Dear St. Paul’s Family,
I rarely restate my prior Sunday’s sermon as the content for the next Mid-Week Message, but since many of you were unable to attend the service due to RAGBRAI preparations, and because the memories of last Friday’s shooting in Colorado continue to linger, I have had numerous requests for copies of the sermon. Rather than reissue the whole sermon today, I’d like to pull out just an excerpt, followed by a new addendum I’ve been pondering since Sunday.
The Scripture text, you’ll remember, was from Mark’s version of Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000. At first, when I finished my earlier manuscript last Thursday, the connection to the passage was mostly about feeding the bicycling crowds of RAGBRAI. But that perspective shifted dramatically, literally overnight, as we awoke on Friday morning. At once, the crowds in Mark’s feeding story took on new meaning:
We know two things about the crowds in the story: they were numerous, and they were starving. But Mark would remind us that Jesus perceived one more characteristic of the crowd, even deeper than their number and their hunger. He detected a deeper pain, a spiritual and emotional anguish in their lives. He said they were like sheep without a shepherd.
They didn’t just need a meal, they also needed direction. Guidance. Like sheep, they were prone to being lost and confused amid the dangers and snares all around them, and they were seeking a refuge from all that was closing in on them. Jesus knew that if he didn’t help these people, they would surely suffer a serious fate, and so Mark tells us that he had one chief emotional response to them: compassion.
That word “compassion” has multifaceted meaning. The Greek word there is splagchnizomai, which is derived from the Greek word for “gut,” “bowels,” and “abdomen.” The splanchnic nerve, for example, connects to our diaphragm and controls our breathing. Truly, what Jesus felt for these people, and what Jesus feels for all of us, is not pity, or empathy, or sadness, but a gut-wrenching concern. Something that gnawed at him, eating away at him from the inside out, right to his core, even his diaphragm, such that helping needy people like us comes as naturally and as urgently to him as the act of breathing.
In the wake of all these tragedies, it is natural to ask, “Doesn’t God care?” Where was God when the gunman opened fire in Aurora? Doesn’t God care about those missing girls in Evansdale, Iowa? Why won’t God send the rains to us in the midst of this drought? Where is God in the midst of my pain, and why doesn’t God care?
This Scripture is a reminder to us that in all things great and small, God indeed does care. God does not overlook our sorrows. God chooses to dwell among us in the midst of them.
GOD’S DIFFERENT KIND OF POWER
The timing of the events of the past few days coincides with my completion of one of the books on my summer reading list, What Shall We Say? by Thomas Long. Dr. Long is a professor of preaching at Candler School of Theology, and his latest book tackles the timeless question of God’s relationship to suffering and evil.
Among his conclusions is a contention that God is much more than a compassionate, caring, and comforting presence. God is, in fact, much more powerful and proactive against evil, rather than simply a passive nurturer. The caveat, however, is that God’s power exists in a way that we neither expect or demand. The fact that God does not stop a spray of bullets from hitting innocent theater goers does not disprove the existence of God. It merely disproves the kind of power that we would want God to have.
Instead, God operates in a way that is more subversive and more mysterious than our expectations, but is no less effective in the battle against evil. Rather than using coercive, intrusive means, God works through the power of a cross, revealed in a person named Jesus, evident through the words of the gospel.
In short, God possesses a power that is greater than our needs, because it is weaker than our expectations:
God came in tremendous power, but power consistent with the power of the God made known in Jesus Christ, power in the form of loving weakness. God’s power was not a sword dividing good from evil; God’s power was a mustard seed cast into a garden furrow, a small dash of yeast poured into an overwhelming volume of flour from the hand of an unnoticed woman. It is seemingly weak, insignificant, and hidden, and yet this power of love works inexorably to vanquish all evil. It is so unlike human exercises of power that we don’t know how to see it, can hardly recognize it. God’s power is so hidden, so disguised in weakness, that we despair that God is at work to combat evil at all. We lose faith in God because we have forgotten that “power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) Here it is important to keep in view the image of God as a warrior – a warrior waging love, to be sure, but a warrior nonetheless. [1]
A DEFIANT ALLELUIA
Christian traditions in the Western world consider it incorrect to include the word “Alleluia” (literally, “Praise the Lord!”) in the liturgies and hymns of Lent. It is a supposed to be a season of sobriety and somber suffering, after all, thus demanding a removal of expressions of joy.
This is not the case, however, for Christians in the Eastern Orthodox Church. They not only choose to sing “Alleluia” during Lent, but they offer a distinct series of daily liturgies proclaiming it. They would remind us, after all, that biblical instances of Alleluia are most concentrated in two places in the Bible where suffering and misery are most prevalent.
The first is in the Psalms, specifically chapters 113-118 and 146-150, in which Hallelu Yah is translated “Praise the Lord.” Here, the psalmists remind the people of God of the various ways that God has conquered oppression, illness, affliction, slavery, and distress. In other words, God has entered right into the midst of human suffering and vanquished it. The second is in Revelation, in which Alleluia occurs four times. In this context, first century Christians are reminded to sing joyfully of God’s power, even in the presence of intense persecutions by the Roman empire. The biblical evidence is clear: we are to sing of God’s power in the face of tragedy, not as a denial of evil’s existence, but in confidence of God’s power to overcome it.
The Christian witness to human suffering is a “defiant alleluia.” It boldly and publicly worships a God who will not tolerate the presence of evil, and wages war with love. [2] Our declaration of praise to this God is neither a naïve ignorance of the realities of injustice, or a warped, egocentric projection of a God who obeys our every beck and call. Instead, we praise God because God’s power is as supreme as it is subversive. It is mighty, yet it is mysterious. Therefore, we can be comforted, and ultimately defiant, in the face of evil in the world.
Grace and Peace,
Magrey
The Rev. Magrey R. deVega
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
531 W. Main St.
Cherokee, IA 51012
Ph: 712-225-3955
Email: mdevega@sp-umc.org
[1] What Shall We Say? Evil, Suffering, and the Crisis of Faith by Thomas Long. Eerdmans Publishing, 2011. Page 150
[2] Credit for the wonderful phrase “defiant alleluia” goes to Nadia Bolz Weber, from her recent blog post: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber/2012/07/sermon-about-mary-magdalen-the-masacre-in-our-town-and-defiant-alleluias/
AN AMAZING RAGBRAI
Words cannot express how impressed and proud I am of the way you all stepped up and served the massive crowds from last Sunday’s RAGBRAI event. Between our two feeding sites, you served over 1,000 hungry, exhausted bicyclists, with a diligence and grace that earned kudos from many visitors. We heard so many wonderful compliments from grateful riders, including one who said that he only goes to the Methodist churches for food, because “they’re the best!” Thanks especially to the coordinators of both feeding sites: Sherry Held, Jenny Burroughs, and John Cook, and thanks to all of you who contributed hours and hours (and hours!) of tireless service. Well done!
COWBOY OASIS SURPLUS SALE
We have some surplus food items from our Cowboy Oasis available for purchase, at cost, from the church office. A package of ten rib-eye steaks costs $25.00 (we have only a handful of packages left.), and a dozen ears of corn costs $4 (ten one-dozen bags in the refrigerator by the office. We have a few dozen assorted quart bottles of Powerade (75 cents each) and (24 bottle) cases of water are also available at $4 per case. Come to the church office and check out the temporary refrigerator/freezer inside the main entrance, as well as the table in the hallway in front of the Library. Make checks payable to St. Paul's.
MAGREY OUT OF TOWN
I and the two girls are visiting Mt. Rushmore for a few days, and will be back Friday afternoon in time to perform a wedding this weekend. Andrea also heads out of town on Tuesday for vacation time up north. Volunteers will be serving a few hours a day this week to answer phones and take messages. In the event of an emergency, please contact the church office, or correspond with me by email.
BATHROOM RENOVATION
The Trustees of the church have authorized a new renovation project in the main floor bathrooms on the north entrance. There is available personnel and funding to replace the floor, fixtures, lighting, countertops, and doors, and provide the possibility of future restroom expansion into the chapel if the congregation decides to do so at a future time. Renovation will begin this Tuesday and will be completed by the time we are back in the sanctuary.
A PRAYER FOR OUR FARMERS
During this extended period of heat and drought, I invite you to offer a prayer on behalf of our farmers, both locally and across the country. You may wish to use this Catholic prayer as a guide: "O God, in Whom we live and move, and have our being, grant us rain, in due abundance, that, being sufficiently helped with the temporal, we may the more confidently seek after eternal gifts. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen." (from the Roman Catholic Rural Life Conference. A prayer in honor of St. Isidore, the patron saint of farmers.)
THIS SUNDAY
We will conclude our sermon series from Mark’s gospel with the story of Jesus walking on water. We will also experience the beautiful praise music of David and Judi Klee. Come and join us, and bring a friend!
No comments:
Post a Comment