Pilgrim Preaching

Welcome to Pilgrim Preaching

Welcome

I started this blog in 2003 on my first sabbatical from my teaching post at Luther Seminary. I'm Lutheran, with a Ph. D. from Duke University. I have taught at Luther Seminary since 1997.

Finding Stuff

You can find postings listed by text in the Scripture Index or by the Sunday of the church year a text is assigned in the Lectionary Index. The search box at the left is also a good way to see if I've written on a particular text or theme. 

Bible Translations

Quotations designated (NET) are from THE NET BIBLE®. Copyright © 2005 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://www.bible.org. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Quotations designated (NRSV) are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible. Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Vocation: Where Little Faith Meets Deep Water

Proper 14A Pentecost +9 | Matthew 14:22-33

During the week of August 7, 2011, summer chapel-goers at Luther Seminary heard five sermons on the story of Jesus walking on the water and Peter getting out of the boat to go to him. Here is one of the five. (By the way, while it is true that the Greek construction for "Come after (or Follow) me" in Matthew 4 is different from that in Matthew 14, I decided the difference did not preclude the use of both texts here.)

Not recognizing Jesus

I especially like this story for a few of its details. First, I like that the disciples do not recognize Jesus for sure right away. They see him and they cry out, “It is a ghost!”

I like this detail because most of the time, when Jesus is coming toward me, I do not recognize him right away either. Lots of people have more clarity on what God is up to in the world than I do. Throughout the years, when I have considered one call or another, one vocational path or another, I have never been able to distinguish in a conclusive way between Jesus talking and my own imagination.

• Am I interested in this new thing because it’s new, or because it’s a call? 
• Is whatever it is that is coming toward me frightening because it’s a miracle or because it’s a delusion? 

Around seminary we hear and tell call stories just about every other day, maybe more. I have almost always felt a little out of place in that conversation. I imagine that I have mistaken ghosts for Jesus and Jesus for a ghost more times than most disciples. 

The test

Peter comes up with a way to solve this problem. Like Gideon of old, trying to figure out if God was really calling him, Peter sets up a test for Jesus. Now a test is not necessarily a bad thing. In 1 John, we read, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (4:1).

In seminary, we call this kind of testing “discernment.” We discern a call by praying, talking with others, listening to advice, and yes, running some tests. “God, if you really want me to do this, I have to be able to sell my house.” “God, if I’m supposed to make this move, my kids are going to have to be OK with it.” “God, if I’m supposed to do this, you have to show me where the money is going to come from!”

“If it is you, bid me come to you on the water.” That is Peter’s test of Jesus. Jesus says, “Come,” and I imagine Peter thinking then, “I should have made the test harder.” Or, “Why didn’t I say, ‘Lord, if it is you, calm this storm!’?” The problem, of course, with asking for a sign has always been that you might get what you ask for. The house sells. The kids are fine with moving. The finances starts to look doable. Jesus, not a ghost, says, “Come.” 

Little faith and deep water

And now we have arrived at another detail I particularly like about this story. Peter answers what has turned into a real call from Jesus, a true imperative, “Come.” He steps out into the water. 

I sometimes feel like the only person on this campus who has never warmed to that quote from Frederick Buechner about vocation. Buechner wrote that “The place where God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” This is a really meaningful sentiment to many, and I suppose there is truth to it. 

I want only to point out that in our text neither deep gladness nor deep hunger seem to be at play. That place where Jesus calls Peter to is the place where Peter’s little faith and the Sea of Galilee’s deep water meet. In my own vocation, I do not know much about deep gladness meeting deep hunger.  I know rather more about little faith meeting deep water.

Christian vocation is a lifetime of stepping out of the boat and then thinking, “What did I just do?” or if the risk is something a whole congregation takes, it means stepping out of the boat and then thinking, “What did we just do?” What were we thinking? And what was Jesus thinking? Why would he call anyone to something so dangerous, so foolish? 

Always, my first reaction when hearing this story and getting to the part where Peter gets out of the boat is to think, “What a stupid thing to do!” “Stay in the boat!” I want to yell at him, every time. “Stay in the boat!” 

He never listens. 

Fishing for people

And then I realize that for all his foolishness, and all his little faith, Peter is onto something. He is going where Jesus is, deep waters and fierce storms notwithstanding, and I can understand that. I understand wanting to be where Jesus is. Not that it is safe or wise to get out of a boat on a stormy sea and take off across the water, but who said anything about safe? Since Jesus so rarely plays it safe, going toward Jesus in most any context is not safe... except that, finally, it is, because it’s Jesus, and Jesus is all about fishing people out of water. 

“Come,” he had said to Peter and Andrew along this same lake, some time before. “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people” (Matthew 4:19).

“Come to me,” he had said to a larger crowd on land, “all whose work is hard, whose load is heavy, and I will give you rest. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28f).

“Come.” It is the way we speak our Lord’s own invitation to his table. “Take and eat.” 

As we gather around this altar, we are heading toward Jesus. More to the point, Peter might say, Jesus is reaching out to all of us. Jesus reaches out to you here, and to me, with gifts as tangible to us as the hand of Jesus was tangible to Peter as Jesus fished for him, caught him around the wrist, and hauled him into the boat.

Answering the call of Christ to “Come” is as likely to leave you soaked and sputtering as it is to leave you “deeply glad.” Either way—both ways—the one who calls you already has hold of you. You and Peter... you’ll be fine.

Resources for Bible Study

I am doing a workshop this weekend for the Southwestern Minnesota Synod assembly titled, "Beyond the Usual Suspects: Bible Study for the Rest of Us," in which we will look at what people might want in a Bible study and how to put together studies that appeal to more than just the usual 5-10% of the number who usually worship at a church.

No Experience Necessary

My favorite book for encouraging people who are not connected to Bible study to get started is Kelly Fryer's No Experience Necessary (Augsburg, 1999). I haven't seen the revised and expanded edition, but assume it is, well, revised and expanded (Augsburg Fortress, 2007). The book is accessible without being simplistic and Kelly's voice is real without being flippant or snarky.

Here are links to web resources that I'll be sharing in the workshop. 

Seeing the Big Picture

Sometimes people want a sense of the sweep of the Bible's big story before, or in addition to, help digging into scripture more intensively. These can help:

The Bible in 90 Days

I'm involved in this project right now. The reading plan is just straight through the Bible, about 12 pages of reading a day. This is probably not the most enjoyable way to approach scripture (12 pages of psalms is a different undertaking than 12 pages of Genesis), but it does give you a sense of the scope of things.

Bookmarks (.pdf) for reading the Bible in 90 days.

Find other resources for reading the Bible in 90 days at http://www.biblein90days.org/.

Walk thru the Bible

Presenters imagine a map of the ancient Middle East & Mediterranean on the floor of a church sanctuary, and tell the stories from the Bible using it. There are hand motions, mnemonic devices, and a lot of activity in the presentations. The original material is from American evangelicals. When I have been part of this program, Lutheran pastor and camp director, Johan Hinderlie, has led it. You can find out more from Johan through Mount Carmel Ministries web site. 

Enter the Bible

Enter the Bible is an orientation to the whole Bible written by Luther Seminary faculty. It is a reference tool (something like a Bible dictionary and a good study Bible rolled into one), with new resources being posted to the site as quickly as we can dream them up. 

The Bible in a Year

The ELCA website has posted resources for people who want to read through the Bible in a year. 

Daily Personal and Family Reading

Myriad online and old-fashioned book resources exist for this. Here are a few that I've either found personally helpful or that have been recommended to me. 

Moravian Daily Texts

The Moravian church began as a very early (pre-Luther) reform movement in Europe, whose leader, John Hus, was burned at the stake. Moravians have the lovely self-definition: "In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, love." Their daily texts include a hymn verse, Bible readings, and prayer helps.

You can buy a book, or read the texts on the web site of Mt. Carmel Ministries. The Moravian Church in North America will send you a daily email, or sell you a book as well. They also have a page of helps for using the texts. 

God Pause

These short daily devotions are written by Luther Seminary alumni, faculty, and staff. Find them on the website or sign up for a daily email.

Bread for the Day 2012

Augsburg Fortress is going to publish its own marketing answer to the Moravian Daily Texts next year. It's called Bread for the Day, and it is based on the daily lectionary brought to you by the Consultation on Common Texts people. Hymn texts, table graces, and other cool stuff are included. Find out more on the AF website. 

ELCA Resources

The ELCA has a page of links here to some additional resources as well as a few of those I've listed here. 

Vibrant Faith Ministries

The former "Youth and Family Institute" is not called Vibrant Faith Ministries. I have not worked with their "Taking Faith Home" Bulletin Inserts, but those who have recommend them. They include daily Bible readings and activities for the whole family and they are connected to the church year and lectionary readings.

Small Group Study

Low Tech Approaches

On the South Carolina synod (ELCA) website, I found a description of several kinds of Bible study for small groups that require only a Bible and a few people. The keys are listening to each other and listening to a biblical text for how it connects to one's daily life. Download Bible Study Methods (.pdf). 

The ELCA website includes a similar list of approaches. The .pdf is just a printable copy of information on the web page. 

Serendipity Bible

I have used this Bible off and on for more than 25 years, and I still really like it for personal and small group study, though I wish it were in a translation besides the NIV. The Bible includes "Open, Dig, and Reflect" questions in the margin of every page, and occasional one-page studies throughout the book. You can buy it wherever Bibles are sold (here are some options from Google books).

Small Group Ministry Treasure Trove

Lyman Coleman, editor of the Serendipity Bible, has made his way over to http://www.smallgroups.com, a website hosted by the people at Christianity Today. There are about a thousand different resources here, many of which are free, and by registering (for free) on the site, you can create a virtual file cabinet, connect via the site's social networking tools, and use their pay-per-download service. Access to everything on the site is $99. per year for individuals and $199. and up for churches. 

Imagining the Invisible God

Christ the King (or The Reign of Christ) | Colossians 1:11-20

"He is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15, NET).

Image-Saturated Lives

Think for a moment about the images that surround us every day. How much red, white, and blue did you see on campaign signs in the last few months? How many images of happy and energetic-looking family men and women pictured, ready to go to work for you in Washington? Consumer images may be even more a part of daily life than political images. How many times a day do we see the Target bull’s-eye, the Nike swoosh, or that unmistakable Apple apple? Images are all around us. Each of these pictures plays a role in shaping our imaginations and our actions. We think, feel, and act differently on account of them. 

Colossians says Christ “is the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15). While an image of God would sound strange to Jewish ears, Romans would take that part of the Christian witness, at least, in stride. Images of the gods abounded both in Roman religion as a whole and in the cult of the emperor. In the Roman empire, Caesar’s image was bigger even than the script Coca Cola is for us. In Colossians Remixed, Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat write that “The image of Caesar and other symbols of Roman power were literally everywhere—in the market, on coins, in the gymnasium, at the gladitorial games, on jewelry, goblets, lamps and paintings."¹ In hundreds of ways every day, images of Caesar reminded people within the Roman empire of where power resided and who was responsible for peace. Harry Maier comments that in Nero’s time, the emperor was at least “the vice-regent of the gods, if not incarnate deity.” To look on the image of Caesar, then, was to have a window to the divine. And what does this divine or near-divine one do for the people? Maier says that he “holds all things together in the body of his Empire of which he is the head, and which he maintains in health and security” (328).²

That is Caesar’s job—except, according to Paul in Colossians, that job has long since been filled. Caesar need not apply. As far back as the beginning of creation, God’s Son has been prior to and more powerful than Caesar and all things, whether visible or invisible, thrones, dominions, principalities or powers. 

This has to sound like a grandiose claim for a little upstart off-shoot of the tiny, provincial religion of the Jews to make in the Roman empire. It stands in direct contrast to Roman claims that the political wisdom, military might, and physical presence of the emperor constituted the image of the divine. Paul says here that all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell not in Caesar, but in Jesus of Nazareth. 

What should we make of this? Is it a branding campaign for the new religion? Is it simply part of a contest for bragging rights? When the former professional wrestler, Jesse Ventura, became governor of Minnesota, cars with Minnesota license plates began showing up with the bumper sticker, “My governor can beat up your governor.” Sometimes the Christ Hymn of Colossians (1:15-20) can sound something like that, like boasting intended to offer the rhetorical equivalent of a kick in the shins to Caesar.  

Images of Jesus

Yet when we put the claim that the Son is the image of the invisible God next to actual images of Jesus’ life, we see that Paul is doing something far different from just claiming superior fire power. The hymn claims that the true nature of power and peace is fundamentally different from what we usually see.

Look, for instance, at the images in the gospel reading assigned alongside this text from Colossians. What does the image of the invisible God look like there? In the gospel reading for this Sunday, Jesus is being crucified under the charge, “King of the Jews.” The firstborn over all creation is not just “above all things” in general. When we catch up to him in the gospel reading, he is specifically above the soldiers who have fixed him to a cross with nails and rope. From that perspective, he says, “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing” (Luke 23:34). The one who is before all things is also here between two thieves. When one of them asks to be remembered, Jesus finds the breath to say, “I tell you the truth; today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Luke shows us a picture in which Jesus brings peace by interceding for his torturers. Jesus brings peace by promising a blessed future to one who is dying beside him. Jesus brings peace not by exercising superior fire power but by absorbing the violence and making peace in the midst of violence.

Christ the King

One of the criticisms of a Christian festival named, “Christ the King” Sunday, is that it is too triumphalistic. The concern is that naming Christ as “king” buys into hierarchical ways of imagining good order that can finally only be maintained by force. To guard against that, the Scriptures almost never call Jesus “king,” or speak of his “kingdom” (cf. Col. 1:13), except in the context of his trial and crucifixion.³

Colossians is no exception to this rule. The empire sustained the Roman pax (peace), such as it was, with rhetoric about the emperor’s benevolence and wisdom combined with brute force to punish enemies of the state and squelch unrest. By contrast, Colossians says that the peace that Jesus brings is “peace through the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:20). Pax Romana required the killing of tens of thousands, including Jesus, for various infractions of Roman order. Jesus, as he is being murdered, does the work of true reconciliation. 

The Christ Hymn does not offer a kick in the shins to Caesar, and it does not try to beat Caesar at his own game of winning through intimidation. It declares that Caesar’s claims are false, and it gives us an alternative image of God’s own benevolence, wisdom, power, and peace.

Notes

¹Brian J. Walsh and Sylvia C. Keesmaat, Colossians Remixed : Subverting the Empire (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 83. BACK TO POST

²Harry O. Maier, "A Sly Civility: Colossians and Empire," Journal for the Study of the New Testament 27, no. 3 (2005) : 323-49. BACK TO POST

³Exceptions to this rule are Nathaniel’s confession upon meeting Jesus, “You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel” (John 1:49), and references in 1 Timothy 6:15, Revelation 17:14, and Revelation 19:16 to Jesus as “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” BACK TO POST

Related Posts

On Colossians 1:1-14, see also “Rescue, Transfer, Daily Life.”

Redemption, Reformation

Reformation, Years ABC | Romans 3:19-28

“They are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). 

Paul has just spent two chapters making sure that all the Gentiles among his hearers and all the Jews alike will recognize themselves to be pretty much out of wiggle room. Gentiles, he argues, might not have had the law to guide them, but they had revelation from God in the natural world, and they did not follow what they knew. Jews have even less of an excuse. They had the law and yet did not remain faithful to the covenant God made with them. Quoting Psalm 14, Paul concludes, “There is no one who is righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10). 

While all the religious language in Paul’s argument might not speak to you, you don’t have to be a particularly religious person to look around the world and see that it’s a mess. And it doesn’t take much for most of us to admit that at least some of the mess has our fingerprints on it. Sometimes we can draw a straight line from something we did to some harm that happened to another. Most of the time, the lines are messier than that. We are part of systems that are broken, so we are not the only ones responsible. Or it’s not that we did something; it’s that we failed to act when an action might have helped someone else, or we tried to help and we made things worse. 

I remember the preacher, Will Campbell, somewhere telling the story of his grandfather taking him to see a public execution, a hanging. Reflecting on the experience as an adult, Campbell commented that he thought the old man was trying to show him, “The world is this way, and it should not be.” We kill each other, legally and illegally.  We kill each other, locally and globally. We kill each other, literally and metaphorically. The world is this way, and it should not be. 

The Righteousness of God

So Paul sets up this scenario where everyone listening to his letter is staring at their shoes and wishing it would just be over soon, and then he says, “But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed” (Romans 3:21). 

Of course, it is not immediately good news that the righteousness of God has been revealed. In Luke, “the righteousness of God” is pictured this way: 

51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the 
thoughts of their hearts. 

52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly; 

53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:51-53).

When Old Testament prophets speak of the God’s righteousness, they are pointing to God setting things right for God’s people. The little people will be vindicated, and Israel will know justice, peace, and prosperity. 

Paul has just spent those opening chapters of Romans documenting how far we all are from that vision. Now, when he says the righteousness of God has been revealed, you have to wonder, is this good news or bad news? If no one is righteous, not even one, then a righteous God might just give up on the human project altogether. 

Redemption

Paul continues, “For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23f). When you redeem something, you recapture its value. Think of a coupon or a returnable bottle. The store or the manufacturer buys them back from you. They are worth cash. 

In Christ Jesus, God redeems not coupons or bottles, but people. Paul would not have had to look far for a case in point. He himself had tried to do the right thing and ended up persecuting the church. The book of Acts tells us that when the deacon, Stephen, was martyred, the men doing the killing laid their cloaks at the feet of the young man we know as Paul, and he “approved of their killing him” (Acts 8:1). The world is this way, and it should not be. Paul had been on the wrong side of God’s righteousness. And God’s response? The Lord Jesus had found him on the road to Damascus and redeemed him for something better.

The whole ministry of Jesus was dedicated to this kind of buying back. He healed people—a few he even raised the dead—and he gave them back to their families. He ate with tax collectors and other sinners, people everyone else had already written off as a loss. He bought them back. The justice he embodied in his life and his death was not content to rail against sin. The justice of God that Christ lived out so faithfully aimed to break the power of sin, to restore sinners so that they could love God and those among whom God has placed them. 

Reformation

The Protestant tradition speaks of God as always reforming the church. Not just individually, but also together, in the body of Christ, we drift away from the righteousness of God as Jesus lived it out and made it available to all. Sometimes we abandon it altogether. Part of what we observe with Reformation Day is this movement of God, in Christ and through the Spirit, to redeem not just individuals, but also the church. 

One of the stories of Protestant Reformation is the story of God buying back a church whose creative ways of keeping the budget balanced (that is, through the selling of indulgences) had effectively put a price on “the free gift,” as Paul describes being right with God (cf. Romans 5:15f). The reformers rejected the idea that anyone could buy or sell the righteousness that God bestowed. 

It is easier to recognize the compromises of the church in a previous century than it is to see such failures in our own time. Yet just as it is always true in our individual lives and in our societies that “there is no one righteous, not even one,” the same is true of our individual congregations and of the church as a whole. (Those who have spent any time at all in the church are likely to find that illustrations of the way, “The church is this way, and it should not be,” come rather too easily to mind.) The people of God lose our way. To say that the church is always being reformed is to say that God is still paying attention, and paying the price, to redeem our communities from all the ways we sell out to sin, death, and the power of the devil. God is still buying us back for something better.