Welcome to Pastor Jack Buckley's weekly blog and podcast.
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Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Family Ties
Psalm 133; John 11:1-6, 17, 32-36
"Look how beautiful it is," says the psalm, "when kindred live together in unity."
Anyone who's grown up in a good sized family knows that ain't always the case, either. "Mom, he hit me!" "If you don't stop that right now, I'm gonna stop this car and...." And don't forget the legendary Hatfields and McCoys, whose only unity seems to have been hating the other family for who knew what reason after a couple generations of feuding.
"Look," say the mourners at Lazarus's graveside, "see how much Jesus loved him."
Lazarus and his two sisters were like family to Jesus. Their home two miles outside Jerusalem seems to have been his usual hostel when he came to the holy city for one or another piece of Messiah business.
John 11 tells the story of Lazarus dying while Jesus cools his heels a day's journey away -- for two whole days as Lazarus's sickness gets worse and worse. When he finally does show up with his disciples in tow, each sister comes out of the house to ask him why in God's name he hadn't come sooner. "My brother would still be alive if only you'd been here," they say with one voice.
Jesus sees Mary start to cry. Then he sees the friends and neighbors do the same. And then, says John in the Bible's shortest verse, "Jesus wept."
[When I was about eight years old I was so encouraged to find out Jesus actually cried. It meant I could stop trying to be big and strong, too, and it was okay sometimes to just let go when I was afraid, sad, weak, or when -- on a rare occasion -- my big brother punched me.]
And then Jesus raised Brother Lazarus from the dead! Just like that.
Hugs and kisses followed, and not a little cheering I'll bet. Martha set a table and cooked up a mini-banquet to celebrate. And just imagine the table talk over that delightful dinner.
I preached this message on the Sunday our national Presbyterian church was beginning its General Assembly with a glorious worship meeting in San Jose, just 40 miles down the freeway from our church. Commissioners from all across America are working together there this week, trying to live up to the church's calling to be God's eyes and ears and hands and voice in the world all these centuries since Jesus walked the earth.
We Presbys disagree on many issues great and small, the stuff of banner headlines and some things nobody but us even knows about, let alone worries over. But we believe God has put us together in one big family of faith, for some good reason we can't help searching after with open hearts and open minds.
I'm going to spend the day at the GA tomorrow (Wednesday 6/25), watching and listening to the official proceedings, checking out the exhibits, networking with old familiar friends and hopefully some new ones. And I'll make a bee-line to greet Bruce Reyes-Chow, Pastor of San Francisco's Mission Bay Community Church and newly elected Moderator of the General Assembly. Bruce is an Internet shaman of sorts, blogging his way all over the digital map. And inspiring guys like me to keep on tapping this keyboard to my heart's content, hoping against hope I've got something good to say and I'll find some good way to say it.
God bless Brother Bruce!
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
3:17 PM
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Love Has Its Reasons
Deuteronomy 7:7-11; John 3:11-21
It was Father's Day. Appropriately, our scripture readers for the morning were Paul and his 7-year-old daughter Megan. He's a great public reader, with a refined English accent. She's a charmer, super soft-spoken with a sing-song cadence.
Megan predictably had the shorter passage (Deuteronomy 7:7-11). Even so, that text contained several polysllabic words -- to say nothing of a very serious warning for God's chosen people to make sure they memorize and practice all of God's holy commandments.
As pastor and preacher I should have been on top of these little details and their large consequences. But hey, that's what delegation's all about. In the end, though, I think everything worked out for the best.
Hearing that angelic little voice pronounce that warning was a big surprise to our congregation. Even more surprising was the promise, tucked into the warning, that God majors not in judgment but in love. To wit --
Why were the Israelites God's chosen people? Because God had made a promise long ago. Why did God make that promise? Because he wanted to. Why did God want to make and keep that promise? Because he loved his people. Why did God love those people? Because he wanted to.
Let's not repeat ourselves. I think you get the point.
Nothing in Israel, or in Moses, or Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, made God love them or choose them or promise them one single thing. No actual or potential goodness, wisdom, beauty, power, faith, or faithfulness. Nada. Zilch. Nothing.
John 3:16 says it this way: God gave the world his Son simply because God loves the world. God as Divine Lover was gospel truth in Moses' day. In Jesus' day. And today.
Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician, philosopher, and devout Christian, thought and thought and thought some more about all this. He finally came up with a maxim of universal appeal -- "Love has its reasons that reason cannot know."
That thought is my watchword for four Sundays' worth of sermons. Check out #1 now...
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
5:14 PM
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Solid Rock or Shifting Sand?
Psalm 31:1-5, 19-24; Matthew 7:21-29
Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount" (Matthew chapters 5-7) probably drives professors of preaching crazy. It hardly follows the old traditional 3-points-and-a-poem format. And yay for that! [To all profs who actually train preachers in contemporary communication skills -- Thank you, thank you!]
In fact it seems to have everything all backwards. For instance, he begins with the benediction.
God bless you, says Jesus, if you are poor... hungry... weary... weak... even persecuted....
There's your signal, right up front, that this is a new way of understanding God's ways -- from start to finish!
The sermon proceeds to challenge all sorts of typical assumptions about morality and affirmations of faith. Fidelity... chastity... murder... charity... prayer... good works of every kind... worry... fear.... In every case, the heart of the matter is this: Love God, love people... Serve God, serve people... Treat others the way you'd like to be treated yourself....
And then, finally -- lo and behold -- Jesus ends his sermon with a punch line. An invitation, an altar call, a real live "come to Jesus" moment.
In the form of a little real-life story: Two men build two houses... one on a rock foundation and the other on sand. Rains come, floods rise, winds beat both houses... Guess what happens next!
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
12:10 PM
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