Festival of Homiletics: Wednesday Morning: Craig Barnes' Sermon

Craig Barnes' Sermon, 5/19/10  

"Preaching To The Rabble"

Numbers 11:1-6

Top 5 6 List:

1. Moses had many folks journeying with him during the Exodus... Craig Barnes describes the Rabblers as "They are on the journey but they don't believe in the journey."  They complain about the food and accommodations.  They long for the good ol' days back in Egypt, where at least they had food and shelter. 

2. For Pastors, Rabblers are frustrating, but they serve an important part of the congregation because they help keep us listening to God and for God and keep us in constant contact with God through prayer. =)

3. "Manna means 'What is it?' in Hebrew.  For 40 years in the desert, God nurtured the people with a question."  God was teaching them to ask the tough questions of our faith that keep us attuned to where God is at work in our world... "O God, what is it that you are doing?"

4. This same question of manna, "What is it?" nurtures us today as well.  We are to ask it each morning just as the Isrealites harvested it each day.  What is it that God is up to today?

5. Often the Rabblers on the journey of faith ask, "If only?" questions.  Be careful with these questions because when God answers them, we have to then like the answer.

6. "If only?" Questions focus us on either the future or past.  "What is it?" focuses us on the present, which is where we are to live. Present-Tense-Ministry is our call as ministers, but also all people of faith.  We cannot get people to the promised land, because that is God and God alone's job, but we can witness to what God is doing along the journey and encourage people in the daily searching for "What is it God that we are to do today?"

Festival of Homiletics: Monday- Notes from Bishop McKenzie's Sermon

Festival of Homiletics, Nashville, TN 

Notes from Monday evening's worship gathering

5/17/10

[NOTE: These are my notes from the Monday evening sermon by Bishop McKenzie.  They are incomplete, not transcribed exactly except where I have attempted to quote her direct phrases as indicated by quote marks, and are things that jumped out at me.  I don't pretend that these will make complete sense out of context, but I wanted to capture them for me and share them with you.  Grammar, syntax, flow, connecting transitions--Trying to convert them back into written form is difficult at best.  My best advice is to take any opportunity you might possibly have to hear Bishop McKenzie preach!]

Bishop McKenzie's Sermon - "Speaking Truth to Power" (Exodus 4:10-17, specifically verse 12)

(Photo Slide on the Wall--"Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes." written in spray paint on the side of the wall of a house.)

Scripture from Exodus 4:

¹⁰But Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” ¹¹Then the Lord said to him, “Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? ¹²Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak.” ¹³But he said, “O my Lord, please send someone else.” ¹⁴Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “What of your brother Aaron, the Levite? I know that he can speak fluently; even now he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you his heart will be glad. ¹⁵You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. ¹⁶He indeed shall speak for you to the people; he shall serve as a mouth for you, and you shall serve as God for him. ¹⁷Take in your hand this staff, with which you shall perform the signs.”(Exodus 4:10-17, NRSV)

Exodus teaches over and over that God hears and responds. The pattern runs throughout the book again and again.  But it just might not be in the ways we want or expect.

We are living in an "and" world.  A world of extremes that are held together by "and".  Poverty and excess.  Hunger and obesity.  Republican and Democrat. The New York Times and Fox News.  Our times are difficult ones.  Times that leave us with the need to hear a good word from the Lord.  And the need to share truth--God's Truth-- with the powers that be.

Moses was unsure of himself and he felt ill-equipped for what God was calling him to do through the burning bush.  He tries to discuss this with God, and God/ I am Who I Am/ I will be who I will be/ I have been who I have been.  But that doesn't get him off the hook.  God sends him on his way and "all he got was Aaron and a stick."  And he was supposed to speak to Pharaoh... and God even told him that Pharaoh wouldn't even listen.  What an assignment!

When are you called to speak truth to power?  When you are, you do not have the words... "These are God's words and God shapes our preaching agenda. " Society's status quo message equals comfort, where as the Truth that God calls us to speak is not the status quo and is not comfort for our society and culture. 

Therefore, "Maybe we ought to preach revolutionary sermons....  If you preach Jesus-kind of sermons, The New York Times is going to write editorials about you, the Washington Post will put you on the cover, and Fox News will cover you for a whole month."

Speaking truth to power means God will take you where you need to go, not where you want to Go!  It means we will need to face our fears of success or failure, because it is not about you; it's about God.  It means we will not be blessed (with creature comforts, nice cars, well-to-do homes, etc) but will be a blessing to all.  Being a blessing to others means demonstrating the love of God in the unloving places in our world. 

Truth in power preaching means holy ground/take off your shoes preaching.  When we are asked, "Is there a word from the Lord?  We should come running--Yes!  There is!

Festival of Homiletics: Nashville, TN (Day 1-Monday)

I begin by giving thanks to the Lilly Foundation for Craig's Sabbatical Grant for providing the funding for both of us to attend this Festival!  After just the first evening, I can already say this has been worth the trip... and for those of you who know how much I LOVE to FLY (insert sarcastic laugh here), that truly is saying a lot!  I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store!

This morning Craig and I headed to RDU to fly to Nashville, TN for the Goodpreacher.com sponsored Festival of Homiletics.  This is a National (and Canadians, the only other country I've seen so far) preaching conference for pastors, and there are over 2000 people here from all over the country representing many, many denominations.  After arriving and getting checked into the hotel, Craig and I walked over to First Baptist Church, the main location for the week.  We are also being hosted by the other downtown churches (First Lutheran, McKendree United Methodist, Christ Church Cathedral--Episcopal, and Downtown Presbyterian), and the various workshops and concerts are being held in these different venues.  Everything is a short walk from our hotel.   

[The view of the skyscrapers near our hotel, and the CMT TV headquarters]

[The famous Ryman Auditorium, the old home of the Grand Ole Opry, and also current home of it since the flooding.  It's on our street just down from the hotel.]

After checking in to the Festival, grabbing BBQ dinner at Jack's BBQ on Broadway Ave, we headed to the opening worship for the evening.  WOW!  Susan Phillips lead us in liturgy, prayer, assurance of pardon, and confession of faith.  We also enjoyed wonderful music by both Ashley Cleveland and Beth Nielsen Chapman.  And the 75+ member First Baptist Church Choir and very small brass band (7 members-great musicians, but not the 50+ folks from RMC that I'm used to) led us in worship. Susan had many great ways to enliven worship and make it more experiencial and multi-sensory.  I can already tell she's a kindred-soul and someone who I look forward to learning lots more from!

[This is the sanctuary view from the back row.  It's huge!]

[The altar up front--it's "living water" with plants and a fountain and water running down through it when Susan took a pitcher and poured it while reading Isaiah 12.  It was really powerful and really awesome!]

Then it was time for one of the highlights of the evening.  Bishop Vashti McKenzie from the African Methodist Episcopal Church was the guest preacher for the opening worship service this evening. She spoke about Moses' call from God to speak the truth with power in her sermon "Speaking Truth to Power" based on Exodus 4:10-17, specifically focusing on verse 12.

[Here is Bishop McKenzie preaching.  She was so dynamic and brought the Word of God with truth and power!  See my next blog posting for notes from this sermon!]

[It's hard to see in this photo, but the spray-painted sign on the side of the house says, "Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes." It was the photo on the screen during the Bishop's sermon and fit so well with Moses' conversation with the Great "I Am Who I Am" and call from God.]

After worship we heard a brief concert by Jazz Sax protogee Grace Kelly.  She was excellent.

 [Grace can be seen in this photo in the purple dress near the left edge.] 

The last order of the agenda for the evening was a lecture by Dr. Anna Carter Florence, a professor of preaching from Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, GA.  She talked about Mark 5 and the 3 Superheros for the Preacher found in this chapter of the Gospel.

NOTE: I took lots of notes to include here from both speakers tonight, but bedtime is here, so I will post them tomorrow!

Thanks for reading along.  Goodnight from Nashville!  I'm looking forward to tomorrow!

"A Christmas Frame Of Mind" (1/4/09, Christmas 2B)

"A Christmas Frame of Mind"
Christmas 2B
Sermon from 1/4/2009
John 1:1-18; Ephesians 1:3-14

Christmas Day has come and gone again this year. The candy, cards, and gifts are 50 or 75% off. The 24-7 Christmas Music on the radio is over--the Christmas CD's and movies are packed away until next year. The returns have been returned, the decorations are likely down or will be coming down this afternoon. We're already though New Years Day as well, and Valentine's candy is already on the shelves in the local grocery store. The shepherds have visited the stable and returned home. The Magi arrive this Tuesday for Epiphany, and they will then return home as well. Christmas has come and gone for another year. Or has it?

As I opened my stocking on Christmas Day with my in-laws and family in Pennsylvania, I took out a magnet that said, "Christmas isn't just a day, it's a frame of mind." A frame of mind... I like that. It's a great phrase. A Christmas frame of mind. Christmas in the church is a season in fact--12 days long that begins on Christmas Day and carries us through to Epiphany on January 6th. These are the true 12 Days of Christmas, but somehow it seems we have forgotten to tell the rest of the world about them. Christmas is over according to our culture. Is it over this year for us too? Christmas as a frame of mind--what if it was actually true? What would it look like in our daily lives?

As I have spent the past week or so preparing for today's message, I must confess I have been confronted with more questions than answers. As a pastor knowing I get to stand up and dialog with you on Sunday morning, more questions than answers has led to little comfort and much frustration in my preparation process. I have thought back often to what my college thesis adviser told me when I got to the end of my paper and had multiple pages of questions for further study--I was frustrated that it wasn't going to end with neatly answered questions, but in fact my topic of research led to more questions. She said that more questions were a good thing because it meant I was thinking and engaging the topic.

I also have had to wrestle with the fact that as a trained pastor, I feel like I should somehow KNOW the answers... but I confess that just as I think I have an answer, more wrestling with the questions and answers is required. These questions are not easily or neatly wrapped up in a box and placed under our Christmas trees. So I would like to invite you all to journey with me through some of the big questions of Christmas that I have found myself mulling over this week. Maybe some of these are also your questions? Maybe some of my questions raise new questions within you? I am excited about the possibility of wrestling with these together, because I believe these are questions that can likely best be answered in community.

For starters, what does Christmas mean? There is the easy answer--the word is from "Christ's Mass" celebrating the birth of the Christ child, the promised savior or Messiah--Jesus of Nazareth. The story is told in Luke 2 and Matthew 2, which many of us can quote at least in part. It's a cozy story that takes place in a stable in Bethlehem with shepherds, angels, magi, and a young couple who have an unexpected baby. But is it also so much more than this?

As I have wrestled, I have keep thinking about how we are often so busy and hurried in December and everything is focused on Christmas' arrival and being ready for the BIG DAY. In fact, shoppers take note--there are only 355 shopping days till next year's Big Day! Our preparation time is a blur of shopping, activities, parties, food, and craziness. Then it's here and over in a flash. Lovefeast buns have been consumed, our coffee's cold, and the smell of smoke fills this room as the candles are all blown out. It's all over and yet, how is life different? Yes, there is the stack of new DVDs to watch and clothes to wear, but how is life truly different? Or is it different at all? Why is Christmas even important to begin with? I kept coming back to the question of "So what does Christmas mean?" How does Christmas really affect our lives the other 364 days of the year? And if it doesn't, how might it be different this year to extend Christmas to make it a frame of mind or a way we view our world?

When we hear the story of Christmas, it is often from Luke or Matthew's story about the baby Jesus. But today, we are looking at John's telling of the Christmas Story. There are no shepherds; no angels; no Mary and Joseph; no overcrowded inn; no magi mentioned anywhere. Jesus isn't even named until 17 verses into the story. The writer in John takes us back to the beginning--literally-- by opening the Gospel's Prologue with the phrase "In the beginning." This phrase likely took your mind back to the beginning. We heard these passages paralleled in the reflective reading that opened worship this morning.

One phrase truly sums up the story of Christmas, I believe, but might need some unpacking to make more sense is in John 1:14. "And the Word became flesh and lived among us and we have seen his glory, the glory of a father's only son, full of grace and truth." The WORD, from the phrase “And the Word became flesh,” is a translation of logos in Greek, and is a term the Greek Philosophers used for logic or wisdom, and is even where our word logic comes from. The ideas of logos along with light and life were common terms used at that time by philosophers. But here the writer of John is taking these words and using them to show the world is forever changed. For the writer of John and for us, these words are not just philosophical ideas anymore; they live and breathe in the person of Jesus Christ. The God of the universe has become flesh and blood in human form--both fully God and fully human. Not only did this God-person exist, but lived in and among them. Because of Christmas, God now lives or tents or tabernacles or dwells among us. The tent and tabernacle images in John recall the Israelite image of the mobile tabernacle and Ark of the Covenant from the time of the desert wanderings in Exodus. As the Message translation explains, "The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood." This is the point... this is what Christmas is all about--the Incarnation where God becomes human and moves into our neighborhood.

So why did God become human (incarnate) and move into our neighborhood? John writes that it is to show us God's glory in grace and truth. The ideas of grace and truth also hearken back to the Exodus and Moses when God created a covenant with the Israelites. This phrase “grace and truth” can also be translated as mercy and truth, or love. Jesus came to earth, moved into our neighborhood and showed us what LOVE looked like, smelled like, tasted like, felt like, and acted like. Jesus modeled love with his every breath so we could do the same--maybe that is a Christmas frame of mind? As one of my favorite authors, Shane Claiborne, puts it, "In the baby refugee Jesus, God becomes Emmanuel ("God with us"), crashing in the manger. And it is in the life of Jesus that God puts skin on to show us what love looks like." [Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006) 324]

This understanding of Christmas leads me to reflect on the other magnet I found in my stocking on Christmas Day--"Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love." A conspiracy of love--maybe that is what Christmas is all about. Christmas is God's cosmic conspiracy of love, and we've been invited to join in on the love-fest. Poet Ann Weems wrote a very short poem that I think brings these two magnet's saying together. She writes:

"When the Holy Child is born into our hearts
there is a rain of stars
a rush of angels
a blaze of candles
this God burst into our lives.
Love is running through the streets."
[Ann Weems, "Godburst" from Kneeling in Bethlehem (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1987) 27]

God has moved into the neighborhood, and, now, Love is running through the streets. Have you seen God's RV or Motor home parked in your front yard or at the next desk over from your cubicle? Was God standing next to you in the check-out lane at REI or Target as you made returns? Has God served you coffee and bagels or wine and bread recently? One writer I encountered this week asks, "Where then do we confront the divine, where do we touch the eternal living God, where do we experience the inner light?" Ahh--More great questions with no easy answers.

The Prologue tells us that John the Baptizer came to testify that Emmanuel, "God with us," was coming into the world, giving power to people to become children of God. So then, how do we TESTIFY to the presence of love running through the streets of our neighborhoods? Mother Teresa was quoted as saying, "We can do no great things, only small things with great love. It's not how much you do but how much love you put into doing it." Maybe that is a Christmas frame of mind. What small things can we do this year that will show God's great love to those around us--our families, our friends, our co-workers, and schoolmates? How can we love the stranger on the street corner or beside us in the check out line? Maybe its spending time with an elderly neighbor who needs to be reassured that someone really does care about them or holding a patient's hand as he or she awaits test results or treatment. Maybe we can demonstrate God's love running down the soccer field in Costa Rica as we help build a youth center and school. Maybe we participate in the conspiracy of love as we volunteer or take more time to show love to our family members who might be difficult at times to love. Hopefully we keep wrestling together with how we can see God's moving van in our neighborhood and join in with the conspiracy of love that Jesus modeled. Hopefully we can share the love of God with one another--those we love and those we have trouble loving.

I invite you to spend a few moments now quietly thinking about how you might enact a Christmas frame of mind throughout this year. Jot down ideas you have or questions that have been raised--maybe on the back of your watchword card or bulletin, and let's keep wrestling with our questions together. Email me, join me for coffee, pull aside a friend to chat as we all keep looking for God in our neighborhood and testify to the conspiracy of love... after all, Jesus came into the community to show us how to love, and here is probably the best place to practice our questioning, wrestling, and loving one another, so we can live the Christmas frame of mind in our world throughout 2009. Take a few moments now to reflect, and I will close us in prayer at the end.


God who's bigger than our questions,
thank you for moving into our neighborhood to give us Jesus as the model example of how to love and live. Give us the strength and insight needed as we wrestle with tough questions of faith and understand what it means that you took on flesh and blood. Empower us to testify to where we see you in our daily lives and show us where we can participate in your conspiracy of love. In Jesus' holy name, we pray. Amen.