Keeping It Simple, Part 1: Be United in Christ

1 Corinthians 1:18-31   For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Matthew 5:1-12   When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.   “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.  “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.  “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

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Antoine de Saint Exupery was a pilot and a philosopher, a designer and a writer, but he is best known as the author of a book for children called “The Little Prince.”  He flew for the French air force in the 1920’s, and later for the mail service, flying regularly between France and Africa.  He was said to prefer the earlier simpler planes, with few instruments, and he said those who flew the more advanced planes were more like accountants than pilots.  In aircraft and in everything else, he prized simplicity.  He said, "It seems that perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."  Think about this for a minute. 

Have you ever had the experience of cooking a dish – a soup or something – and find yourself adding more and more and more in an attempt to fix it?  And you realize that you have done more harm than good.

Have you ever listened to a melody that seemed to have too much going on?  In the film Amadeus, the Emperor critiques the young Mozart’s music saying there are “too many notes,” whatever that means.  It may be nonsense, but doesn’t it seem true that sometimes the simplest melodies are the most beautiful?

Have you ever drawn a picture and at a certain point realize that with every mark you make you are actually making it worse, and you will have to start over again if you want to make it right?

Have you ever looked around your house and thought that there is just too much!  It is cluttered full of things that have become nothing more than distractions.  So it’s time to start filling up bags to take to the Goodwill, in the hopes that someone else can use and treasure these things. 

Have you ever written a sermon and looked at it and thought all these great things I have said, all these words, I need to take them away?  Because I have made it too complicated, and confusing, and crowded.

Our theme for the next few weeks together is “keeping it simple.”  Because sometimes things just become too complicated.  Because our tendency is to just keep adding things:  adding notes, adding words, adding knick-knacks and gee-gaws, adding rules and directions, until it reaches a point of diminishing returns; until it reaches a point of doing more harm than good.  Sometimes less is more; sometimes simplicity is perfection.

And sometimes that idea, that less is more, seems contrary to the conventional wisdom.  We want to respond to every problem, every need, by adding something.  Add a new tool to your tool chest, add a new kitchen appliance.  Buy a new pair of shoes because you don’t have a pair of purple suede shoes to go with your purple sweater, so … you need them.  Yet, at some point the principle turns on itself.

I have known school principals who responded to every problem by making a new rule until they were so tied up in their rules they could barely function.  I have known churches who added so many doctrines, who insisted on so many essential beliefs, that the list of beliefs became the idol that was put before their relationships with God and one another.  At what point does adding more create less value? 

So occasionally we have to go back to basics.  For some people this means taking every item out of your closet and examining them one by one and asking the question, “Do I need this?”  Or, if you are a devotee of Marie Kondo’s life-changing magic of tidying up, you ask, “Does this bring me joy?”  If the answer to either question is no, then out it goes.  Clearing the decks.  Back to basics. 

For matters of faith, to me, it means turning to the scriptures and approaching them with fresh eyes. 

In the next few weeks we try to get back to basics by spending some time with Jesus’s sermon on the mount, because that was where he started with his ministry.  Richard Rohr refers to it as his inaugural address.[1]  And we will add Paul to the equation, using his letter to the Corinthian church, with his call to simplicity, or what he calls foolishness.  Paul looked at this church and saw that they loved wisdom too much – their own wisdom, that is.

Corinth was a diverse, cosmopolitan, vibrant city.  It was a city full of gentiles – Greeks, non-Jews.  And when Paul came to them with the gospel of Jesus Christ, many of them – people of all classes – embraced it.  They became Christians, and they began the practice that became common in other cities where the church had taken root – they began gathering in small groups in one another’s homes for worship.

But it wasn’t too long before problems started to appear – disputes about appropriate conduct, about authority in the church, about how to understand the gospel.  These things should not surprise any of us because today these kinds of disputes are quite common in the church.  We take it for granted that there are divisions among us.  

But from the beginning, Paul made it clear that we should not allow division to become the norm, we should not get used to it.  He opened this letter to the Corinthian church saying, “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you be in agreement and there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and purpose.”

No winners and losers, only unity.  No upper and lower class, only unity.  No left and right, only unity.

Again, we are reminded that the ways of the world are in conflict with the ways of Christ, who called the first last and the last first; who said that the meek shall inherit the earth and the hungry shall be filled.  We are reminded that hierarchies of the world are turned upside down by God, and have been ever since God called Abraham and Sarah, and made Sarah the oldest woman in the maternity ward.  We are reminded that what the world calls foolish is salvation to us. 

Yet we continually struggle against these things, because we are attracted to the ways of the world.  We are excited by things that sparkle and have that smell of newness about them.  We are soothed and comforted by the sense that we have superiority over someone else.  And we are energized by arguments and anger and self-righteousness.  We don’t find meekness attractive.  And the idea of being united in the same mind with our enemies appalls us. 

We can’t hear the truth of Paul’s words unless we understand that he is asking us to begin seeing through the eyes of Christ.  Begin living the life in Christ.  Be united in the mind of Christ.

Paul is not telling us to check our brains at the door, to engage in groupthink for the sake of unity.  He is not expecting us to set aside all differences, the uniqueness and variety of how we were created.  He is not urging us to stuff ourselves into ill-fitting boxes so we are indistinguishable from one another.  Be united, Paul asks us, in seeking the mind of Christ. 

Seek unity in Christ-likeness, and the secret to this is love.  The radical notion of love.

Our first week on this journey toward simplicity calls us to see the world the way Paul sees it, the way Christ sees it.  When we look at those with whom we disagree, sometimes violently, to see another beloved child of God.  This is not easy; I would never say that it is.  But it is the beginning of simplicity – perfect simplicity.

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[1] Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, p.107

One Door Closes, Another Door Opens

Matthew 2:13-23        Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”

When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.”

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The comedian, Louis CK went on late night TV a few years ago and talked about why he doesn’t want to get cell phones for his kids.  You can watch it here:

He thinks they insulate us from life in some ways.  Anytime you begin to feel uncomfortable, your instinctive reaction is to make it go away.  Cell phones – smart phones in particular – are good at that.  Your iPhone or your Galaxy or your Droid provides the perfect distraction.  Just pick it up and start swiping and tapping and texting.  Text someone, check your email or facebook or twitter feed or anything to get your mind off the bad feeling.  It’s a substance that you can use to avoid feelings you don’t like, not so different from alcohol or pills or food, or so many things that we can abuse. 

I know exactly what he means because I have done it.  It’s not a good habit.  The problem is that trying to make the feeling go away by using a distraction is counterproductive.  Because even if you ignore the sadness or the anger or the boredom it’s still there.

I was thinking about these things because someone at the roundtable made a remark that stayed with me all week.  The things that have happened to us in our lives – the happy things and the sad things and the crazy things, all the things – they stay with us and remain a part of who we are, and who we shall always be.  Our life experiences, all of them and not just the ones we choose, make us the men and women we are.  The good, the bad, and the indifferent – all of it.  We can’t do anything about that.  But one thing we can do is decide how we will remember it all. 

The ways in which we remember things are important for how they affect us and shape us.  Remembering gives our lives meaning.  Without it we would be blank slates, rewritten every day.  But with memory we are formed into unique multifaceted and complex people.  The act of remembering is about telling the story of who we are. 

This is, in large part, what the Bible does. Remembering is essential for the people of Israel. Even more, the way of remembering is important for Israel – the way of blessing.  Jewish tradition says that a person should recite 100 blessings a day; there are blessings for everything under the sun – the good, the awkward and embarrassing, and everything else.  Everything is accepted and remembered with gratitude, for those who follow the way of blessing.  “I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord, the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, because of all that the Lord has done for us,” says Isaiah. 

If you have actually read the Old Testament, it may seem remarkable that Israel can say this.  With all the hardship and persecution they suffered, it is amazing that they would remember with gratitude and blessing.  It isn’t because they suffer from Pollyanna syndrome, forgetting how bad the bad things were.  They very clearly remembered the suffering, and they do it quite intentionally.  They know that the good and the bad all go together in making them the people they are.  I appreciate that Israel takes care to remember the hard things as well as the easy things.  Even if it makes my job harder.

Texts like this one from Matthew do make my job harder, because along with the rescue of the baby Jesus we have the slaughter of the innocents.  While Jesus was being whisked away to Egypt by Joseph, who was warned by an angel, Herod ordered the murder of all the infants and toddlers in Bethlehem, because he was enraged.  The most spiteful of all spiteful acts.  It gets its own paragraph right in the middle of the nativity story.  We are not allowed to ignore it.

Oddly enough, we did ignore it at the roundtable.  We put on our rose-tinted lenses and talked about the hopefulness in this story.  It was easier than facing the hard – dare I say, appalling – part of the story. 

So here is the challenge for us:  can we look at our stories – our faith stories, our national stories, our family stories – in their totality, the good things and the bad things, the gains and the losses, and still see hope?  Can we see the hand of God in all of it?  It is what the people of Israel do and what we might do too. 

As we cross over into a new year, we think about all of the events of the past year, perhaps with some relief about putting it behind us.  Sometimes you can’t close the door on the old year soon enough.  We would be happy to shut all the hardship and heartbreaks away with 2016 and start anew.  Yet, in some way the hardships and heartbreaks follow us into the new year because they are part of who we are. 

The loss of a job … loss of money … a death, an illness … the end of a relationship, these things we experienced become a part of us.  We carry them into the new year with us one way or another, so the question I want to ask you is this: how will you carry these things?  In the light or in darkness?

Christians like to say, “when God closes a door, he opens a window,” or “when one door closes another door opens.”  There is always hope with God.  Alexander Graham Bell said, while that is true enough, we are often caught looking so longingly and regretfully at that closed door, we never find the one that has opened.

This past year has known its share of hardships and heartbreaks.  As individuals, each of us has suffered our own hardships and heartbreaks, our own losses and failures.  As a congregation, we have suffered losses – members who have left us, failures we have experienced, perhaps even a loss of hope about the future.

And the world has suffered collectively, perhaps the most poignant image of the suffering being Aleppo – the symbol of our cruelty toward our fellow human being.  Herod’s slaughter of the children of Bethlehem has nothing on the spite and cruelty we have looked upon this past year.

The task for us, as people of faith, is to find the open doors.  Where are the moments of generosity and compassion?  The potential for new relationships?  What are the gifts God is inviting us to open and develop, the opportunities for new flourishing?  We have seen the doors shut.  Now where are the doors opening, inviting us to walk through?

Our faith allows us to carry the hardships along with the beauty and remain hopeful and thankful.  We know that because God is present in our lives, there is reason for praise along with lament.  We know the truth that evil is pervasive in this world – it truly is – but God is just and good. 

This story from Matthew tells us two things:  Joseph’s dream tells us that God’s goodness rescued the little holy family from some awful things, guarding and protecting them.  And this horror they needed to be rescued from tells us just how much the world needed a savior. 

As we step into this new year, let us remember the year that has passed – the good and the bad, because we carry it with us.  Let us acknowledge the doors that have closed behind us and look for the doors that God has opened for us.  Let us give thanks to God for all God’s mercies, for the abundance of God’s steadfast love that is present with us through joys and heartbreaks, and even the dull moments. No matter what befalls us, God’s very presence saves us.