Great Law and Legalism

Click for Audio>Sermon: 10.23.2011

Lectionary Link

19 Pentecost, Cycle A Proper 25, October 23, 2011

Leviticus 19:1-2,15-18 Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 Matthew 22:34-46

   If I were to ask you for the comparative value of any certain laws in terms of their importance; what would you say?  All are created equal with certain unalienable rights, including Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?  Or that jaywalking is forbidden in a downtown areas?

  Which is more important?  The Bill of Rights or rules that govern dog owners and cleaning up after their dogs in the park?

  So there are some great principles of law and there are some very detailed contextual rules.  Those contextual rules are important but they cannot be given the same emphasis as the weightier principles of justice and human worth.

  Jesus and his disciples were known to flaunt in practice some of the detailed religious rules:  They ate with tax-collectors and sinners.  Jesus broke the rule of the Sabbath by healing on the Sabbath.  Jesus touched forbidden people, like lepers. Jesus did not follow the rules about segregation of men and women.   The disciples were not diligent about their hand-washing and other rules of ritual purification.

  The members of the various rival groups in Judaism had the practice of argumentation.  While the Gospels often present the interlocutors of Jesus as being antagonistic, in the original context, it was a very rabbinical thing to do to argue about matters of the law.

  When some noticed that Jesus and his disciples were perhaps a bit lax in following the minutiae of the religious law, they wanted to know from him, “Well, Jesus if you are dismissive about some of our religious practices which laws do you regard?  What is the greatest law for you?  After all, in the Torah there are 613 commandment rules; are all commandments of equal importance?”

  If there are 613 commandments, a person definitely needs a religious specialist to keep one informed about all of the details of keeping these 613 commandments.

  Jesus was more of a populist rabbi in that he saw many people who did not and could not take advantage of the religious specialists who were so keen on regulating the lives of the people in their community.  As a populist, he was more interested in presenting the great principles and then leaving to people the task of applying these principles in the detailed events of their lives.

  What was the greatest law?  Love God with all of one’s heart and soul and mind.  And the second greatest law: Love your neighbor as yourself.

  As a populist rabbi, Jesus was encouraging people to be practical about doing their own moral thinking?  How do I determine the validity of my behavior?  Am I loving God with all of my heart?  Am I loving my neighbor as myself?

  We, religious authorities, need to have jobs and so it is important that we make ourselves important to lay people by our theological specialization and by asserting a role of mediation between lay people and God.  Then a person like Jesus comes along and abbreviates the vast complex laws to but two principles, and so encourages people to do their own moral thinking in applying great principles to the actions of their lives.  Imagine people not needing my highly refined Jesuit casuistry regarding moral actions.

  For religious leaders, the order and administration of a community of people can become a foremost priority.  A subtle switch occurs; legalism becomes the expression of administrative control and what can be lost is what is good for each person, namely, loving God and loving one’s neighbor as oneself.

  By stating the great principles of the law, Jesus was also giving people the freedom to interpret and apply them in their lives without fear of being condemned because they could not always perform all the 613 commandments in the prescribed ways.  That sort of freedom is very threatening to religious leaders who are “hung up on the administration” of their truths.  Sadly, the truth of administration of religious behavior has often become the chief feature of organized religion.  In the ascendency of legalism, the great principles can get lost.  That is why I think it is important to go back to the summary of the law as viewed by Jesus.

  Jesus came to make God, the law and the messiah accessible to people.  When religious administration creates a barrier to God, the law and the messiah, then the good news of God for people is lost.  The Gospel for us today is that God has become accessible to us through Jesus Christ.  And Jesus as the Messiah invites us to the great principles of life.  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'   Let the work of our lives be the constant effort to bring these two greatest of laws into the details of our lives.  Amen.

A Children's Sermon: God's Image Is On Us

Lectionary Link

23 Pentecost, Cycle a, Proper 24, October 16, 2011

Exodus 33:12-23  Psalm 99
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10  Matthew 22:15-22

  If I had all of the children sit on this side of the room and all of the parents sit on the other side of the room.  And then I have a stranger who did not know anyone here come into the room and look at you.  Do you think that this stranger could tell which children belonged to which parent?  And how could a stranger match you and your parents?  Because you look like your parents…you have their noses, their eyes, their hair color.  So you look like your parents.  You in some way are an image of your parents.  And so you belong together as a family.

  We’ve read a story today about some people who tried to trick Jesus about taxes.  Do you know what taxes are?  Taxes are the money that we pay to the government to pay for the army, the roads, the courts and all of the things that the government does for us.  It is a law that if we make money, we have to pay taxes.

  So some people came to Jesus and asked him if he paid taxes to the King, called the Caesar.  Jesus knew that they were trying to trick him into saying that people should not pay taxes and that would get him into trouble.

  What did Jesus do?  He taught them a lesson.  He asked them to show them a coin.  I’m going to show some of the coins that are just like the one Jesus asked for.  These coins are more than two thousand years old.  If you look carefully at these coins you can see that the head of the King called Caesar is stamped on these coins.  And these coins were used to pay taxes to the King.

  Jesus asked his questioners?  "Whose image is on this coin?"  And they said, “It’s the King’s image.”

  And Jesus said, “Then give the coins that belong to the King to him, but give to God the things that belong to God.”

  Now this was a very smart saying.  Do you know why?

  Jesus had read the book of Genesis about the creation of the world.  And in the book of Genesis it is written that men and women are created or made in the image of God.  So if men and women are made in the image of God, who do they belong to?  To God.

  Was Caesar the King a Man?  Who did he belong to?  To God, because he was made in God image.

  The most important lesson in life is to learn that we belong to God because God made us.  And how do we show that we appreciate God?  We worship God.  We praise God.  We thank God.  And obey God’s rules about how we should live.  And we are to love God and love our neighbors.  That is how we show that we belong to God and how we give the very best of our lives.

  Do we have to pay a tax to God, since we are like God’s coins?  Yes, we do pay a tax to God by loving God and loving our neighbors as our self.

  Jesus came to remind us that we are all children of God and so we need to learn to live as children of God.  Can you remember that?  Amen.

The Backside of God, the Emperor's Head and the Human Person as Icon

Lectionary Link

Click for audio>  Sermon 10.16.2011

23 Pentecost, Cycle A, Proper 24, October 16, 2011

Exodus 33:12-23  Psalm 99
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10  Matthew 22:15-22

  I am a person who probably lives in more constant personal irony than is good for anyone, but things just occur to me, as in our two lessons for today.  We have some rather strange anatomical juxtaposition:   The backside of God and the head of the Emperor.  How’s that for a sermon title:  The backside of God and the head of the Emperor?  And now you do wonder about my inclination to irony.

  The biblical representation of God is that God is a holy God.  God is such an entire other order of Being; how could we even know the existence of this other order of Being without some translation of this Holy Being into the categories of human experience?  No one has seen God at anytime; his Son has declared him.  No one can see God and live and so humanity is the proverbial moth headed towards the flame since we do not have the capacity for either the Heat or the Light of God.  Our God is an all-consuming Fire, Scriptures records.

  So how do we deal with such a holy and great God who is another order of Being incomprehensible to those who do not have the divine capacity?  How do we know that such a Being exists since if we declared God’s existence, why would anyone trust our limited knowledge of such a Being?  We are rescued from the problem of an unknowable God by the concession that there are energies and emanations from God that are perceptible to human experience and they are such enhanced perceptions that they are able to be for us an adequate proof of God’s existence.

  Moses was a great man because of his encounters with God.  He had several theophanies or encounters with God; God in the burning bush, God in the inscription of the laws on the stone tablets, and yet when it came for Moses to see God, he could not.  He was allowed to see only the energies of God; he was allowed to see the backside of God as he passed by.  Moses was like a moth that did not fly into the flame and get consumed.

  Certainly this theophany or encounter with the divine, bespeaks of what is called God’s glory.  And how is it that we human beings can be aware of God’s glory or the sublime evidence of the Divine?  We confess that there is enough of a likeness with divinity in human capacities to be able to know God who is way beyond human capacity.  If the heavens can bear or carry the glory of God, so too it is the belief in the biblical tradition that men and women can bear the glory of God.  Why do men and women bear the glory of God?  What is one of the most often used words since we have been using computers?  Icon.  In the book of Genesis, it is written that Adam or the first human being was made in the “image” of God.  The Greek word for “image” in the famous Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures is the Greek word from which we get the word “icon.”  Humanity was made to be like the “icon” of God.

  If human beings were coins, then God’s icon or image would be stamp upon us, because we belong to the one whose likeness we bear.  When a child looks like a parent, we can say that “child” belongs to the one whose image is seen in the child’s face.

   Now let us fast forward to the time of the Gospel of Matthew.  What did the writer or editors of the Gospel know?  They knew the Caesar during the ministry of Jesus?  Caesar Tiberius.  And he was the step-son of Caesar Augustus who had been elevated to the position of a god by the Roman senate.  And so what was one of the titles of Caesar Tiberius?  Tiberius was a divi filius, a son of a god.  What was the right of every Roman Emperor?  An Emperor would stamp his image or icon on the coinage as a sign of his economic power in his realm.  His image or icon on the coins was also his right to collect taxes in his empire.  What did the Gospel writers believe about Jesus Christ?  They believed that he was more than divi filius  or son of a god; they believe he was Son of God, Dei filius,  Son of the Lord God, the God of Moses. And being the Son of the God of Hebrew monotheism, he was special indeed.

  I am trying to coax you into the irony of the numismatic encounter between Jesus and the Pharisees and Herodians who were trying to stir up trouble about paying taxes to the Emperor.

  Jesus who is the exact image or icon of God as God’s Son makes a comment about the image or the icon of the Emperor Tiberius on the Roman coinage in Palestine.  And this same Caesar is one who was call divi filius or son of a god.

  Jesus said that Caesar could have all of those coins on which his image was stamped.  But let God have everyone  on whom the image of God is stamped.  And who is that?   That is all men and women, including the emperor.

  Let the emperor keep his coins but let him honor the profound image of God that is stamped upon even the emperor by virtue of his being made in the image of God.

  Do you now see all of the symbolic irony of this Gospel text?

  But there is a further faith assumption in this text?  If the Emperor really is made in God’s image and belongs to God, then the coins and all of the Emperor’s possessions also belong to God.

  There is a message of faith and stewardship for each of us in this Gospel.  We can live our lives as strutting Caesars on the stages of our little empires.  We mark the image or icons of our lives on things in our lives with possessive words like my and mine.  These clothes are mine.  This talent is mine.  This house is mine.  This church is mine.  This money is mine.  This fame and notoriety is mine.  This car is mine.  This is my time. This is my right.  This is my privacy.  This is mine…mine…mine…mine.

    We stamp our image on what we think that we possess and we create the “mine field” of our lives.  Mine…mine…mine…mine….don’t step on my mine. 

  And Jesus reminds us about our image and about derivative iconography.  “Okay, render unto you the things that are yours….but render unto God the things that are God's.”

  And there’s the catch.  Whose icon do you and I carry in our lives?  If you and I bear God’s image, we belong to God and so in a derivative sense, we are fooling ourselves every time we say “mine.” 

  Faith in Christ who is the Divine Image of God for humanity means that we learn to transform the attitude of “mine” into the attitude of “yours.”  It’s all yours, God.  And when we transform the attitude of it’s all mine, into it’s all yours, God; we will hear God say to us, “My children, it all belongs to us, because I have shared it all with you and with everyone.  Now go forth and enjoy and share what belongs to us."  

  The Gospel today invites us to get our derivative “iconography” in order so that we can be converted to know that all things belong to God and then we can know God’s conversion to us to hear God say, “It all belongs to us, now go enjoy and share.”  Amen.

Participatory Stations of the Cross for Children

This is a Stations of the Cross for Children that I wrote many years ago and have used it to involve children in this Lenten and Holy Week Devotion.  It incorporates the stewardship of environment theme as well themes of dignity of all human beings (click on the images to zoom)

Settings for the Sanctus and Our Father

Here are settings of the Sanctus and the Our Father that I wrote with Virginia R. Scott.  (click to zoom)

Prayer Beads for Children and Adults

Prayer Beads

For a Vacation Bible School Project, we developed prayer beads for children to make and some prayers for children and adults to use with the beads.  The Anglican Rosary seemed to be too many beads and so we simplified by using the week as a the basic "time" unit with days of the week and three prayer times of the day.   (click on the graphic to zoom)

A Palm Sunday Story Sermon for Children

Palm Sunday      

Story for Family Service

  Once upon a time in a village near the city of Jerusalem, the village of Bethphage; a little donkey was born in the pasture.  And that donkey was called by his owner, Shorty, because he was so tiny when he was born.

  But the donkey’s mom, called him Christopher.  When Christopher became old enough to talk to his mom, he asked her, "Why does my owner call me Shorty, even now when I've grown to be a tall and strong donkey?"  Christopher's mom said, "Well once you get a name, it sometimes just sticks and people won't let you be anything else."

  Christopher asked his mom, "Then why do you call me Christopher?"  His mom said, "Well, I'm not sure but I just had this feeling that it was the right name for you."

  Christopher looked in the other pasture and he saw a beautiful big stallion prancing around.  He saw important Roman Generals ride this beautiful horse.  And Christopher thought, "I wish that someone important would ride on my back some day.  And Christopher was a little jealous of the stallion.

  But one day something exciting happened to Christopher.  Two visitors came to the farm where Christopher was kept.  They called themselves  disciples of Jesus, and they said there was going to be a parade into the great city of Jerusalem.  They also said that they needed a donkey to carry their king.  Christopher's owner Farmer Jacob, said, "I've got two donkeys, that jennet over there and her colt that I call "Shorty."  If Jesus needs the donkeys, take them.  Jesus is my friend, he healed my son, and I owe him everything I have."

  So the two disciples took Christopher and his mom with them and they went to a place just in front of the sheep gate in Jerusalem.  There was a large crowd gathered who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover Holiday.  After waiting for about an hour, the crowd soon got excited.  Jesus arrived and it was time for the parade to start.  The people put some robes on Christopher to make a saddle for Jesus.  Christopher had never been ridden before, and he was nervous.  But Christopher's mom said, "Calm down, Jesus is the nicest man in the world.  You don't need to buck him off."

  Jesus climbed up on the back of Christopher and the parade started.  The people took some branches from some palm trees and they began to wave and shout and scream, because their superstar was there.  They followed Jesus as he was riding Christopher into the city of Jerusalem and Christopher trotted proudly through the streets.  This was the happiest day of his life.  At night, he and his mom were tied up at the house of one of the disciples in Jerusalem.  Christopher's mom was proud of him and she said, "Well now I know why I named you Christopher.  "Christopher" means, "the one who carries Christ."  And today you have carried Christ on your back, so today you have lived up to your name."  Christopher was so happy he wanted hee haw with joy.  But his happiness didn't last too long.

  He looked out on the street and he saw another parade.  In the darkness he saw a tired and naked Jesus walking with soldiers.  And the soldiers were forcing him to carry this large wooden cross on his back.  He was bleeding and he was too weak to carry the cross, so at one place they forced a man named Simon to carry the cross for Jesus.  The people who were following the soldiers were laughing and making fun of Jesus.  They were saying, "you're going to die Jesus.  You were just pretending to be a king, but you don't have any power, you're going to die Jesus."

  Christopher ran to his mom and said, "If I had known that this would happen to Jesus, I would not have brought him to Jerusalem."

  Christopher's mom said, "It is a terrible, terrible thing, but we must trust God.  Jesus is the best and nicest person who ever lived and God will take care of him."

  Well, Jesus went on to die on the cross.  And he was buried in a grave.  But the story does not end here.  Come back next week and we will tell you the end of the story.  What happened to Jesus after he died and was put in the grave?

  What was the donkey's name?  Christopher.  What does Christopher mean?  It means "The one who carries Christ."  In a way, every Christian could be called Christopher.  Because you and I are asked to carry the presence of Christ into this world by being loving and kind.  Amen.