Piety of the Redeemed: A Holy Life

Exodus 20.1-17; Psalm 19; John 2.13-22

Rev. Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender

“He pulls life from death.” So Greg Pennoyer says in the preface for the book, God For Us Rediscovering the Meaning of Lent and Easter. He pulls life from death.

In Advent & Christmas we sing Emmanuel, God with us. In Lent, Holy Week & Easter, we discover a bright sadness--God, FOR us, through the cross.

It is “Holy Cross” Sunday, this 3rd Sunday in Lent, according to our ancient tradition. Originally, Lent was the time for baptismal preparation; Adult Christians were baptized during the Easter vigil, the night before the resurrection celebration. Penitential customs such as fasting and Examen, the intentional act of self-examination, grew out of these 40 days of getting ready for admission into the church. It would be fair to say, “remember your baptism and be thankful” as the procession of the cross comes into the church. (slow) It reminds the gathered congregation that at the limit of human weakness, God brings life out of death through Christ’s resurrection.

This gift, we call redemption, defined in Hebraic terms as a broad and roomy place, is the landscape where God speaks in the clarity of the 10 Words, the 10 Teachings, or what has become the 10 commandments. First, let me tell you what these are not. They are not a moral code. They are not tablets for courthouse lawns or judges’ chambers. They are not pithy sayings that define who is in the White American Christian Club and who is not. Rather, they are the scaffolding to hold the Piety of the Redeemed, to frame what a covenanted, holy life looks like. These Eternal Words are not designed to show us the way to receive God’s grace, rather they are GIVEN to us as gift, for we have been set free by Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection.

John Calvin says they serve 3 purposes: 1) to expose our sin; 2) to restrain our sin; 3) to guide us away from sin. What often gets lost in translation is the fact they are rooted in God’s deep and abiding love for the people of Israel and the whole world. Before there was Torah, there was the covenant with Abraham & Sarah; before there were the 10 Words there was the great escape from Egypt and the wanderings in the desert until the Israelites arrive at Mt. Sinai (or Horeb). Now they are ready to receive quote ‘out of God’s own mouth’ as Walter Brueggemann says, ‘how God is to be practiced in community among these liberated slaves.’ Unquote.

10 Words are given at the beginning of a very long section of what is known as the covenant passage, it begins here and runs through Numbers 10.10. This placement symbolizes their importance to the life of what originally was an oral community. Long before they were every written down, these 10 Words were passed generation to generation, as a means to shape and form a faithful people. They are a bulwark against wandering the ways of death, they offer life that is bounded yet free. The two tablets structure life with God - the first 4 commandments -then life with our neighbors - the last 6. What we must recognize is you can’t live with only one of the tablets. They are woven together in kindom life, whereby we live into and out of Jesus’ injunction: Love God, love, neighbor, love yourself. Piety of the Redeemed: A Holy Life

Let me ask you this: do you live a holy life? Do you try? Do you have a sense of piety, that is of being religious or reverent? Dedicated, or consecrated to God is the definition of holy. It’s what happens at baptism - I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You bear the Name of God, you are the image of God, you are made holy by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, to use more traditional language. God loves you with a mercy overflowing that is not changed by any temporal circumstances. I find this to be such an important comfort as I age...

No gods, no idols, no name in vain, keep the Sabbath. In our culture idols pop up based on wealth, power, sports abilities, movie, Twitter and Instagram Influencers, music productions - little altars everywhere. We are to be on guard for we know how own capaciousness in turning our glance away from Yahweh, caught by the glitter and gold of someone or something else. We cannot harness God’s power for our own gain, it is why we bow down before Her, rather than claim a seat beside Her, as if She is our best friend.

And commandment 4? Keep the Sabbath? Do you know this may be one of the harder ones to honor? For it means take a rest, stop production, stop doing and start being, built into the very nature of God’s creation of which we are a part. “Go outside and play” our mom use to say to us 5 kids. She is right. We need to get outside and play, the whole life long! It’s a way to be holy.

The other 6 Words frame our relationships in community, not only our church friends, but the entire worlds we inhabit. The best definition I’ve read is this: these are “actions in rehearsal” that is, Hebrew verbs regarding our ways of thinking always have the anticipation of completion. Murder, adultery, steal, false witness, covet - all of these are insidious, invasive, and detrimental to the well-being of communities, and the souls of the individuals in the community. Our redemption does not hinge on our practice, thank God, but the corrosion of our life and its joys are placed at risk when we participate in acts that demean the image of God in another. Lust or covet or lie - tell me, which one can you do for very long without sacrificing your very self? Piety of the Redeemed: A Holy Life

There is no arrogance that comes with recognition of membership, our election, in a people who are called to be part of God’s peculiar possession. Our starting point is at the foot of the cross, whereby we are made holy by Jesus’ death and enlivened for faith by His resurrection, through the Holy Spirit. The task set before us is what Jews call Tikkun Olam, the mending of the world. God demands we live holy lives not so we look good, rather, so we are good and do good. Our reverence is for all of life to thrive, humans, plants, animals, the earth. We hold a vision that some day peace will reign over all, and only glory will fill our eyes. May it come quickly Lord Jesus. Piety of the Redeemed: A Holy Life

Suffering’s Revelations

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16; Psalm 22:23-31; Mark 8:31-38

Rev. Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender

We are in Lent, 2nd week, whereby we will hear Jesus' wrong answer to the critical question: who do you say that I Am?

What is wrong with His answer, you might ask? He says, "The Son of Man must suffer and die..." Wait a minute, really?

We spend a good portion of our days to make sure we don't suffer - hunger, affection, financial well-being, etc - we are told we can buy whatever we need as a defense against suffering.

Yet, the very fabric of our lives is filled with those moments when we hurt, deeply, heartache after heartache. It is why we have a communal prayer time in Sunday worship, why I piece this

prayer email together, why we send out email or text missives crying for help.

Suffering is part and parcel to our humanity. The question then? How will we respond when it comes, in our lives or in someone else's life?

Let's gather in prayer, shall we?

Stay with us through this hard night, Dear God. Show us Your Glory in the midst of the pain.

At the end of the day, we bow down before You in gratitude and thanksgiving. Amen

This is what I wrote to you in our prayer email on Wednesday. I share it again because I realize now it is the start of the reflective work for the sermon today. As we move more deeply into Lent, the shadow of the cross grows larger and we have Jesus’ own words, quote, “I, the Son of Humanity, must undergo great suffering, be rejected by the senior pastors and religious leaders, be killed and after 3 days rise again”. Unquote

As Scripture says, “He said this openly.” Jesus reveals this necessity of suffering just after Peter gives the right answer, “You are the Messiah” to the question, “Who do You say that I am?” In verse 28.

Messiah was a longed-for leader in the Jewish world. After slavery in Egypt, capture and exile in Babylon, than the Roman Empire siege, they needed the soldier-leader who would throw off any last oppressions and set them free in their own lands, with their own religious and cultural expressions, never again to be taken captive. Jerusalem would be the heartbeat of the nation Israel and there the Messiah would rule, a Davidic King forever.

Instead, Jesus says, “I’m going to die on your behalf. If you want to follow me, you will have to die to your will and your desires and your needs, and your compulsions. It’s a bloody and sacrificial road at times. But not without reward. For the life-throb of restored relations - self to self, person to person, community to community, nation to nation, people to land, earth to heaven - will all be yours. The kingdom is here, within reach.” Suffering’s Revelations

Crucifixion was a tool of empire to contain rebellion and insurrections. It was a shameful way to die according to the Jews and you were cursed if you were hung on a tree, according to the law - Deuteronomy 21:22-23. For Greeks, it was an offense to their philosophical sensibilities of truth and beauty. To the Romans it was a signal of failed power, a doomed prophet, not-called by God. At one point, they crucified 2,000 people in one day, to squelch the Galilean rebellion in 6CE. Mark’s community would know about this.

Peter represents humanity when he tries to thwart Jesus - “we want prestige, power, what a crown might give!” It is the seductive voice of the one named Satan. “Come on now, bend one knee. You can have all of this if you do.” Always the temptation to focus on the self.

What Jesus declares in His revelation is that His suffering will be redemptive, on behalf of the world. Everyone will be invited, a radical opening of living life in a holy other way. We live with this very truth: the mercy of God is given, not to the ones who think of themselves as ‘pretty good people, really haven’t done much wrong in my life’, but rather, to those of us willing to gather in the gutter of our lives, who recognize our own sinful self and beg for mercy. The power of God is not to overcome the world with might, but to invade the world with weakness, rooted in love, all the way to dying on the cross. And the wisdom of God is told not in lofty philosophical statements of high intellect, rather the story of a man who walks a dusty road and welcomes the weak, broken, stranger, outsider, outcast. This is the Lenten reality. Suffering’s Revelations.

There is a peculiarity about living into this calling of Christ to be His Disciples and follow Him. It is built into the gesture of taking up your cross as sacrifice, that is, give up your life for others and you will receive abundant life! We know this, at least once in a while, when we offer a hand up, a little cash to the beggar outside the grocery store, donations to Family works or Campbell Farm or Noel House or another charity. While we might measure it on the small side of the scale, in God’s system, it is tallied as worthy. For our little gifts are given in gratitude for all that has been given to us in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. It is not based in the transactional nature of our reality, rather it is when we recognize how generous God has been to us and the whole world. When we participate in God’s economy, the wealth is shared, there is enough for everyone. It is in full awareness that we are keepers for one another, a bedrock truth of the gospel. It is our way of answering the great ? - Who Do You Say That I Am?

I must admit, suffering has been on my mind and heart this week, as I imagine it has been on yours, as the US reaches this horrific, devastating and unnecessary milestone of more than 500,000 dead in the pandemic. More than WW1, WW2 and the Vietnam War casualties put together. At the rate we are going, more will die from this pandemic than the 675,000 that died in the 1918 flu, when there was not the health care resources nor knowledge base available. I’ve mourned the loss of these neighbors, and the devastation of families, communities, schools, churches, synagogues, mosques, restaurants, grocery stores, etc. all the places these folk would inhabit in a life time. President Biden said on Tuesday night, “We must remember their lives. It is the only way forward, is to remember.” With 500 candles burning on the Portico and flags ordered at half-staff for 5 days in honor and remembrance. A nation that recognizes its own suffering and is in mourning. He knows of what he speaks - he lost his first wife, and baby daughter in a horrible car accident and later, oldest son to cancer. His Christian faith has held him steady in the midst of his own deep and abiding suffering.

We cannot forget those we love who suffer daily pain, due to some horrible condition - unrelenting migraines, auto-immune diseases, cancer and its treatments; let alone those in violent situations at home, starvation in war torn countries, lack of water and electricity in some of our states. The lack of access to health care and vaccine because you are Black or Brown and poor.

We have folk who are broken-hearted at the loss of the ones they love. We care deeply for people who bear the sorrow of mental illness everyday. Revelations such as these remind us how fragile the human condition actually is. It is through our attachments to one another that we feel this pain. Hearts break wide open when there doesn’t seem a way out of no way.

I am one who believes we must remember our sorrows, for they teach us humility. Our scars soften our minds and hearts toward others. Or they can, if we allow the Holy Spirit to move us toward compassion and empathy. Suffering’s Revelations

I ponder Jesus in this Lenten Season. He attached Himself to the whole world, forever. It is this binding that I find phenomenal. As I sit at my desk in our apartment, I gaze out my window on Stoneway, see humanity moving along, some yelling at the unknown voices in their heads, people going to work or to the Eltana Cafe for a fresh bagel. I am reminded that Jesus has attached Himself to everyone. It makes me weep in gratitude and thanksgiving. This is what is revealed. God so loved the world...

Amen