February 28, 2016
Lent 3
Isaiah 55:1-9
1st Corinthians 10:1-13
(prayer)
As I read through the two
readings for this morning, I am struck how they seem to be sending a mixed message.
·
1st
Corinthians:
be very careful not to fail tests of faith, or else you will get what you
deserve; earn your path out of
trouble...
·
Isaiah: come and share in the
goodness, even (especially) if you don’t think you deserve it or have earned
it...
//
Then again, Corinthians
does profess that we will always have the means necessary to endure whatever
difficulties come our way: God will not
let you be tested beyond your strength... God will provide you a path to endure
the testing.
//
I must admit that I am very
careful with the modern context in which I quote this passage from first
corinthians chapter ten. I get what Paul
was saying and who he was saying it to.
But simply quoting his words out
of context can present an unintended view of God.
In spite of the title we
give to the letter, this was not the "first" time Paul was
communicating with the young church in Corinth.
First Corinthians is not even
the first letter Paul wrote to the corinthians
(see 1st Corinthians 5:9).
My point is... that the
passage from today is part of a conversation among people who already have
established a relationship with each other.
They have earned a certain mutual respect to be able to say challenging
things to each other. The had a
significant understanding of each other that pre-determined what was being
written in the letter we call First
Corinthians.
So, when Paul speaks about
the faith of the people being challenged by their particular life and
circumstances, he understands what they are going through. And he is able to bring in his experience
with people in other places to add some clarity to the corinthians' situation.
Verse 13: [what
you are going through] is common.
In other words: you are not
alone. God has been with others going
through similar trials... and God is with you too.
//
As, I said, I am cautious
about quoting this passage in new contexts where people's faith is challenged
because to say "every body has problems" can come off as sounding
dismissive.
I know (from my own
experience of being down in the dumps
about something) that learning that "others might have similar
problems too" doesn't necessarily
make me feel any better. In fact, it can
have the opposite effect of support, making me feel guilty for even sharing my
problems.
//
I am especially cautious
about just throwing out the phrase "God
will not let you be tested beyond your strength" or other ways of
saying the same thing. For example, if
someone asks: Why did God let this happen to me? And I respond with: God allowed you to experience this
difficulty because God knew you were strong enough to handle it. What message am I sending about God?
I will never forget talking
with a parent who was grieving the tragic death of their child. Some well-meaning friend had tried to offer
comfort by quoting 1st Corinthians. The parent'
tearful lament to me was "if only I had been weaker, my child would still
be alive."
So sad.
If I believed that this was what Paul meant, I would not pray for strength and
courage, I would pray for weakness and fear.
Why be strong if it only results in facing harder challenges.
If our strength is a factor
that pre-dictates the level of challenges we will face, why would anyone want
to be strong?
I simply do not believe
that God doles out suffering in a proportion to our ability to handle it.
My belief is... that it is
not a failure to become overwhelmed with life.
And I will not judge anyone's character as weak when times get tough and
they are questioning what they believe about God and faith.
Maybe Paul was playing a bit of a judgement trip
with the church's complaints about their situation, but the actual thesis of that
part of the letter was not about the people's faith and commitment, but about
God's steadfastness.
In the end, Paul was
saying... in spite of our success or failure, in spite
of our weakness or strength, in spite of our
current level of doubt, fear or faith, God is committed to being with
us, among us, loving us.
For me, that is how I hear
the final words of the corinthian passage - the "way out" that God
provides is a promise that God will not abandon us. Enduring a difficult time, does not mean triumphing
over it, but moving into a future that holds us, supports us and encourages us
to hang on to that will sustain us and bring us deeper peace.
//
I hope we can focus our
attention to that end-point of the corinthian passage rather than the guilt
trip implied in "you don't want to fail the tests to your faith by
forgetting about the rock that Christ is in their life.
God is generous with a holy
presence - even (especially) in times of difficulty and challenge.
//
//
Let's think about that from
the point of view in the reading from Isaiah 55. The original audience to those words were a people living in exile six centuries before
Jesus' time: forcibly deported from their homeland at the whim of the imperial
power of the day.
They were struggling to
maintain a national identity while trying to scratch out a basic subsistence on
foreign soil.
Food and faith must have
been scarce. And into that world, the
prophet speaks: come eat and drink a grand feast; all is provided free of charge.
The metaphor, the message,
is that, in the god of their ancestors, there is all that is needed to sustain
them.
The old rituals of worship
from before we're irrelevant in this new time.
The Jerusalem Temple was lying in ruins hundreds of kilometers away.
An old way of thinking that there was only one true place and one true
style in which to encounter God was no longer relevant. Centuries of religious practices and set
traditions were set on their ear when the deportation squads rounded people up
and shipped to the settlement camps by the Rivers
of Babylon.
Then, into a new time, a
prophet professes that God is not dead and buried in distant rubble. God is not waiting for the proper rites to be
performed. No, God is inviting the people
to know the fullest possible measure of grace - even in exile.
So, you who thirst, come to
waters. You who are hungry, come
eat. Leave your money at home. You do not have to buy God's compassion for you.
As I read this part of the
bible, I do not see the feast as being about abundance or excess or welfare,
but about a generosity that is focused on daily need to eat, drink and
celebrate life in a community of care.
It is not the people's
resources or level of faith or adherence to ancient rituals that earn them a
seat at the table. God simply
provides... with no expectation of payment (before or after the meal).
God sees the need and God
provides.
That is pretty much the
same thing Paul wrote 600 years later to early Christians in Corinth.
The divine hope is that a
generosity of God will lead to a people who desire to live out generosity as
well.
//
//
There is a gospel story of
Jesus presiding over a meal shared by thousands of people. The practical-minded desciples wanted Jesus
to dismiss the crowds so that they had time to go home to prepare and eat their
own suppers, but instead Jesus encouraged everyone to sit down.
The generosity started with
one young pilgrim who offered to share what he had: five loaves of barley bread
and two fish.
The gospel texts do not
tell us how, but as the available food was passed around, there was more than
what was needed for everyone to have their fill.
Did Jesus just make food
appear out of thin air... or was the miracle in the releasing of people's
generous natures? Surely, the
loaves-and fishes-boy was not the only who had packed a lunch.
Regardless of the facts of
that mass feeding, I believe that it is true to say... generosity is the
driving force that leads to a just abundance.
I hear that message in the
story of the feeding of the 5000 and
in Isaiah 55.
//
//
Our God is gracious.
Our God is good.
Our God is generous.
Come
be filled. God says.
It
is on me.
//
God takes the proactive
step of providing, but we are to be active as well. We are invited to come to the table, we still
have to take our seat.
We are not spoon-fed by
God, we are given a seat at the table of bounty.
//
Next week, we will hear a
story (a parable of Jesus) about a negative reaction to generosity, but you'll
have to wait to go down that road.
//
For today, I lay before us
the Grace of God. Grace is a gift. It doesn't matter if we feel we have not
earned it - grace is all about God, not us.
And I lay before us, a holy
promise that the impact of challenges and difficult circumstances do not exempt
us from the generous compassion of God.
//
At song that has spoken to me over the
years comes from my go-to spiritual folk artist from Ashville NC.
The thesis is David Wilcox's Break in the Cup is that our hearts are
like cups that have a crack in them. We
can't simply fill them once and expect it to sustain us. Like the broken cup, we need new love, new
compassion, new joy and encouragement to keep it filled. So, the secret to happiness is not to
selfishly guard what we have, but to risk finding the sources of new and
continued support. David sings:
We
cannot trade empty for empty.
We must
go to the waterfall.
For
there's a break in the cup
that
holds love inside us all.
I think that Jesus would have liked
this. He once spoke to an outlasted
woman about a source of living water that fills us eternally (see John 4).
//
We do not exist in a problem-free
world's. Life is not a utopic
paradise. People of faith have asked in
every age, why did God made us and our
world this way? Why is there pain and suffering and death?
It is an unanswerable question. None of us knows the mind of God.
But, we can point to the spiritual comfort that many have experienced and
consider the belief that God remains our companion in times of joy and sorrow.
Jesus famously said: Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is
the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who
are hungry now, for you will be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now for you will laugh (Luke 6:20-21). "Blessing" exists even in times of
difficulty. The Apostle Paul once wrote
that he was sure that there was nothing in
all creation [that] could separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
Lord (Romans 8:39).
Being aware of the holy presence in our
midst can build and strengthen faith.
I liken it to the nature of wooden
instruments. The quality of sound
produced by a violin (for example) improves the more often it is played. The wood body of the instrument is affected
by the sound waves bouncing around it.
The vibrations change the wood and actually mellows the future sounds it
will create. That is why those old well
made creations are highly sought after by the great players.
What a wonderful metaphor for life and
faith. Our lives are made better the
deeper we live. Beautiful music can
emerge from all of the practice and learning we do along the way. Even the sour notes and the disharmony serves
to strengthen our potential. Especially,
when we allow ourselves to be held by a master.
//
The promise of our scriptures today is
that God willingly inserts God's self into both the joyful and sorrowful
aspects of life. We are never
abandoned. We are not separated from the
care and compassion that created us.
Even with broken cups, we can be
filled.
Even without the means to sustain
ourselves, we are invited to share at the table of blessing.
//
Thanks be to God.
I will leave us with words of the
ancient Hebrew king, David, who was able to find a sense of God - even in the
wilderness. The first few verses of
Psalm 63:
O God,
you are my God,
I seek
you,
my soul
thirsts for you;
my
flesh faints for you,
as in a
dry and weary land
where
there is no water.
So I
have looked upon you
in the
sanctuary,
beholding
your power and glory.
Because
your steadfast love
is
better than life,
my lips
will praise you.
So I
will bless you as long as I live;
I will
lift up my hands
and
call on your name.
My soul
is satisfied
as with
a rich feast,
and my
mouth praises you
with
joyful lips
when I
think of you on my bed,
and
meditate on you
in the
watches of the night;
for you
have been my help,
and in
the shadow of your wings
I sing
for joy.
My soul
clings to you;
your
right hand upholds me.
//
We are not alone.
Thanks be to God.
//
Let us pray:
Merciful God, it is your
way to draw us back together and to you, and to enfold us in your everlasting
arms. Thank you. Amen.
#4MV “All Who Are Thirsty”
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