13th Sunday after Pentecost

  

In a moment,

in the twinkling of an eye…

(First Corinthians 15:52)

When we take our little jaunts, like to Tahoe or now to Ferndale, WA and the San Juan Islands; I grab a book off the shelf to take along. Recently I’ve been pulling Soren Kierkegaard for the journey. He’s my first theological/philosophical hero since college days. I’ve come back to him because I fear I never really got him.

Jesus would end one of his parables, like the parable of the two sons, by asking, “What do you think?” This morning, I figured out that’s why I keep coming back to S.K.—not to get it (which I thought I was doing), but to think about it. Like this: “’The moment’ is a figurative expression,” Kierkegaard tells his reader, “and therefore it is not easy to deal with. However, it is a beautiful word to consider” (The Concept of Anxiety, 1844).  Even though I don’t exactly get it, I’m better off for considering it. It is a beautiful word worthy of contemplation.

What of the moment we find ourselves in today?  We certainly desire “to get it”—to understand it, to figure it out, to make sense of things. Maybe we should take some time to simply contemplate the moment—that “twinkling of the eye” when time and eternity meet (1Cor 15:52).

 

12th Sunday after Pentecost:

 

God seeks what has gone by.

(Ecclesiastes 3:15)

 Last week, we repeated our summer stay at the Kinser Kabin. For near fifty years, we have spent summer days there—a tradition too precious to let go. So, once again, we made our way to the cabin that brings us such comfort and delight.

 One of those Greeks said something like “No one can ever step in the same river twice” (Heraclitus of Ephesus, 500BC—I looked it up). His point being that though it may be the same river, things have changed—like the water that flows and the one who steps into it. I thought of this—the same Truckee River our families rafted down, but not the same; the same Lake we rollicked about in, but not the same; the same Tahoe Cabin we filled with joy and laughter, but not the same.

 Ecclesiastes laments how “A generation goes, and a generation comes; but the earth remains the same” (1:4). Like all Biblical laments, one finds rays of the Gospel shining through: “God seeks what has gone by.” Maybe what has “gone by” is not lost. Maybe eternity is something like every good and joyous thing repeated only this time bigger and more real. Maybe all our youthful delights are redeemed and freed up for eternity. And maybe, even though we didn’t know it, we were simply tasting something of the bliss that awaits us in Glory.

 

11th Sunday after Pentecost:

 What's in a name?

  

A Good name…

is more precious than silver or gold.

(Proverbs 22:1)

  

Josh got his dog. I asked, “What did you name him?”  That’s the thing about humans, they have to name things—people and places, dogs and cats. It’s God’s idea: “The Lord brought his creatures before the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called them, that was its name” (Gn 2:19). For the most part, God doesn’t get involved. He just looks on to see how we do.

 Adam saved his most precious name for his wife: “The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living” (Gn 3:20). In the midst of death, she brings life; until that day when another woman brings forth a child named “Jesus because he saves his people from their sins” (Mt 1:21 & Lk 1:31). The man isn’t given a choice in this name. Joseph steps aside. It’s a name too precious to be entrusted to humans.

 But, for the most part, God frees us to come up with our own names. There are some cultural rules; like our family name called our surname or our last name. We don’t have much say about that. It tells a long story about us. But, then we are given the freedom to come up with a first name or our given name—a name given out of our freedom. A name that frees us to make more of our name than our family name—to begin a new story. This given name speaks of our hopes and aspiration for our child. We choose it out of our freedom praying it will become “a good name”—a name written down in Glory (Rv 21:27).

 

10^th Sunday after Pentecost:

 

Love always …perseveres.

(First Corinthians 13:7)

 Ordinary days, between Easter Resurrection and the big Resurrection that awaits us, requires perseverance: “In the Spirit, pray for the perseverance of all the saints” (Eph 6:18). Perseverance assumes that life between Easter and the Last Trumpet Sound will have its troubles. We do not move from triumph to triumph. To see us through we need the unseen prompting of the Holy Spirit, prayers and supplications, and the assurance “that the one who began a good work among us will bring it to completion” (Phil 1:6).

 Plus, the Apostle insist, perseverance is the mark of authentic love. “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. For now; faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love” (1Cor 13).

9^th Sunday after Pentecost

 

 

Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's;

and unto God the things that are God's.

(Matthew 22:21)

 

My recent and most enjoyable reading of Our Declaration by Dannielle Allen, along with our current tumultuous social and political upheavals; has caused me to think much about government.

 

I thought about that Sunday worship service during my first pastorate when I interviewed Rev. and Mrs. Dutton, veteran missionaries who had just returned home at the fall of Saigon to the communist. I asked about the church in Vietnam they left behind. The answer surprised me. Rev. Dutton told us that he told the church to be good citizens and to gather whenever and wherever they could for worship and prayer. Missionaries often surprise me. So we prayed for the church in Vietnam that they could be good citizens and find a way to gather together for worship and prayer.

 

It’s the same question our church faces this morning. How do we serve as good citizens and at the same time gather together, face to face, for worship and prayer? It’s a good question for “ordinary days”—these Christian Calendar days between Pentecost and Advent when we lean on the Holy Spirit to guide us through our complex world as Christ’s own—as Christians claiming the beginning of a new world (Christmas through Ascension—first half of the year); and at the same time honoring our present world (Pentecost through our ordinary days—second half of the year). Navigating through our ordinary days requires “a Spirit of wisdom” (Eph 1:17). Let’s pray for that: “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives” (Col 1:9).