Pastor's Notes

Horace Walpole, an 18th Century English “Man of Letters” once wrote: “This World is a comedy to those who think, and a tragedy to those who feel.” So, I will ask you, “What do you think about this statement?” Perhaps, instead, your first reaction was not an intellectual response but a feeling.

How do you react to most situations that confront you? Emotionally or intellectually? Do you find the world to be a comedy or a tragedy? Maybe neither of these narrow definitions fit your picture of yourself. Many of us were raised in homes where there was much conversation, discussion, and a sorting out of issues and situation. Many were also raised in homes where discussion rarely took place and those things that would occur “out of the blue” in life were met primarily by emotion; perhaps anger or joy.

Did Jesus think life a comedy or tragedy? Nothing we have in the gospels would be good material for a sitcom or the Comedy Club. On the other hand Jesus displayed some anger as he upset tables in the temple and when in seeming contempt he called Herod a fox.

Certainly there is nothing comedic about a world where there is war or a Holocaust. However, all is not tragic in a world where relationships can have love and heroic deeds are performed. There is much to laugh at in life. Too often we take ourselves too seriously. There is also much that is tragic and there is no room for laughter or even smiles.

God created us as emotional beings with a brain. Or did God create us as intelligent beings who have emotions? However we wish to phrase it, we humans are both. I have even noticed many times the choice to be intellectual about things can be an emotional choice. Likewise living primarily as an emotional person can be a choice to not be a thinking person.

It would seem humanity in the world is stuck with both. Maybe this is God’s sense of humor at work watching to see how we handle it all. There is much to laugh about as we continue to repeat the same mistakes. There is also much to cause grief as we continue to repeat the same very serious mistakes.

We are those created with the unique ability to think abstractly as well as concrete thinking. We are those created with the ability to be angry, joyful, frustrated, lonely, and sad. We are not created as those who are to think without consulting our emotions or react without thinking. Intellect and emotions are not enemies, they are partners.
We actually can think our way into a new way of feeling. We can also feel our way into a new way of thinking. Many times we have to adopt new ways of behavior when we find old ways do not work and often times get us in trouble. Sticking with a new way of behavior despite some intellectual or emotional misgivings can change the way we feel and the way we think. The Christian faith has called such “new life.”

Where is it that you need to be made new? Maybe you need to laugh a bit more at yourself or some other. Maybe you need to take a few things more seriously. Maybe you need to explore why you think the way you do or feel the way you do about yourself. Some trusted other(s) might be needed in the process. Those who remember they both are a forgiven people and a people called to forgive can risk this. We can risk putting our thoughts and feelings out there unafraid we or others might get a deeper glimpse into who we are.

You and I need to frequently (constantly?) have our personal emotions and our individual intellects engage in conversation with each other. We need to give ourselves permission to laugh at ourselves and allow our emotions to be expressed. We as followers of Christ are neither comedians nor doomsayers. We are hopeful children of God, hoping above all God will help us become the one and the ones God created us to be. What do you think about that?

I find little to excite me about Arizona’s blistering summers. Part way through my 22^nd Arizona summer, I discover I am have not gotten used to the heat. Yet there are a few things to enjoy even while living in a blast furnace. Eating corn on the cob is one of them. Each year the same dilemma: How to eat it? Typewriter style, left to right? Hop Scotch method? Surely not right to left; that would be un-American! Maybe a zig-zag pattern?

As a young boy growing up in Pennsylvania it was common to see pickup trucks or station wagons (students…ask me and I’ll explain later what a station wagon was) with tailgates down displaying a load of fresh picked corn. Now we scan grocery fliers looking for the magical “6 ears for a dollar” sale. By this stage of my life, I have pretty much settled down to the typewriter style of gnawing the kernels off the cob.  Methods may have changed, but the summertime ritual has remained!

Our church year has systems and certain rituals built into it. Advent is a time of preparation and hope as we look forward to the coming of the Christ Child. Epiphany begins with the Wise Men following the star and continues its season by telling us just whom this stable-born child is. In Lent we pray and repent as the shadow of the cross draws closer. Each season has its own color, its own décor, and its own message. I can’t help but wonder if some of this all evolved from the early church simply decorating and using the colors and decorations of the season to enhance their worship and worship setting.

Currently we are in “Sundays after Pentecost”, not a very exciting or creative name. The Roman church and some Lutherans and Episcopalians call it “Ordinary Time.”

This is the longest season, beginning in spring as winter’s brown turns to green and ends when summer’s green begins to brown. Not coincidentally the color for these Sundays is green. Green signifies growth. Many of the scriptures chosen during these many weeks tend to do with discipleship and growth as a follower. Some years the scriptures include the story of the mustard seed, a widow giving her all, the Samaritan called good, or Nicodemus asking what he as a follower of Jesus must do.

Ordinary time. Is giving our all ordinary? Just how ordinary is it for you to see all the world as your neighbor? How often do we ask the question of Nicodemus: “What must I do?” Perhaps this season in the church year is somewhat misnamed. Perhaps a better title might be “Extraordinary Time.”

Certainly many of the scriptures in this season call us to a faith and to tasks we might not otherwise have or do. It does not seem natural to work toward loving one’s neighbor or to see all the world as our neighborhood.  Many times we are successful in growing our faith and doing the work of discipleship. Many times we are not. All of this can be seen as a life of faith that is ordinary. We both succeed and fail as followers of Jesus.

There is another side to the scriptures during Ordinary Time. This is the God who is extraordinary in all times and all seasons. To quote Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber, “Just in case we don’t get it, faith is not for our glorification.”  That is, our faith sometimes needs to be brought down to earth so we can live together on earth. This is no ordinary effort. It cannot be done without our extraordinary God.

The rhythm of the church year goes on. It will continue to go on at times turning that which is day-to-day into a life of faith that is more than mundane. But that is a story best left to All Saints, another part of the church year’s rhythm.

Have you ever said something like, “I know I am a sinner…..” and then added to that beginning statement by pointing out some fault in another or, perhaps, even some specific fault in yourself? I am certain you have thought about yourself as a sinner, and done so very much more than once.

Many times people claim they do not go to a church because of all the hypocrites there. When this is said to me, my response is, “Yes, we are, come join us!” You and I worship in part because we realize we are hypocrites. We wish to be or do one thing, but seem far too often to be or do something else….something we may greatly dislike.

Talk of sin in the church and among Christians generally is about individual sin; personal sin. It is about sin I or another has committed. Sometimes it may be extended to a certain group, say the KKK or the New York Yankee and their fans…( just kidding on the latter…well, a little).

The word systemic  has come into vogue as of late. Most often we hear of systemic racism; that is racism built into various cultural and societal systems. Many protest this claim. It is often thought systems may be functional or efficient or not functional or efficient, but certainly they cannot contain sin in their structure. Structures are neutral and, in a sense, secular; that is they have nothing to do with God.

Ah, but who designs systems? Who puts systems into place and make them function? People. Sinful people. People who design systems to serve their ends. Sinful people put them together from their own perspective, leaving out other understandings and needs. The stain of sin in us can be like a finger print or DNA deposit we leave on systems in which we design or take part. This is especially so when those of power operate, drive, and participate in these systems. If sinful people design and take part in the systems of our culture (and yes, this includes the church) why would these systems be without sin?

Sin can be corporate as well as individual. Groups have their own often unique deposit of sin. When I become a pastor to a congregation I listen, look, and reflect to discover what unique gifts this community might have. I also do the same to locate the distinctive sin that may lurk within the community. And I realize as I cannot as pastor distance myself from my new community, I too will become touched by its gifts and infected by its sin.

What is the task at hand for followers of Jesus in a world with many and various systems? It is to look, listen, and think about not only those within a system, but, perhaps especially those outside. It is to notice who may not share in the power of designing and implementing systems….who is missing? It is to understand sin is more than just something I have….it can be contained in some of the systems we most cherish. Our task, literally our call, is to confront and work to change the sin that may hold down or leave out some who may be seen and understood as “other.” 

Jesus was put to death by a systemic issue. It wasn’t just Judas, Pilate, Herod, the Sanhedrin, the Romans, or the crowd who had Jesus killed. There was also very much a structure of power at work that was threatened by the Jesus who challenged it. The system worked, but it did not work for God and the ways of God. Thankfully God allowed neither the people nor the systems involved in putting Jesus to death have the final word.

We hypocrites need to come to understand sin is not just my personal struggle. In the church it is our struggle. In the world it is also our struggle. It is the struggle of sinful humans along with the structures they create, inhabit, and from which they benefit. We hypocrites need to look past our mirrors to see sin and hypocrisy. God grants us forgiveness in the one put to death by people and systems, but risen by God alone. God grants forgiveness so we can recognize and change that which is found to be sinful in our systems. Take heart. God still rises God’s people from even deadly systems.

“Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring person on the desert of the waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny.” (Carl Schurz)

German native Carl Schurz was a person with many leadership roles. A general in the Union army during the Civil War, the first German born US Senator, Secretary of the Interior, editor of Harper’s Weekly, leader of the Progressive Republicans following the Civil War, he held many lesser noticed roles of leadership. There is a monument to Carl Schurz in Morningside Park on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. There is also a Carl Schurz Park in Manhattan’s Upper East Side in the area of Hell’s Gate. Many monuments abound for Schurz throughout his native Germany.

I have admired the above quote. Yet notice it does not say what ideals and what destiny to which they may lead. For Schurz it was a mixed bag. While having some positive views on race, many other views were racist and repressive. Yet his point concerning ideals is right on target.

Notice Schurz does not give an indication from where our ideals might originate. We can be left with the impression that according to Schurz they come from us. But we as Christians are those who follow. We are those who follow Jesus Christ. It is Jesus who is both source and leader of any values called Christian.

We don’t need a sextant, compass, octant, or other instrument for Christian navigation. A telescope might be fine if we use it to focus on Jesus. We follow Jesus even when, and, perhaps, especially when, Jesus seems to grate against popular opinion or the accepted wisdom of the world. We follow Jesus even when Jesus seems to lead us away from something in the Bible. Jesus is the hermeneutic, the tool for interpretation, the lense through which we view the Bible. While the Bible is “rule and norm” for faith in our Lutheran understanding, Jesus is how we understand this rule and norm.

Jesus gives us what we might call “ideals”. Love is more powerful than hate, forgiveness stronger than punishment. The way to winning over enemies is to love them. Sacrificing and even suffering for such ideals can be both necessary and effective. Any and all are our neighbors. I could go on, but we get the idea.

Where do you want to go in life? How do you want to end up? When others look back at your life, what do you hope they will see?  What do you hope they might say?  The way to a satisfying answer to these can be found in the ideals we adopt. I should say, the ideal, Jesus Christ. Jesus who is more than an ideal, but a Savior who both gives to those who follow and a Savior who leads and puts back on the following track those who stray from their ideals.

We cannot touch the stars. Nor can we reach out and touch Jesus or hold in our hands the ideals of Jesus. We can, however, follow Jesus. We can follow to the cross, follow into new life, follow into and through this life and be made constantly new even now in this life.  In the end we may discover it was not we who chose our ideals, but the ideals that chose us. 

Throughout life, far too often we learn how powerless we are. Throughout our life of following often we learn of one powerful enough to pull us along and grant us power to make it through even many times to becoming a new person. Shoot for the stars. Hold fast to the one who chose us and leads our following.