"Praying For Our Leaders To Care For The Poor" September 23, 2007 Proper 20, Pentecost 17

(First read the texts for this sermon: 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Amos 8:4-7)

You all know an important rule that keeps us out of trouble: Don’t talk about religion or politics! Well, this morning, I’m going to do both – because what the first and second readings do! And it seems to me this might be timely, since the presidential campaign is already in full swing, and the candidates of both parties are being asked questions about their faith life.

Here’s what we read, in this morning’s verses from First Timothy: First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.

First Timothy presents itself as a letter from Paul to one of his most reliable missionary colleagues, named Timothy. Both letters to Timothy in the New Testament are full of instructions concerning how Christians should act in the world.

This letter is one of the latest writings contained in the New Testament. At this point, the Christian movement consists of small house churches in various cities. It’s a small movement. It is illegal! But it’s being tolerated in most places by the ruling authorities, and most people being attracted to the movement are trying to live in the world just like anyone else, and at least some Christians are concerned about being respectable in society.

One respectable behavior of a person of faith is to pray for his secular leaders, according to the letter writer. It is true that the Christians are living under the domination of the Roman Empire! But tolerant and benevolent leaders who keep the peace are a blessing from God. Why? It is so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity, as the author of Timothy writes. “Dignity” means to live in a way that commands respect in the wider society. “Godliness,” of course, means living a life that is pleasing to God. And how do we do that? We please God when we love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength, and when we love our neighbors as we love ourselves.


Do you pray for our president, and other national leaders? Do you pray for our governor and other state leaders? I hope so! We pray that our leaders are open to God’s guidance as they do their work.

In the Bible, kings and other leaders are commended or condemned according to how righteous they are in God’s eyes. And there are only two criteria for righteousness. It is not how they guard national security. (That’s because, in the Bible, it is God who keeps the nation safe; it doesn’t matter how large an army a nation has!) It is not whether the kings oppose abortion, which the Bible says nothing about. It is certainly not where they stand on gay marriage, which the Bible says nothing about! In the Bible, a leader is pleasing to God (1) if he doesn’t run off after other gods; and (2) if he cares for the poor, and for those who are helpless in the nation.
We glimpse God’s desires for the poor and the weak, in the Psalm that we prayed a couple of minutes ago (Psalm 113). Do you remember praying these verses?

The Lord takes up the weak out of the dust
and lifts up the poor from the ashes,
enthroning them with the rulers,
with the rulers of the people.

And, this morning, we read a full-force harangue from the prophet Amos (who is up there in our stained glass window!) against God’s people who are cheating the poor and the weak in the kingdom of Israel, in the 8th century before the common era:

Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
saying, "When will the new moon be over
so that we may sell grain;
and the sabbath,
so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
and practice deceit with false balances,
buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
and selling the sweepings of the wheat."
The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

Amos is a prophet speaking to affluent people, people like you and me. God is furious, through Amos, because merchants are cheating the poor when they sell grain, by measuring it out in containers smaller than they were supposed to be; and using weights heavier than they were supposed to be to calculate the amount due; and tampering with the balances used for weighing; and mixing in chaff with the product, to reduce the amount of good wheat sold. Worst of all is these merchants’ hypocrisy in observing the sabbath! Outwardly, they are living God-pleasing lives. They are “resting” on the sabbath. But they’re chomping at the bit for each sabbath “rest” day to end so they can again pursue their dishonesty.

Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land, …
The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

Of course, it is not only in the Hebrew Scriptures that God takes the side of the poor. In the New Testament, the most familiar expression of God’s desire is through Jesus’ words: “Blessed are you who are poor.” (That’s in Luke, in the older version of the two renderings of the Beatitudes.) Other New Testament passages calling us to care for those who are poor and those who are weak and helpless include Luke 7:22, and Luke 14:13, and Luke 16:19-31, and Mark 12:42-43, and Romans 15:26-27, and Galatians 2:10, and James 2:5. (That James passage, in particular, is a real shocker!) And, of course, Jesus lived among the poor. Jesus was poor!

So it’s a consistent theme throughout all the books that make up the library that is the Bible. God the creator of all living calls each one of us to care for those who are poor and for those who are weak and helpless. In the Bible, that is one of only two criteria for righteousness!

In the Bible, God has no use for a king – unless the king leads the people in righteousness. The expectation that the king will care for the poor and for those who are weak and helpless is explicit, in many, many places. Check out, for instance, 2 Samuel 12:1-7, and Isaiah 3:13-15, and Isaiah 10:1-3, and Isaiah 14:28-32, and Isaiah 32:1-8, and Jeremiah 4:9-12, and Jeremiah 22:13-17, and Ezekiel 22:23-31.

The author of First Timothy writes this: First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.

I hope you pray for our president, and other national leaders; and for our governor, and other state leaders; and for our country supervisors and city council members. They have difficult, sometimes impossible jobs! They need our prayers.

And if you’re a Biblical Christian, you will pray, in particular, that our leaders please God by caring for the poor, and for those who are weak and helpless.

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

Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, VA

"Intimate Conversation" September 16, 2007 Proper 19, Pentecost 16

(First read the text for this sermon: Exodus 32:7-14)

If you don’t laugh when you’re reading this morning’s story from Exodus, then you’re much too serious about the Bible! The Bible is full of great comedy stories. This is one of my favorites!

Here’s where we are in the story. The exodus event has happened. Moses has led the chosen people of God out of Egyptian slavery. Now, he is away from the people for 40 days and 40 nights. He is up on the sacred mountain, receiving from God the 10 Commandments, written on two tablets! Wouldn’t you think this would be fairly significant period of time for the people, even a holy time of waiting for Moses’ return; a time of special anticipation and devotion and attention towards God?
Instead, here’s what we read in the first verse of chapter 32: When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." (Do you see the comedy in this?? Good!)

Aaron is Moses’ brother. Aaron serves as his brother’s right hand man. Aaron has been right there with Moses, leading the people, faithfully following God’s wishes and desires. But now, here, what does Aaron do? (Do you remember the story?) Aaron gathers the peoples’ gold jewelry and what does he make? A golden calf, that the people then begin to worship! (Could there be anything more ridiculous?! A golden calf becomes the peoples’ god?! A golden calf brought them out of the land of Egypt?! God’s people are so dim-witted that it’s comical!)

God (who, of course, is God in distinction to the golden calf) is not amused. God is angry and wrathful and, in fact, about to lose it – and that leads to more comedy! Watch.

Who created this nation of people, by making promises to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob? God did, right? Whose people are these? They are God’s people, right?

Listen again to the first verse of this morning’s passage. The Lord said to Moses, "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; … Did you hear that? God says to Moses, “your people!” It’s like an angry father who says to his wife about the boy they both procreated: “Do you know what your son has done now??”

The Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation." Now, that's interesting: God is not rejecting Moses. God is willing to make a new covenant, with Moses, to supersede the everlasting covenant God has already made with Abraham and Sarah!

Here’s more comedy: in the story, Moses shows more emotional maturity than God does! But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, "O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?” Whose people are these? They belong to God! God chose them. God is stuck with them (just as God is stuck with people like you and me!). Moses works hard to persuade God not to act out of knee jerk anger. “What would the Egyptians think,” Moses asks, “if they found out that you rescued these people from slavery, only to kill them all in the wilderness before they even get to the promised land?” Moses is saying to God, in other words: “Think of your reputation!”

There is much comedy here – which contains serious truth. Moses reminds God of who God is: God is the one who is faithful, even when the people are unfaithful. Moses says to God, “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, 'I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'" Then we read this: And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people. What do you think about that? Some people think that God is far off in the clouds, uninvolved, never changing, always the same. But that’s the not the God who is described in the Bible. The Bible witnesses to a God who is intimately present to, and desiring closeness with the people God has created. God cares about their needs. God is influenced by their cries. The Bible witnesses to a God who desires the peoples’ love! And the stories, particularly in the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) describe the life of faith as God and God’s people persuading each other, cajoling and threatening and inviting each other, desiring each other’s love and faithfulness. The stories describe a stormy love relationship! So a story like this one in Exodus is helpful and even revelatory – as it widens how we think of God, and opens us to how we experience God: as a dynamic, moving presence in our lives and in the world, a God who is listening to us, and wanting what is good for us.

But, with all that said: there is danger here. This story could also lead us into inaccurate misconceptions about God. Here’s the thing: In the story, God plans bad things for the people who have sinned – but (thank God!) Moses talks God out of it.

How often do people think of prayer in those terms today: that there are bad things about to happen, and so the reason to pray is to try to persuade God from causing that bad stuff to happen? And then, if God doesn’t bring that cure that we pray for, say; or save us from war; then those who are hostile towards God will say, “See? There is no God.” In fact, in a sense, they are right when they say that! That God does not exist.

In this morning’s readings, the witness to who God truly is, is provided succinctly in one verse from this morning’s gospel passage: “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:2). That’s the Pharisees’ complaint about Jesus (God in human flesh), who is eating with those most despised in the society: “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Yes! That is what God does! God is not looking for a chance to fry people, as we might be led to believe from the story in Exodus! Instead, God is all the time launching rescue missions.

“This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Doesn’t that describe what happens each Sunday morning, when we gather for our Holy Communion meal? What intimacy! What love!

Our prayer, then, becomes intimate conversation with this God who desires us so greatly.

Obviously, there are times when we pray to be delivered from something we think is bad: illness, for instance, of ourselves or a loved one. Let me suggest that we come to understand this kind of “asking” prayer when we “begin by listening for God’s desire, rather than by speaking our requests.” (Lois Lindbloom, "Praying Beyond Safety")

Let me read you some notes I took, while listening to a presenter from the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation talking about this kind of prayer, which is called “intercessory prayer.” (Ann Kline, January 14, 2006) When this session with the Shalem Institute took place, my father was in the hospital. Seven months later, he would die. Here is some of what I wrote:

This prayer is going to God and asking, “God, what’s your prayer for my Dad? What would you have me do?”

It’s putting aside my agenda.

What does God want me to do?

That larger stream of prayer: God’s prayer is ongoing. God is always there, always working, always good. I don’t have to call God’s attention to my Dad. God knows.
I offer myself. I stop and listen. I pay attention.

I let go of my control, my assumptions, my expectations. It’s risky! Intercessory prayer asks something of us. I want my Dad to be healed. But maybe that won’t happen. What is God asking of me? What must I let go of, to enter into God’s prayer for my father?

Intercessory prayer softens me. It opens me to be touched by the compassion of God. This prayer softens me to the possibility of God’s love in the situation.

I invite you into prayer that is intimate conversation with God, listening more than speaking to God who is a dynamic, moving presence in our lives and in the world; a God who is listening to us, too; and wanting what is good for us; and knowing what is best for us.

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

Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia

"Remember The Poor" September 9, 2007 Proper 18, Pentecost 15

(First, read the passage for this sermon: Luke 14:25-33)

What a harsh passage we have this morning, from the gospel of Luke!
"Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” And, “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” And, “So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”

The fact that Jesus would say these sort of things, at this point in Luke’s story, is absolutely unimaginable to us Americans. That’s because, in our culture, the measure of “success” is numbers – and, by this time in Luke’s story, there are great crowds following him! Because of what Jesus has been saying and doing, he’s a sensation! He’s a star! Now, he’s going to chase away all but the most highly committed. Jesus is intent on discouraging all who are hangers-on. He is emphasizing the cost of discipleship, and now his numbers aren’t going to look so good.

"Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” “So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” You know that the gospels were edited and put in written form several generations after Jesus lived and died and was raised. These verses describe the experiences of Jesus’ followers when they first heard these stories! Members of some Jewish families were in fact divided, according to how they responded to the good news of Jesus. And the earliest communities of Jesus people did in fact give up all their possessions, pooling their resources in a communal living arrangement. (The gospel of Luke, in particular, is very hard upon those who are rich – people like you and me.)

Do these verses describe the way you and I should live, today?

I certainly don’t think a requirement for discipleship is to hate the others in our families! (For you English majors out there, this is an example of hyperbole in the Bible.) But the point being made is that a cost of discipleship is to put parents, family, relatives, and even one’s own life in subordination to discipleship.

And, as for the teaching to give up all of our possessions, a good case can be made to say that it’s irresponsible not to take care of ourselves! But there are radical communities of Christians in our culture, sharing their resources, and I often do ask myself: why am I not living in one?

A benefit of this harsh passage is that it creates a tension. As one writer puts it, ”the cultural accommodation of the Christian faith has progressed steadily in recent years. As a result, many see no tension between the teachings of Jesus and the common aspirations of middle-class Americans.” In fact, the Christian gospel is a challenging and subversive thing to us who are the richest people in the history of the world. For instance, since only a small percentage of the world’s population lives in developed countries, nearly everyone on the face of the earth would agree with the surprise of the African visitor to this country who asked about our garages in utter amazement: “You have a house for your car?”

So, this morning’s harsh passage can be useful for you and me if it shocks us out of our self-centeredness! If you and I are responding to Jesus’ call to be disciples, the passage is telling us, then what is required is all that we have.

“Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” “The cross” is the ministry to which the Christ calls us. Luke’s community experienced suffering, in carrying the cross. Chances are that you and I will not face suffering that is severe as the result of carrying our cross, because God has blessed America with freedom of religion. Our “suffering” will most likely be gentle: not being able to afford a house as large as we could buy, for instance, or a car as fancy as we could buy – because, out of discipleship, we give away so much money that we can only afford what we need!

But even if our own suffering for the sake of the gospel is mild, carrying our cross means identifying in a radical way with those who are suffering. You may remember a verse from the passage I centered on last week, in Hebrews (13:3): Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. Carrying our crosses of discipleship means solidarity with those who are Christians in all places of the earth.

At the end of our worship service, if I say the words, “Go in peace! Serve the Lord!” what do you say? (“Thanks be to God!”) In fact, over the 28 years that we used the Lutheran Book of Worship we got so used to the dismissal at the end of a worship service that, if a worship leader doesn’t speak those words, worshipers hardly know that it’s time to leave! In Evangelical Lutheran Worship, there are four options for the dismissal, and I’ve used all of them! There is “Go in peace. Serve the Lord.” And, “Go in peace. Share the good news.” And, “Go in peace. Christ is with you.” And there is this one: “Go in peace. Remember the poor.” (Thanks be to God!)

Remember the poor. That could be an effect of the imagery in this morning’s harsh passage from Luke, which shocks us out of our self-centeredness. Remember the poor. Remember those who are in need. Live in solidarity with those Jesus loves especially. (In the Bible, remember that, without exception, God takes the side of the poor and needy!)

In a spiritual sense , “the poor” include the rich. You and I who are rich are aware of our spiritual poverty, which means our weakness of faith, our doubts and our questions. That awareness drives us to our knees. We know our need for God’s grace. As Jesus carries his cross, he carries us on his back.

But we can’t wriggle away from the tension this passage creates, by spiritualizing it! “The poor” are also the poor in the plain sense of the word. They are those who have to decide between heating their houses in the winter and buying food. The poor are those employed full-time in a minimum wage job, who still don’t make enough to rise out of poverty. The poor are many of those millions in our country who do not have health insurance (a scandalous, disgraceful situation in a nation as rich as ours is). Carrying our crosses of discipleship means remembering those who are poor, as though you were poor with them!

In our congregation, many of us do give away at least some of our possessions: the money and material we give to FISH, and to the Grove Christian Outreach Center, and to the Mongai Parish, and to the United Lutheran Appeal, and to Virginia Synod benevolence (with so many of those dollars going to support organizations that work with the poor), and to Faith in Action, and to the Peninsula Pastoral Counseling Center (to their fund that pays for counseling for the poor). As a congregation, we are generous way beyond the norm, and that’s something to celebrate!

But still. This morning’s passage about the costs of discipleship still creates a tension within us, because we cannot do it on our own. When it is up to us, we can never do enough! And so, once again, the Bible turns us towards the God of grace. Thes passage from Luke sounds a radical call to become free from whatever inhibits us from whole-heartedly following our Savior. It’s a call for us to carry our crosses – which is only possible, of course, because of grace. Our ministries are only possible because Jesus the Christ is carrying us!

The benefit of this morning’s passage is that it shocks you and me out of our self-centeredness! As we are freed from that, God leads us to see the needs of our world not through our own eyes, but in seeing and caring about what the triune God sees and cares about: the God who made and loves all things, Jesus Christ who shares the lot of the most wretched, and the Spirit hovering with healing over all the world. (Gordon Lathrop)

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

Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia

"Your Kingdom Come" September 2, 2007 Proper 17, Pentecost 14

(First, read the texts for this sermon: Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16; Luke 14:1, 7-14)

“Your kingdom come.” We pray that each time we gather for worship.
“Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.” When you pray that, are you praying for something that will come in the future? Are you pointing towards that time when history will end, and when the kingdom will be fulfilled? There is that! That promise of future fulfillment is the basis for our hope in Christ!

But “your kingdom come” does not refer exclusively to the future. “Your kingdom is come, today!” – as God’s kingdom is breaking into our day-to-day lives. This morning’s readings from Hebrews and Luke show what that looks like, now.

Let mutual love continue, writes the author of Hebrews, to his congregation. It’s a congregation of “Hebrews,” Jews who have become followers of the Christ. They are knowledgeable about the rules that characterize the Judaism of their day – the myriad of rules significant and trivial. (You may remember, for instance, in last week’s reading from Luke, that Jesus angered the leader of a local synagogue by breaking a rule about doing work on the sabbath. Luke 13:10-17)

But the point of all those rules is this: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. … You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus is reported to have quoted those verses from Deuteronomy and Leviticus, to answer the question, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” (Matthew 22:36-40) In other words, the single point of all rules and laws in the Judeo-Christian system is love; to love God, and to love each other! And so, the author of Hebrews writes to his congregation: Let mutual love continue.

Then, the author of Hebrews goes on, to describe what that mutual love looks like – and here, I would suggest, is where we see “Your kingdom come,” now. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. That’s what love looks like. Here’s more love: Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. The mutual love of the kingdom also looks like this: Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers. And, Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, "I will never leave you or forsake you." So we can say with confidence,
"The Lord is my helper;
I will not be afraid.
What can anyone do to me?"

The author of Hebrews is describing what mutual love looks like within the covenant community. Of course, that is what this community is, this congregation, which is an expression only of the wider church. All who have been baptized have been gathered by the Holy Spirit into the catholic, universal community of Jesus people, the community called to practice mutual love – which means that we engage in mutual servanthood, mutual accountability, mutual support, mutual admonishment and guidance and modeling for each other, as the Holy Spirit uses us to form each other into followers of the Christ.

When you and I are open and hospitable to each other in this community, and to strangers outside of the community, that’s a sign of the kingdom! “Your kingdom come” – now!

When we remember the sufferings of those who are in prison, and those who are suffering torture; when we identify with those who are suffering as if we were also suffering in the same way, that’s a sign of the kingdom! “Your kingdom come” – now!

Did you notice the sacramental language that the author of Hebrews uses when he refers to the sexual relations between a husband and wife? He writes, let the marriage bed be kept undefiled. The gift of sex, within the protective boundaries of marriage, is a sacred gift from God. When a husband and wife live in such faithfulness to each other, and in such mutual pleasure-giving, that’s sacred! That’s a sign of the kingdom! “Your kingdom come” – now!

[A]nd be content with what you have, writes the author of Hebrews. A sign of the kingdom is our confidence in God, rather than a reliance on our money. When you and I live in trusting simplicity, free from the love of money, we witness to “your kingdom come” – now!

“Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.” We pray that every time we gather here for worship, around the table of our Lord, preparing to receive his Supper.

You and I are protected from a great danger by that gathering around the table. The danger of all this teaching about being hospitable, and remembering those who are in prison and suffering torture, and the sacredness of marriage promises, and living simply, is that some of us do those things better than others of us! You know what the danger is, then, don’t you? It’s that I begin to question “how good a Christian” you really are, because I don’t think you’re living simply enough! You begin to judge me as not really committed enough, because I don’t visit often enough in the jail! Judgmentalism arises from self-righteousness – which means that I’ve put myself in the center of the universe, and displaced God! I am filled with hubris and think that the life of faith is something that I accomplish and achieve and “get better at.” There is great danger in that!

Think of what happens instead, when we gather around the table of our Lord. There we all hold out our hands, as beggars. We are hungry people – hungry for grace and forgiveness and new life! In our worship gathering, we receive that good news through our ears, as we hear that Word spoken, of grace and forgiveness and new life. And then, beggars around the Lord’s table, we eat and drink that Word of grace and forgiveness and new life! It is not what we achieve; it is what we receive! It is all gift from God! We gather around the table in the same humility as that taught in the meal story we read this morning in Luke.

And we receive with joy! We gather around the table in celebration as we receive the gift of grace and forgiveness and new life in bread and wine. What good news! It is God’s kingdom come – this morning! It is the high point of the liturgy. That is why we celebrate by singing hymns!

Out of that meal, our response arises. We act in God-pleasing ways. Let mutual love continue. That happens by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit who is bringing in the kingdom. “Your kingdom come.”

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

Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia