray called the “Lord’s Prayer.”  Although there are a variety of teachings, one important theme, throughout this Sermon on the Mount Jesus is that cautions would be followers to beware of practicing their piety or devoutness in front of others in order to be seen.1
 Then, we come to what interests us this evening, the words right before our passage, where Jesus says “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy … but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven”, and then concluded with: “You cannot serve both God and Money.”2
 “Therefore…”  Now, at this point it would be safe to assume that what follows is about the struggle between faith and wealth.  Indeed, for many Christians particularly for monastic orders and others this passage has been used to give good reason for a life of intentional poverty, relying on their needs being supplied by God acting through the charity of the faithful, somewhat similar to those Buddhist monks with the big hats, bowl’s and bells.  While other Christians have taken the opposite extreme, suggesting that this passage suggests a sign of a faithful life is wealth.
 But there’s much more to this particular instruction from Jesus than just a struggle between faith and wealth.  Jesus responded with words that instruct but also reassure.  The message is not saying we have only black-or-white choices in front of us, but that we need to find balance in faith; remembering what is important to God and in God’s kingdom, with the proper care of ourselves and others.
 It begins with a theme that reverberates around the world. “Do not be anxious,” Jesus tells his listeners giving us a clue that both the people gathered around Jesus then as now … did worry.  The fact that Jesus says these words tells us that the people around Jesus shared with us an anxiety about life.  “How can we not be anxious?”  Anxious that being known as Christians will somehow cost us dearly; anxious about having to spend time and energy and money on feeding and clothing; anxious with worry that somehow all is lost in this struggle between faith and wealth and all the other aspects of life that cause anxiety.
 Jesus not only addresses anxiety but he adds that balance is built on an important premise: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”3  Some of you may be even more familiar with “seek ye first…” from the King James Version of the Bible.  But what exactly does that mean?  How can we strive for something we do not see, understand and might not recognize when we see it; how can we have some assurance … how can we be ‘not anxious’ about faith and wealth?  How can be less anxious and “seek you first?”
 One possibility is to recognize one important battle fought in the war between faith and wealth; something called the “sin of a sense of entitlement” that feeling that somehow one is “entitled” … including favor from God.  I deserve it.  I worked hard.  Therefore…!
 Jesus alludes to the sin of the sense of entitlement by reminding us just look at nature:  “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.”4  There are many reasons that entitlement is a slippery slope of sin not only because of the struggle of determining what is “fair.”  The sin of a sense of entitlement also clouds our relationship particularly when we blame none other than God for what has or has not happened in our lives.
 Instead, Jesus’ calls for us to turn our focus to somewhere other than ourselves:  To turn our focus on God, and on other people; serving as well as being served, confident in our faith that not only will God provide all that we need but that we will be rewarded with the gift of finding ourselves deep in the middle of where God desires for us --- the kingdom of God.
 Before I conclude I am going to read this poem written by author, Bible teacher and Professor Gerhard Frost:
 SOGGY CEREAL AND TEPID TEA
  When I remember that I am a parent,
  and think of God as Father,
  I recall a special breakfast
  brought to me in bed.
  We awoke early
  to the sound of hurrying feet.
  We wondered what they were up to,
  our four- and eight-year-olds;
  but soon it came?
  breakfast in bed.
  It was an elaborate menu:
  chilled burnt toast, with peanut butter;
  eggs, fried, and chilled, too;
  soggy cereal,
  (the milk had been added too soon)
  and tepid tea!
  A horrendous mix.
  When they stepped out for a moment
  to get something they’d forgotten (heaven forbid!)
  My wife whispered,
  “You’re going to have to eat this, I can’t!”
  And I did.
  I didn’t eat as a gourmet,
  for it wasn’t gourmet cooking;
  I didn’t even eat as a hungry man
  for I wasn’t hungry.
  I ate it as a father
  because it was made for me;
  I was expected to;
  they had faith in me.
  And I ate because it was served on eager feet
  and with starry eyes.
  I think of my poor service to God
  as teacher, parent,
  interpreter of the Good News.
  I know that my offerings are soggy,
  tepid, and unfit,
  but my Father receives them
  and even blesses them?
  not because I am good
  but because he is!5
 Therefore --- what better time is there than this moment, this evening, anxious and seeking, yet gathered together to give our “soggy cereal and chilled toast and tepid tea.”  We are accepted and loved --- therefore ---- let us hear anew the call of Jesus Christ to trust, to turn outwards and to seek the kingdom.  Amen.
1 Matthew 5: 3,9
2 Matthew 6: 19, 20, 25
3 Mark 6: 33
4 Matthew 6: 26
5 “Soggy Cereal and Tepid Tea,” Bless My Growing, Gerhard Frost, Augsburg: Fortress, Minneapolis, 1974.

I Don't Know - 11/22/2009

Mark 13: 24-31

The late American comedian George Carlin, in one of his standup comedy routines, expressed astonishment over those opinion polls on television networks where some debatable question is posed and people are invited to phone in to vote their views.  “Did you ever notice,” Carlin says, “there’s always, like, 18 percent who vote ‘I don’t know’?  Carlin goes on to note that “it costs a dollar to make those calls … and they’re voting ‘I don’t know.’”
 

Carlin then imagines some guy seeing the question of the day on the TV screen and saying to his spouse, “Give me that phone!” He shouts “I don’t know!” into the phone and then says proudly to his wife, “Sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe you’re not sure about.”1

I thought about that illustration in response to the gospel.  First imagine the scene, as the disciples left the temple in Jerusalem, they could not help but stand in awe of its splendor.  Its land mass alone at the time of Jesus covered over one-sixth of Jerusalem.2  Rather than one building, it was actually a series of buildings with connecting grand porches, and multiple courts which surrounded the inner temple.  Take for example, Solomon’s porch which was 476 meters (or 1,562 feet) long, about 4 football fields in length.  The royal court was 281 meters (921 feet) in length and decorated with 160 columns.  The massive, white, stones that one of disciples mentioned --- "Look, Teacher!  What massive stones!  What magnificent buildings!" --- measured on average 7.6 (twenty-five) by 2.4 (eight) by 3.6 (twelve) meters and weighed more than 90,718 kilos (one hundred tons).3

To the people of Christ’s time the Temple complex represented permanence; it was immovable and invincible.  They were not unlike us, putting pride and confidence in buildings and structures --- even institutions --- that we think will stand for all time.

It is in this environment that Jesus gives his last lecture, given to the disciples only hours from his execution.  Of course it was not a lecture in a university and Jesus was not in a classroom because his conversations, questions, and answers during a walk were more the rule.  Still, it’s not a stretch to think of these words of Jesus as his last thoughts, his last “lecture” in which he challenges the disciples with the prophetic words of the end including that this Temple will be destroyed. 

The gospel is a portion of that lecture where Jesus promises that he will return as the Son of Man, coming in clouds with “great power and glory” to gather his people from the ends of the earth, and bring them into his kingdom.4  Throughout his prophetic teaching --- all of Mark 13 --- Jesus balances two competing inclinations: to promise that the End is coming soon, but to also insist that no one knows exactly when it is coming, including himself.  How soon and when?  Soon enough that “this generation” will still be alive to see it.  How can “this generation” be the time when Jesus insists that no one knows when?

That question has occupied Christians for quite some time.  The most obvious and natural interpretation to the words of Jesus was that he was speaking and referring to the same generation --- people his own age, or at the very least, those who were children at the time he was preaching.  It’s obvious, though, that all of those generations passed away long ago without the End having arrived.

Others have suggested that these particular words were put in Jesus’ mouth by Mark, so the words refer to the generation of Mark’s audience.  That means in a sense that Mark said today’s words not Jesus.

And others have taken a different point of view, affirming that Jesus expected an apocalyptic event to happen very soon, because Mark is the understood to be oldest of the gospels.  Later, when it turned out that Jesus was mistaken, this interpretation goes, other Gospel writers, Matthew, Luke and John and in particular Paul, have had to adjust or rewrite what Jesus meant.

Another interpretation of the meaning of “this generation” is to focus on an alternative reading to the Greek word for “generation.”  Because the Greek word can also mean something similar to a word like “race,” and therefore Jesus’ message was that the “tribe” or “race” of Judah, meaning Jews exist and thus the prophecy still holds.

In a similar vein but another approach to this verse is to note that every other time that Jesus uses the word "generation" in Mark, Jesus refers to "unbelieving, adulterous and sinful people.”5  So, it could be that Jesus is saying that we will never be rid of unbelieving, adulterous and sinful people until that day when Jesus brings in the new heaven and new earth.  In other words, there will always be people whose lives have pain and some lives will bring destruction to others until the end.

What about you?  Do any of those interpretations help you understand what Jesus might have been saying?  Or are you and I like the person described by George Carlin, who calls up with a strong opinion --- being “I don’t know.”

Let me share with you my perspective.  It is not as neat and tidy as the others I have mentioned.  The basis for my interpretation is based on the cornerstone of the Christian faith --- the Incarnation: God made flesh, God and man in one person, Jesus the Christ.  The Incarnation is a paradox --- two contradictory truths held to be present at one time and in one person.  It has never happened before.  It will never happen again.  That's why it is called a paradox.  The Incarnation is not easy to understand.  It is unique in the proper sense of that often misused word.  It only happens once-and for all time.

It is because of that paradox that the author of the gospel of Mark trusted the words of Jesus that he was living in the last generation on earth.? As did Matthew.? As did Luke.  As did John.  As did Paul.  Yet, Mark was wrong.  Matthew was wrong.  Luke was wrong.  John was wrong.  The Apostle Paul was wrong.  All these Biblical authors thought that they were living in the last generation, and they were all wrong… at the same time as they were right!

Because, Jesus was right; Jesus was right when he said, “Nobody knows the hour.  Nobody knows when the end of the world is going to come.  Nobody knows.  Not the angels.  Not even me the Son.  Only God knows.  We will be caught by surprise, like a thief in the night, like a trap that suddenly and unexpectedly snaps shut.”  As incarnation Jesus, once and for all time, in the past, now and forever … As incarnation Jesus is right in that the end will happen in our generation.

The point is that Jesus is comes to us in a personal arrival that’s can be every bit as important to each one of us as then end.  He comes to speak to us in words of Scripture that have eternal power --- “Heaven and earth will pass away,” says Jesus, “but my words will not pass away.”6  Jesus comes to us in worship, in music, in art, in serving others… all of that is held in tension of the incarnation, God as flesh and God as man in Jesus the Christ in our generation. 

We are to “keep awake” ? awake for the coming of the incarnation in our generation.  So how do we do this?  How do we live in these Truths?  We begin by listening carefully to the words of Jesus, words that can be hard to hear in the middle of the noise of life.  Words like “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”7  We are to keep awake as we struggle with “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all,” says Jesus.8  And to be the generation where: “Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”9

Jesus’ predication of his coming is not a voting matter, where we get to vote “I do not know” or “I know when” or “I know how.”  Rather we are to vote with our whole hearts, minds and souls to be alert and ready for his arrival, living in a way that is in line with Christ’s will and way, with the end now, not out of threat or out of disillusionment because it may not happen as it has not happened in the last two thousand years.  Rather just like the paradox of the incarnation, two contradictory truths held to be present at one time and in one person.  Jesus came, Jesus comes, and Jesus will come.  We are to vote to be alert to Christ’s will, living each day with faith and love and a spirit of service, in the promise that “this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.”

1 Imagine There’s No Heaven: The Loss of Eschatology in American Preaching, Thomas G. Long Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia http://www.ctsnet.edu/JournalforPreachers/index_files/PDFs/Advent_2006.pdf
2 Daily Life at the time of Jesus, Miriam Feinberg Vamosh, Jews for Jesus, San Francisco, 1992, pp. 20-30.
3 Mark 13: 1
4 Mark 13:26-27
5 Mark 8:12, 38; 9:19
6 Mark 13: 31
7 Mark 8:34
8 Mark 9:35
9 Mark 10:15

God's Secretaries

"You've got to go out and ask the mother in her house, the children in the street, the ordinary man at the market.  Watch their mouth's move when they talk, and translate that way.  Then they'll understand you and realize that you are speaking German to them."  Where did I find this tidbit from Martin Luther about Biblical translation?  A couple of weeks ago, I finished reading God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible (P.S.) .  A book by Adam Nicolson on the making of making of the King James Bible.  Even though time has passed, the topics covered from history to Biblical translation are still with me.

It was a fascinating telling of the "why" and of the "how" regarding the King James Version of the Bible.  Woven into the story were not only historical events, the death of Queen Elizabeth and the arrival of King James, the Separatists and intrigue in English politics but also the thoughts and ideas that were sweeping England and Europe.  In a captivating tale the author lays out why the King James Version is like no other in the English language.

A link to the book can be found above through Amazon or borrow a copy at your local library.  I highly recommend the book.

Severing relationships

"Obviously the severing of relationship after so many years is

unfortunate and gives the world-at-large another reason to conclude that

Baptists care more about putting people out than gathering them in." Quote

from the Rev. Julie Pennington-Russell, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of

Decatur, Ga., responding to the decision by the Georgia Baptist Convention to

end its 148-year-old relationship with her congregation because it hired a woman

as senior pastor. She was quoted by Associated Baptist Press.

Considering all that I hear is going on in the Evangelical

Lutheran Church in America, one could easily insert "Lutheran" into Rev.

Pennington-Russell's quote.