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| 24 Pentecost November 19, 2006 The Rev. Robert C. Granfeldt |
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I was thinking about starting my sermon with a tease, this morning, but I thought
better of it. I was going to ask you all to tell me, by a show of hands, how many of you
actually read the Bible regularly! But I changed my mind because I wouldn’t want to
embarrass anyone – or everyone. It is unfortunately true that Episcopalians generally
do NOT put much time or effort into reading the Scriptures! And that’s unfortunate!
But I suspect that ONE, at least, of the reasons not many of us read the scriptures
very much, has to do with lessons like this morning’s!
And I AM going to admit that if ALL the Bible were like these lessons, I wouldn’t read
it much, either! I really DISLIKE these lessons!
Now, very often, when we SAY we don’t like a particular lesson or section of
Scripture, what we’re REALLY saying is that the reading makes us uneasy. It tells us
things we’d rather not hear. In fact, there are plenty of things in the Scriptures that I
would GLADLY skip, for my own comfort’s sake…
But today’s readings are not among them. Today’s lessons I just don’t like! I just don’t
like them because, A.) I don’t think they’re very helpful, in themselves, as writings of
Scripture; and, B.) given that they’re IN Scripture, this is the wrong time of the year to
be reading them.
Though there are certainly some valuable elements in them, they aren’t very helpful
because both the reading from The Book of Daniel, and the one from the Gospel of
St. Mark have very narrow and very special meanings that are EXTREMELY difficult to
understand, and they both tend to be misleading when taken out of context.
Given our Christian expectations, and our unfamiliarity with biblical writing, we tend
automatically to take these verses as being about the end of the world. That’s what
they sound like, to us, certainly, and that’s what we’ve been taught about them.
Except… they’re not; as much as they may sound like it, they’re just not. What they
are is CONTEMPORARY warnings to contemporary people – warnings and promises to
those they’re written to – to late pre-Christianity Jews in the case of the Book of
Daniel; to early Palestinian Christians in the case of Mark’s Gospel – warnings of
horrible events about to happen in the history of the people; but with promises that,
in the EVENTUALLY, all will be well.
Daniel was written in the Second Century before Christ, under the Persian
domination of Israel (Persia – that’s today’s Iran!), when a series of Emperors named
Antiochus ruled. Antiochus IV, Epiphanes is the particular culprit in Daniel, and while
he is expected to bring great destruction on Israel and Jerusalem, blessings are
promised to those who persevere through the bad times. The Book, and today’s
reading, has to do with THE POLITICS OF THE TIME.
Our reading from the Gospel according to St. Mark – often referred to as the “Little
Apocalypse ” -- was written in a period of increasing political unrest in Palestine, as
resentment grew against the Roman Empire. Here, Mark has Jesus speaking about
what in fact would turn out to be the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome, and warning
his followers to be steadfast in the suffering that would come, and NOT believe
reports that the Messiah had returned! Again – a warning about the politics of the day
– and nothing more! Our problem in reading things like this is that we don’t have
enough background in the history and culture of the people of the Bible – of the
people who PRODUCED the Bible – to understand the warnings! So we mistake them
for something they’re not – mistake them for dire warnings about the end of the
world, when they’re really just predictions of real political events, only; events that
happened millennia ago! So I dislike them because they’re so easily misunderstood,
and so difficult to really understand PROPERLY.
But I especially dislike THESE lessons being used TODAY – at this time of year! That’s
because their appearance, here, is testimony to another tendency I’ve mentioned
before that seems to me not very helpful or even healthy; the tendency to dwell
overmuch on SIN, on the dire CONSEQUENCES of sin, and on repentance, and – given
the misunderstandings of these writings – to intrude those themes where they don’t
belong.
I’ve spoken to you about the tendency many times, before – the one that most of us
were raised with; the one that, back in the old 1928 Prayer Book, had us going
through the Pre-Lenten period of Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima,
complete with Purple Vestments and Hangings, and the elimination of the “Alleluias”,
because, apparently, six-and-a-half weeks of Lent wasn’t enough penance for our
predecessors!
And so it was with Advent, as well. Advent has never been as heavily a penitential
season as Lent, but Penitential it has been. These lessons occurring this week – and
next week’s lessons, as well, by the way – are an example of the same phenomenon
at work: leftovers of an earlier time, extending the once-penitential season that
begins in two Sundays into the season before it! And we don’t need it!
Sin is, indeed, a part of human life; a reality that has to be recognized and dealt with.
And sin has consequences – real and distasteful consequences. Repentance – as
our response to the knowledge, the realization of sin – is important, too – indeed,
vital. Repentance is the “turning again” that we go through each time that we realize
we have wandered from the path we are called to follow – that path that leads to the
“mark”, the “target” of our wholeness – the person God has created us to become.
When we wander from the path, when we “hamartia”, when we sin, then we must turn
again to the path – to the mark – in repentance. These things are and should be a
part of every Christian life.
But within limits! And in proportion!
Jesus’ did NOT come to condemn us for our sinfulness. He did NOT come to tell us
how terrible we are. He did NOT come to “rub our noses” in our depravity.
Jesus came to OVERCOME sin – and Jesus came to proclaim recovery from sin, and
FOREGIVENESS!
Jesus’ forerunner John’s message was, indeed, one of doom and gloom, and so
offensive was it – and he – that he was murdered by the powerful people he had
offended.
JESUS’ message, though, was one of JOY; of RENEWAL; of FREEDOM. And so
RADICAL was IT that he was hung on a cross and lifted high for all to see by power
structure, an empire and a whole way of life that he threatened!
John came to extend the message of the prophets in advance of the Savior.
JESUS came to BE the savior!
But, strangely, the message of Jesus, has not been easy to take. From the beginning,
the Church has had to fight a tendency to dwell, NOT on the Good News of God in
Christ – the forgiveness of sins and the promise of salvation – but on the message of
the forerunner, the ANNOUNCEMENT of sin, and the threat of damnation! And,
unfortunately, as I’ve pointed out to you so many times, during one of the most dismal
periods in human history – the Dark Ages – the battle was virtually lost – and the
fixations of the Church BECAME fear and repentance, rather than joy and celebration!
It’s been a long, slow struggle back. But hanging our Churches in Purple for weeks
before they should be; dropping the cry of joy, “alleluia!” from our worship weeks
early, and treating Advent as a kind of “mini-lent” were some of the last remnants of
that mistaken period. And, of course, probably the most grievous error of all – in
those penitential seasons and in the rest of the year, as well – worshipping God on
our knees, when we should have been standing, all along, before our Father’s throne!
None of which would be worth mentioning if it weren’t that the “mistake” goes
beyond worship and the calendar, to affect our very lives. So many Christians go
through their lives as if they were picking their way through a minefield – so fearful
are they that they might do something “BAD” – rather than rejoicing in the gift of
salvation won for us all in Christ Jesus, and living lives, instead, of joy and
thanksgiving, reveling in the goodness of the world God has given us, and basking
in the light of his love.
In two weeks, we will begin the season of Advent. The Church USED to observe
Advent as a penitential season, though not quite as rigorous a penitential season as
Lent. But we have now returned to something more like the origins of Advent in the
Church’s worship, with an emphasis, not so much on sin and repentance, but on
expectation: the expectation the world felt, as it awaited the first coming of Christ;
the expectation Christians should feel each time they invite Christ to enter into their
lives; the expectation we all must feel – and respond to – as we look for Christ’s
SECOND coming!
In that expectation and anticipation there is a place to examine the hold sin has in
our lives, the extent to which we each have wandered from the Mark, certainly. And
in that expectation and anticipation there is ample room for a message of repentance
and the call to return to the Mark. And in our observance of Advent we’ll observe all
of those things.
But Advent is not here, yet. And until it arrives, I, personally, would prefer it if we
were to be too busy being joyful in the Lord – and in his priceless gifts of
forgiveness, of healing, and of freedom – to be bothered with today’s misunderstood,
misplaced, and unhelpful lessons!
In Jesus Christ’s Name. Amen.
better of it. I was going to ask you all to tell me, by a show of hands, how many of you
actually read the Bible regularly! But I changed my mind because I wouldn’t want to
embarrass anyone – or everyone. It is unfortunately true that Episcopalians generally
do NOT put much time or effort into reading the Scriptures! And that’s unfortunate!
But I suspect that ONE, at least, of the reasons not many of us read the scriptures
very much, has to do with lessons like this morning’s!
And I AM going to admit that if ALL the Bible were like these lessons, I wouldn’t read
it much, either! I really DISLIKE these lessons!
Now, very often, when we SAY we don’t like a particular lesson or section of
Scripture, what we’re REALLY saying is that the reading makes us uneasy. It tells us
things we’d rather not hear. In fact, there are plenty of things in the Scriptures that I
would GLADLY skip, for my own comfort’s sake…
But today’s readings are not among them. Today’s lessons I just don’t like! I just don’t
like them because, A.) I don’t think they’re very helpful, in themselves, as writings of
Scripture; and, B.) given that they’re IN Scripture, this is the wrong time of the year to
be reading them.
Though there are certainly some valuable elements in them, they aren’t very helpful
because both the reading from The Book of Daniel, and the one from the Gospel of
St. Mark have very narrow and very special meanings that are EXTREMELY difficult to
understand, and they both tend to be misleading when taken out of context.
Given our Christian expectations, and our unfamiliarity with biblical writing, we tend
automatically to take these verses as being about the end of the world. That’s what
they sound like, to us, certainly, and that’s what we’ve been taught about them.
Except… they’re not; as much as they may sound like it, they’re just not. What they
are is CONTEMPORARY warnings to contemporary people – warnings and promises to
those they’re written to – to late pre-Christianity Jews in the case of the Book of
Daniel; to early Palestinian Christians in the case of Mark’s Gospel – warnings of
horrible events about to happen in the history of the people; but with promises that,
in the EVENTUALLY, all will be well.
Daniel was written in the Second Century before Christ, under the Persian
domination of Israel (Persia – that’s today’s Iran!), when a series of Emperors named
Antiochus ruled. Antiochus IV, Epiphanes is the particular culprit in Daniel, and while
he is expected to bring great destruction on Israel and Jerusalem, blessings are
promised to those who persevere through the bad times. The Book, and today’s
reading, has to do with THE POLITICS OF THE TIME.
Our reading from the Gospel according to St. Mark – often referred to as the “Little
Apocalypse ” -- was written in a period of increasing political unrest in Palestine, as
resentment grew against the Roman Empire. Here, Mark has Jesus speaking about
what in fact would turn out to be the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome, and warning
his followers to be steadfast in the suffering that would come, and NOT believe
reports that the Messiah had returned! Again – a warning about the politics of the day
– and nothing more! Our problem in reading things like this is that we don’t have
enough background in the history and culture of the people of the Bible – of the
people who PRODUCED the Bible – to understand the warnings! So we mistake them
for something they’re not – mistake them for dire warnings about the end of the
world, when they’re really just predictions of real political events, only; events that
happened millennia ago! So I dislike them because they’re so easily misunderstood,
and so difficult to really understand PROPERLY.
But I especially dislike THESE lessons being used TODAY – at this time of year! That’s
because their appearance, here, is testimony to another tendency I’ve mentioned
before that seems to me not very helpful or even healthy; the tendency to dwell
overmuch on SIN, on the dire CONSEQUENCES of sin, and on repentance, and – given
the misunderstandings of these writings – to intrude those themes where they don’t
belong.
I’ve spoken to you about the tendency many times, before – the one that most of us
were raised with; the one that, back in the old 1928 Prayer Book, had us going
through the Pre-Lenten period of Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima,
complete with Purple Vestments and Hangings, and the elimination of the “Alleluias”,
because, apparently, six-and-a-half weeks of Lent wasn’t enough penance for our
predecessors!
And so it was with Advent, as well. Advent has never been as heavily a penitential
season as Lent, but Penitential it has been. These lessons occurring this week – and
next week’s lessons, as well, by the way – are an example of the same phenomenon
at work: leftovers of an earlier time, extending the once-penitential season that
begins in two Sundays into the season before it! And we don’t need it!
Sin is, indeed, a part of human life; a reality that has to be recognized and dealt with.
And sin has consequences – real and distasteful consequences. Repentance – as
our response to the knowledge, the realization of sin – is important, too – indeed,
vital. Repentance is the “turning again” that we go through each time that we realize
we have wandered from the path we are called to follow – that path that leads to the
“mark”, the “target” of our wholeness – the person God has created us to become.
When we wander from the path, when we “hamartia”, when we sin, then we must turn
again to the path – to the mark – in repentance. These things are and should be a
part of every Christian life.
But within limits! And in proportion!
Jesus’ did NOT come to condemn us for our sinfulness. He did NOT come to tell us
how terrible we are. He did NOT come to “rub our noses” in our depravity.
Jesus came to OVERCOME sin – and Jesus came to proclaim recovery from sin, and
FOREGIVENESS!
Jesus’ forerunner John’s message was, indeed, one of doom and gloom, and so
offensive was it – and he – that he was murdered by the powerful people he had
offended.
JESUS’ message, though, was one of JOY; of RENEWAL; of FREEDOM. And so
RADICAL was IT that he was hung on a cross and lifted high for all to see by power
structure, an empire and a whole way of life that he threatened!
John came to extend the message of the prophets in advance of the Savior.
JESUS came to BE the savior!
But, strangely, the message of Jesus, has not been easy to take. From the beginning,
the Church has had to fight a tendency to dwell, NOT on the Good News of God in
Christ – the forgiveness of sins and the promise of salvation – but on the message of
the forerunner, the ANNOUNCEMENT of sin, and the threat of damnation! And,
unfortunately, as I’ve pointed out to you so many times, during one of the most dismal
periods in human history – the Dark Ages – the battle was virtually lost – and the
fixations of the Church BECAME fear and repentance, rather than joy and celebration!
It’s been a long, slow struggle back. But hanging our Churches in Purple for weeks
before they should be; dropping the cry of joy, “alleluia!” from our worship weeks
early, and treating Advent as a kind of “mini-lent” were some of the last remnants of
that mistaken period. And, of course, probably the most grievous error of all – in
those penitential seasons and in the rest of the year, as well – worshipping God on
our knees, when we should have been standing, all along, before our Father’s throne!
None of which would be worth mentioning if it weren’t that the “mistake” goes
beyond worship and the calendar, to affect our very lives. So many Christians go
through their lives as if they were picking their way through a minefield – so fearful
are they that they might do something “BAD” – rather than rejoicing in the gift of
salvation won for us all in Christ Jesus, and living lives, instead, of joy and
thanksgiving, reveling in the goodness of the world God has given us, and basking
in the light of his love.
In two weeks, we will begin the season of Advent. The Church USED to observe
Advent as a penitential season, though not quite as rigorous a penitential season as
Lent. But we have now returned to something more like the origins of Advent in the
Church’s worship, with an emphasis, not so much on sin and repentance, but on
expectation: the expectation the world felt, as it awaited the first coming of Christ;
the expectation Christians should feel each time they invite Christ to enter into their
lives; the expectation we all must feel – and respond to – as we look for Christ’s
SECOND coming!
In that expectation and anticipation there is a place to examine the hold sin has in
our lives, the extent to which we each have wandered from the Mark, certainly. And
in that expectation and anticipation there is ample room for a message of repentance
and the call to return to the Mark. And in our observance of Advent we’ll observe all
of those things.
But Advent is not here, yet. And until it arrives, I, personally, would prefer it if we
were to be too busy being joyful in the Lord – and in his priceless gifts of
forgiveness, of healing, and of freedom – to be bothered with today’s misunderstood,
misplaced, and unhelpful lessons!
In Jesus Christ’s Name. Amen.
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| Calvary Episcopal Church, Rockdale |
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