Romans 1:16-17 – “Yes, We Can!” – May 19, 2019

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It’s hard to know where to begin with Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, better known as Romans. On one hand, it is his most sophisticated articulation of his theology, written late in his ministry after refining his message with years of active missionary work. It also probably influenced the Protestant Reformation more than any other single book of the Bible with its emphasis on salvation by faith alone.

On the other hand, Romans can be a daunting read as Paul takes a deep dive into human sinfulness and the nuances of faith with somewhat esoteric arguments based on assumptions we might not have. Further, anyone who has been a victim of anti-gay teaching and preaching in the church may know that just a bit further on in this same first chapter of Romans, we find a passage that has been and is still used repeatedly to bludgeon, shame, and exclude LGBTQ people. And though we can accurately state that Paul did not have a modern understanding of sexual orientation or knowledge of same-gender romantic relationships that were based on love, it is also probably fair to say that even if he had that knowledge, he would have come to the same conclusions as he did. In fact, that particular passage from Romans 1 is one of the passages that led me in my own journey to conclude there are some things in the Bible that do not reflect God’s will for us today, but instead reflect the biases and prejudices of the flawed, sinful people God used to write the Bible. And though the line between the author’s prejudice and God’s will is not always clear, we as modern people of faith have the responsibility to try to figure out which is which.

Matthew 22:1-14 – “Reflections on Divine Judgement” – March 24, 2019

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Until today, as we have been reading from Matthew’s gospel, we have managed to avoid people being thrown “into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” But, we can avoid it no longer. Matthew is actually very fond of this concept. He uses the phrase six times in his Gospel. By comparison, Luke uses it once. Mark and John don’t use it at all.

The Gospel of Matthew is known for its emphasis on divine judgment and punishment and we have now entered into a section of the Gospel where it comes up more often.

Sermon – “Bringing Our Present Into God’s Future” – January 28, 2019

In the first Back to Future movie Marty McFly uses a time machine created from a Delorean to travel from 1985 to 1955 which is before he was born and just before the time his parents met. But, somehow back in 1955 Marty interferes with his parents’ first meeting and therefore jeopardizes his own existence. Then he has to go through all kinds of adventures to get his parents to meet, fall in love, and thereby save himself from existential obliteration in the future which in the movie is the present and in the present which in the movie is the past. In the first sequel Bif, the villain goes back in time to give his younger self, a sports almanac that allows younger Bif to become incredibly wealthy betting on sports which causes the future to become dystopian since Bif is a total jerk. Now Marty has to go back in time to keep old Bif from giving young Bif the almanac and thereby saving the future.

Genesis 1:26-30 – “Faith and Veganism” – August 27, 2017

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Genesis 1:20-23 – “Diving Deep and Flying High” – August 20, 2017

We are invited by God to dive deep like the creatures of the sea. We are invited by God to soar high like the creatures of the air. I know that is quite an interpretive and metaphorical leap to take with this passage. But, there isn’t much else to do with it. “On Day 5 God made birds and fish.

We could talk about the structural organization of the 7 days of creation and how the creative activities on Days 1, 2 and 3 line up perfectly with the creative activities on Days 4, 5 and 6. That is very interesting, but what kind of application does that have for us today?

We could also talk about the abundance of animals described in Day 5. The great flocks of birds to fill the sky and the swarms of fish in the sea. We could use that as a reminder of the original abundance of creation, and how we are called to preserve and even restore that abundance. That’s a really good message, but I’ve talked a few times already in this sermon series about the importance of creation care and I will touch on it some more next week.

So, today I’m going to metaphorically dive in, or interpretively take off, and say that Day 5 of creation invites us to dive deep like the creatures of the sea–diving below the surface of our normal consciousness–and to fly high through faith like the birds of the air.

Exodus 12:1-3 – “Black Lives Matter and Communion” – October 2, 2016

There is a vigorous debate happening in American society right now between people who say that “black lives matter” and people who say that “all lives matter.” I think most of you know the reasoning behind both statements. “All lives matter” is actually a response to “black lives matter.” People who want to say “all lives matter” point out that in fact all life is important. It doesn’t matter what color you are, your life is important. Your life matters.

Black Lives Matter advocates actually agree with this, but point out that in reality black lives in our country are valued less than white lives. Black lives are clearly valued less by the criminal justice system at every step of the process, from being stopped by the police, to use of lethal and non-lethal force by the police, to conviction and incarceration rates. Black lives are valued less in the education system when schools with mostly black children have fewer resources than schools with mostly white children. Black lives are valued less in the workplace when people with black sounding names can’t even get an interview. Black Lives Matter advocates say that it is true that all lives should matter the same, but in American society all lives don’t matter same. Black lives are devalued so it must be said that “black lives matter”.

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 – August 11, 2013

Presbyterians recently made a little news. The biggest organization to pick up the story was USA Today followed by stories in smaller papers, the Huffington Post and Glenn Beck’s online blog. Unfortunately, the story was not about Presbyterians doing high-risk mission work or taking a prophetic position on today’s social topics.

It concerned the newly published Presbyterian hymnal—about a contemporary song that has been left out. The song is called “In Christ Alone,” not an old hymn, as we might expect there to be some interest in an old favorite getting left out. But this excluded hymn was first published in 2002 and apparently is so popular among many of today’s Christians that its absence is noteworthy. More important is the reason it was left out, which is also what makes it newsworthy.

The committee who is putting together the new hymnal had concerns about a particular phrase in the hymn, “Till on the cross as Jesus died the wrath of God was satisfied.” It is a traditional theological view of what happened on the cross when Jesus died. The idea is that when Adam and Eve sinned they broke God’s law. Since they were human and God was God, there was no way they could make that up to God. They broke God’s perfect law and they couldn’t fix it. In fact, even their death could not make it better. The only way for God’s justice to be satisfied would be for a perfect human being to die. According to this particular traditional theology, that’s where Jesus comes in. The technical term is substitutionary atonement. Jesus substituted himself for us and satisfied God’s need for someone to die.

Significant problems arise with this understanding of the crucifixion. For instance, didn’t God know that the human beings God created would not be able to obey a perfect law? Doesn’t God love human beings like a parent? If so, what parent would need to kill her children when they make a mistake? How is it really justice for someone else to be punished on your behalf anyway? And if Jesus is God, how does God dying satisfy God’s wrath? And these questions could go on. The hymnal committee felt that there were enough problems with this doctrine of substitutionary atonement that they asked the authors of the hymn if they could substitute another line for the one in question. So instead of “Till on the cross as Jesus died the wrath of God was satisfied”, they wanted to sing, “Till on the cross as Jesus died the love of God was magnified.” These words they felt would express that the love of God was made greater in the willingness of Jesus to give of himself for others. And if Jesus is God, then the crucifixion shows that God is willing to give everything of Godself for humanity. There are still issues and questions. Going back to the parental metaphor, why does anybody need to die when a child messes up? But, still, the committee thought the alternate wording presented less theological problems so they asked the authors of the hymn for permission to change the words in the new Presbyterian hymnal. The authors of the hymn said, “No.”

Then the committee had to decide whether to leave the hymn in the hymnal or leave it out. They decided to leave it out. The chatter on the blogosphere centers around the question of whether this demonstrates that there is no place for God’s wrath in mainline Christianity. It is newsworthy because apparently a lot of people think it is very important for God to be wrathful. And most of these people I imagine, believe that they are immune to God’s wrath because they believe in Jesus. But, everyone else is in big trouble with God and that is really important to their view.

To be fair, the Biblical God is often expressed as wrathful in both the Old and New Testaments. God is also expressed as loving and forgiving in both testaments but, to reiterate, God’s wrath is plentiful. For instance, it comes up clearly in our reading this morning. The prophet Isaiah starts out by bringing up the quintessential expression of God’s wrath by calling his readers, “people of Sodom and Gomorrah.” By the way, this reference in Isaiah to Sodom and Gomorrah is one of several places in the Bible where the destruction of those cities is connected to their social injustice and not to their sexual immorality. After calling his readers the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, Isaiah then quotes God as saying things like “I cannot endure your solemn assemblies” and “your appointed festivals my soul hates” and “when you stretch out your hand I will hide my eyes from you” and finally, “if you refuse and rebel you shall be devoured by the sword.”

Ironically, considering that we are talking about a hymn or a worship song, the thing that has Isaiah’s God so angry is the way the people worship. God is sick and tired of worship services being enacted by people who do not “seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan and plead for the widow.” Isaiah’s God is angry because people are coming to worship and going through the motions but they are not acting justly in their daily lives outside of worship.

Isaiah’s God is losing patience with festivals, sacrifices and convocations.
Eugene Peterson in his translation of the Bible interprets the same passage for today with these words:
“Quit your worship charades.
I can’t stand your trivial religious games:
Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—
meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more!
Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!
You’ve worn me out!
I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion,
while you go right on sinning.
When you put on your next prayer-performance,
I’ll be looking the other way.
No matter how long or loud or often you pray,
I’ll not be listening.
And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing
people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.”

Peterson is eloquent and convicting. But, I think he lets us off easy by focusing on the meetings and business stuff. I think Isaiah’s God is focusing on worship. I, Tom Harris, interpret the passage more like this:
“I’m sick of all your hymn singing.
The band and the pipe organ are hurting my ears.
And the sermons make me want to throw up.
Your offerings are pathetic and I don’t want them anymore.
Why? Because you are a bunch of hypocrites.
You come to church to be better people,
but you never actually get any better.
Get out of here and come back when you know how to treat each other.
If you can’t straighten up,
you won’t be around to sing a hymn anymore anyway.”

And so it is ironic that this mini-controversy in the news is about God’s wrath being left out of a hymn when, according to Isaiah, it is not the words we sing but the justice we fail to enact that earns us God’s wrath. Because what matters is not the words we sing or say inside the church but the justice and righteousness that we enact outside these walls.

That may raise the question, what are we doing here? Why do we bother to come to worship if it doesn’t please God and even perhaps makes God angry? The answer may be that Sunday community worship is not for God; it is for us. We come here because we think that listening to the Bible and hearing a message about it and singing together and praying together will empower us to live better. We think it will encourage us to go out and keeping fighting the good fight. We think it will teach us to love better. We think it will be a place to practice that love in a controlled environment. And maybe coming here will do all that.

But, we should not let the idea surreptitiously slip into our heads that because we are here God is happy with us and, by inference, God is not so happy with people who are not here. Apparently, God doesn’t care where you are. God is happy when people anywhere “learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan and plead for the widow.” God is happy when people act justly. When we give up our power and share with the powerless in every relationship from interpersonal to global, from face-to-face to Internet, from acquaintances to family, God is pleased and wants us to continue to share power and love each other. And if we can’t do that, then no amount of singing or prayer or preaching will matter.

The hopeful part of the Isaiah passage (verse 16) is also one of the most theologically interesting. It says, “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my sight, cease to do evil.” This is theologically interesting because, unlike St. Augustine or John Calvin or other church fathers, Isaiah does not seem to believe that God is going to do these things for us. Just because we believe in Jesus, God is not going to come in and wash us and clean us up and remove evil from us and send us on our way as good and moral people. God wants us to do it ourselves and apparently believes we can. Whereas St. Augustine would say that we are incapable of doing good because of our sin and only through God’s grace and power can we do anything. Isaiah says, “get up and do it. Make the changes in your life. Figure out where you can be more just and good and start being more just and good. You can do it, so get out there and do it.” So, don’t think that a well-sung hymn or an earnest prayer or hearing a great sermon is going to please God. According to Isaiah, God wants right actions and right living out in the world and God believes we can do it.