October 30, 2011
20 Pentecost (Proper 26), Year A
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
I looked back and saw that today will be only the third time in my five years of preaching that I’ve preached from the Epistle reading (the reading that comes between the Old Testament and the Gospel readings). I’m generally much more attracted to the stories and characters that we find in the Old Testament and Gospel stories, so that’s part of the reason. But it also has a lot to do with Paul, who we have to thank (or blame, depending on your perspective) for so many of our Epistle readings. I find him wordy and preachy. Plus there are all those offensive pieces, like the bit about how women should submit to their husbands, and how women shouldn’t teach or speak or wear pearls or braid their hair in church. (When I was in seminary, I had great fun foiling Paul by braiding my hair and wearing pearls to read that lesson during morning chapel.)
Our reading this morning from Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians doesn’t sit well with me either. The first lines are far and beyond the worst passive aggression any mother ever used. “We labored and toiled night and day because we didn’t want to burden any of you….” But at least the creators of the lectionary had the good sense to cut it off before the verse that comes right after this piece, where Paul writes about God’s wrath for the Jews, who killed Jesus and the prophets.
Sometimes I have trouble hearing God’s word in Paul’s writing because I get stuck in all those parts that I find offensive. And yet, even I cannot dispute how much Paul did to spread the Gospel. How completely he devoted himself to God. And how many truly wonderful and inspirational nuggets come out of his letters. Like that love bit you hear at most weddings. Sometimes we have to separate the wheat and the chaff, I guess.
But all that really just proves the point of the one line in here that I really do like. Paul writes: “When you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers.”
It’s a long and wordy sentence badly in need of a good editor, of course. But it breaks down into what I think are 3 great pieces.
First, the word of God comes to us through other people – through human words and action. Very rarely is our experience like that of Moses where we meet God on the mountaintop and hear God’s words face to face. Every once in a while we might be lucky enough to feel like God is speaking to us directly, but the vast majority of our encounters with God come through other people. Through other people who are flawed and imperfect, just like us, but who can be the hands and feet and mouth of God nonetheless. There might be people that rub me the wrong way but that doesn’t stop them from being children of God capable of spreading the Word of God. Just like there might be pieces of the Bible that I’m not a big fan of, but that doesn’t stop the Bible as a whole from being the Word of God.
My list of the people who have formed me, knowingly or unknowingly, is a long one – yours probably is, too. Some of mine are family members, like my grandmother who worked so hard to instill faith in us, and my dad who modeled it, and my children who every once in a while startle me with their insights. Some have been friends, like Margaret in college who was so filled with joy, and Glenn and Curt in law school who challenged me to really think about what I believe in order to disagree with them more convincingly, and so many of you here that I’ve learned from over the years. And some are total strangers. People that I see acting more kindly that I’d ever be able to in a certain situation, people showing integrity in the most horrific situations, people who don’t even know that anyone is paying attention.
So the Word of God often comes through human word or example … and then we receive it. That’s the second great insight I hear in Paul’s long and complicated sentence. We don’t earn the Word of God. We don’t somehow achieve it. It’s a gift that we receive.
When I was in seminary, Archbishop Desmond Tutu came to speak. If you’ve never seen him, he’s a wonderful speaker. He’s a fairly small man, but has a huge presence. He speaks with his hands, so lots of big gestures. And he exudes joy – his whole face is a smile. Anyway, Archbishop Tutu talked about his image of God holding all of us as something precious and fragile in the palm of his hands. We exist, he said, only because God is blowing God’s breath into our being. Without that breath of God, we would disintegrate into the nothingness, into oblivion. But God’s breath is continually saying to us, “I love you. Your being is gift. I breathe into you and hold you as something precious.”
Of course, like any good gift, it gets better with use. The gift gets better and reaches further the more we open our minds and hearts and hands to take it in and let it start working on us. Which leads to the third piece I like from this bit from Paul -- God’s Word is at work in us too. It isn’t just the gung ho, sometimes over-the-top, saintly kind of people that have God working in them. When we are open to receiving the Word, God becomes part of our reality and enables us to join in bringing the reign of God into being too.
I find that comforting as a preacher. You may not like my sermon examples, you might think my sermons are too wordy or too sentimental or just plain boring, but God can still work through them to get to you. And I find it comforting as a pastor when I’m with people that are sick or in pain. I might not find just the right words to say, my prayers might not be terribly elegant. But God is somehow there in those words and in those prayers and in my very presence. I find it comforting as a parent, too. I might not always be the most patient or the most creative or have the best answers, but God can still work through me to give my children a glimpse of what God’s love is like. I think it works like that in everything we do, everywhere we are and no matter who we’re with. We hear and receive the Word of God and then we become part of its source so that it continues flowing through us into everything we do.
So thank you, Paul, for helping me see beyond you to God working in and through you. Helping me to find our God who becomes known not in the abstract but on the ground, in the midst of our messy, complicated and imperfect lives. Amen.
20 Pentecost (Proper 26), Year A
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
I looked back and saw that today will be only the third time in my five years of preaching that I’ve preached from the Epistle reading (the reading that comes between the Old Testament and the Gospel readings). I’m generally much more attracted to the stories and characters that we find in the Old Testament and Gospel stories, so that’s part of the reason. But it also has a lot to do with Paul, who we have to thank (or blame, depending on your perspective) for so many of our Epistle readings. I find him wordy and preachy. Plus there are all those offensive pieces, like the bit about how women should submit to their husbands, and how women shouldn’t teach or speak or wear pearls or braid their hair in church. (When I was in seminary, I had great fun foiling Paul by braiding my hair and wearing pearls to read that lesson during morning chapel.)
Our reading this morning from Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians doesn’t sit well with me either. The first lines are far and beyond the worst passive aggression any mother ever used. “We labored and toiled night and day because we didn’t want to burden any of you….” But at least the creators of the lectionary had the good sense to cut it off before the verse that comes right after this piece, where Paul writes about God’s wrath for the Jews, who killed Jesus and the prophets.
Sometimes I have trouble hearing God’s word in Paul’s writing because I get stuck in all those parts that I find offensive. And yet, even I cannot dispute how much Paul did to spread the Gospel. How completely he devoted himself to God. And how many truly wonderful and inspirational nuggets come out of his letters. Like that love bit you hear at most weddings. Sometimes we have to separate the wheat and the chaff, I guess.
But all that really just proves the point of the one line in here that I really do like. Paul writes: “When you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers.”
It’s a long and wordy sentence badly in need of a good editor, of course. But it breaks down into what I think are 3 great pieces.
First, the word of God comes to us through other people – through human words and action. Very rarely is our experience like that of Moses where we meet God on the mountaintop and hear God’s words face to face. Every once in a while we might be lucky enough to feel like God is speaking to us directly, but the vast majority of our encounters with God come through other people. Through other people who are flawed and imperfect, just like us, but who can be the hands and feet and mouth of God nonetheless. There might be people that rub me the wrong way but that doesn’t stop them from being children of God capable of spreading the Word of God. Just like there might be pieces of the Bible that I’m not a big fan of, but that doesn’t stop the Bible as a whole from being the Word of God.
My list of the people who have formed me, knowingly or unknowingly, is a long one – yours probably is, too. Some of mine are family members, like my grandmother who worked so hard to instill faith in us, and my dad who modeled it, and my children who every once in a while startle me with their insights. Some have been friends, like Margaret in college who was so filled with joy, and Glenn and Curt in law school who challenged me to really think about what I believe in order to disagree with them more convincingly, and so many of you here that I’ve learned from over the years. And some are total strangers. People that I see acting more kindly that I’d ever be able to in a certain situation, people showing integrity in the most horrific situations, people who don’t even know that anyone is paying attention.
So the Word of God often comes through human word or example … and then we receive it. That’s the second great insight I hear in Paul’s long and complicated sentence. We don’t earn the Word of God. We don’t somehow achieve it. It’s a gift that we receive.
When I was in seminary, Archbishop Desmond Tutu came to speak. If you’ve never seen him, he’s a wonderful speaker. He’s a fairly small man, but has a huge presence. He speaks with his hands, so lots of big gestures. And he exudes joy – his whole face is a smile. Anyway, Archbishop Tutu talked about his image of God holding all of us as something precious and fragile in the palm of his hands. We exist, he said, only because God is blowing God’s breath into our being. Without that breath of God, we would disintegrate into the nothingness, into oblivion. But God’s breath is continually saying to us, “I love you. Your being is gift. I breathe into you and hold you as something precious.”
Of course, like any good gift, it gets better with use. The gift gets better and reaches further the more we open our minds and hearts and hands to take it in and let it start working on us. Which leads to the third piece I like from this bit from Paul -- God’s Word is at work in us too. It isn’t just the gung ho, sometimes over-the-top, saintly kind of people that have God working in them. When we are open to receiving the Word, God becomes part of our reality and enables us to join in bringing the reign of God into being too.
I find that comforting as a preacher. You may not like my sermon examples, you might think my sermons are too wordy or too sentimental or just plain boring, but God can still work through them to get to you. And I find it comforting as a pastor when I’m with people that are sick or in pain. I might not find just the right words to say, my prayers might not be terribly elegant. But God is somehow there in those words and in those prayers and in my very presence. I find it comforting as a parent, too. I might not always be the most patient or the most creative or have the best answers, but God can still work through me to give my children a glimpse of what God’s love is like. I think it works like that in everything we do, everywhere we are and no matter who we’re with. We hear and receive the Word of God and then we become part of its source so that it continues flowing through us into everything we do.
So thank you, Paul, for helping me see beyond you to God working in and through you. Helping me to find our God who becomes known not in the abstract but on the ground, in the midst of our messy, complicated and imperfect lives. Amen.
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