The Sermon Before the Sermon

The sermon before the sermon is the thinking process I go through to getting to the point of preparing a sermon. What passage should I look to? This Sunday, I will look to the passage about Jesus' entry into Jerusalem for the Passover Festival, Jesus' last entry into Jerusalem before he is executed by hanging on a cross.

But, I am not reading and interpreting the passage about his triumphal entry with palms waving and people singing. Because that was really a sideshow. The real heart of this movement of the Gospel story is the internal experience of Jesus which is revealed when he says: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered you like a hen gathers its chicks under its wings, but you would not . . . " This is a tragic march into the holy city, not a triumphal entry. The singing and shouting and praising as he comes riding on a donkey - these are a mockery of what is really going on. They are illusion which must make this entry even harder for Jesus.

No, I won't be preaching about the palm waving part, but about Jesus' own view of this last entry into Jerusalem,his sorrow for his fellow Jews of Jerusalem who have missed the time of God's coming in Jesus. God drew so near to them, in the flesh of the Messiah, but they would not receive the one sent to reconcile them to God and to each other. They had missed the time of God's coming. And, now Jesus was entering into the rejection of God by God's people. Jesus was experiencing that in his soul, but not simply from God's side - he was also feeling the tragedy of humanity's separation from God.

It was with a very heavy heart that Jesus came to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. The angel of death was drawing near, and unlike the Hebrews who were spared in the first Passover, Jesus would not be spared during this Passover. "He had prayed: 'let this cup pass from me if it is possible,' but it was not.

He was the passover lamb to be sacrificed. He would have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death and experience the burdens of that. And, he would do so in obedience to God and hoping that God would work redemption through this suffering.

The suffering itself seemed meaningless. Why would evil humans get the upper hand over God's Messiah? What good would it do to demonstrate the victory of evil over good before the eyes of those who had hoped in Jesus? But, it was becoming very clear to Jesus that this was the way of God. Perhaps it was not the way God would have liked, but due to human rebellion and sin, it was the way that Jesus had to go to accomplish God's will.

It is comforting to me that Jesus struggled with this way. It is reassuring to me that Jesus asked God to save him from this way of suffering and humiliation. Because it lets me know that this was not the affirmative will of God but the permissive will of God. It was God coming further into the midst and mess of humanity to save - not because God wants to suffer or have his son suffer - but because suffering was the only way to bring redemption to broken, twisted and rebellious humanity. It is only in being willing to bear all the burdens that God's love is demonstrated to human beings.

It is a shameful sight, and a shameful story to read about. If you read it and believe it, it causes a deep sense of shame as a human being. This was the reception we gave to the holiest one to have ever walked the earth. This was the reception we human beings gave to the Chosen of God.

But, it is also a moving sight, because Jesus is one of us, and somehow would not be separated from us, and would not deny us. He clung to his humanity and would not let go, even until the end. Jesus suffered like a human being, not a god. He cried out from the depths of his humanity: "God, why have you abandoned me!?" He would not renounce human beings, though we human beings renounced him. Jesus was true to the way of God, and the way of God was to cling closely to the human race even in experiencing the rejection of humans. For a time at the height of his suffering, Jesus seemed to have felt the rejection of God. And, God had to remain silent for a time. This was the greatest suffering of all. Those three days. Our God. Waiting three days to declare a verdict for Jesus. It was if the "jury was out" for three days. The creation had seen her king killed by evil human authorities. The creation waited for God to speak, but there was nothing. For three days, there was nothing. God was silent for three days. No one knows how long these three days were for the Divine. We do know something about how long they felt for Jesus' friends and family and followers who had expected him to bring in the kingdom of God. They were three days of empty pain and grief. But, what God went through, no one can dare to imagine.

O, Holy, Holy, Holy God. Light beyond all light. Love beyond all love. We do not try to imagine what we cannot imagine. We stop at this gate and tremble at your beauty, your humility and faithfulness to humanity. With all the unfaithfulness that we have returned to you! O, Lord, let your heart be blessed. Let your joy be renewed. Let your love be returned a thousand times over for ever and ever. Amen.

Just Another Day and A New Day

Today is just another day, but then again, today is a new day. I have been alive for over 50 years, which is a lot of days, but I am alive right now on this day.

What I am thinking about this morning is how often I have started over in life, but then again I am never starting over from "ground zero." There is the foundation of the past or the residue of the past that is so strong in all of our lives. And, that foundation often sustains us and gives us meaning, but it can delude us, imprison us or haunt us as well.

And, whatever my past is seems to be subject to the definition I give it in the present. Now, I know that certain things happened or didn't happen, but the way they are remembered/understood and formed into the story of my life. . . well, that is a subjective and creative process. Memory is not a series of still-life pictures nor does it simply have video footage from our lives. Memory is unsettled, always shaking up the fragments of experiences gone by and seeing them in light of current experience and current ways of making meaning.

So, today is just another day, but then again it is the day from which I view and comprehend all the days I have ever lived. It is a day in which I am facing the challenges of today, but it is also a day in which I am shuffling and reshuffling the experiences of the past in light of the way I am seeing things today.

Evolving Spiritually: Different Conceptions of God in Scripture and Experience

If you have a conception of God, then if you can think back on your life, you will probably discover that your conception of God has evolved over the years. Whether you are one who can seem to trace a progression from understanding God as the great king or father located right up there in heaven to a great power and Spirit with an involvement and presence throughout creation; or whether you are one who once had a comfortable view of God and now don't get any clear thoughts or feelings when you say the word "God," or whether you once upon a time felt that God was clearly with a certain group of people and not with others,but now it seems to you that God does not have an identification with any particular group of people, but with humanity as a whole . . . well, there are so many variations of possible conceptions of God among human beings. And, with each human life, there is a distinctive story, from the person who has gone from believing it all to believing none, to a person who has gone from believing nothing to believing every bit of what is affirmed by a religion.

We have lives that run either way: from C.S. Lewis who was a confirmed academic agnostic who became an enthusiastic Christian, to others who believed deeply in their young lives but came to see belief in God as a projection of human wishes and an avoidance of the nature of reality (see Karl Marx and Ludwig Feuerbach and Friedrich Nietzsche).

An individual's view of herself and a person's view of reality and the meaning of life is both a reflection of that person's view of God/ultimate reality and also one's view of God is a reflection of a person's view of self and others and reality. It is not a one way street. Religious knowledge is in a dialectical relationship with other knowledge. Religious knowledge constructs social knowledge as much as social knowledge constructs relgious knowledge.

For example, if I become very discouraged and depressed about life and about my life in particular, such state of mind is likely to affect my conception of God. However, my conception and experience of God is likely to affect my feelings about life and about my life as well.

For some, there may be a path of spiritual development that seems logical. For others, the conceptions of God may change with the seasons of life or even change back and forth radically with drastic alterations in experience. Or, for some, the conception of God may stay relatively the same throughout life, from childhood to old age.

I would like to know more about how people develop their belief or unbelief in relation to their psycho-social experience in life, and how people develop their pyscho-social experience in relation to their belief or unbelief in God.

Although there is something to be said for stability in views, one thing strikes me about the true experience of God. That is, that one's conceptions of God must undergo some radical challenges and changes if one's is to remain open to experience the living God in the real circumstances of life. That doesn't mean that a person cannot have a stable and genuine faith and a life-long experience of prayer and sense of communion with God. But, it does mean that if you get too clear and stable a view of God, it is probably something you have dreamed up and not from the experience of the Living God whose mystery is beyond our knowing.

The Stages of Revelation in the History of God with Humanity

In Jurgen Moltmann's book, "The Trinity and the Kingdom," he has a fairly long section about Joachim of Fiore's teaching about the Kingdom of God. Moltman writes:

"Joachim counted as an "Enthusiast" and an outsider. But in fact, ever since the middle ages, there is hardly anyone who has influenced European movements for liberty in church, state and culture more profoundly than this twelfth-century Cisterian abbot from Calabria, who believed that in his visions he had penetrated the concordance of the Old and New Testaments, and the mystery of the Book of Revelation."

-Jurgen Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom(Harper & Row, 1981), p. 203.

Joachim's teaching about the unity of scripture arises from his vision of the three stages of history: the kingdom of the Father; the kingdom of the Son; the kingdom of the Spirit.

I recite Joachim's words here:

"The myteries of the Holy Scripture point us to three orders of the world: to the first, in which we were under Law; to the second, in which we are under grace; to the third, which we already imminently expect, and in which we shall be under a yet more abundant grace . . . The first condition is therefore that of perception, the second of a partially perfected wisdom, the third, the fullness of knowledge. The first condition is in the bondage of slaves, the second in the bondage of sons, the third of liberty. The first in fear, the second in faith, the third in love. The first in the condition of thralls, the second of freedmen, the third of friends. The first of boys, the second of men, the third of the aged. The first stands in the light of the stars, the second in the light of the dawn, the third in the brightness of day . . . The first condition is related to the Father, the second to the Son, the third to the Holy Spirit."

-Concordia Novi ac Veteris Testamenti,Venice 1519, Lib. V, 84, 112, trans. by E. Benz, Eranos-Jahrbuch 1956, pp. 314.

I will continue on with this next post, and review how Joachim applies these three stages to deal with the very different portrayals of God in holy scripture. Also, I want to discuss the possible application of Joachim's three stages to understand spiritual development. Time to go to work.

Judges, Implied Audiences, and the Transformative Potential of Speech

Lawyers who go to court and try cases spend a lot of time talking about, and trying to figure out how judges think. Because, in all hearings or trials except jury trials, the judge is the sole decision-maker, the one who will either accept or reject the lawyer's argument. And, if you are going to persuade someone, you need to know what is important to that person.

Now, I could write a really engaging post here if I could tell the truth about judges actions, and report on the real conversations of lawyers about judges. Some of us lawyers have very complex psychological analyses of judges that would amaze the judges, and might even be as beneficial as psychological therapy for them, if they would take them seriously. And, then again, some of our theories of how a judge thinks may be so off base that it would make the judge "belly laugh" if he (all our judges in Blount County are male) heard it.

In practicing law, you need to know the law, and you need to understand your judges. You also need to understand your clients. To know the law means you get a real sense of what it means, and how to apply it in various situations: your client's situation and the situation in the courtroom where you need to persuade the judge or a jury.

But, sometimes I think we lawyers sell ourselves short when we forget how much power we have when we really understand the law, our clients and the judge. Because all judges, like all people, have their better and worse selves, have their better and worse days. If you can appeal to that better self on a good day, you may be able to persuade the judge to make a decision he or she wouldn't normally make. When you go to court as a lawyer, you paint a picture. If it is compelling enough, the judge buys that picture and you get what your client is requesting. And, part of that picture you paint as a lawyer is the picture of the judge (the image of the judge). If you can project an image of the judge that is favorable to your viewpoint, then the judge might go your way. What a real good lawyer does is get the judge to imagine himself as the kind of judge you are projecting in your argument.

What I am really getting at is an analysis of rhetoric. In rhetorical analysis, one concept that is discussed is the implied audience, and how the speaker constructs the implied audience in the speech. Of course, there is a real audience that hears the speech, which may or may not be in accord with the implied audience. What is really interesting though is the extent to which a speaker can create out of a real audience the implied audience that will receive his or her speech. In other words, the speaker has to hit the real audience close enough to home and in a way that inspires something deep within or else the audience isn't going to be shaped into the type of audience that the speech is meant for. There is a creative, dynamic process occurring when a speaker really engages the hearer. At times, the speaker herself can be transformed by the event as well. But, the speaker shouldn't forget another part of the picture. For the speaker has to paint the picture, and become the speaker that this argument is meant for as well. That requires that the speaker by transformed by the event as well. The dynamic, truly persuasive argument is one in which the speaker becomes transformed or given to the speaking. That is what gives the speech power to transform the hearer as well. If the speaker simply stays in his or her own skin, he or she only has personal, persuasive power. If the speaker gives himself to the speaking event, then something greater can happen.

A Week Later: Thinking about body and soul, preaching, and personal conversations

Six days ago I posted about having spent a week paying some attention to my inner life, and how that seemed to have restored a deep sense of sanity and peace.

This week, I have gotten run over a little more by concerns, work, and the whatever it is that wears us out even when life is going pretty well. So, here I am on Thursday morning. It has still been a good week, but I have not sustained my energy too well. "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

It seems that I have not attended to the needs of my body very well. And, that tends to wear out the soul in time. So, last week I had this focus on the soul that seemed to sustain me body and soul. But, this week, I got all caught up in concerns of work and other concerns, failed to attend to the state of my body or soul very well, and I am worn out. But, I am not worn out too bad in my soul, more in my body. If I don't turn this around by attending to body, then it will wear down my soul as well. The state of my soul this Thursday morning is fairly positive, but a little off center. The state of my body is very tired, which I think causes the sense of being off-balance. I'll try to pay some attention today to body and soul, and see if I can regain the sense of peace and energy I had at the end of last week.

I am thinking of seeing how fasting might help restore the equilibrium in body and soul that brings peace and new energy. I think that by paying some attention each week to the state of body and soul, I can keep from sinking down too low. The soul can endure a lot, and when you have to exert yourself in trying circumstances in ways that would seem to wear your body out, if there is purpose in this exertion, it seems like the soul's energy just sustains the body. But, when you are exerting yourself a lot and don't have a sense of purpose, then the weariness of the body tears down the soul - that is, where there is no energy coming from the soul.

I have watched my mother and father endure overwhelming challenges with a sense of strength and sanity and good spirit even when these challenges would seem to have caused bodily or emotional collapse. Their key was that they acted in love for others. And, with both of them, there was just this deep sense of responsibility and toughness. These concrete memories of how they endured are active memories with me that inspire a similar perserverence and determination and almost pride in living on and living with deep purpose when challenges arise.

Well, back to the abstract.

Now, I know that it is a fiction to some extent talking about body and soul as if they are separate entities. Of course, they are united, and that is why I am finding out how attention to inner affects outer, and attention to outer affects inner. But, I still find the words "body" and "soul" helpful in trying to talk about and understand how I and other human beings are made up.

This talk may be too abstract to communicate very well. That's the reason it is good that we have the chance to communicate personally with each other about the real facts of a week. What I did in particular that wore me down, how I reacted positively or negatively to what someone else did. What I did that didn't make sense this week, and what I did that restored a sense of meaning this week. How others actions have affected me for good or evil. In these concrete details is the real message and meaning of the week. There are probably some I could tell without being too revealing, but most of the things that really matter day to day are pretty personal, I am beginning to think - whether they are thoughts or deeds.

This makes me think about preaching, and how it would be great on one hand to be able to let down all guards and just make sense of a scripture in terms of the real concrete struggles we are going through. Instead, in preaching, you have to figure out a way that speaks of things that are real enough to evoke reflection on real life in the hearers, but not so real or revealing as to evoke worry for or too much attention on the life of the preacher. Telling stories about things that have happened to others, or things you have observed can be helpful. For example, I could tell some stories of how I have seen my mother and father endure, and that would evoke a good reflection in others.

But, this post makes me think that there is really no substitute for deeply trusting, personal communication where you can really speak about the details of your experience and hear about someone else's thoughts and deeds and observations and compare and try to make sense of it all. I have been part of Bible Study at times when this has happened, but over the course of my life, it has almost always happened in informal conversations with one other person, or maybe two or three at a time where the communion was strong. We are all fairly quirky. When we share the real way we deal with life with others, they are bound to be amused and also touched, thinking: "well, that's almost as crazy as how I deal with life, but it does make a little sense . . . and it makes me feel a little less alone too."

We Are So Close to Real Sanity

It is Friday morning, and as I reflect on this work week that is almost at an end, I realize that I am feeling much better than I have for a good while. I started this week with a strong resolve to attend to my inner life as much as outer life this week. And, I am starting to think that a person's relationship to his or her own soul is similar to the relationship of a person to a close family member. When we tend to that relationship, a sense of peace and love and meaning unites us with our loved one. When we ignore, avoid or take for granted that relationship, a sense of alienation and loss of peace comes between us and our loved one.

I am beginning to think that my relationship with my own soul is similar to that. This week, while attending to many other things, I didn't forget to stop and get a sense of the state of my own soul. I will talk more about this in the next post. But, for now, I am convinced that we are so close to experiencing a real, profound sanity in life. This is a sanity that comes from a soul that is awake and able to channel into our lives an amazing and gracious power that is new everyday. The soul is the gateway to another reality that we are meant to share in, but that we ignore. This other reality is the reality of the Great Other whose beauty and wisdom and mercy give fire to the Sun and also give fire to the soul.

'Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless God's holy name!" This is the song of my soul this morning. I pray that I show respect for the blessing of having a soul today as I go to court this morning. And, part of that showing respect is to recognize other human beings as those who share in that remarkable blessing of having a soul as well. We are so close to real sanity, because all it takes is learning how to make that inward journey to a place within us that is holy. But, while that journey is very short in terms of physical space, it can be very long in terms of personal travelling. Something this morning makes me very hopeful about this journey for human beings. It seems to me this morning that the way is much more simple and also closer in a personal sense than we have thought. Jesus said once: "Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. For my burden is easy, and my yoke is light."