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You shall not covet anything of your neighbor’s

Friday, November 24th, 2006

You Shall Not Covet Anything of Your Neighbor’s

French theologian Renẻ Girard writes about the 10th commandment in his book, I See Satan Fall Like Lightning: “It is not due to inflated self-love that Jesus asks us to imitate him; it is to turn us away from [covetous] rivalries.”  What is the basis for imitating Jesus?  It cannot be his ways of being or his personal habits: imitation is never about that in the Gospels. What Jesus invites us to imitate is his own desire: to resemble God the Father as much as possible….  His goal is to become the perfect image of God.  Therefore he commits all his powers to imitating his Father.

 In inviting us to imitate him, he invites us to imitate his own imitation. This invitation is more reasonable than that of our modern gurus, who ask their disciples to imitate them as the great man or woman who imitates no one.  Jesus, by contrast, invites us to do what he himself does, to become a perfect imitator of God the Father.

Why does Jesus regard the Father and himself as the perfect model for all humans?  Because neither the Father nor the Son desires greedily, egotistically.   God “makes his sun rise on the evil and the good,” and makes his rain fall on the just and the unjust.”    God gives to us without counting, without marking the difference between us.  He lets the tares grow up with the wheat until the time of harvest.  If we imitate the detached generosity of God, then the trap of [covetous] desires will never close over us.”  (pp13-14)

If one were to ask why the previous four commandments (dealing with murder, adultery, theft, and false witness) are necessary, one would have to conclude that these prohibitions are necessary because of human beings tendency to covet what a neighbor has or desires.  If one never desired the goods of one’s neighbor, the previous four commandments would never be violated.  Hmmmm.  Makes one think, at least.

Is it possible to desire only what Jesus desires, to care only about being a perfect imitation of Jesus imitating God?  I don’t know.  Paul says we are being transformed into the likeness of Christ, and that we can gain the mind of Christ. Whatever our ultimate potential in this arena, we can at least be assured that we can, with the help of power from God’s Spirit, enter a process of transformation that will move us toward that goal.

What does your journey demonstrate to you in this regard?  How has the process of transformation changed your desires?  Under what circumstances do you most struggle with covetousness?

If you are willing to share your experiences, ideas, or stories, click on reply to all and let us hear from you.

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Do Not Commit Adultery

Wednesday, November 8th, 2006

Decalogue VII:  Do Not Commit Adultery

Perhaps for many of us this is a commandment that we “blow by” either because we think it doesn’t apply to us or it is too uncomfortable to consider.  If we limit our thoughts and conversation to what we have come to understand the literal interpretation of this commandment to mean – when married you don’t have sexual relations with anyone other than your spouse- I wonder if we don’t loose sight of the extent of what this commandment is calling us to in all our relationships.  
With this in mind I have included some thoughts from Loosing Moses on the Freeway that will serve as a background for Sunday’s service.  As you read these brief excerpts notice what stands out to you about Hedge’s description of the current culture and his thoughts about love.  Consider your various relationships – marriage, family, God, friends, etc.—how do you meet the challenges to remain faithful? 
Hedges writes:

“We live in an adulterous age.  We live in an age when promises and faithfulness, the hard work of fidelity, to values, to the moral live, seem secondary to the drive to attain fleeting scraps of pleasure.”  P. 116
We live in, “A culture that urges us to grasp at momentary bits of pleasure, to indulge in sensuality for it’s own sake, encourages to believe that nothing matters.  It fosters a culture of self-worship, one that turns us away from the self-denial essential to love. . . . . When we worship human achievement or the attainment of pleasure as a final end, we live a life dedicate to self”  P.117-118
“We live in a culture fascinated with stars and celebrities.  We are exhorted to stand out from the crowd, to have others admire and envy us, to make a name for ourselves.  But this admiration, which is really self-admiration, is one that crowds out the possibility of love, for love places the beloved foremost in life, it sees us make sacrifices for the happiness of the beloved, sacrifices that dent ambition and stunt careers, sacrifices that say there are others more important than ourselves—those we love.  For love means that our deepest source of happiness comes in bringing happiness to the beloved.  This radical way of living, one in stark contrast to the siren call of self-satisfaction, one that defies the call to live for self.  It is the bulwark against the destructive power of those who, angered and alone, seek through power to destroy life.  It stymies blind ambition and greed.  It creates another way of being. “  P. 118
“Love is about the capacity to subsume ourselves for others.  Love is the most powerful force in human existence.  It allows two people to combine feelings, impulses and wishes that are focused on each other, on the beloved.  It allows couples, often with different strengths & weaknesses, to become, through the other, better people, people who bolster strengths & check failings.  There is in this love a union that creates a new way of being, a new identity.   And this love brings the lovers the life-affirming force of the divine, giving them a way to resist the powerful self-destructive forces that entice us in a comparable intensity. 

      But love is also difficult and hard.  It requires us to become vulnerable, to accept self-criticism, to put the needs of another before our own.  There is a constant struggle to fine-tune any relationship, to right the slights & wrongs that wound, to take the time for compassion and care.  But only in love does the carnal become transcendent.” P.  117
“When we are rejected, or betrayed by those we love, those we have opened ourselves to be intimate with, we taste a bit of death, the ultimate rejection of our being.  Rejection, diminishes, and has the potential to destroy us.  The only hope of renewal is forgiveness.  If we cannot forgive, if we cannot allow ourselves to be vulnerable again, we shut out the possibility of friendship and love.  And once this door is closed we become, in some sense, dead.  We die, like orphans that are not held and coddled as infants, without love.  It is as vital as water.” P. 122
 
Lynn

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You Shall Not Steal

Thursday, November 2nd, 2006

Below are some thoughts on the eighth commandment, You Shall Not Steal. Since the hebrew word and usage for “steal” has no object (just what is it that you should not steal?) some scholars believe it reads “you shall not steal persons, ” forbidding slavery. Others add: “Well, the OT concept of person extended to his property and so the commandment extends beyond slavery to possessions.” Rather than split hairs over such things I have tried to ask the broader question, how do we honor and celebrate the fruits of another’s labor and/or the gifts another has been given. In what way are we, by our actions, robbing another of those fruits/gifts by making them unavailable?

************************************************************

Don’t Steal!

Ok!… ummm… anything else?

Yeah, don’t steal!
You said that already. I never steal anything. Really! (you should already know that, by the way)

I dignify people by giving them work to do, from which they can expect to receive the fruits of their labor.

Cool!

I give people gifts for them to enjoy. The creation and everything produced from it, for example.

OK! Yeah, I was just enjoying the drive up Chehalem Mountain today. Great creation, there, God. Thanks.

Stealing is the failure to honor and accept this creational intention of mine.

Say that again?

Stealing is the failure to accept and honor the fruits of another’s labor and/or the gifts I have given them.

Are you talking to me?

Do you ever buy food items that don’t cover the cost’s of another’s labor?
Do you ever buy products for which the laborers who made them are not paid a living wage?
Do you waste the earth’s natural resources?
Is your lifestyle sustainable so that future generations will have enough?

Is this really God, or is it Al Gore?

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I ran across a statement from an international Christian organization that included the following paragraph. I thought there were good food for thought.

What questions do these thoughts raise in your minds/hearts? How can we honor this commandment in our personal/community/national/global lives?

The seventh commandment forbids unjustly taking or keeping the goods of one’s neighbor and wronging him in any way with respect to his goods. It commands justice and charity in the care of earthly goods and the fruits of men’s labor. For the sake of the common good, it requires respect for the universal destination of goods and respect for the right to private property. Christian life strives to order this world’s goods to God and to fraternal charity.

The development of economic activity and growth in production are meant to provide for the needs of human beings. Economic life is not meant solely to multiply goods produced and increase profit or power; it is ordered first of all to the service of persons, of the whole man, and of the entire human community. Economic activity, conducted according to its own proper methods, is to be exercised within the limits of the moral order, in keeping with social justice so as to correspond to God’s plan for man.

In the beginning God entrusted the earth and its resources to the common stewardship of mankind to take care of them, master them by labor, and enjoy their fruits. The goods of creation are destined for the whole human race. However, the earth is divided up among men to assure the security of their lives, endangered by poverty and threatened by violence. The appropriation of property is legitimate for guaranteeing the freedom and dignity of persons and for helping each of them to meet his basic needs and the needs of those in his charge. It should allow for a natural solidarity to develop between men.

A just wage is the legitimate fruit of work. To refuse or withhold it can be a grave injustice. In determining fair pay both the needs and the contributions of each person must be taken into account. “Remuneration for work should guarantee man the opportunity to provide a dignified livelihood for himself and his family on the material, social, cultural and spiritual level, taking into account the role and the productivity of each, the state of the business, and the common good.” Agreement between the parties is not sufficient to justify morally the amount to be received in wages.

Rich nations have a grave moral responsibility toward those which are unable to ensure the means of their development by themselves or have been prevented from doing so by tragic historical events. It is a duty in solidarity and charity; it is also an obligation in justice if the prosperity of the rich nations has come from resources that have not been paid for fairly.

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Honor Your Father and Your Mother

Thursday, October 26th, 2006

It surprises us a bit to realize that this commandment is for adults.  Sometimes it’s easy to think that; upon turning twenty-one, the parent-child deal goes dormant, parents become peers, and relationships with parents are “voluntary.”  Well, that is sort-of true from a legal standpoint, but not from God’s perspective.  Honor your parents…the word in its Hebrew form means, “make heavy” or ” give weight to.”  In the Leviticus version, a different word, meaning “fear” or “revere” replaces “honor.”  (Leviticus 19:3)  It is clear that the word honor gives us pause.  Not all parents are honorable enough to deserve a reward for their behavior or character.  My best wisdom, given other scripture in both testaments concerning parent-child relationships, is to suggest that “value” might give a clearer picture of what “honor” means in our context.  We can value parents for their place in our lives as parents without celebrating behavior that is destructive.  Below is a clip from Chris Hedges “Losing Moses on The Freeway” that speaks very eloquently to this issue: “All parents, for better or worse, shape our lives.  They condition our responses years after they are gone.  Children who were loved, or not loved, who yearned for approval that was never sufficient, who fled the harsh oppression of the home, who rejected all their parents had pressed down on them until they became, as if in a cruel reversal, simply what their parents were not, live out these yearnings as adults.  Or maybe they can never leave the embrace of home at all, living years later under the protective and suffocation love of the parent.  But the imprint is unavoidable.  It marks us into old age.
We all honor our parents, even parents we reject, even parents whose cruelty did not make them fit to be called parents.  For to honor our parents is to honor our essence, the roots from which we sprung, and even the best parents have an oppressive power that must be broken. We must free ourselves from our parents to become fully formed individuals, in the process taking with us that which they gave us, or did not give us, and trying to fashion a distinct and separate life.  It is a life that must, in the end, replace the parent.  And as our children grow we look into the face of our own decline, our eventual death.
None of the commandments were written for children.  They were written for adults.  The commandment to honor your parents is a commandment to honor yourself, honor the life force that created you, the good and the bad mingled within us, but not to honor abuse.  Those who were abused, who wince at the name of father or mother, cannot be asked to honor the memory of the abuse or the abuser. But at the same time, however painful, we have to see in parents, even bad parents, reflections of ourselves, if only to guard against and keep at bay the demons within us.  We cannot wish our parents away.  They will always be a major, overpowering force in our life.  We cannot undo abuse, but we can find a way to honor life, even their lives, by turning that abuse into compassion not only for ourselves, which is necessary for healing, but more important for all who suffer.  Those who use personal pain to mitigate the pain of others, who take the experience of sorrow and the suffering and use it to lead a life of compassion, honor their parents, even as they rise above them.  They honor life, which is what their parents gave them.  They honor what is holy and good.  They take out of tragedy a regenerative power.  They fulfill the commandment.  We all carry, imprinted on our faces, like the mark of Cain, our origins, our link with the past, wanted or unwanted.  We cannot wash it away.  It is rather a matter of what we do with it, how we honor it, how we redeem the experience to protect and create life. “
Losing Moses On The Freeway  pages 90-91So what does it mean to you to honor your father and mother?  A couple of responses follow.  Please add your comments to the conversation.Jared Jones:

The passage Stan shared includes this: “We all honor our parents…. For to honor our parents is to honor our essence, the roots from which we sprung, and even the best parents have an oppressive power that must be broken.” Hedges describes an intriguing inevitability that I suspect mildly distorts the real meaning of the verb “honor.” He rightly points out that one can hardly help but emulate one’s parents; I’m not sure that’s the same as honor. But that’s just semantics.My folks were in town this last weekend; they visit us here two or three times a year and return to the house where I grew up in Merced, in California’s Central Valley, a place where I can hardly imagine living without experiencing chest constrictions. From my perspective, Merced is a profoundly ugly place–a deeply abused land in which a culturally impoverished conglomeration of some 70,000 people manage to make their livings. It seems to me that Merced Christians (that is, my extended family and the church in which I was reared) live hunkered down against the unholy influences of American popular culture, often unconsciously adapting to its individualism and materialism for lack of any attractive or livable alternative. Everyone else in town seems either to celebrate that very degeneracy or to strive for the means to indulge in it. I intentionally exaggerate the picture; it is the milieu in which my consciousness formed, and so its caricatured proportions persist in my mind. Most adolescents want to escape their hometowns; I just never got over that. I deliberately moved away from Merced both as I entered college and as Jody and I settled in Newberg after a stint in Guatemala. I’m still trying to figure out why, and how it relates to honoring my parents (or failing to).

That commandment has been rubbing against me for a few years now, and I’m both a bit raw and a bit callused there. I have a great relationship with my parents, who were about as good as parents can be, but Jody and I have chosen to live a long way from them.

That was a hard and intentional choice that we knew would haunt us forever. It’s doing that now. It haunts me every time I talk with Mom; she longs to see her grandkids on a weekly rather than a quarterly basis, and I would really like that too. It hurts to be so far from Jody’s dad in Wisconsin, who’s struggling to heal and desperate for sleep a year after he broke his back; he could sure use some support and more frequent time with his grandsons. I know that our distance from our parents hurts them more than it hurts us.

The longer we stay here, the harder it becomes to contemplate leaving. Ethan is close with several great kids at North Valley and around town, and Levi’s heading that direction too. Jody’s fully plugged in to an incredible network of stay-at-home moms and just good community. I enjoy all of this vicariously and, between working and sleeping hours, directly too. It’s hard to imagine fitting into a place more comfortably. It just feels like home.

Mostly.

Our moms and dads live too far away; when we married in 1995 we knew this would happen with at least one set of parents. Our choice has doubled the problem.

So are we ‘honoring’ our parents with this choice? I don’t know, and believe me, I’ve wondered plenty. The converse is easier to answer: I don’t think we’re dishonoring them. Our folks are proud of our family and selflessly support our lifestyle here.

Wendell Berry writes convincingly that community in its fullest sense involves being chosen as well as choosing to belong. While we were contemplating our return from Guatemala I puzzled almost obsessively over where to land and set down roots, hoping to enact the vision he described with other community-minded folks. We found more of them here in Newberg than in any other single place, and the generosity of people in Newberg who choose us and befriend us surprises us anew every week or two. We have here what we hoped for.

But I wonder if we’ve overlooked the profound ways that we have been chosen from birth by our families–if we’re failing to honor them by choosing this good and comfortable place instead of the more obviously uncomfortable places where Jody and I grew up. Worse, I wonder what precedent we’re setting for future generations of the Jones family. Until us, both of our families had been close to their respective current homes for many generations. We can’t very well take care of our aging parents from this distance; that erodes any right to hope our children will care for us in our dotage.

This sort of situation seems especially common in our generation, and I don’t think most people agonize over it as I do. I wonder how many of society’s ills might be mitigated if people stayed closer to where they were reared; I also wonder what would be lost. (I wouldn’t have met Jody.) I suppose there would just be other conflicts to work on. This is the one that occupies my mind by default.

There is an element of honor in our quandary, though. Jody’s family and mine both include generations of people who have left home specifically to serve the kingdom of God as ministers and missionaries. We returned from Guatemala hoping to do the same in lay jobs in the U.S. I’m sure we can do that here (we should); we could also do it in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, or in Merced, California. Why here? I’m not entirely sure. But maybe our willingness to “forsake” our parents finds some of its tangled roots in that missionary impulse that was inculcated on us in childhood. The irony aches, but may contain some truth. We “honor” our parents, in Chris Hedges’ sense, by carrying forward a pattern they set. Maybe we just can’t help it. Good excuse, anyway.

Rebekah Schneiter:

My mind keeps zipping from one thought to the next as I think about what it means to honor your/my parents.  Earlier this summer I did a study on passing on a godly heritage.  This certainly would be honoring to my parents as I do my best to pass on Christ to my children.  Then I had the thought about not “defaming” my parents.  I think in my early 20’s I did a good job of pointing out all of my parent’s faults to other 20’s year olds who also were complaining about their parents.  I think this was the phase I was in, but it was not honoring, as I know my parents would never point out all of my faults to all of their friends.But when I really stop to think about what this commandments means for me personally, it is very clear.  After my first, Bren, was born I heard God very clearly say to me that I would be the caretaker for my family.  The idea of taking care of my parents as they aged struck me as an honor and blessing…and extremely hard and difficult too. I watched my father care for his mother for seven years; for seven years she was basically a vegetable after a debilitating stroke.  I saw this act as complete selfless, unconditional love.  He received nothing in return from her.  I guess all he received was the knowledge that he was honoring her at her most vulnerable point in life.  During the stoke years he followed his mother from hospital, to rehab, to nursing home, to foster home, back to hospital, and finally at the nursing home again.  He read to her, drove her places, took her to family gatherings, brought her to our home for holidays and weekends away, bathed her, changed her, fed her, changed her hearing aides, and cried with her.  (He even, lovingly, made her coffin.)  He did all of this and we, his family, never knew that each time he drove away from time spent with her he would cry.  I asked him if he was relieved when she died and he said yes.  The answer yes was only out of love since her life in heaven would be so much better than her existence here.  Never in all his caring for her did he ever verbalize this or wish this or complain etc.  He just did.  He honored her.This is why I hope that I do half as well to my parents, now and in their future needs.  I’ve shared this with close friends, this calling I feel.  I get mixed reactions.  Most seem to wonder why.  People don’t react this way when someone feels called to a career or mission etc. (I guess some probably do.)  But maybe they miss the point that I feel my parents are my mission, my calling…my honoring.

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Sabbath Stories Continued

Thursday, October 19th, 2006

Debbie Headley:

I have really enjoyed hearing about our various thoughts re: the Sabbath so I
thought I would share a couple of my own.

I think of Sunday as a day of rest, renewal, and re-energizing for me as well as
a time set aside for worship. Most Sundays include my very important Sunday
afternoon nap. My kids learned at a very early age that you do NOT wake up mom
unless there is a lot of smoke or copious amounts of blood involved. Sunday
dinner is usually the same every week: ice cream and pop, followed by a few
games- my favorite is speed Scrabble!

My thoughts regarding worship have expanded over the last few years beyond
singing songs on Sunday at church. I find it very worshipful to work hard at
setting up meaningful activities for our corporate times of worship such as
putting together Christmas Shoe boxes filled with Christmas gifts for children
in 3rd world countries. (Yes, this is a thinly veiled announcement that we will
be doing this activity on Nov.12, but I really do find it to be full of meaning
and worship.) I also find a special type of worship in work that is in service
to others even if it is hauling bricks. (Not my own bricks- that is work!)

I’m looking forward to hearing from others,

Roy Gathercoal:

The Sabbath, huh? Is this the “Saturday Sabbath” or the “Sunday
Sabbath”? I still am puzzled about why the early church felt it
necessary to “sanctify” a particular day other than the
Sabbath–especially in that many of the early church, especially in
Jerusalem, still were active in their synagogues. I do know *when* it
was done, but continue to be perplexed as to *why*. Surely it couldn’t
be as simple as the Gentile Christians wanting to be sure they weren’t
mistaken for Jews?

This isn’t (entirely) a piece of idleness on my part. A large part of
the problem with being retired/disabled is that you never get a day off.
Like the farmers and ranchers, grad students and new parents, setting
apart a particular day to *not* do what you apparently *must* do is tough.

I also note with some sadness that, as in many parts of what we call
ordinary life, the brunt of the necessary work seems to fall upon the
backs of those lowest on the economic scale. Even among those employed
on the lower rungs of frequently have a “pecking order” in which the
more senior employees are less likely to “have to work” on Sunday. Seems
to be the case without regard to their religious affiliation. I’m sure
the same thing held in Jesus’ time. Cows then surely needed milking as
they do now! I don’t see any reference to these folks, unless it is the
point of Jesus’ retort to the Pharisees who complained that his
disciples were “working” by picking grain to eat as they walked
through/by the field. The field owners probably could honor the Sabbath
more faithfully if they knew that their servants were working hard at
home. . .

Kathleen has told me (I’m a native Oregonian and thus some of the East
coast practices are fascinating/amusing to me) that her grandfather
lived in Trenton and worked for the Jewish community on the Sabbath by
going from house to house and turning on the ovens. Apparently it wasn’t
work to cook as long as someone else tended the fire.

When I was growing up in our small logging/farming town the set of
practices that constituted “honoring the Sabbath” seemed a bit
arbitrary. I never was able to reconcile the notion that our
“professional Christians”–the pastors–by definition worked on the
Sabbath.

So what are we to make of things?

I’ve wrestled with this one since Jr. High. Starting out as a fine young
argumentative literalist, I was way too eager to point out the
inconsistencies that were/are all around me. (Strangely, I found there
was just too much work in noting others’ inconsistencies to get a moment
to even catch a glance in the mirror!) I will confess that on at least
one occasion I pulled out the “don’t you want me to obey God” argument
to try and weasel out of my chores one day of the week.” Thankfully God
has spared me the embarrassment of trying the “we need to honor the
Sabbath/Saturday because of the Old Testament and the Lord’s Day/Sunday
because of the New Testament.”

In grad school, as it appears was also the case with Kathleen although
we didn’t know one another at the time, I started to take seriously
keeping the Sabbath. For me that primarily meant a sorta kinda fast. I
would drink only broth and water or fruit juice on Sundays. I didn’t
really understand why this was so important to me at the time.

But I think I understand a bit better, now.

Several years ago I was delighted to hear an account about how an
understanding of displaced/refugee populations today just might help us
better understand the scriptures that arose out of the exiles of the
Israelites. Apparently it is so very important to many in these
populations living away from home to hang on tightly to some small bits
of culture and practice so that they can affirm one another’s commitment
to “living in a strange land” rather than assimilating. There at Purdue,
thousands of miles from home and without a “church home” it just might
have the thing that reminded myself that I was “a stranger in a strange
land.”

Perhaps, behind all of the little practices, as inconsistent and even
silly as they may be, we need to remind one another that we are still
“strangers living in a strange land.” Perhaps honoring the Sabbath is
important to our little community as well.

Roy

PS I remember with great fondness that for several years many of the
people in our small church (even people in the community referred to it
as “the white church” as opposed to “the brick church”) would go spend
Sunday afternoon/evening with another family. In retrospect, I believe
that practice was far more important to my own spiritual development
than was the “Sunday Singspiration” service it replaced. I still long
for that opportunity to know others in my family of God in their home
and in mine. It did a lot to help God get several important lessons
about the triviality of consistency pounded into my embarrassingly thick
head. . . and there were some great desserts!

 

 

 

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Our Sabbath Stories

Thursday, October 19th, 2006

Richard Benham:
I remember the walks to church. It was about five miles across town to get to church and then the walk home. The walk always included talks, chats really, between one or two or all of us. Dad was usually not present. I looked forward to those walks and I looked forward to the growing up years in First Friends Church in Portland. There are so many memories that come flooding back that I can’t sort them out. The old fold up cardboard pump organ in the “beginner’s class” Teachers, mostly gone now, but still revered in some way.Ahh, and roast beef cooking the whole time we were gone. There was nothing like the smell of home on Returning from church on a Sunday morning.

Earl and Annie Tykson:
We came from different backgrounds, so our perspectives about keeping the sabbath day holy have changed for each of us over the years. We have tried to live our lives to honor the sabbath during our 47 years of marriage, and some things have changed with those years. Like many of our generation, if we were raised in the church, we prepared for Sunday on Saturday . . . even to polishing shoes, baking, etc. I, Annie, well remember how upset I was when my parents - 25 years our senior – did some buying on Sunday (because they had been to the city!) and I gave them a speech about how it was giving our kids the wrong message. Now we are at that stage — and beyond — in our lives, and see things differently. It is still important to prepare for worship on Saturday. Because Earl was a pastor, we did not attend Saturday night functions, even ball games, although we did allow our children to do so from time to time. It was necessary that we be rested for Sunday, not worn out from too much excitement the evening before. We encouraged the churches we pastored to not schedule Saturday night functions, although sometimes it happened, and we lived! Fellowship with our church family on Sunday was important: either Sunday dinner in one another’s homes, or after church on Sunday evening. Popcorn was a standard after church function on Sunday evenings for many years in our home, generally including a number of others in the group. Now we eat out on Sunday . . . but we try to tip our waiter/waitress well! We still try not to shop on Sunday, but there have been times when the ox was in the ditch. . . we still try to be sure the gas tank is full, to make Sunday a day of rest and re-creation, however that might look to us: Earl often watches TV, Annie reads. And Sunday afternoon naps are highly enjoyed!

There is more that we could say, but you didn’t want a book! Will enjoy hearing from others.

Elaine Cropper:
For my family growing up Sunday was planned for. If we needed gas it was bought on Saturday. We did not buy anything on Sundays we did not go out to dinner because that would make some one else work. Simple meals ( pot roast and veggies put into the oven before we left for church) were planned and a lot of the prep was done the day before. Sunday drives happened, My dad couldn’t fish on Sundays when he was growing up , we could. Homework should be done before Sunday. The general rule was that it was a day of rest and that included not making others work, we didn’t pay to attending anything. Unless it was church related. We lived by the Spirit of that Law. I still live by the spirit of that. We have tried to make Sunday a special day. I would like to say I don’t grocery shop or buy gas or clean my house etc. on Sundays. That is my goal. I expect my children to get their homework done before Sunday. I make meals that are simple for me. I relax, hang out with my children and husband. Read a book, watch a movie, play a game with my family. I do try to do things that are restful and that point me to think about my Creator.

Kathleen Gathercoal:
When I was in college, I, like most students I knew, studied morning, noon, and night. There was never enough time to do all the reading and write all the papers that were expected an if I didn’t do them, I knew I’d never be admitted to grad school/ When I got into my doctoral program, the work load only increased..

After I’d been in my doctoral program for awhile, my major professor asked me to observe the Sabbath. I was not a Christian at the time, but he was. He said that it was important to him that anyone who worked with him should have time to listen to God; He wanted me to take Sundays off. I resisted, saying that it was a risk for me to lose one seventh of my reading and writing time and it was unfair for him to impose an expectation for which I would assume all the liability and in which I didn’t even believe.. He said, “treat it as an experiment” and encouraged me to try taking off Sundays for the rest of the semester. If at the end of the experiment I was less productive, I could quit the practice and he would go to the other faculty and explain my performance, but If I were not less productive I should continue the practice for the years I remained in his lab. I had little to lose, so I gave it a try. On Sundays, I would take off to walk in the park, or go to the zoo, or art museum.

At the end of the semester I was healthier and happier and was doing better in my classes than either he or I had expected. I continued to practice the sabbath and years later it took on additional meaning when I began to be a follower of Christ. Sabbath is a blessing that I try to pass on to my grad students now.

Jenny Crackenburg:
When I started working in the kitchen at the Yamhill County Jail, I found myself working with a group of inmates who were all very new Christians. None of them had attended church and while some of them attended bible studies (ask Edwin Espana about this ministry) before they joined the kitchen crew, those meetings were no longer available to them. The kitchen workers don’t live with the other inmates and aren’t allowed to attend the bible studies with the other cell blocks. They have their own quarters over the kitchen where they live and work closely together. They held their own bible study meetings that consisted of reading the bible and puzzling out what it meant for them. They did not even have a bible commentary to reference.

One of the practices they were observing was to be good stewards of their own bodies. They worked out each day and were careful only to eat foods that are healthful. This was quite a significant thing for them. The jail receives lots of donations of things like doughnuts, chips, and other snack foods. We also often have excellent homemade desserts. One of the privileges for the kitchen workers is they can eat all they want of those items. These new Christians did not eat them at all because they did not believe it would be good stewardship of their bodies. I was very impressed by the constant discipline they showed.

The inmates were going over the Ten Commandments shortly after I started the job and it was fascinating to listen and watch as they sorted out how to apply them without any denomination’s teachings to guide them. They were concerned about the teaching on the Sabbath because jail rules require them to work seven days a week. They had already gone over the Sermon on the Mount and this had led them to be less literal in understanding how to follow commandments.

The inmates decided (without any outside input) that the real point of honoring the Sabbath was to remind us that the blessings we have in life are not just the result of our own work but a gift from God. The guys decided to make Sunday the one day that they did not work out and on which they would eat dessert. They did not pig out but they would have a cookie or doughnut with lunch and dessert with dinner. They said this reminded them that their increasing strength and good health was not due only to their personal discipline, but was also a gift from God. I thought it was a very appropriate way to observe the Sabbath.

Anna Baker:
I grew up on a dairy farm up the road from a Friends Sunday School. My family did not go to church and did not observe a Sabbath. The cows still needed milking and there was work that had to be done. During my SS years in the 1950’s there was an emphasis on perfect attendance. We could get a pin the first year and wreath the second year and bars each year after that for perfect attendance in SS. If we missed a Sunday we had to be sick or attend another SS somewhere else. When I went on backpack trips with the Girl Scouts over the weekend I needed to encourage some kind of worship and let my SS know what we did. I don’t know that was to keep the Sabbath holy or just be sure we were in SS. I was taught not to do school work or buy things on Sundays in my church and youth group.

When I was first married I remember my mother-in-law telling me that when she was a girl in the 1920’s her father would not take them to church because going to church meant riding the trolley that meant someone had to work on the Sabbath in order to get them to church.

We raised our kids going to church every Sunday. One time we were traveling on Sunday and could not attend church along the way. It was December and dark and rainy. We pulled into a park in the Redwoods and had our own worship service.

My husband and I still have a “perfect attendance” ethic to be in the house of the Lord for worship on Sundays, but we do frequently go out to dinner on Sundays or stop to pick something up at the store though.

Al Crackenburg:
i did not grow up in a christian home. my father and mother were very observant about having fun on sunday. they considered observing the sabbath as a day when you went out and did things that you liked to do. i think it was a hold over from their days of growing up on a farm. in the summer and fall, my parents usually invited someone over for a game of cards or to drive out to a picnic area and maybe fish or throw a softball around. it was a very unusual time for me. my parents were such over achievers and hard workers that to see them goofing around not accomplishing anything tangible was a little mystifying and unsettling. they rarely watered their garden or did anything normally done on the rest of the weekdays. it was a secular version on keeping the sabbath: people needed time to goof around and sunday was the day to goof around.

Bill Jolliff:
I’ve really appreciated the sharing on the idea of “Sabbath.”

It’s great to hear some of those good experiences–my own experience was considerably less positive. In the Friends church I grew up in, which was located in a farming area of Ohio, not working on the “Sabbath” was one of the primary indicators of who was truly saved and who was going to hell. The truly Christian grain farmers, we were taught by the clergy, would let their wheat be ruined by a thunderstorm before they would harvest it on a Sunday (which they, too, inaccurately deemed the “Sabbath”). Interestingly, dairy farmers were in fact allowed to milk and (here’s the strange part) to sell the milk on Sunday as well; exactly why this was an exception is something I never heard taught about. As you might imagine, this teaching divided families in terrible and lasting ways.

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You Shall Not Make for yourself a Graven Image of Anything In Heaven or Earth or Under the Earth; You Shall Not Bow Down to Them or Serve Them.

Wednesday, October 11th, 2006


Gideon did the unthinkable; he tore down the altars to Baal.  His whole village was ticked and wanted to kill him.  Other prophets committed similar sacrilege on the resident idols built to other Gods.  God trucks no idols; that much seems clear, as witnessed by this second commandment.  Most of us have no problem with that as far as we know, never mind the sacred drawings or carvings on our Tiki lamps.  So if graven images aren’t our problem, is this commandment even worth our time?

Chris Hedges’ second chapter in Losing Moses On The Freeway broadens our understanding of idolatry to a level that gives this commandment real teeth..  I’ve excerpted about three pages from his book that represents the heart of his insights on idolatry.  (Those of you who have already read it you can skip this quote.  The rest of you will benefit greatly by taking the time to read it)


The danger of idolatry runs through every commandment. But warding off the allure of idols is difficult. The God of the Bible is ineffable, unknowable, hidden. The mystery frustrates and defies us. To worship God, it seems, is to worship nothing. There is no security. Belief in a God we cannot know seems to leave us stranded on an island of insecurities. God is not like the tangible things we can have faith in, not like our idols. Idols comfort us, reassure us and empower us. They can be understood. Idols appear, when we worship them, to give us what we want. It is easier to have idols. It is harder to trust in the unknown, in the darkness, in the voice answering Moses’ request for revelation with the words: “I AM WHO I AM.”
God cannot be summed up in a name. God cannot be described. Only idols provide this certitude. But watch, God seems to say; you will know me when you encounter me. You will see who I am in the profound flashes of self-knowledge that cut through darkness, in the hope that rises out of despair and suffering, in the loving touch of another, in a moral life where we resist the worship of ourselves so others can prosper. God, the experience of God, is real. Poets, painters, composers and writers have struggled for centuries to express this mystery: It is what prophets and religious thinkers, from Buddha to Moses to Mohammed, describe and revere. Those who sanctify their own power deny this mystery: They promise that God can not only be known but also manipulated. False prophets, who say they can harness the power of God for us, lead us away from the worship of God into the corrosive idolatry of self-worship. They seek to speak not only for God, but for the nation, fusing religion and nationalism into a dangerous brew that brings us to kneel before the idol of the state. 
We are burdened by household gods, no longer made of clay, but all promising to fulfill us.  Our computer, our television, our job, our wealth, our social status, along with the brands we wear and the cars we drive, promise us contentment and inform our identity.  These household gods seem to offer well-being, health and success.  But all these gods create cults. And all these cults circle back to us to a dangerous self-worship fed by forces who seek to ensnare us in idolatry.
We can see the idols others worship. It is hard to see our own. We depend on our idols to give us order and meaning. We depend on our idols to define our place in the world. Idols give us a world that appears logical and coherent. Idols free us from moral choice. Idols determine right and wrong. Idols render judgment. We follow. We conform.
           When we see the hollowness of our idols, how they have led us to waste time and energy; when we smash these false gods and peer at the uncertainty of life, those who continue to revere the idols turn against us.  We are expelled from the cult, stripped of its identifying power and left alone. It is easier to remain silent, to pay homage to a false god even after this god is exposed as a fraud. Those who worship idols deal harshly with those who become apostates.
The idols of nation, race, religion, ethnicity, gender and class are idols that demand exclusive and false covenants. These covenants exalt ourselves as long as we only define ourselves through these narrow definitions, and exclude others outside the circle. Idols are always about self-worship. The idols subvert the equality that protects us from tyranny and injustice, the respect that urges us to see the worth and dignity in all human life, even in those who oppose us. But the fear of exclusion, of incurring the wrath of those who worship the idol, sees us willing to justify the ostracism and even abuse of others.
We are joined together, Augustine wrote, as a community by our love of the same object. Human love, he wrote, is always directed either toward God or the self. There are no other choices. The other loves we have in life, the love of status, the love of possessions, the love of power, are always the love of self. We have, Augustine argued, two choices in life. We can embrace the City of God, where we struggle to love to the exclusion of the self, a love that forces us to negate ourselves and our security to conserve, preserve and protect others, or we can embrace the City of Man where unbridled self-interest makes us all enemies. In the City of God, where we make hard and sometimes painful sacrifices for others, we become part of a whole. In the City of Man, where we live only for advancement of the self, we become part of a mob. The commandments, when followed, keep us in the City of God. When violated they exile us to the City of Man.
Those who place their faith in idols seek to flee from the hard demands of the City of God. They seek a larger self, a way to rise above the ordinary; a way to defeat these uncertainties and insecurities. Idols create sacred space around them. They assume the mantle of the divine.  They appear to be God.  (pp 40-42)
 
I suppose we all see ourselves in this passage.  Still its not really clear to us when we are actually worshipping idols.  The distinctions are too subtle.  Besides, we’re only doing what most of our Christian Friends are also doing, right?  Here’s a distinction that helps me and I will pass it on to you.  You can tell an idol by its demands on you.  Idols demand more and more from you for their own sake, with an appetite that is never quenched.  Idols demand worship, sacrifice, obedience, and sacrifice by promising their rewards only if such unwavering allegiance continues.  Idols take our resources: our attention, our time, our energy, and even our love in the quest for their rewards which they have no power to grant.  God offers to take those same things and, by renewing our minds and opening our hearts, show us how to use those resources to gain the joy and meaning that is at the heart of the longings which attract us to idols in the first place.  God loves irony. 

           Its true that those who pull down altars to the popular idols are not very popular themselves– even in Christian communities.  That’s why it’s easier to do it together.  We have to look at our community to see if we’ve – perhaps quite innocently – made some idols of our own.  I’ve seen faith communities make idols or good things such as excellence, reputation, respect of the neighborhood, behavioral standards, spiritual experience, values, even tolerance.  These good things become idols when they become more important than love, truth, meekness, gentleness, forgiveness, healing, and/or obedience.  Most of us have seen people hurt as those friends have been sacrificed to one or more of these good things.  Personally, as a pastor, the times I regret most are times that I turned a blind eye to such things.  There are few good things which can’t be turned to idols under certain circumstances.

            Let’s covenant together to examine our corporate lives and our individual lives for the presence of idolatry.  When we find such things lurking in the darkness of our otherwise devout and good intentions, let’s do a Gideon on them… together.

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Do Not Misuse God’s Name (Lynn’s sermon 10-8)

Wednesday, October 11th, 2006

Ten Best Ways – Third Commandment
Do Not Misuse God’s Name
North Valley Friends Church
October 8, 2006
Lynn H. Clouser Holt
 
We are continuing with our series on the 10 Best Ways – the 10 Commandments this morning. I did a google search this week and found that there were 9,980,000 hits when I typed in 10 commandments.  Everything from 10 Commandments for good historical writing, of cell phone etiquette, computer ethics?  Questions like: “Should you obey them?  Or Have they been done away with?”  This week our focus is the 3rd commandment which is Ex 20: 7 and says,  “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.” 


I remember as a kid growing up in the church wondering just what that meant and how close to the Edge I could go – for example was it saying GEEZ, Gosh, Golly.  I assumed I passed the test because I didn’t say God’s name to punctuate my conversation.  It was much easier to just attack TV, or movies or popular music, and believe me there was and is a lot of profanity – and let myself off the hook.  But I know there is more to the third commandment than not swearing.  My desire for us this morning is to go deeper and ask ourselves how might we - as followers of Jesus- violate the third commandment?  And also, since followers of Jesus carry God’s name how do we honor his name?  Just locking ourselves in our house and taping our mouths shut so we don’t misrepresent God isn’t living by the third commandment.


So, first let’s explore some of the background to this text before we look at some practical examples.  Now to misuse God’s name is to “take” the name in an “empty” manner.  In fact the command literally reads in Hebrew, “you shall not take the name of Yahweh in an empty way.”  The word “take” means to “lift up, carry or raise high.”  So, the emphasis of this commandment isn’t so much on saying the name, but on carrying the name in the wrong way.   So, the text means:  You shall not carry the name of Yahweh your God in an empty way.”   The word “empty” or “vain” - as probably many of us are use to hearing- means to use the name in a “worthless” or “deceitful” way, to use it to promote falsehood.  This is why many Hebrew scholars believe this commandment originally addressed the issue of people making false oaths in the name of Yahweh – and indeed this is an aspect of what is behind this commandment – but it’s not the whole picture. 


We’ve talked before about the origin of God’s name – when God tells Moses to go to release the Israelites from Egypt – and Moses asks, “who shall I say sent me” – the voice responds, I AM THAT I AM.  This is what you are to say to the people:  ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”   In the Bible a person’s name embodies their personality – the name was the sum total of a person’s character, authority, power, and reputation.  “I am” is God’s way of saying that God is eternally existent, self reliant, the living God, who exists in the past, the present and the future.  In the context, this is God’s way of saying to Moses, “I am God who exists and who will be dynamically present than and there in the situation to which I am sending you.”


The God of early Israel was hidden in a cloud and when the people approached the Mountain of God they were afraid and they asked Moses to go and speak to God on their behalf.  Later God was shrouded by a curtain in the Holy of Holy’s .  God is Adonai (Lord) and King, enthroned in heaven, awesome and holy.  These images – or aspects - of God are represented in some of the songs we sang this morning.  Titles – Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, Ruler of all nature, Hail Him as thy matchless King, Crown him the Lord if heaven, Lord of life, Lord of years. But titles alone imply a relationship of distance.  However, a name implies a closeness, an intimacy, a bond of trust and love.


So God took on human flesh in Jesus Christ, and said, “Here I am, here’s my name – Jesus –Yahweh saves.”  Which is what Jesus’ name means.  Jesus is the exact replica of God – God came in the flesh and lived among us – Immanuel – God with us. 

 
Last winter we did a series on the Lord’s Prayer - and like the early disciples we asked – “Lord teach us to pray.”  The first “scandalous, shocking words – Abba – Daddy – Our parent – acknowledges a relationship of closeness – followed by Hallowed be thy name -  God doesn’t want us to relate to Him as some unknown God, as merely the judge of the universe, or as a far-off monarch – but as parent.  And, neither does God want us to relate to an “imposter” god of our own making – which is what Stan has been talking about during the past couple of weeks


Whenever we claim God as parent, we also accept the responsibility to carry God’s name in such a way as not to misuse or misrepresent God.  I came across several quotes that really caught my attention.  If you spend some time pondering them they can be quite challenging. 


Clarance Jordan author of Cotton Patch Gospel said, “you don’t take the name of the Lord in vain with your lips. You take it in vain – or empty it – with your life.  It isn’t the people outside the church who take God’s name in vain.  It’s the people inside, the nice people who never dare let one little cuss word fall off their lips- they’re the ones many times whose lives are totally unchanged by the grace of God.”


M. Scott Peck said, “Blasphemy is using the name of God to pretend you have a certain kind of relationship with God, when you don’t” 

In the chapter (Decalogue III) of Losing Moses On The Freeway Chris Hedges makes a very important point about misusing God’s name – he likens it to counterfeiting.  His examples show bar girls counterfeiting love, corporations counterfeiting personal value, Madison Avenue counterfeiting personal worth, and church counterfeiting righteousness.  When those of us who bear Christ’s name fail to imitate his character and compassion, we misuse and misrepresent God’s name – we are counterfeits. 

Stan gave us an excellent reminder this week about the authenticity we are called to as a community of Christ’s followers. I’d encourage you to read it on the web page and there are copies out in the foyer.  He wrote, “The Church is in one sense the Body of Christ – and we are to be to one another as Christ incarnate.  As the body of Christ, the church promises unconditional love, honesty, unqualified nurture, authentic community, unlimited forgiveness, and absolute integrity.  To intentionally violate these promises robs Christ’s name (and by inference God’s name) of God’s essence - robs God’s name of God. 

Without scrupulous attention to our relationships within our community we can counterfeit Christ’s character and counterfeit the kind of belonging that is Christian community.  Therefore we are called to live humbly and meekly in full recognition of our own weaknesses, biases, and pride.  We are called to forgive (really forgive) those who have wronged or disappointed us, and called to sacrifice for the growth and benefit of others.’

I became aware of the damage that can be caused by counterfeiting community – and the resulting despair- in a surprising place.  My Dad was visiting for my daughter’s wedding week before last.  He was in the process of preparing a sermon for the end of the month that he will give when his pastor is on vacation – and the concern that he gave voice to was the struggle that he has had in sharing his grief and sorrow over the long illness of my mother and her eventual death – 6 years ago.  He felt isolated from those who “should have been offering support” – his family, his friends and church community – because he didn’t believe he had permission to be vulnerable about his pain.  He believed if he showed his hurt and asked all the “unanswerable questions” that difficult situations bring,  that somehow he would be disappointing God and not be the witness he was supposed to be.  Therefore, he ended up feeling like God was distant and that others might think he was giving in to self-pity if he spoke what was going on under the surface.  In his sermon my Dad shared his feeling about his suffering – he is wanting to give others permission to feel and to offer and receive support that he hadn’t been able to do.  In the sermon he has prepared – he is being honest and authentic – and my hope is that his church community will be increasingly open to carry one another’s burdens because of the journey my Dad has been through.  The question each one of us must ponder is when others come among us will they find authenticity or counterfeit goods? 

Amazing Grace Amidst Devastation:


On Monday morning, the breaking news bulletins began to flash of a shooting at an Amish schoolhouse in the heart of Lancaster County in Pennsylvania.  A heavily armed gunman, Charles Roberts, walked into a one-room country schoolhouse, ordered all the boys to leave, then tied up 10 little girls and then shot each one before killing himself.  So far 5 girls have died, and the others remain in serious to grave condition.

Suddenly, the media discovered the Amish.  A quiet, peaceful offshoot of the 16th century Anabaptist movement who have lived in Lancaster county since the early 1700’s.  They have lived and farmed for the last 3 centuries without the aid of modern technology – horses and buggies fill the roadways and teams of horses work the fields.  They refuse government assistance and don’t serve in the military. 

If you have had your TV on or looked at the newspaper at all this week it would have been difficult to miss the news coverage.  As I’ve reflected on these tragic events, two things stuck me as having entered into the news cycle that we don’t often see.  One is the power of faith and forgiveness, the other the strength of community.  In their quiet way, the Amish families and neighbors of these girls showed a witness to the world that it doesn’t see very often. 

The power of faith and forgiveness.  A pastor who had been with the Robert’s family—the family of the gunman, he leaves behind a wife and three children – told a Lancaster newspaper of being in the family’s home when there was a knock on the door.  It was an Amish neighbor coming on behalf of the community.  He put his arms around Robert’s father, and said, “We will forgive you.”  The pastor concluded: “God met us in that kitchen.”  As well, many Amish have embraced the gunman’s wife, Marie Roberts, and their three children.  

The grandfather of two sisters killed by the gunman spoke to a NBC TV affiliate in Lancaster.  “Is there anger towards the gunman’s family?” asked a reporter.  “No,” said the grandfather.  “Have you forgiven?”  “In my heart, yes.” “How is that possible?” “Through God’s help.”  The community prepared for burials, embalming their own.  Evangelical minister Rob Schenck observed the process in the home of 13-year-old Marian Fischer.  “It was truly one of the most moving experiences of my life, to see the tender love of a mother for a child,” he said.  In the case of Marian Fischer’s embalming, small children were brought in to watch.  “The grandfather made the point that the children must not think of the man who did this as evil,” Schenck said.

Katie Weaver, from an Amish community in Michigan came to the town to offer sympathy.  “We can tell people about Christ and actually show you in our walk that we forgive, not just say it, but in our walk of life,”  she says.

I got these stories off of the MNSBC web page – not from a Christian publication.  In the midst of this tragedy the AMISH embodied the message of Christ.  No counterfeits here.

 They embodied the words of Romans 12:9-13, “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.  Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.  Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.  Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.” 

The issue at the heart of the 3rd commandment is are our actions and words consistent with our name as followers of Christ?  Do they embody Christ’s message of peace, forgiveness, reconciliation and empowered living?  It has been said a picture is worth a 1000 words. 

Whenever we have the audacity to pray “OUR FATHER” May we also have the courage – like the Amish, to live up to our calling as God’s children. Imitating his character and compassion. And thereby fulfilling God’s command to not carry God’s name in an empty way.


This morning as we enter into our time of open worship my prayer is that we will find the presence of the living Christ in the silence.   For as Friends this is our time of communion – in our gathering together we experience anew the grace that is given to Christ’s followers -  this is our time to be quiet and let Christ minister to us, renew us and challenge us so that we will have the strength and power to live as people of the Kingdom – those who are called by God’s name.

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You Shall Not Take God’s Name in Vain

Thursday, October 5th, 2006

What do Bar girls, the corporate world, Madison Avenue, and churches (those other churches, of course) have in common?   They are counterfeiters.  Ok, not always, but often enough to be included in this discussion.  Swearing is one thing, but counterfeiting is something else altogether.


In Hebrew grammar classes one learns that the picture behind this commandment is that of a person holding God’s name up to emptiness, or emptying God’s name of God.  All kinds of examples come rushing to one’s mind.  In Losing Moses On The Freeway Chris Hedges chooses the list above from other possibilities.  He makes a very important point.  This chapter (Decalogue III) is a vital one to digest as foundational to entire subject of the ten commandments.  His examples show bar girls counterfeiting love, corporations counterfeiting personal value, Madison Avenue counterfeiting personal worth, and church counterfeiting righteousness.  The following quote is key: 


“We all want to be loved, to be needed.  We turn, when lonely, also to charlatans who soothe us, who tell us we are valuable and important, but who regard us in the paneled warrens of their spacious offices as pawns to move on a chess board.  The television evangelists have tapped into this burning need.  God will bless us, shower us with wealth and success, as long as we mail in the checks.  We are used and eventually discarded by the institutions where we work.  They manipulate us for their own gain, holding out the promise of status, respect and love.  They create false communities, ones that strive to push us to identify with the goals and prestige of the corporation or the nation or the church.  It is not unconditional love.  It is very conditional love.  When we fail to please the god of production and profit, when we fall afoul of the rigid codes of behavior imposed upon us, when we question dogma or rules, when we denounce injustices. We are thrust into exile…” (p 57)


So what does this have to do with the commandment?  Everything.  The Church is in one sense the Body of Christ.  The church is to be to its members as Christ incarnate.  As the body of Christ, the church promises unconditional love, honesty, unqualified nurture, authentic community, unlimited forgiveness, and absolute integrity.  To intentionally violate these promises robs Christ’s name (and by inference God’s name) of God’s essence - robs God’s name of God.  We will make mistakes; people will get hurt.  We will fail to be longsuffering with some who test our patience or drain our resources.  We will sometimes react out of fear of conflict and let a wrong go unseen and its victim’s suffering go unaddressed.  These mistakes are not counterfeiting God’s name.  It’s the thoughtful destruction of someone’s character, the obvious exclusion of the unappealing, the reasoned undermining of gospel order (good process), the dishonest effect of half-truths, the lies in innuendo, the cruel twisting of a phrase, the scape-goating of loss, hurt, or failure, the self-righteousness of those whose sins don’t show, the self-serving boundaries that exclude the most needy, and similar acts of the collective or individual will, that rob the church of God, and thereby violate this commandment.  It is these latter acts of cruelty and dishonesty that conterfeit Christ’s character and conterfeit the kind of belonging that is Christian community.


This commandment calls us to be scrupulous in our relationships within our community.  It calls us to live humbly and meekly in full recognition of our own weaknesses, biases, and pride.  It calls us to lay our vested interests at the feet of Christ and bow to Christ’s leading and direction regardless of the intensity of our opinions.  It calls us to consider the feelings of each and every member of our family before we act on our feelings and/or observations.  It calls us to forgive (really forgive) those who have wronged or disappointed us, it calls us to sacrifice for the growth and benefit of others, etc etc. (you can finish the list.)  It also calls us to be authentic in presenting the gospel story to our community and in our relationship to our neighbors.  We rob Christ’s name of meaning when we display un-Christ-like attitudes and actions and insist that such behavior is righteous. 

When others come among us will they find authenticity or counterfeit goods?  This is a very complex and challenging question.  Have fun with these concepts.  Those of you who don’t have the book may have some refreshing insights to offer.  Your comments are invited.


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Imposter Gods (Notes from 9-24-06 sermon)

Thursday, September 28th, 2006

The Cosmic Vending Machine or Cosmic Bellhop God             God’s main function is to love and serve me (us).  If I put in a prayer, God owes me a certain result.  God’s main function in prayer is to answer my requests. Etc…you get the picture.  Such a God betrays God’s passion for relationship.
The God of Just Deserts            This imposter is in charge of carrying out our concept of justice or our agenda towards those whose actions/beliefs offend us.  This punitive God must make sure everyone pays for their sins and/or gets what they deserve.  Such a God betrays God’s mercy and grace.
The God of Limited Freedom             This imposter is a God who is held hostage by our understanding of God’s promises, word, and/or character.  God has to do this because “The Word” says so.  This is the God behind the popular health and wealth teaching.  Our understanding of “the law” or our view of what is right must be carried out by God.  Jesus demonstrated that the laws were created for humanity, not humanity for the laws.  In Exocus 33:19 God reminds Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”   Samuel Wells talks about the story of God being a drama of God turning God’s unlimited freedom into covenants and humanity turning their limited freedom into prisons.   Sometimes, when Christians insist that God fit into their small view, they not only imprison God, but imprison themselves as well.  This God betrays God’s sovereignty. 
The Gnostic God              This is the God of secrets, not mystery.  This imposter God doles out special favors to those who “discover” hidden secrets. Books with titles such as “Unlocking The Secret of God’s (you fill in the blank)” lead us to believe that God shows favoritism to those who have somehow read the right book, or discovered the right prayer, or have in some way stumbled onto a way to get more out of God via some bit of previously hidden information.  This God says there is a magic formula for healing, defeating sin, or releasing God’s wealth into our coffers.  When the disciples could not cast out a demon like Jesus they wanted to know his secret.  He said, “These things only come through prayer and fasting.”  That’s no secret.  As one matures in faith one does find one’s prayers and ministry becoming more effective, and a growth in one’s ability to discern God’s voice.  This imposter betrays God’s justice.

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