josephholubsermons
November 9, 2008
Amos 5:18-24
1
Thessalonians 2:8-13
Matthew 23:1-12
A Life Worthy of God and the Kingdom
“…lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.”
1 Thessalonians 2:12
This morning I want to build a
three-legged stool. No, I am not
a carpenter, but that’s OK because I am not going to build it with wood, but
rather with the raw material of scripture – specifically the three
readings assigned for today – each one providing a leg for my stool.
The first leg of my stool is built from the
epistle for this morning.
Paul, obviously very fond of the Thessalonian congregation, begins
his letter with the affirming words,
“We always give thanks to God for all of you, and constantly pray for you…
remembering your work of faith, labor of love and steadfastness of hope in
our Lord Jesus Christ.”
(1:2-3)
The Thessalonian congregation was made
up of many Gentiles, that is non-Jewish followers of Jesus.
Before their conversion, these new converts to the faith based their
lives on the values of the surrounding culture.
Now that their lives had been
reoriented and grounded in the person of Jesus, they found themselves
under siege from that same culture to return to the life from which they
had come. So Paul, knowing they were
feeling cultural pressure to abandon their newly found life, writes
to encourage them to a life, of what we could call, “holiness.”
“Lead a life worthy of God, who
calls you into his own kingdom and glory”, says Paul to his
Thessalonians friends.
“Holiness” is the first
leg of my stool. But
what is holiness?
To be “holy” means to allow the life of God to take root and find
expression, both in the individual and in the community of faith.
In both testaments “holiness” is frequently associated with being
“chosen” by God - not chosen for privilege mind you, but chosen for a
purpose. In chapter 1 of
Thessalonians Paul writes, “For we
know brothers and sisters… that God has chosen you.”
Again, it was not favoritism meaning chosen for privilege,
but chosen for a sacred purpose – and the purpose was that the
life of God take root and
find expression in their lives, both individually and communally.
Another word we could substitute for “chosen” is “called.”
It is simply language that is trying to describe the existential
experience of being caught up in something that is bigger than merely
oneself.
It’s like falling in love.
When I fell in love with Marcia it was as much, if not more, being
overwhelmed by something bigger than me, being captured by a presence,
as any choice I made. The
biblical language of “called” and “chosen” is desperately trying to describe
that kind of experience.
Almost without exception, the various biblical accounts of being “called” or
“chosen” share the common characteristic of being embraced by something they
couldn’t shake; captured by something more than themselves; or
experiencing something rise up from within themselves that surprised
them, astonished them and set them on a new path of transformed living, even
when some of them tried to resist it.
To name a few: Abraham and Sarah, Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,
Isaiah, the disciples, Paul, all shared that kind of experience.
I don’t presume to know exactly why
you came here this
morning. I am sure our personal
reasons are varied and complex.
Choice was likely a huge part of it.
But I would also dare say that alongside your choosing was
perhaps a sense, if ever so slight, of being drawn, of being attracted, of
being encouraged, of being caught up in something other than merely
yourself. Holiness then is
allowing that “something other,”
that the scriptures describe as the life of God, to emerge and take
expression in your life and our life together as a community.
That’s the basis of holiness and the first leg of my stool.
But what does holiness look like? What
does the life of God look like in a human life or a community?
That takes us to the
second leg of my stool.
The second leg of my three-legged-stool is found in
the God intoxicated voice of protest of the prophet Amos in our first
reading for this morning. Speaking
for God Amos declares, “I hate, I
despise your religious festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn
assemblies. Even though you
offer me your burnt offerings and your grain offerings I will not accept
them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the
melody of your harps. But let
justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like and ever-flowing
stream.” (5:21-24)
Speaking for God, Amos is one
agitated dude! Amos
had a particularly hard job!
First he was a prophet, that is, God’s messenger, and if that wasn’t
hard enough, he was doing it in good and prosperous times.
He was a prophet to Israel in the 8th century B.C. during
a time of great military expansion and national prosperity that they never
again attained. In other words,
times were good, people were fat, prosperous, and felt secure –
“let the good times roll!”
But all was not well!
Amos was a man of “holiness” – that is a man full of the life of
God; a man wired in to God’s deepest passions.
Amos knew that behind the façade of prosperity and security, enjoyed
mainly by the wealthy elite, there was a pathology undermining the
nation and culture. A close
reading of Amos’ message reveals that Amos had grave concerns.
Times may have been good for the powerful and wealthy but not for
everyone. Amos protested
vehemently against the pervasive
political oppression of the poor by the monarchy and wealthy
urban elites.
He protested against
economic exploitation.
The powerful and wealthy structured the economic system so that
two-thirds of the annual production of wealth in the nation ended up in the
hands of the wealthiest 1% or 2%.
Consequences for the lives of the peasants were dire and included
poverty, subsistence living, malnourishment and disease.
He protested against the fact that
social injustice was religiously
legitimated. In
pre-modern societies, it was affirmed and assumed that the social order, no
matter how unjust, reflected the will of God.
Kings ruled by divine right and saw their status in terms of
divine privilege.
The point is, what we have in Amos is a contrast
between two types of holiness.
Israel in Amos’ time, especially among the wealthy and ruling elites,
represented a holiness that lacked a hunger for and commitment to social
justice. Obviously the
wealthy elites were “religious”: faithfully observing the religious
festivals, worshipping regularly, making their offerings, singing their
songs – but they lacked a commitment to God’s greatest passion –
a commitment to an alternative social
vision grounded in social justice for everyone.
What
might justice look like in our time?
A few days ago the presiding bishop of our church, Bishop Mark
Hanson, sent an open letter to President-elect Obama advancing what
he sees to be high priority justice issues for the new administration.
I quote from Bishop’s Hanson letter,
“Scripture is clear about what should
matter to us as Christians in public life: hospitality to strangers, concern
for people in poverty, peacemaking and care for creation. From these core
biblical values, I appeal to President-elect Obama to establish the
following priorities for his administration:”
The bishop then goes on with a
considerable listing of specific issues.
If you wish to read it, there are copies on the table in the narthex.
The point is perhaps we
hear an echo of Amos’ voice in the voice of our own bishop?
The second leg of
our stool is a commitment to
social justice.
Holiness without justice is a stool that will not stand.
It’s a hollow holiness devoid of integrity.
The
third leg of our stool is
rooted in the gospel for today where Jesus is engaging the scribes and
Pharisees. If the religiously
wealthy elites of Amos’ day represented a holiness lacking a commitment
to social justice, some of the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day
serve as a metaphor representing a holiness lacking humility and love.
The scribes and Pharisees were a religiously committed bunch.
To their credit, their lives were grounded in the Torah and the
application of the Torah to everyday life.
The bone of contention Matthew portrays Jesus picking with them was
not the content of their teaching, but their manner of living. Jesus
said, “Do what they teach and follow
it”; (affirmation) “but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.”
(admonishment)
Just before this passage one of the
Pharisees had asked Jesus which was the greatest commandment in the
Torah? You know Jesus’ answer,
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart… soul… mind… and your
neighbor as yourself.” Of
course, if we track Jesus’ teachings about “neighbor” we discover
that loving neighbor means showing radical compassion to anyone in
need, especially to those who
are outside of our carefully drawn boundaries of comfort and security.
Some of the Pharisees evidently also
lived with an attitude of self-exaltation - an attitude that
distanced them and insulated them from others and prevented them from
knowing, seeing and engaging others on a level of personal need and
expressing true compassion. The
gospel for today concludes with the aphorism,
“All who exalt themselves will be
humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
An attitude of humility and compassion always opens doors
between diverse and conflicted peoples and creates the opportunity for
community - and an attitude of self-exaltation always builds barriers.
The third leg of my
stool is compassion and humility.
Holiness without compassion and humility obsesses over religious
minutia, and always ends up devoid of heart and soul.
So there’s my stool.
How do you like it? It’s
completed, except for one more thing.
As long as we’re thinking metaphorically we must ask,
“Whom does the stool represent?”
For me, my stool is a powerful metaphor for the
life that is full of God; the life that has been opened in such a
way that the life of God fills it and spills out of it and into the lives of
others with a commitment to social justice, radical compassion and humility.
For me, that’s a pretty good description of the life of Jesus, the
one I name as my mentor and Lord; the one who leads me on a path of
transformation.
The Good News is that through Jesus I
have experienced access to the life of God; a life that leads me
beyond my inclinations of self-indulgence and self exaltation; a life that
fulfills and restores my humanity.
It’s a life that embraces me; rises up within me; surrounds me; fills
me; captures me; a life in which I am caught up and cannot shake - even on
bad days when I try.
“Lead a life worthy of God,” Paul encouraged his
beloved friends. It is the life
of God, manifested in Jesus, who comes to us as a gift of grace.