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MORE THAN ONE WAY TO PRAY

10/23/2022

Matthew 6:9-13 (NRSV)

Our Father in heaven, may your name be revered as holy.
May your kingdom come.
May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the evil one.

I’m going to take a brief side-step from our study of the Book of Acts today. What I want to discuss is something we have brushed against several times over the months and years, but I don’t remember that we’ve ever talked about it just for itself, but always just as an aside in another discussion.

I know that I have mentioned changing up translations sometimes – just to hear a too-familiar story with a slightly different ear. We can get so used to hearing some parts of the more popular scriptures, that we don’t really ‘hear’ them anymore -- we hear what we expect to hear. We subconsciously think we “know this one” already, so we don’t really listen. (As Rev. Sandhya Jha puts it –"Part of the point is that there are lots of layers to scripture, but unless we’re looking to see it in new ways, we might miss the new message in an old text.”) That’s why I occasionally like to use a translation like “The Message.” It’s different words so it can suddenly sound like a brand new thought.

I’ve been thinking about all this because I recently re-discovered a version of the Lord’s Prayer and was reminded just how beautiful different choices can turn out to be. The words are certainly different, but when you listen you can hear that it says the same thing as the Matthew version we opened with today. This one comes from the Maori people of New Zealand:

Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:
The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and forever.
Amen

It says all the same things as our traditional version, yet it is so beautifully different!

Once I decided to share one with you, I went looking for some others. This one is from The Message translation. It’s much shorter but all that’s needed is here:

Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best— as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
Yes! Yes! Yes!

And another—this one by Mark Berry, from the Emerging Church Movement:

O Breathing Life, your Name shines everywhere!
Release a space to plant your Presence here.
Imagine your possibilities now.
Embody your desire in every light and form.
Grow through us this moment’s bread and wisdom.
Untie the knots of failure binding us,
as we release the strands we hold of others’ faults.
Help us not forget our Source,
Yet free us from not being in the Present.
From you arises every Vision, Power and Song
from gathering to gathering.
Amen –
May our future actions grow from here!

I could go on all day. There are dozens, if not hundreds of variations on this one prayer from all over the world. At the Sermon on the Mount (which is a very long sermon covering a multitude of topics) Jesus gave instruction on how to pray and how not to pray. One small part of that long sermon was Jesus’ example-prayer that we have faithfully repeated for the past 2000 years or so.

I have said many, many times, that Jesus did not have someone with a steno pad following him around to write down everything he said as he said it. What has come down to us is the mixed memories of many different people who remembered something of what he said that day. The exact words are not important. What matters is the love and the caring and the intention of those words – that is what we need to hear – and with the richness of our language that intention can be passed on in so many different sets of words. Or in no words at all. Or all the words.

I think we humans tend to think of prayer as us talking to God. What if prayer is also God talking to us? When we pray do we ever listen? When you are deep in prayer, have you ever found yourself understanding God better? Have you ever felt you understood yourself better?

Recited rote prayers are fine in their place: They join us together in a common prayer; they give us prayer when our minds are too exhausted with worry or pain or grief to think of our own words. But sometimes we need to come to God with new images and new understandings -- and with open ears to hear what we have missed before.

New thoughts, new images, new angles -- all of these are blessings -- clearing the paths of communication between God and us.

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Peter & Cornelius: A Turning Point

10/16/2022

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Acts 10:1-8

At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. He and all his family were devout and God-fearing. He gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, “Cornelius!”

Cornelius stared at him in fear. “What is it, Lord?” he asked.

The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have been seen and heard. Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.”

When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants. He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa.

We are running out of Sundays to look at this long story of the birth-pangs of the Christian faith, and I have decided to focus on a few stories in some depth—rather than just tossing out random names without being able to go into each story as deeply as it deserves.

However, the story I want to share today is--I believe—pivotal. It marks a key turning point in how Christians would forever see themselves and their calling. It also marks the way Christians would come to be seen by others.

The reading with which we began today, introduced us to Cornelius, the centurion, a “devout and God-fearing man” who, while not Jewish himself, was respected by all the Jewish people for his generosity and kindness. As we read, Cornelius had a vision of an angel telling him that God had seen his good works and he was to send men to the city of Joppa to find Simon, called Peter.

The next day, Peter, knowing nothing yet of Cornelius, was on the roof praying when he had a vision. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. And then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter and eat.” But Peter replied, ”Surely not, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean!” The voice spoke again, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” This happened three times and then the vision disappeared.

At this same time, the three men sent by Cornelius had found Simon’s house and were asking for Peter. The Spirit spoke to Peter and told him to go with the men with no hesitation. The next day Peter started out with them, and some of the believers from Joppa went along with them as well.

The following day they arrived in Caesarea, where Cornelius and several close relatives and friends were waiting. As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. Peter said to them all: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. So why have you sent for me?”

Cornelius told Peter about the visit from an angel, telling him to send for Peter – and now Peter had come and they were all waiting to hear what he had been sent to tell them.

Peter, realized that the vision God had sent him telling him to accept all kinds and call nothing and no one impure, was intended to teach him how to accept Gentiles, such as Cornelius. He began by sharing the story of Jesus—how he had come to teach all people and been rejected by his own. Peter continued stories of the presence of the Spirit with the disciples as they shared the word of Jesus, and the vast numbers of people who, having heard the leading of the Spirit, now followed Jesus as well. And the Spirit fell on all that were there that day and they became believers.

And the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles!

The turning point that I see here is that, until his vision of the blanket filled with “unclean” food and being told to eat any of it, even Peter hadn’t yet entirely comprehended all that following Jesus meant. He still clung to the old Law and missed the point that Jesus, with his unlimited in-clusion, now superseded dietary rules and other purity laws that shut people out rather than bringing them in. And now, the others with him were seeing the same thing. The blessing of the Spirit was so obvious that all those gathered there that day were baptized – even the Gentiles!

When the circumcised leaders in Jerusalem heard all this, they called Peter home to explain his actions, and so he told them of the work of the Spirit there, saying, “Who am I to deny where the Spirit has led?” and when they heard all that had happened there, they had no answer and they began to understand that following Jesus was even bigger than they originally believed.

This wasn’t the first, nor would it be the last time God’s “open door” policy would be challenged. Paul would be constantly attacked for including ‘outsiders.’ Many ‘Christians’ today still try their best to exclude those they deem unworthy continuing to justify their actions using the same ancient Jewish purity laws that Peter’s vision condemned long ago.

BUT – none of this is our decision to make. It is God’s open heart and God’s open door and God’s invitation. The faith and the love of Jesus doesn’t belong to any of us alone. It belongs to us all. That’s why I love this particular story of Peter and Cornelius and the gradual, surprising shift in understanding that takes place in all the people here.

We can grow, we can learn. We can become better at this following Jesus stuff. If Peter and the other apostles can grow and change – so can we.

Amen.

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MEANWHILE, SAUL...

10/9/2022

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Acts 8:1-3
That day a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria. Devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him.
Meanwhile, Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house -- dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison...

Before we get into our lesson for today I need to explain some word usage. The new Jesus-followers, at the time we’re reading about and discussing right now, did not yet call themselves “Christians.” The majority of them were still, in their own thinking, observant Jews – just with the new Good News of Jesus as a natural growth in their faith.

But it’s getting pretty complicated, now that we are spreading out into the world and adding believers who may have been born in other regions, or speak other languages, or may even be converts from other faiths – or all three at once.   And it’s going to keep on being complicated, because the cast of characters is starting to become more and more diverse.

The Old Testament, or Hebrew Scriptures, is the story of the Hebrew people – a people created, and growing through the centuries into God’s own Chosen People – the Jews. Those are the people the scripture stories are about. But – there have always been other people as well – not-Hebrew people – foreigners, outsiders – but so far they have mostly been viewed as enemies or simply people-not-worth-our-notice.

But now they are starting to catch our attention. Some of these non-Jewish people are choosing to follow the way of Jesus and they are entering into the story, and so I’m going to start using that word Christian, even though it won’t technically come into being for a few more chapters, because these formerly outside people have now become the story – and we need a unifying word to discuss this growth and inclusion. This inclusion was not always easy. Reading our opening scripture today about Saul’s persecutions tells us just how ugly it would often be.

Now – to get back to the spreading out, the reaching out, we are going to follow one of those who traveled and risked much to tell others about Jesus – one of the earliest Christians.   Philip doesn’t show up a lot in the gospels but he was one of the very first of those called by Jesus to follow – to come and see. He had been a follower of John the Baptist and when John told his followers to go and see Jesus for themselves, Philip did, and he became the third to be called, after Peter and Andrew.

When the persecutions began, Philip went to Samaria and began preaching there – and many were healed, and many were baptized, and there was great joy in the city. Hearing this, the apostles in Jerusalem sent Peter and John to help Philip, and in their praying and laying on of hands, the Holy Spirit swept through the area and masses of new believers were added to their numbers – in that most unlikely place – Samaria!

After a bit, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, but an angel appeared to Philip in a dream and directed him to travel south, where he met a traveler who was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the queen of the Ethiopians. He had come to Jerusalem to worship but was now on his way home again.

He was seated in his chariot, beside the road, and reading from the prophet Isaiah when the Spirit directed Philip to go talk to him. When he saw him reading Isaiah, he asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The man replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” -- indicating that though he came to worship, he could find no one willing to help him understand.

This is one of the classic stories of these early Christians welcoming those who had not been welcomed before. This Ethiopian was most likely a God Fearer – a term used to describe Gentile sympathizers to Judaism who observed certain Jewish religious rites and traditions without ever becoming full converts to Judaism. He could study and learn, but he could never become a fully accepted member of the Jewish faith.

Why? Because not only was he an Ethiopian, but he was also a eunuch. That was two strikes against him, since in the 23rd chapter of Deuteronomy it states that no one who has been castrated, either accidently or intentionally, could ever be accepted into fellowship in the Assembly.

Philip and the Ethiopian traveled together while Philip explained the Reading from Isaiah, and much more. After a while, they came near a stream, and the eunuch asked if he could be baptized. Philip agreed, so this man who could not be accepted in the temple or synagogue, was now freely accepted into the fellowship of Jesus followers.

As they came up together out of the water, the Spirit carried Philip away to the city of Azotus, or Ashdod as it was later known, where he continued preaching and winning souls as he traveled north, all the way to Caesarea – and the now accepted Ethiopian eunuch continued on his way south -- rejoicing – and surely preparing to tell his friends and associates at court all about this wondrous thing that had come into his life!

While the apostles are busy spreading the Good News around the further reaches of Israel, it’s time to check back in with Saul, who is still doing his best to destroy the nascent Christian faith. Acts chapter 9 tells us:
Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”   (Acts 9:1-4)

Many of us already know this story from hearing it preached in church -- how Saul was found to be blind after his encounter with a light and a Voice. Those who had traveled with him led him into Damascus where he waited for three days for another word from the Voice.

Meanwhile, a man named Ananias, a good man and a believer, also heard the Voice directing him to find Saul and care for him. Ananias argued at first because he had heard of Saul’s evil, but the One speaking to him assured him he had plans for him. So Ananias did as he was told, He found Saul and laid hands on him, and his vision was restored. Saul was then baptized in the name of Jesus and immediately began the process of becoming a new man – Jesus’ man.

As we began this series, I said that the story of Acts is a story of spreading out and welcoming in – and that the welcome was not always universal. Instead, it was often met with hostility – both from those on the inside, and those on the outside.

This is our legacy as Christians. In our shared history we have been the ones on the outside, the new people, seeking to be included -- and we have also, all too often been the ones on the inside – doing our best to keep others out.

In our collective past we have been both Saul and Paul. May we choose, much more often, to be the ones who invite and welcome.

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THE PEOPLE KEEP ON COMING

10/2/2022

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Acts 6:1-5a
Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to deal with these matters. Therefore, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.” What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit.

Last week we talked about Peter and John and their conflict with the Council (or Sanhedrin). We ended for the week with the priests and elders being forced to let Peter and John go free from prison because they couldn’t find a way to punish them that wouldn’t set the people against them.

Peter and the other apostles went out and continued to preach on the streets and on the very steps of the Temple and people came from all around to hear what they had to say. Scripture tells us that “many signs and wonders were done among the people through the apostles.” And more and more, the people came, and listened, and believe.

This is the core of Acts – this constant, repeated refrain that the apostles kept preaching and sharing and the people kept on coming and believing. Over and over, throughout the book – from Peter preaching in Jerusalem to Paul traveling across Europe and the near East – the people came to listen and the Spirit touched their hearts and minds and called them in them to Jesus.

But the more they drew in the new believers, the more infuriated the council became until the judges had enough and had the apostles arrested--again--and thrown into prison--again. But in the night an angel came and set them free and sent them back to the temple area to continue preaching and healing. By the time they were brought back in yet again, the elders, having found no way to control them, just wanted to kill them and be done with it.

But one of their number, a wise man named Gamaliel, a Pharisee, spoke up and counseled caution. He reminded them there had been “healers” before this who had caught the people’s attention for a while – but they each had eventually proven themselves false miracle workers, and faded away on their own, without the council’s intervention – doing no permanent harm. Further, he told them to “keep away from these men and let them alone, because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail on its own; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them, and you may even be found fighting against God!” And so the apostles were released – but this was only the beginning of the persecutions to follow.

The first of those who would follow Jesus himself, and then the apostles’ teachings, were generally Jews – people who shared a common heritage, a common God – people who were initially all seeking a Jewish messiah – and suddenly, they were exposed to the expanding diversity of ethnicities and customs among the growing new faith.

It's not that the Jews weren’t used to “others” around them in their business world—they traded with folks from all over. But until now they had managed to keep their religion fairly pure. In business, Jews and non-Jews might meet in the middle and be on equal footing, but in their faith life, non-Jews had always had to conform to Jewish ways and Jewish standards – and that was changing faster than was comfortable for many.

Meshing people from different cultures, different countries -- not to mention different religious backgrounds, was just as messy then as it is now – as it always has been. Sometimes we humans can manage to come together and live in peaceful sharing. Other times we kill each other -- either figuratively or literally.

In the first months and years of this new faith, the people lived together and shared everything together, but in today’s story a sub-group of one of these early communities – referred to in Acts as Hellenists, or those who spoke Greek -- felt they were not getting a proper portion of the shared goods, so they formed a committee to oversee distribution and assure that Jews and Greeks received equal portions. One of those chosen was Stephen, called, along with six others, to serve the growing community of Jesus followers.

Stephen is a Greek name, as are the names of the other seven men chosen here to serve their community, (Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus). Theologian William Willimon suggests they were most likely Greek-speaking Jews of the diaspora, that great scattering of the Jewish people from a time when their homeland was invaded and deliberately broken up.
Stephen was a devoted believer and a gifted and passionate speaker. He spoke of Jesus on the street and many were converted by his words and the Spirit. But not everyone came to believe. One group of traditionalist Jews in particular disagreed with everything he said. They kept arguing and speaking out against him – and when their arguments didn’t prevail, they turned to outright lies.

The council, of course, believed them, and everything Stephen said in answer to their questions further enraged them, until finally they condemned him to be taken out and stoned to death -- at which Stephen is quoted as crying out: “I saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’” ... St. Stephen, known as the first Christian martyr to our human inability to tolerate difference – an inability we see in full force in the world we are living in today.

As Luke tells it: “They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him, and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’”

And Saul approved of their killing him....

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MORE THAN ONE WAY TO PRAY

Peter & Cornelius: A Turning Point

MEANWHILE, SAUL...

THE PEOPLE KEEP ON COMING

Rev. Cherie Marckx

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