"How To Determine When the Bible Is the Word of God -- And When It Isn't!" March 26, 2006 Lent 4

(First read the texts for this sermon:Numbers 21:4-9; Ephesians 2:1-10; John 3:14-21)

When I played baseball, I always had a hard time hitting the low and away curve ball. Well, the lectionary pitches a curve ball at us this morning!
You may know that the three Scripture readings each Sunday come from something called the Revised Common Lectionary. It’s a wonderful witness to cooperation among Christian denominations. These same passages are being read this morning in nearly all Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Presbyterian and United Methodist churches in America.

Among the three texts we have this morning, we read a weird passage from the book of Numbers, which includes the bizarre incident of a bronze serpent raised up on a pole. This reading from Numbers has been chosen for today because the reading from John refers to that peculiar incident. (Otherwise, we’d be able to entirely ignore this passage from Numbers!) But let’s begin with that reading. In fact, I’m going to take advantage of the low and away curve ball that the lectionary is throwing at us, to offer some classically Lutheran teaching: of how to determine when the Bible is the Word of God – and when it isn’t!

The passage from Numbers is from the wild narrative of Moses leading God’s people through the wilderness. They have escaped from slavery in Egypt, but their wanderings are lasting 40 years! Do you remember the story?

As it turns out, the people of Israel are a bunch of whiners and complainers! You just have to laugh at them! Listen:

The people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food." What? Is there no food? Or is it that they don’t like the food that God is providing for them?

Well, you know that the latter is true, because God is providing them with daily bread, while they journey through the wilderness. According to the story, God becomes angry at their self-centeredness, and this is what God does: Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died(!)

Well, that would get the attention of self-centered, whining people, wouldn’t it? Here’s how the story proceeds: The people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, "Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live." So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

Well. Is this passage Word of God? Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. Is this the way God is? Would God would do something like this? (To sharpen the question, when you get home, read the whole section in the book of Numbers, chapters 20-21. There you will see descriptions of Holy War that rival anything we accuse Muslims of taking seriously in the Qu’ran!) In our Bible, is Holy War teaching Word of God? Is this the way God is?

Nearly every time our political and military leaders use God’s name to support their actions they present a God who is that way! And here’s the thing: there are plenty of passages in the Bible that can be quoted to support the view that, for instance, the death of more than 30,000 Iraqis is God-pleasing.

But here is the classic Lutheran teaching. To interpret the Bible, it is necessary to have a center, a criterion for interpretation, because the Bible says so many contradictory things. From that center, then, the Bible can correct itself. The center of interpretation is used to determine when a passage in the Bible is Word and God – and when it is not.

What is the center for interpretation? Of course, it is Jesus the Christ. Indeed, more classic Lutheran teaching: the Word of God is Jesus. The Bible is Word of God only where it witnesses to Jesus – to what Jesus did and said, as he embodied God in human flesh. Luther used an image from the birth story of Jesus to express this. Luther wrote that the Bible is the cradle wherein the Christ child is laid.

So, to use this morning’s reading from Numbers as an example: God does not send poisonous snakes to bite and kill people. That cannot be reconciled with what Jesus said and did, as he embodied God in human flesh. We know who God is, through the revelation of Jesus. God does not send snakes or plagues or hurricanes or tsunamis or AIDS. Death does not please God.

What is from God? Life is from God. Eternal life is from God. Salvation is from God. And it is pure gift! Listen again to some of this morning’s reading in John, including the reference to the bizarre incident in Numbers:

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”


And, hear again verses from this morning’s reading in Ephesians:

All of us once … were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

What I have been reading to you is Word of God. Why? Because it witnesses to what Jesus said and did, as he embodied God in human flesh. Do you see how to use this center, Jesus the Christ, the Word of God, in reading and interpreting the Bible?

Now. Is there evil in the world? Of course there is! Are there people who do evil things? Of course there are! The gospel writer of John attests that that graphically, using the images of light and darkness. According to the gospel of John, Jesus is the light that has come into the world (John 1:7-9), and, as we read this morning, For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.

Jesus time and time again confronted evil. But remember his model, which reveals what God is like. Be very, very skeptical of those who support violence by quoting from the Bible and claiming that they are speaking Word of God. Because that contradicts what Jesus did and said, when he embodied God in human flesh.

Lent is the season of the church year when you and I are especially conscious of our need to return to God, because we remember that we are damned, if left to our own devices. But, as we return, the cross of Christ frees us from anxiety over that! The cross makes it clear that all is gift from God, all is grace; and then, response from us, in love and joy! Hear again this Scripture, this Word of God:

But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia

"Losing Our Lives In God's Grace" March 12, 2006 Lent 2

(First read the text: Mark 8:21-38)

In Mark’s version of the Jesus story, here’s how the first disciples respond to Jesus’ call:

As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea--for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

You know that’s how things happen in the first chapters of Mark, because that’s what we’ve been reading on recent Sunday mornings: events happen at once. People respond immediately.

By the time we get to this morning’s reading in Mark, a number of people have responded in that way to Jesus’ call to follow. They have been listening to Jesus, and watching what he has been doing. Now, watch their response, when Jesus tells them plainly what it means for them to follow him.

Then [Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

Peter takes Jesus aside. Peter patronizes Jesus with his words. And this is a violent exchange of words. The Greek word translated “rebuke” is the word used in the stories of Jesus silencing demons! Does Peter think Jesus is insane and that he needs to be exorcised? (We read earlier in Mark that Jesus’ own mother and siblings think that is true!) Faced with such a rebellion from Peter, Jesus speaks his own words of violent rebuke. Jesus clearly groups Peter with the forces of evil. He says to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan!” “Get behind me.” That’s where disciples are supposed to be!

This is a shocking passage. First, Jesus presents the outrageous image of a criminal, carrying his cross to his execution. Second, Jesus is willing to accept what God chooses. In obedience to his purpose on earth, God in human flesh is willing to suffer. Third, it is inevitable that there will be suffering. Jesus must undergo great suffering because, in him, God is so much in conflict with the religious leaders’ idea of what God wants!

Then come these verses, spoken to all who are listening – including, now, you and me:
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it."

Are those words of comfort for you? (I didn’t think so.) What makes them so hard for us? Well, denying ourselves does not sound like much fun. And who wants to lose his or her life? Does that summarize two of your problems with this teaching of Jesus? Happy Lent!

Hang in there, though, because here is what is truly stunning about this passage: This teaching reveals to us the pathway to deep joy. The person that God has created you and me to be is deeply fulfilled when we follow Jesus by carrying our crosses.

Your cross is your ministry. It is the work that God has called you to do.
Does carrying your cross mean suffering? Perhaps. I doubt that any of us will be put to death because of our faith, although there are places in the world where that is a distinct danger.

Here’s what I think. Only your false self will suffer when you carry your cross and follow Jesus. What makes Jesus’ teaching so hard for you and me is that we work so hard to protect the image we have of ourselves.

When are you propping up a false image of yourself? It is the effort you put into convincing yourself that you are in control. It is energy you spend convincing yourself that you can “handle it yourself” (whatever “it” is), and that you don’t need any help. It’s the model of Jackie Kennedy not shedding a single public tear at her husband’s funeral. It’s the ideal of John Wayne’s movie characters – managing every crisis without becoming the least bit upset.

Many of us have internalized that message: that that’s the way we’re supposed to act! But it takes such hard work to cover up when we’re scared to death, and when we desperately need help from others. And what we’re most afraid of is appearing weak, and so we don’t want to ask for help. In particular, our emotional wounds threaten that false image, because they tell us the truth: that we can’t handle it ourselves. So we cover up our wounds, and that takes enormous amounts of energy.

Whew! What a way to live.

How have you been wounded? Have you been wounded by a period of grief? Has it been the agony of your body not performing as it once did? Have you been wounded by a colleague’s betrayal? Has it been a cancer diagnosis, or another fear over health?

When you’re covering up your wounds, and spending so much energy propping up your false image, of your “in control” self, then you cannot receive the Good News of grace: that it is in God that you and I are fulfilled as human beings. The truth is that you and I are drawn to God. You and I long for God. And here’s the thing: God is able to enclose us in arms of love when we offer up to God our woundedness, when we cast off our false selves, and when we embrace who we are, the person God created us to be, the genuine person, the one who God loves, unilaterally and unconditionally.

That is what Jesus is talking about when he says, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” That is an invitation to freedom! That is a call to deny our false selves. Jesus said to them, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” Here is why that is good news. It is because Jesus is calling you and me to lose our false selves, to lose that charade, to die in that sense so we can live – as who we are, deeply loved by God.

How exhausting it is to prop up my false image of who I am: that I am in the center; that everything revolves around me; that I am in control; that I can handle everything; that I need no one else. If all of that is true, then, of course, I certainly do not need God.

Instead, it is in our woundedness that you and I know God’s salvation, in our neediness, in our longing for God, in losing our lives in God’s grace. What good news there is in Jesus’ saying: For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia

"God Remembers" March 5, 2006 First Sunday of Lent

(First read the text for this sermon: Genesis 9:8-17)


Whenever there is a youth activity, there is always the last youth to be picked up from the church! And when there’s a delay in Mom or Dad coming, how often it is that the youth says, “I hope she remembers to come and get me!” (Sometimes, the parents does forget his or her child! I remember an embarrassed father and mother, years ago. One Sunday, after all the morning activities had ended and most people had left the building, there was a little girl still there. It turned out that both the mother and father had driven separately. And both had assumed that the other was taking their daughter home …)

It’s not a good feeling, to be forgotten. For instance, how many parents of adult children know what its like for your children to forget your birthday? Being forgotten assaults our egos – you know, that little part of your consciousness that tells you that you are the center of the universe. And, I think our fear of being forgotten relates to the fear we have of death. I recently read this story from a former colleague of mine in Delaware, who has also moved on to another congregation:

“I had occasion to return a call to my former church in Delaware and to try and reach one of the pastors with whom I had worked there. There is a new receptionist at the phone in that church, a person added to the staff since I left. I have dreaded somewhat calling that church in the past, because I was so well known and the receptionist always knew my voice and would hold me up by asking how things were going here and how was I doing, and did I like New York, and all that. And I just wanted to have her pass me on to the person I called. But there’s a new person there now, and the new person does not know me.

“’May I speak to Anne,' I asked. ‘I’ll pass you through,’ the new receptionist said, ‘May I ask who’s calling?' ‘Jon Walton,’ I said with some hesitancy, sure she would recognize my name and say, ‘Oh I’ve heard so much about you’ and ‘How do you like New York?’ and all that. But instead she repeated back my name, ‘Jon Walton,’ completely disinterested. ‘Just a moment.’ I got Anne’s voicemail, but I also got a dose of reality. In a moment of time, in that lack of recognition, I realized that life moves on. Others come and take our place, and we will not always be remembered. Somebody else moves into the apartment we leave. Somebody else takes our job after us. Somebody else comes next, and we are reminded that we are dust and to dust we shall return.”

We are dust, and to dust we shall return. That is simply reality. In human memory, each one of us will be forgotten. I think of my father’s mother, for instance. She has always been a role model for me. But it is shocking for me to think that, when my brother and my two cousins and I die, there will be no one alive who will remember our grandmother! She will be forgotten, in just two generations!

Here is what I want to say to you today: God remembers.

All of those you and I have forgotten? God remembers. When you and I are dust and forgotten by all who will come after us? God will remember.

The story we read this morning, from Genesis, is about God who remembers.

It’s part of the Noah story. The flood has happened. The waters have receded, the dry land has appeared, all the animals and Noah’s family have disembarked from the ark. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, "As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."

Notice the first thing about this story: It is describing pure grace! This story describes the first covenant that God makes with human beings. (The more familiar covenant with Abraham and Sarah comes later!) Did God have to make this covenant? Of course not. It is purely God’s initiative. It is grace and gift, wholly and entirely! Indeed, it is the result of God’s own repentance. According to the story, God is horrified at the destruction of the world in the flood!

Now, notice that this covenant God makes is universal. It is not limited to the community of faith. There was no people of God at this point! That only came with God’s call to Abraham, later in the Genesis story. “The [covenant with Noah] is permanent, but the Torah tells us that God chose Abraham, Sarah, and their children to be the bearers of an additional, particular covenant.” Because of the first covenant in Hebrew Scripture, the covenant God makes with Noah, even “Judaism…teaches that God stands not only in particularistic relationship with the Jewish people, but also in a universal relationship with all humanity.”

So, according to our Bible, God is in covenant with Jews and Christians and Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and all flesh that is on the earth. (Verse 17) What unimaginable, universal grace! And this covenant of care is not limited to human beings! Did you notice that? We read that God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations.” “Every living creature”: all of the creatures in nature. What ecological implications! Part of our Lenten penitence must be confessing our complicity in the damage we do to our environment by the cars we drive and the size of houses we live in and the resources we use, in proportion to the rest of the world. (Don’t get mad at me. I’m just being Biblical here!)

In grace, as gift, purely by God’s initiative, God creates a covenant of love with all human beings, all living creatures, for all future generations. God acts unilaterally, obligating God’s self! Pure grace. One hundred percent gift.

Now, let me speak to the theme of Lent, in the context of this morning’s passage from Genesis. It is to God’s initiative of grace and love that we are called to return, when we turn away from God.

God has acted first! For us Christians, God has done all that is necessary for our salvation, through the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. We cannot save ourselves because we can never measure up to God’s desires for us – and so, God does it for us! Our lives of faith –our actions, our decisions, the words we speak, our devotional practices, are response to what God has done, first.

God establishes the covenant, and God maintains it in faithfulness. God remembers. Isn’t it a charming part of the story: the explanation for the rainbow in the sky? Did you notice that God places the rainbow in the sky, not for our benefit, but for God’s?! According to the story, God places the rainbow in the sky so that God will remember what God has promised – so that, when God sees the rainbow, God will remember to stop the rain! Delightful!

God remembers. According to the Bible, God is influenced by people and by events of suffering and pain. God does not forget us! Look at the progression. With Noah, God establishes the covenant. With Abraham and Sarah, God establishes a more specific covenant, “a particularistic relationship with the Jewish people.” And, of course, each time you and I gather around the Lord’s Table for his Supper, we hear these words: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin.” (It is through our baptisms that God includes us in that covenant. And, remember, we refer to the story of Noah and the flood in our baptismal liturgy. See how it all ties together?)

“[S]hed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin.” Through the covenants that God establishes with all flesh that is on the earth (to quote the last verse of our reading), God’s purpose is forgiveness and reconciliation, mercy and reunion.

God is faithful! God remembers! At times, you and I turn away. But when we turn away, God calls us to return.

What grace! What good news!

In the name of God who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia

God's Arms Are Wide Open Ash Wednesday 2006

(First, read the passages for this homily: Isaiah 58:1-12; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21; 1 John 4:7-12)

The season of Lent reminds us of our need to repent – which means, to return to God. The liturgy we use for Ash Wednesday is saturated with that theme.

For some, repentance is a scary word! For some, repentance evokes judgmentalism and fear. But when we know that God is a God of grace, then repentance is a welcome invitation! Lent reminds us to return to God, and God is love. God’s arms of love are wide open.

I wrote the actual words of this homily over the past couple of days. But I received the knowledge of how the homily was going to go a couple of weeks ago, during one of my early morning periods of prayer. I was praying on the passage from First John that’s printed on the front of your bulletin:

"Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us."

When we begin with that, there is nothing frightening or off-putting about Lent! Lent is a time for returning to God, whose arms are wide open. Repentance is a positive response. It is something that you and I are drawn to do by God who loved us first – and who loves us first!

And so, for instance, when we wake in the morning and turn towards God in prayer: we are only responding to God’s prompting, because God has been loving us first, while we were sleeping. Again, when we withdraw from the distractions of the day and turn in prayer to God: that’s a response to God’s prompting, because God has been loving us first. God’s arms are wide open.

Can you trust that God loves you? One writer describes “the process by which God’s love and acceptance ‘seeps into’ us”: “The divine gift is telling [us], deep in [our] spiritual identity, that [we] are accepted by God just as [we] are, unconditionally, prior to any decisions to reform [our] lives, pay [our] bills, or seek reconciliation with an enemy.”

God acts first. What joy there is in our response to God’s initiative of love, in our repentance, trusting in God’s love for us. This return to God is liberating. We are able to respond, by leaving anxiety behind, and engaging in practices of the faith. Three of those practices are mentioned in tonight’s verses from Matthew: prayer and fasting and generosity. (There are, of course, many more!)
Our faith practices are not intended to persuade God to do something good for us! Did you notice that that’s what’s happening in the passage we heard tonight from Isaiah? The people complain to God,

"Why do we fast, but you do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?"

Do you remember how God replies to that in the next verses from Isaiah? God declares that their religious ritual of fasting is hollow – because they have not returned to God in their everyday actions. God responds:

Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day,
and oppress all your workers. …
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

Can you and I risk praying to a God who is that radical in identifying with the poor? How God loves the poor! Can we risk such radical generosity?

We can risk engaging in faith practices when we trust in God’s love! Indeed, through the practices of faith God deepens our trust that God’s arms are wide open. And so, let’s use the practices named in the passage from Matthew, as examples.

Prayer is the practice of listening for God. As you become able to hear more acutely how much God loves you, you become aware more deeply that God is loving you first! What a wonderful thing it will be if that awareness and trust is the result of your Lenten practice this year!

When you fast from whatever takes up your time and attention and prevents you from loving God and loving others, what freedom results! You are released from unnecessary earthly cares and concerns, and freed for devotion and service! What a wonderful thing it will be if, at the end of this Lenten season of practice, you can point to a specific devotional habit, and a specific way of servanthood that you have added to your daily life.

The gospel writer also mentions the spiritual practice of generosity. Many of you know that the practice of generosity leads to more generosity! Generosity is a response to God’s love, and that’s a good thing, but it also feels so good! What joy there is in this practice, as repentance, as return to God!

We do carry the mark of ashes on our foreheads this evening. They are reminders that each one of us will die. We cannot save ourselves. But we are baptized into Christ’s death, and Christ’s resurrection. In that is life and salvation.

And God has done that! God has loved us first, and is loving us now. All God wants is for us to return. God’s arms are wide open!

In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia