Welcome to Pastor Jack Buckley's weekly blog and podcast.
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Thursday, May 31, 2007
God's Grand Reversal
Genesis 11:1-9; Acts 2:1-21
No recording of this week's message, or last week's either, due to -- how you say? -- "technical difficulties." Brand new sound system, broken old tape deck. Argh.
Even so, here's a slice of my sermon on the great miracle of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.
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The unthinkable happened in the first of Christopher Reeve's Superman movies... Lois Lane died!
If memory serves me right, Superman got distracted and delayed in his flight to save Lois from dastardly Lex Luthor. Something about a superhuman effort to hold the Golden Gate Bridge together in the middle of an earthquake Luthor had somehow created. And so -- she died.
What's a poor superhero to do?!
What this one did was fly up, up, and away into space, then speed around the earth faster and faster in the opposite direction from its rotation. The planet slowed, stopped, and then reversed its motion. Superman rewound time far enough that he could descend again, resume his flight, and -- rescue Lois just in the nick of time. Yay!
The Bible story of Pentecost (Acts 2) says God did something like that when the Holy Spirit showed up with three dramatic miraculous signs.
Fifty days after Passover, pilgrims filled Jerusalem for another holy festival. From all over the Roman world they came, mingling with the locals in this remote outpost of the Empire. Then suddenly there appeared --
The sound of a mighty rushing wind...
Tongues of fire on the heads of Jesus' disciples...
Foreign languages from their mouths, preaching the gospel....
The crowds were amazed to hear these yokels speaking so eloquently in their own languages. And they listened carefully to find out just what was going on, and why.
Peter spoke up and made it clear as could be that God was sealing and delivering on the gospel promises he'd made in Jesus Christ.
This was something new and different for Peter, too. Up till now he was famous for sticking his foot in his mouth when talking about spiritual things. This time, when he got to the "amen" of his sermon, 3,000 people were converted on the spot.
So, where's the Superman connection?
Well, let's look at Genesis 11...
The peoples of the world all spoke one language, lived close to one another in Babel (cf. Babylonia), and decided to consolidate their power for mutual safety -- "lest we be scattered." Their crowning monument to this unification would be a tower "reaching up to heaven." Some things never seem to change...
God had another idea.
"Look at that, would you? This is just the beginning of what they'll do, given half the chance. Let's confuse their language and scatter them across the world."
And that's just what happened.
Now, the stories of Genesis 1-11 are more about "why" than about "how" the world got to be the way it is. And this one is a great commentary on our "failure to communicate" at all levels of human society.
"Babel" translates into English as "babble," meaningless verbal noise. The movie Babel dramatically reveals the tragic consequences of miscommunication and dislocation between individuals, cultures, and countries.
Have you ever tried to get through to someone who has no English? You use one-syllable words, you gesture, smile, and grimace. Anything. And nothing works. So what do you do? You speak more s-l-o-w-l-y. And you speak LOUDER. Of course you do. All for nothing.
That's what happens way too often in our relationships, too. Friends, lovers, parents, children, workers, bosses. Pastors and church members? You bet. We're all prone to misspeak, misunderstand, miss each other in passing.
But our gospel faith says God has reversed the world, undone the damage of Babel by the miracles of Pentecost...
Wind -- The life-giving breath of the Holy Spirit.
Fire -- Illumination and purification of the believing mind.
Tongues -- Clear meaning, purpose, and intention in plain language.
The Holy Spirit brings alive within us the transforming power of Jesus Christ, who died and rose again into abundant everlasting life. So all of us Clark Kents and Lois Lanes now have superhuman gifts, if we could only learn how to use them for God's good purposes.
For example, God is able to transform our Babel babblings into "speaking the truth with love" (Ephesians 4:15). If only we'll slow down, speak clearly, and listen carefully to each other.
Emphasizing the truth at the expense of love leads to crankiness. Trying for love at the expense of the truth leads to sentimentality. Putting them together in spiritual balance is, well, priceless!
posted by Jack Buckley at
10:37 AM
Monday, May 14, 2007
At Your Service
Matthew 25:31-40; Ephesians 2:8-10
How timely that our Sunday morning study of Discipleship -- every Christian's calling to serve God and serve God's people with our gifts and talents -- should come on Mother's Day. For motherhood may be the world's greatest embodiment of service given in the name of love.
Listen to the GODcast!
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YOU GOTTA LOVE HER
On Sunday, May 13 all America honored motherhood. And, if we were on our toes, every one of us thanked the moms we know up close and personal for their lifelong labors of love.
Some people call Mother's Day a "Hallmark holiday," as if greeting card companies made up the day just to entice sentimental shoppers. Ditto for florists, clothiers, and candy makers.
The fact is, around 1870 the seeds of our Mother's Day tradition were sown in Boston with a proclamation by Julia Ward Howe. Author of "Battle Hymn of the Republic" ("grapes of wrath"... "watch-fires of a hundred circling [army] camps"... ), Ms. Howe was anything but sentimental. She was in fact rallying mothers who'd lost their sons in Civil war battles -- on either side -- to lead the way towards national pacifism and disarmament.
Of course, mothers love their children. So hearts and flowers will always enter the picture. As do rolled up sleeves, long to-do lists, sleepless nights, and the occasional deep sigh of relief. To say nothing of standing strong and tall like a mother lion protecting her young from any enemy who's out to do them harm.
Wickipedia tells us the first known observance of a Mother's Day occurred in Albion, MI on May 13, 1877. The story goes that Juliet Calhoun Blakeley stepped up to complete her pastor's sermon that morning as he was overwhelmed with grief that an anti-temperance mob had forced his son and two other temperance advocates to become drunk in public. She called on other mothers to join her in setting matters right. Her own sons, traveling salesmen, told her story with great pride everywhere they went. Before long, her church set aside the second Sunday of every May to thank God for Mrs. Blakeley and all righteous mothers.
The rest is history.
Mothers do the best they know how, to get things right. Your mom may have missed the mark or set a shining example. Either way, she gave this world the wonderful gift of you. For that we must give her thanks and praise. I hope that you are able to do the same in every way you can.
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Julia Ward Howe's Proclamation
Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.
posted by Jack Buckley at
2:43 PM
Monday, May 07, 2007
Jesus In My Mirror
Ephesians 4:1-6,11-16
Imagine a world filled with people who look a lot like God -- beginning with yourself!
This week's message says that's the whole intention of Christian discipleship. That God created you and me to become like Jesus Christ, whose words and works perfectly embodied God's own character. (Hebrews 1:3 says Jesus "perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God's nature." And Ephesians 4:13 calls us to "grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love -- like Christ in everything.")
Grandiose? Unattainable?
Listen to the GODcast!
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Frederick Buechner's huge bibliography includes one book that came and went in a hurry. The Faces of Jesus is one of those coffee table volumes that rarely get picked up and honestly read, let alone thumbed through enough to shake the dust off its pretty cover.
Too bad. It's an absolutely fascinating book. For both its full-color illustrations and his thoughtful commentary on them.
The artwork includes centuries-old religious masterpieces, modern primitive paintings, sculptures, folk representations from all around the developing world, even some American grafitti.
Readers familiar with Buechner's ideas should enjoy the ways he reworks them here, tying in biblical and real-life stories with one or another artistic portrayal of Christ and his meaning. Yet the book is anything but a rehash of Buechner's "greatest hits." He's a skilled docent, carefully interpreting the art itself, and slipping in surprising new twists here and there on his old familiar themes.
The climax comes when he pulls us close to catch the details of a 10th-century ivory relief sculpture, "Christ Enthroned with Saints and a Donor."
Buechner notes that the donor got in the picture himself, just because he gave the money to make the picture possible. Jesus sits on the curve of the earth with some of his saints gathered 'round. The donor comes in from the wings, overawed and embarrassed to be there. His knees buckle, and one saint holds him from falling over. He's there only by the grace of God, and he knows it.
Buechner says that's the way with all of us. The little man has "an expression of great dignity in his face.... It is not a dignity that is his by nature but a dignity that has been conferred upon him. It is Jesus who [confers] it as he reaches down to take him by the hand. One is struck by a curious resemblance between them."
And the two faces do look like mirror images. Which leads us to Buechner's punch line...
"The face of Jesus is a face that belongs to us the way our past belongs to us. It is a face that we belong to if only as to the one face out of the past that has perhaps had more to do with the shaping of our present than any other. According to Paul, the face of Jesus is our own face finally, the face we will all come to look like a little when the kingdom comes and we are truly ourselves at last, truly the brothers and sisters of one another and the children of God." (My italics)
Imagine a world -- or even one single room, like your Sanctuary on Sunday morning -- filled with people who look more than a little like God himself. Beginning with you!
That would seem to be the way that God sees all of us, all the time.
Imagine that!
posted by Jack Buckley at
12:11 PM
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