I remember my first time, at Faith Presbyterian Church just north of Purdue University. The pastor with a doctor of theology from the German University of Tübingen, and as well maybe 30 or so professors in the congregation, needless to say I was deeply intimidated.
I remember getting almost no sleep the night before, and I remember as well the text, Ezekiel 37, the story of the Valley of the Dry Bones. And no, the choir did not sing “Dem Bones,” which was too bad, a missed opportunity.
The hard part is that when you put your heart and soul into a sermon, which is nearly every time, you want people to like it. At the same time you don’t want to have your self-esteem dependent upon the congregation’s praise, nor do you want to be emotionally crushed when they don’t like one of them.
Babe Ruth, New York Yankees, batting in Chicago’s Comiskey Park. National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.
The one statistic that has made me feel better than any other is this: Babe Ruth hit 714 career home runs, but he also struck out 1330 times.
Yep, that makes me feel a lot better. I wish more people would try it.
I’m well aware of the statistic about the fear of public speaking. (That fear is slightly greater than the fear of death, which means there are some who would sooner die than speak publicly.). But here is the crux of it…every one of us has our unique insight into the numinous, the spiritual, divinity.
Every one of us!
For someone to think that their story isn’t as good, or my insight isn’t as worthy, as someone else’s, is nonsense.
Public domain via Prawny at Pixabay.
The fear returned when I was in seminary, with only about a dozen sermons under my belt, when the chaplain at Ft. Dix, where I was serving weekends, told me that I had great potential as a preacher, and therefore gave me the July 4 sermon for the main chapel.
That was the High Holy Day at the fort. There were about 700 enlisted men, and then dozens of officers, and sure enough, the General decided to attend.
Which to choose…preach that Sunday, or death?
It would have been a hard choice at the time.
There is a truism that says that you don’t really know something until you are able to explain it to someone else. That is the true blessing of preaching.
We all come across cool ideas or spiritual insights now and then. But they still really aren’t “ours” yet. But when we write it down, edit it, and be sure to make it shorter, and put it in such a way that the content isn’t lost, but can be understood by all, then that is a fine thing. Then it becomes ours for good. Still could be shorter though!
Margie Price, daughter of Clare & Arlene, and brother of Art, had her moment this last weekend. She had a chance to preach at Garden City Community Church in NYC, and in attendance were some of the leaders of our denomination: Freeman Palmer, Associate Conference Minister, David Gaewski, Conference Minister, and John Dorhauer, General Minister and President of the UCC (think Big Kahuna).
When asked about her Sunday morning, this is what she said…
Read Margie’s comments about her experience, and see the rest of the May 2018 Forecaster for news about Jazz Vespers and other activities and events in the First Congregational Church community.
Today is a rare day, when both Easter and April Fool’s Day coincide. The last time this happened was in 1956, 62 years ago, and the next one isn’t that far away, in 2029.
Considering the rarity of this coincidence, there are probably tens of thousands of sermons right now about the apparent vacuity of Paul’s Gospel admonition to be fools for Christ, but I’m going to pass on that temptation.
However, our Christian Education Committee has asked me to incorporate the theme of butterflies into the Easter sermon for today.
I’m happy to oblige on one condition, that it will cover both butterflies and moths. The committee undertook my plaintive request after lengthy debate and condescended to my petition upon a close vote.
On the communion table, we have the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies and Moths, and we have a fantastic coffee-table book called Biophilia: The Human Bond with Other Species by Edward O. Wilson, with marvelous pictures.
There’s an old photograph of a butterfly that I’ll mention later, and the television is cycling fifty-some photos of butterflies that Bernie Lewis has taken over the years.
There’s also what’s called a pysanky, the Ukranian Easter egg with the butterfly theme on it that my wife Tracy did.
To top off the display, in the cases on the piano and also on the communion table are butterflies that were provided by the Price family. So thank you all.
Let me begin with a short poem by Robert Graves, called Flying Crooked:
The butterfly, the Cabbage White,
(His honest idiocy of flight)
Will never now, it is too late,
Master the art of flying straight,
Yet has – who knows so well as I?
A just sense of how not to fly:
He lurches here and here by guess
And God and hope and hopelessness.
Even the aerobatic Swift
Has not his flying-crooked gift.
A Sphinx Moth feeds on a Trumpet; a Beautiful Blue Morpho Saves an Ill Child.
Sphinx Moth on a Honeysuckle Trumpet Vine. Courtesy of UKNTrees.
We have all been entranced by the wonder and beauty and delight of butterflies throughout our days.
Perhaps we had a butterfly net as a kid and a meadow to play in, or perhaps we’ve been to the state fair or the Museum of Natural History and have seen the displays of serious collectors.
Or maybe we’ve been sitting in our backyard on a sunny afternoon, and a butterfly alights upon a sleeping dog or baby or flower, demanding our attention and lightening our souls.
It need not be a sunny afternoon. One rather late August night, well after 11:00 p.m., I was sitting in my backyard, having a glass of wine and taking in the night air.
I happened to be sitting next to a trumpet vine, thinking little enough, when suddenly a Sphinx moth, almost indistinguishable in size and flight from a hummingbird, began its nocturnal feeding on those beautiful flowers.
The large moth hovered only a foot or so from my head as I sat still and quiet. I was transfixed by the moment — the rarity of such an encounter; the brrrrrrrrr of the wings right by my ear; the exquisiteness of this little creature of nature, dimly visible in the dark.
Some of you might have seen The Blue Butterfly (2004).This marvelous movie tells the true story of a terminally ill ten-year-old Canadian boy whose dream is to catch the most beautiful butterfly on earth, the mythic and elusive Blue Morpho.
His mother, single and frazzled, but determined to grant this last wish of her only child, persuades a renowned entomologist (played by William Hurt) to take them on a trip to the jungles of Costa Rica to search for the butterfly, leading to an adventure that will transform their lives.
I won’t spoil the ending for you but will say only that you will have a tear of joy in your eye.
Butterflies (and moths to a lesser extent) have been a classic Easter symbol going all the way back.
The way the classic version of it goes is that the caterpillar stage represents our regular human life, and then the cocoon or the chrysalis stage represents our death, reminiscent even of the shroud, the linen cloths wrapped around Jesus’ body.
Finally, after death our soul or spirit emerges into the heavenly realm, the angelic realm, no longer encumbered by physicality, and that is the butterfly stage.
The Caterpillar Doesn’t Die, It Metamorphoses; Follows Death by Resurrection as a Butterfly.
Monarch Caterpillar Becoming a Chrysalis, courtesy of Monarch-Butterfly dot com.
As far as metaphors or analogies go, this isn’t the best of them. For one thing, it’s a bit negative to liken our human experience to that of a worm. I know some people who feel that way. They are glass-half-empty people, but it strikes me as a bit harsh.
However, the caterpillar doesn’t really die but rather changes, called metamorphosis (a Latin word meaning to change from). In any case, really dying is an important part of the Easter message.
This reminds me of an Easter sermon I heard years ago, perhaps memorable because the preacher did not know the difference between two key words — “resurrection” and “resuscitation.”
So he preached an entire sermon about Jesus being resuscitated. “Come on, Jesus, you can make it.” This definitely made the sermon unforgettable.
Despite the butterfly metamorphosis analogy having some weaknesses, the analogy is actually receiving better science that has been discovered of late.
See how the rest of the story unfolds and wraps up…
In this month’s Pastor’s Perspective, the Rev. Dr. Art Suggs reflects on a very profound Easter Sunrise Service he once attended.
Rev. Suggs writes,
“There is an event that took place long ago that I remember every Easter. It’s one of those stories easy to over- sentimentalize, kind of like the Reader’s Digest version of spirituality. But it really happened, and it touched my heart.
I had a classmate in seminary that I’ll call Mike. As with many of us, he was serving a small church on the side while we went to school. And that church had a tradition of having an Easter Sunrise Service held on the top of a little hill within a local cemetery. Unlike some churches I know, theirs was really held at sunrise.
Actually they were even more particular than that. They timed the service such that it began in the dark, and then right at the conclusion of the sermon, they would sing that old favorite by Charles Wesley, Christ the Lord is Risen Today. That moment was timed to coincide with the exact minute of sunrise, which someone looked up every year.
Even though I wasn’t a part of that church, I attended that service because I wanted to support Mike.
What had happened was this…”
Read the full story of this profound Easter Sunrise service — along with updates on the recent Lenten Music & Meditation Services, Jazz Vespers, and other UCC-FCC events, here:
Today I shall attempt the penultimate sermon in the series, Core Principles in the Bible, and the final sermon in the series will appear on Easter Sunday, Part VII, Fields and Meadows.
I’d like to start off today with comparing two brilliant men. One is from the 18th Century; the other is from the 20th Century.
In my comparison, I need to forewarn you that I will be using one inappropriate word. You will see later why I’m making this exception.
The first of the two brilliant men is Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In his final work, which he called Confessions, he imagines himself having “died and gone to heaven.”
But here is how this great and brilliant philosopher imagines the event: He approaches the heavenly gates with head held high, no bowing, no praise of God, no hint of fear. He has with him, of course, a copy of his Confessions, and as he enters through the pearly gates, all heaven turns toward him, setting aside their eternal praise of God to listen to Rousseau and hear his story.
Rousseau begins to speak to the heavenly host, with their attention no longer on God but on him.
“I have bared my secret soul as Thou thyself has seen it, Eternal Being! So let the numberless legion of my fellow men gather around me, and hear my confessions.”
He does mention them and what follows is what he calls his depravities, probably referring to any number of illegitimate children, all of whom he deserted.
“But let each of them reveal his heart at the foot of Thy throne with equal sincerity, and may any man who dares, say, ‘I was a better man than he.’ ”
Okay, so let us assume that good old Jean-Jacques Rousseau was an ego-secure fellow, having declared before the throne of God that no one who has ever lived was a better man than he.
Another Brilliant Person Is J.C. Becker in the Classroom with His Specialty, Apostle Paul.
Now let us compare Rousseau with another brilliant person.
Here I will choose the most intimidating professor I ever had. I mentioned him a few weeks back in another context. His name is Johan Christian Becker, a professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary.
I was recently reading an editorial by Michael Lindvall, pastor of Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City, and in it he described Becker, bringing back a flood of memories for me, and not only pleasant ones.
Here is his description, which is much better than I could ever do: ohan Christian Becker
“. . . was a riveting classroom lecturer, especially when the subject was the Apostle Paul. Paul was his specialty, and Becker had famously passionate convictions about the apostle. By the end of a lecture, Becker would have often ascended to a paroxysm of academic passion. He paced the dais in his classroom, his Dutch accent thickening as he became increasingly animated by some question of Pauline scholarship. He was convinced of his convictions and often rhetorically lacerated scholars who stubbornly held to what Becker considered patently absurd notions. He waved his arms and jabbed his index finger this way and that; his voice rose; his face reddened.”
(He never paid attention to the time, so every lecture would only begin to be concluded with the sound of the bell.)
“The sound of the bell drew Becker back to earth, and he would look out at the class and say in an even voice, ‘Then again, this may be all bullshit.’ ”
One scholar, Becker, knows full well that our grasp of truth, our deepest understandings, are all provisional. Our declaration of the truth should always be spelled with a small t. The other scholar, Rousseau, arrogantly throws down the gauntlet even in the presence of saints, angels, and God Himself.
My Question: What Are the Core Principles Found in the Bible?
What’s Up With Money (Wealth, Poverty, Camels Getting Through Needle’s Eyes) in the Bible?
I have had the experiences of being both poor and rich — never desperately poor, and never filthy rich. But I have had those feelings of being both poor and rich. I thought about that as I had fun preparing for this day.
Churches have had a fascinating relationship with money.
For example, were you to lift up your pew cushion, you would find, at least on most of the pews, written in pencil on the wood beneath you, the suggested donation for the place where you are sitting.
The cost ranges from five cents for the cheap seats in the back up to a dollar-fifty for the expensive seats in the front. What you got for that dollar-fifty must have had people in the bargain area thinking that persons occupying the high-priced seats must have been really pious.
Speaking of suggested donations, our Jewish neighbors had been depending for years upon a scheme that involved guessing your income based upon your profession. Soon after that, the fund raisers would send you a bill for your annual donation to the synagogue according to that guess. Inherently, this was not a good idea!
Complaints finally forced the financial gurus to end that practice.
All of Y’All, Come on up! Oh God! I Screwed It up! And I Practiced All Week!
Mega Churches. This one is The Willow Creek Church. (Image: Yelp)
When I think about the Bible and money, my first thought, and probably yours as well, goes immediately to television preachers.
They are masterful at it; they have it down to a science. How to use the Bible to get money. Billy Graham, may he rest in peace, was hardly the worst offender, but he was fond of saying, “You never see a U-Haul behind a hearse. You can’t take it with you, so you might as well give it to us.”
If you remember the movie Oh God (1997), there’s a wonderful scene in which God (played by the cigar-smoking George Burns) sends his emissary (the Christ-like John Denver) to the TV evangelist, the Reverend Willie Williams (played by Paul Sorvino), to try to get the good reverend to stop deceiving people.
So John Denver shows up at a worship service, and Reverend Willie is really cookin’ at this point. He is preachin’ up a storm, and he is workin’ the crowd as the time for the offering is at hand. In the style of an altar call, Reverend Willie exhorts the crowd to “Come on up! Come on up! All of y’all, come on up! And put into God’s hands . . . .”
Oh God! I screwed it up! And I practiced all week! [Uproarious laughter.] I’m sorry. You can’t know how humiliating this is to . . . . All right. Okay.
“Come on up to put into our hands what you would put into God’s hands so that then the whole world will be in his hands.” At which point, the organ and the choir all kick into a rollicking hymn, “He’s got the whole world in his hands.”
It’s choreographed perfectly, and the money is just pouring in. It’s a great scene. I apologize for messing it up.
What Does the Bible Say About Money? 8 Positive Parables and 3 Prosperity Gospels.
Gold, Francincense, and Myrhh. Photo courtesy of Arab America.
There’s the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19: 1-10). It’s a pretty awesome story, a redemptive story. He’s a chief tax collector, and he’s short and rich. Jesus had dinner with him, and then received a lot of criticism for doing so.
A sidebar: The reason Zacchaeus is rich is because of the Roman tax policy, which is based upon the kind of community and its size.
The Roman government would tell the tax collectors how much you must collect, and you’ve got the authority of the Roman government and military behind you to enforce this collection. Then they tell you how much to collect, and whatever you pull in above and beyond that, is yours. I don’t know anybody who can resist that kind of temptation.
Having dined with his host, Jesus apparently persuaded him to repent, we’re told, and so Zacchaeus offered fourfold resti tution to all whom he had overcharged. Beyond that, he gave half his estate to the poor.
Mark 10: 17-22. Here is the story of the Rich Young Man.This is the one we heard for the scripture text this morning. The story recounted where this guy said, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” They had a bit of a conversation, but then Jesus told him something way beyond what he told Zacchaeus. He said, “Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” And then we’re told upon hearing that, his coun-tenance fell, and the Rich Young Man went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Caravan of dromedaries, Giza pyramid complex, Egypt. Photo courtesy of Jordan Busson, PD Wikimedia.
Mark 10: 25. The maxim of the camel and needle.We read that “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
Another sidebar on this is that tradition has it that the eye of the needle is actually the smallest of the gates through the walled city of Jerusalem. It’s big enough to allow a grown person to walk through it. If you’re unusually tall, you’d probably have to stoop down.
But a camel? That’s tough. That would be a squeeze. A camel carrying stuff, saddlebags, possessions — no way.
Matthew 25: 14-30. The Parable of the Talents.This is where Jesus excoriates the man who hid his talent and didn’t invest it to collect interest. That story concludes with this verse. It’s one of the toughest verses. You don’t hear this one preached very often:
“For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”
Despite dozens of admonitions to serve, look out for, and help the poor. This passage is generally understood to mean that the rich will use their wealth and their power and their influence to become richer. And the poor, with their lack of wealth, power, and influence, will become poorer.
Additional stories from Jesus include: the parable of the Ten Pounds (Luke 19), the parable of the Dishonest Manager (Luke 16), and the parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus (also in Luke 16).
Matthew 6: 19-21 (the Sermon on the Mount). This is perhaps my favorite from Jesus:
Treasure Chest. Pixabay.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
To be fair, I need to mention a subset of all the things the Bible says about money, and trust me, it’s a lot.
That subset has to do with what is called the Prosperity Gospel, and here are three of the favorites:
I Chronicles 29. You have to dig deep to find this one. Riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. If you have riches, they came from God.
Ecclesiastes 10.“Feasts are made for laughter, wine gladdens life, and money meets every need.” Really? That’s in the Bible? It reminds me of that country song, “There are only two things money can’t buy — true love and home-grown tomatos.”
Psalm 112.“Praise the Lord! Happy are those who fear the Lord, who greatly delight in his commandments.” “Wealth and riches are in their houses, and their righteousness “endures forever.”
You see what happens if you put some blinders on, and you start looking at this collection. There are probably 20-25 verses just like this, so I chose three good ones. You can’t help but make this connection between wealth and righteousness, wealth and virtue.
Well, let me think about this for a minute. If I don’t have wealth, that means God is sort of looking down on me. Maybe I’m not as good or as faithful as I probably should be. Maybe I need to give more. That’s what my church tells me to do and to be more righteous in that way.
Otherwise I’ll end up being poor and wondering where God is.
The whole gospel is sort of a mess that way. You see, the problem with the Prosperity Gospel is that it’s just not all true. Portions of it are, but not the whole thing.
If you add up all the time Jesus is speaking about money, it’s more than when he’s talking about prayer! It’s more than when he’s talking about faith! It’s more than when he’s talking about heaven and hell, all combined!
I’ll Share with You Three Thoughts about Money — the Best I’ve Got.
Find out what The Three Things About Money (and the Bible) are – read the rest of the sermon Money and the Bible:
Next, we examined the Use and Abuse of the Bible in “Part II: A Hard Conversation.” Last Sunday was the Bible and Women in “Part III: Pink Smoke.” (Coming to the UCC-FCC web site soon.)
Today is the Bible and Homosexuality in “Part IV: Invincible Ignorance.” Next Sunday is “Part V: The Bible and Money.”
I’m having a blast with this series; it’s been a lot of fun, even though the subjects have been rather serious.
Let me start off with “Part IV: Invincible Ignorance,” otherwise known as the Bible and Homosexuality.
Back in the days when I was entering adolescence, junior high going toward high school, I had thirteen fish tanks that I took care of in a mini business. I raised all sorts of different kinds of fish and then sold them to local pet stores. They wouldn’t give me any money, but they would give me lots of fish food for my enterprise.
A Home Aquarium, by Aleš Tošovský. PD Wikimedia.
One of the ways to keep fish tanks clean is with snails that eat the algae. There are lots of different versions of aquatic snails, but my favorite is one that’s called an apple snail. It’s a bit of a misnomer because they’re not that big. They are more the size of a walnut, and they come in either dark brown or albino. They are air-breathers, even though they live their lives underwater. From time to time, they make it toward the surface with their long two-inch snorkel.
Hovering below the surface of the water, they send up their snorkel, breathe air for a while, and then tuck it in and go back down for more algae.
The apple snails are very prolific. They lay lots of eggs with hard little shells like an egg shell, but they’re more the size of a mustard seed. They lay 50 to 70 of them very often, so pretty soon the tank is crawling with all these little guys running around.
Pomacea – The Apple Snail, by Stijn Ghesquiere. CC-Wikimedia.
I subscribed to Aquarium Magazine, and sure enough there’s an article about these snails, with advice for people who want to breed them.
The article said just buy two. Don’t worry about whether they’re two boys or two girls. Being pre-adolescent, I perked up at this.
It turns out as I read further that, if you have two males, one of them switches. I don’t know how they make that decision, but if you have two females, one of them will switch. The article used a new word for me — hermaphrodites, meaning that they have the ability to be both, and they somehow make that decision. Well, I was intrigued by that. I didn’t know that could happen in some species.
High-school biology rolls around, and we learn about rabbits. They too have the ability to solve that problem. If you have just female rabbits, they can fertilize an egg with a blood cell. It’s called parthenogenesis, another new word for my growing vocabulary. If you have a bunch of girl rabbits and no males, all is not lost. The next thing you know, you still have baby rabbits coming around.
Later on in seminary, I read in the Greek text that a parthenos shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. Parthenos is a virgin in Greek, and so parthenogenesis is when you are able to have babies and still be a virgin.
Open and Affirming Is a High and Holy Goal; Look Out for Half-Heartedness.
Once again, as the hormones began to flow, I was intrigued by these different options that are available in the animal kingdom. So now, a sermon on the Bible and Homosexuality.
In 2009, our congregation, First Congregational Church, became “Open and Affirming.” Almost nine years ago, we adopted this pledge unanimously, and it’s framed and out there in the hallway. (You’ll find that on our web site here.)
The Last Prejudice Is Homophobia; the Big Three Are Rooted in the Bible.
However, the prejudice against homosexuality is pervasive. It has been called “The Last Prejudice,” which, of course, nobody believes, but it is the third of “The Big Three,” racism, sexism, and homophobia.
Like racism and sexism, homophobia has its roots in the Bible. It’s easy to find, and there are five specific places.
Before your eyes blink over, I’m not going to deal with all five. However, I do want to list them so you know what they are:
A Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Arthur M. Suggs
on the Third Sunday of Lent, March 4, 2018
This is the third in the series of sermons on The Good Book. Here is the Rev. Dr. Art Suggs’ Pink Smoke sermon.
Four Brief Bible Passages from the New Testament
First of all, over in my left-hand corner, we have The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 14: 33-35:
“As in all the churches of the saints, women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.”
Also over in my left-hand corner, is The First Letter of Paul to Timothy 2: 11-12:
“Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent.”
Now, over in my right-hand corner, we have The Gospel According to John 20: 18:
“Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.”
That’s the passage that makes Mary Magdalene the first apostle.
Also over in my right-hand corner is The Letter of Paul to the Galatians 3: 27-28:
“As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”
A small Bible printed by Robert Barker in 1614, belonging to St Mary’s Church, Datchet.
Here are four passages that reflect the tension within the Bible itself.
They remind me of an old W.C. Fields joke.
He was quite the reprobate, you know, and there he is, on his death bed, when a priest comes in and finds him leafing through the Bible. The priest asks, “What are you looking for?” And W.C. Fields replies, “A loophole.”
When I was in seminary in the early 80’s, women preachers were coming into their own, and in many ways, it was hard and not welcomed.
One of the spiteful remarks that went around among the men was that female preachers were like a dog walking on two legs. They don’t do it well, but you’re surprised they can do it at all.
I laughed at that joke back in those days, but I was raised sexist, racist, and homophobic.
Having reflected all of those beliefs in the early part of my life, I soon realized that did not comport with the likes of Cynthia Jefferts, associate pastor of the Nassau Presbyterian Church, or Barbara Brown Taylor, a guest preacher in the area from time to time, who were among the finest preachers I’ve ever heard.
Then as now, over 30 years later, they are still two of the finest preachers I have ever heard.
Cursory Readings of the Bible Reveal Strong Women
Continuing this series on the Bible, the topic for today, the Bible and women, is brought to you by a white male.
Actually, it’s strange that the Bible has been used to subjugate women.
Just a cursory reading reveals that you have in the Old Testament Eve, whose name actually means “life.” Yet here is the mother of all living humans.
There are the wives of the patriarches, all of whom were forces to be reckoned with: Abraham had his Sarah, Isaac had his Rebekah, Jacob had his Leah and Rachel. You have the books of Esther and Ruth, the stories of brave and faithful women, their wisdom and their leadership.
Saint Sophia, Almighty Wisdom, by Nicholas Roerich. Roerich Museum, NYC.
And then there is the mystical text, found in Proverbs, regarding what is now called the Lady Sophia. The way the story is told is that you have God working with Wisdom, and Wisdom is entirely feminine. The Lady Sophia, or the Hokmah in Hebrew, represents feminine energy working with God in order to create all that exists.
Prominent Women in the New Testament
In the New Testament, you have stories such as Lydia in Acts 16, a seller of purple goods, basically a professional businesswoman, who was very involved in the early church in a leadership capacity.
There is Phoebe, recounted in Romans 16, referred to as having significant titles as adelphe, a brother and sister in Christ. She was called a deaconos, from which we get the word deacon, except, at that time, the word also meant leadership in the sense of preaching and teaching, also with the elders. Furthermore, she was called a prostasis, what we would call a patron, a benefactor.
In other words, she was a material supporter and establisher of the church.
Holy Women at the Sepulchre, 1611-1618, by Peter Paul Rubens. PD Wikimedia.
We also have the story of Priscilla and her husband Aquila, also found in Romans. The pair preached, taught, and established churches, and “risked their necks” for the early church.
These were some of the prominent ones mentioned in the New Testament, but beyond prominence there are two women who were venerated, the two Marys.
Venerated Women of the New Testament
You have Mary, the mother of Jesus, given two titles that are the highest the church can confer, the highest of all, well beyond the title of pope. Mary the mother is exalted in the Eastern church, to use their word, called theotokos, God bearer, the mother of God, and she is also given the title of the First Theologian because of her pondering the nature of her child.
Then you have the other Mary, Mary Magdalene, given the title of the First Apostle because she was the first one after the Resurrection sent out to bear the news of Jesus’ life after death. In addition to that title, Mary Magdalene was in all probability the wife of Jesus.
Except for the possibility of Mary Magda lene being the wife of Jesus, all of these women are recognized throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Christ in the House of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, Jacopo and Francesco Bassano, c. 1576–77.
Alas, there is one detail that eclipses all of that history, one that for some reason is seen to be of greatest importance. And that detail is Jesus’ choice of twelve men for his disciples.
Never mind that he traveled with an entourage that included not only the twelve but additional men and women, but no matter, the disciples were all men.
The interpretation of that was slam-dunk proof, Q.E.D. (quod erat demonstrandum). Thus and therefore and henceforth, yea unto the end of time, the church shall be ruled by men only.
Featured Image Credit: The Bible used by Abraham Lincoln for his oath of office during his first inauguration in 1861. PD image by Michaela McNichol, Library of Congress.
In this month’s Pastor’s Perspective, the Rev. Dr. Art Suggs reflects on a recent visit to the Tiffany Mosaics Exhibit at the Corning Museum of Glass.
Rev. Suggs writes,
“The Tiffany Studios had produced three different versions of The Last Supper (1897-1902), and the way they depicted the scene was somewhere between Leonardo da Vinci’s famous fresco and the painting of the same scene by Bartolomeo Carducci (1605).”
“Then Tiffany adapted the scene even more … Preserving tradition, Judas’ head is the lowest of them all … downcast … looking depressed. But what caught my attention was that his halo was drab as opposed to golden and glowing, and it was without his name.”
The Last Supper, circa 1897-1902, Tiffany Studios, Frederick Wilson Designer.
“In other words, here is a person that can and should be forgotten. There in the museum I just stared at Judas’ visage in the mosaic, thinking about what it means to be forgotten.”
“But here’s the other arresting detail…even Judas had a halo. Yes, it was very dull and in desperate need of polishing, but he still had one.”
“It’s important to remember. During Lent we remember the story of Jesus. We all remember lost loved ones, keeping photos or objects of theirs to constantly jog our memories.”
“It is important for us to remember, for in the mind of God none are forgotten.”
A Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Arthur M. Suggs
on the Second Sunday of Lent, February 25, 2018
This is the second in the series of sermons on The Good Book.
“This is my second sermon in a series about the Bible, and today I want to look at both the use and the abuse of the Bible.”
“Early in my first pastorate, I had a best friend by the name of Greg. He was a member of my church, down in Pennsylvania, and we had a lot in common. Our wives and children were friends with each other, and he was what I would call a righteous man. He did well by his family, his business, his community, and his church.”
Greg’s home was on a hill, and it had a bay window with a view that overlooked the valley from an overstuffed chair. Given to being very devout, there he sat with his well-worn Bible as well as probably two dozen Christian books. He would spend at least half an hour every day there with his morning devotions.
During our friendship, we had dozens or perhaps a hundred, theological conversations. He was raised Catholic but sort of gave up on the strictures of that faith, moved toward Lutheranism, and later, when our paths crossed, he was Presbyterian. Finally, he went toward an independent Evangelical church.
While I knew Greg, he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. There are four variations of that disease, and his was one of the bad ones among those that eventually get you. We remained friends for many years, but the time finally came for Tracy and me to leave that little town and go to the big city of Binghamton.”
“Here, I was handed a copy of Book I of Conversations with God, and it rocked my theological world. I was never the same after having read that book, and so I was anxious to give my friend a copy of it.”
He Gave Me a Sucker Punch and Shot Back at Me: “Well, What About John 3: 16?”
“A couple years passed, and finally we went back to his house for a visit, and I gave him a copy. About a month later, when we were together again, he was not amused about the book. Evangelical Christians have a big problem with Conversations with God and A Course in Miracles and virtually all literature of that genre.”
“Using two phrases, Greg accused me first of apostasy, a technical term meaning standing away from the faith, having left the faith, and that wasn’t enough. He also accused me of being a worshiper of Satan. That was a sucker punch to our friendship. It was hard to be friends after that.”
“More years passed with very little conversation, little contact. However, our wives were still friends, and our kids were still friends with his kids, and so the day arrived when we were down there visiting again. My relationship with him was pretty chilly, but we found ourselves in his living room alone for a moment, and he began the conversation with this question, “Art, are you still preaching a false gospel?”
“At that point, there’s not much left of the friendship, and there’s nothing left to lose, so I replied, “Well, I suppose so.””
“Then we entered into yet one more theological discussion. Let me tell you a little about that because he was an avid believer in the standard doctrine that we’re all miserable sinners, we’re all doomed to hell, and Jesus, by dying on the cross, is our redemption. God accepts that 100 percent perfect sacrifice on our behalf. By believing in that, we are covered, and we’re allowed into heaven after all.”
“I admitted to Greg that I see that doctrine in the writings of Paul, for example, in the Book of Romans and the Book of Galations. I see that, I don’t argue with it. I don’t subscribe to it, I don’t believe it, but I see that it’s there in the writings of Paul.”
“However, I also remarked, I don’t see it in the Gospels. I see lots of spiritual teaching in the gospels, the Parables and so forth, but I don’t see that program of redemption, that system of substitutionary atonement leading to salvation in the Gospels.”
“He shot back at me like he was prepared for me to say that, and now he’s going to tell me the truth, so he shot back at me and asked, “What about John 3: 16?”
Featured Image Credit: A Bible handwritten in Latin, on display in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. The Bible was written in Belgium in 1407 AD, for reading aloud in a monastery. Photo by Adrian Pingstone. PD Wikimedia.
A Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Arthur M. Suggs
for the First Sunday of Lent, February 18, 2018
This is the first of a new series of sermons on The Good Book. Here is an excerpt from Enlightening the Eyes:
The Rev. Dr. Art Suggs begins this Lenten sermon about the origins, translations and challenges of interpreting scripture with two stories — The second story based on an awkward moment that occurred during a spiritual discussion group gathering in his backyard.
Rev. Suggs begins, though, with “a sweeping story that I’m quoting from Peter Gomes, formerly a chaplain at Harvard, who wrote a book under the title of The Good Book that I have also used as an overall name for this new series of sermons.”
The ‘sweeping story’ points to the original, admirable, virtue-centered intentions of the Puritans coming to create a ‘new model of Christianity’ in this new world.
You’ll find this ‘sweeping story’ in the full sermon (download link below), but for now, Rev. Suggs continues,
“We’re going to be looking at:
• uses and abuses of the Bible,
• the Bible and women,
• the Bible and homosexuality,
• the Bible and money (that will be interesting),
… and core principles. The series will then take us all the way through to Easter, when we’re going to look at the Bible and miracles.
Bible 101
The Bible used by Abraham Lincoln for his oath of office during his first inauguration in 1861. PD image by Michaela McNichol, Library of Congress.
Where should I begin? I wrestled with this because it’s logical to start at the beginning, and there are some fascinating stories about how the Bible came to be.
This is particularly true for the New Testament, up to the time of Constantine, when he finally pressed the bishops to get their act together and decide what’s scripture and what’s not. Constantine and the bishops did decide, and that led to the whole issue of Rome and the Middle Ages.”
In the full sermon, the Rev. Dr. Suggs shares more about how the bible came into being, and the various translations of it, about which he adds,
“Translations would be fun to go over in a sermon, but I can tell that you’ve had enough. There are great stories about translation in a different way.
For example, in Hebrew, there’s only one word for both “palace” and “temple.” Try to imagine that for a minute. To get a feeling for how closely church and state were united in ancient Hebrew culture, they didn’t even bother to have different words for the two of them.
Context was the only way that you could tell whether someone was talking about the palace or the temple.
Here’s where it gets tough if you want to know a problem in translation: That is, there is no one word for sexual deviancy. How do we translate that? Somebody came up with the term homosexuality, and that word for sexual deviancy, generalized, became very specifically “homosexuality” for centuries.
A Bible handwritten in Latin, on display in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. The Bible was written in Belgium in 1407 AD, for reading aloud in a monastery. Photo by Adrian Pingstone. PD Wikimedia.
Thus, all the versions of the Bible based upon generalized sexual deviancy continued to use the word “homosexuality,” even though the deviance might actually have little or nothing to do with homosexuality.
For example, what would sexual deviancy have been in ancient Greek culture? Generally, it’s considered one of three things: Somehow or other, it was sex mixed in with violence like rape or bestiality or pedophilia. But no, it was decided that the best thing to do was just to call it homosexuality, therefore creating some of the pain and anger and hatred of the church by the homosexual community for centuries because of unwise and unthoughtful translations.
There’s great teaching about the organization of the Bible. You have the Torah and then the writings and the prophets in the Old Testament.
Saint Paul Writing His Epistles, 16th-century painting, c1618-1620, Valentin de Boulogne, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX. PD Wikimedia.
In the New Testament you have the gospels and then Acts, which is sort of like Volume 2 of the Gospel of Luke and written by the same person, in all probability. Then follow the Pauline Epistles, and the scribes didn’t know whether Paul wrote Hebrews or not, so they tacked Hebrews at the end of what they thought were the Pauline Epistles.
Then it was followed by the general epistles, Titus, Timothy, Peter, James, and John and their shorter letters, followed by the book of Revelations.
We also have the Apocrypha, a whole bunch of other scriptures that come from the latter years but before Christ. These were accepted by the Catholics but generally not by the Protestants. And then, of course, the Gnostic documents came to light in the 20th Century from the discoveries of the Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
What Ended My Long Love Affair with the Bible?
To speak personally, I have had a long love affair with the Bible. I have studied it. I have memorized many verses. I learned Greek and Hebrew, and got an A in Greek and 100 in Hebrew, meaning that I did perfectly on every homework assignment and every test. I was the only one. I bought commentaries. I have preached from the Bible faithfully for over 30 years.
One thing I haven’t mastered: Some of my fellow students told me you need to preach with one hand and hold the Bible in the other, and you must buy a very expensive, floppy, leather-bound King James Version of the Bible, and you need to be able to grab it and flip it open. You need to flip it open to the middle, and I can’t do it to save my soul because you open up to the middle, and then you hold it while you’re preaching, regardless what verse it opened to. I never could learn the lesson.
So I’ve had a love affair with the Bible, but the love affair actually ended due to unfaithfulness.
It was all about three forms of unfaithfulness. One had to do with women, one had to do with gays, and one had to do with slaves. It is crystal clear that the Bible treats women in a second-class way.
It is also crystal clear that the Bible believes homosexuality is a sin. There are places where the text doesn’t use the word for sexual deviancy, but they describe it. A man with a man, for example, and they condemn it.
St. Peter Preaching in the Catacombs. Jan Styka, PD Wikimedia.
And it was hard for me to come to this decision, but I have decided that the Bible is just plain wrong. Men and women are to be treated equally, no matter what, and this is especially true in church. Women are not to be kept silent. They are not to have to cover their heads. They are to be treated equally with men.
Science has shown in so many different ways that there is a Bell curve of different types of sexuality, not just in human beings but across the mammalian phyla. Homosexuality is found in well over 400 different versions of mammals, not just among human beings.
And so the Bible is wrong. It’s just plain wrong. I will not preach from those passages ever again.
To Be Fair, the Bible Is a Product of Time and Place. We Divorced, Nevertheless Remain Amicable
Every single culture out of which the Bible emerged — ancient Hebrew, ancient Greece, ancient Israel — was anti-woman, anti-gay, and pro-slavery. So of course, it’s going to reflect that kind of moral compass.
The Second Letter of Paul to Timothy, 3: 16-17 says:
“All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
And I have been hit over the head whenever I have expressed my doubts with that verse. “All scripture,” it says, and it’s infuriating. It brings tears to my eyes.
Because what do you think scripture meant at the time that it was written? It meant the Torah. The first five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It might have meant maybe the Prophets as well and things like the Psalms and the Proverbs, but it probably meant the Torah.
I’m being beaten over the head because I expressed doubt about a New Testament document.
A page from the Gutenberg bible. Scanned by Ransom Center of the University of Texas at Austin. PD Wikimedia.
In that love-affair analogy, we fell in love, we got married, and we had many happy years. But then there was this emerging unfaithfulness, and so we divorced but in an amicable way. We became friends, and we shall remain friends, at least from my end, to my dying day.
I look with amusement at churches in particular that like to venerate the Bible.
For example, some churches have processions in which the Bible is held high, while somebody walks around with it. There are churches that want you to stand when the gospel is read, and you can stay seated for the rest of it, for some reason. There are churches that emphasize the red-letter edition of the Bible because what Jesus says is more important than what other Biblical figures have to say.
There are churches that put the Bible on the communion table and show that it is precious and worthy of being on the communion table. And of course, there are some people who make sure that, in a stack of books, the Bible is always on top.
My present understanding after all these years is that the Bible is a fine tool, but like any kind of tool there are things for which it’s useful and other things for which it’s useless.
The Buddha told a story when some of his disciples wanted to venerate his words. (Find the Buddha’s story in the full version of this sermon – download below.)
I would answer, “Like a makeshift raft, the answer is yes, it does do that, not perfectly, not completely, not always reliably, but yes, it does.”
The passage that Judy Giblin read during the Lectionary was the beautiful and eloquent Psalm 19, verses 1-10 and 14.
Here, she reads again the central portion of it, verses 7 through 10:
“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul;
the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is pure, enduring for ever; the ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.”
** *The series title of The Good Book is borrowed from Peter Gomes’ book by the same title.
**The raft parable appears in the “Alagaddupama” Sutta of the Sutta-pitaka (Majjhima Nikaya 22).
Featured Image Credit: The Gutenberg Bible, 1455, Johann Gutenberg; Rare Books Division, the Lenox Library. Image by Kevin Eng, CC-PD Wikimedia.
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