The Meaning of Life, Part 6

The most remarkable feature of this historical moment on Earth is not that we are on the way to destroying the world-we've actually been on the way for quite a while. It is that we are beginning to wake up, as from a millennia-long sleep, to a whole new relationship to our world, to ourselves and each other.
--Joanna Macy, Welcome to All Beings

The Divine Reflection--A Sermon

Today's sermon for Reign of Christ.

The Divine Reflection
John Shuck
First Presbyterian Church

Elizabethton, Tennessee

November 23rd, 2008
Thanksgiving/Reign of Christ

I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
--Ephesians 1:15-23

Today marks the intersection of two holidays of importance to us. One is Thanksgiving, a cultural holiday. Many things are connected with Thanksgiving Day. Some of these are healthier for us in mind, body, and spirit than others. Yet, the practice and truth of thanksgiving is critical for our lives. Show me a person who is happy, productive and peaceful and you will find a person who is grateful.

The other holiday or Holy Day is specifically Christian. Today is Reign of Christ Sunday, traditionally called Christ the King. It is the final Sunday of the church’s liturgical year.

On Reign of Christ Sunday, we consider the fullness of the Universe in order, in place, in perfect peace. As we read this beautiful poetry of Ephesians:

God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Christ is at the right hand of the Father in the heavenly places. This is heavy duty Christian mythology. Mythology is the language we use to speak about value and meaning. All religions have myths, symbols, and metaphors. One of the unfortunate things about Christian mythology is not the mythology itself, it is that we have insisted on it. When you take a metaphor and turn it into a descriptor, you are going to have problems. I will mention three. We have to mention them and then move on so we can appreciate the truth to which the text points.

First, we have made an idol of the “maleness” of our main character, the Son at the right hand of the Father. One piece of evidence is enough to make my point: The first woman to be ordained to the ministry in our denomination, Margaret Towner, is still living. Christianity has been around for 2000 years and Presbyterians ordained the first woman in 1956. And we are the liberals. We weren’t the first. The Society of Friends or the Quakers were the first in the early 1800s.

The vast majority of Christian organizations around the world do not ordain women. In the Roman Catholic tradition priests are male specifically because of the maleness of Jesus. That is the theological rational for denying ordination to women.

Of course the historical person of Jesus was a male. The church saw something more in him and used mythological language to describe that something more. As the myths were created, rather than transcending maleness, they divinized maleness. They could have said Jesus Christ is fully male and fully female. Why not? We said Christ was fully God and fully human, which is much more of a stretch in logic.

The church did not, so far. Males were too interested in maintaining unbalanced power relations. This is not simply a matter of politically correct language. This is about power and access. It is also about the location of the sacred. As feminist theologian, Mary Daly pointed out nearly forty years ago, “When God becomes male, the male becomes God.”

There is nothing wrong with Father and Son language as one metaphor for the Sacred. The problem is our history. We have used this language at the expense of other metaphors, particularly feminine images. This is why I think it is important, at the very least, to engage in holy mischief and change the pronouns.

Second, Christian exclusivism has tainted this metaphor. Rather than seeing this metaphor as an expression of universal truth, Christians all too often have made Christ “our god” who is better than “their god.” Language such as “put all things under his feet” is not liberating language for those who have been put under the feet of those who think they are the vicars of Christ. This language has fostered Christian dominionism.

Rather than see Jesus Christ as one of many names for the Holy (which we could have done and still can do), we divinized exclusivism. Rather than emphasize the connection of Christ with the figures of other mythologies, Christianity put its figure at the top of the pole and denied the validity of other figures.

In the Gospels Jesus preached an important message. Move beyond your tribalism. So what did we do? We turned him into the god of our tribe. This is again about power and access. When Christians claim exclusivism for Jesus Christ, we do not honor Christ. We honor ourselves. When God exclusively becomes Christ, Christians become God.

Third, where is heaven and where is the throne upon which Christ sits? When our cosmology knew that Earth was in the center of creation surrounded by the heavenly bodies, the planets and the stars, with the topmost outermost sphere being heaven, this image worked. We all had our place in the cosmos.

Our modern conception of the universe has no place for heaven if we insist that heaven is beyond us. By insisting that the sacred, the holy, God, or Christ, transcends the universe, we have stripped the universe of its sacred dimension. Rather than Christ on the throne in heaven as metaphor for the sacred order of the universe, it has resulted in the absence of God. This coupled with human greed has turned the universe into something profane. It is material to be used rather than holy ground to be honored. The living things of earth are objects for exploitation rather than subjects inherently and innately divine.

The problem is not with the author of Ephesians. The problem is our 2000 year history of interpretation.

We can deal with that. We can let those idols go.
• We can substitute a feminine image. Christ is fully female and fully male.
• We can celebrate Christ as our name for the universal presence of the holy that has many names.
• We can imagine that heaven is within, among, and through all that is.

If we can navigate around the stumbling blocks, then we can wrestle with the real scandal that this text presents to us.

On this Holy Day, we are invited to affirm that all is well with the world. At the core of Reality, at the heart of the Universe both visible and invisible, there is order and peace. Because Christ is in her proper place, granting peace and strength, we can breathe more easily. That is the claim.

Martin Luther King Jr. said the arc of the Universe bends toward justice.

I cannot find the source for this but Albert Einstein is reported to have said that the most important puzzle is whether or not the Universe is friendly. Is it just up to us to find meaning in this indifferent world or is there something friendly about the whole thing?

The writer of Ephesians would say the universe is friendly because our divine friend, Jesus Christ, is on his throne ruling with love and justice. Other religious traditions say similar things in many different ways.

Last night at the United Religions Initiative we sang a song that contained the phrase, “that love may reign.”

Maybe we should just call this Holy Day, Reign of Love Sunday.

That is the point the author of Ephesians wants to make. That is the claim of faith. Divine Love holds us and all will be well.

Our thoughts and our feelings tell us that all is not well with the world. We look around and we do not see order, peace, or fullness. We see a lot of chaos, violence, and emptiness in our own lives and in the lives of the beings of Earth.

We are in an anxious time. I know that many of you are concerned about your jobs, your pensions, and your homes. You are concerned about the planet. You are concerned about our future. Are we going to be OK? Can we turn this?

I don’t think it was any easier when Ephesians was written than now. They struggled as we do. Near the end of the letter, the author offers this advice:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Eph. 6:10-12

These are the powers that in the first chapter of Ephesians, Christ has under his feet. They are ultimately under his feet while at the same time we have to put on the armor of Christ and deal with them.

Last Sunday I quoted Reinhold Niebuhr from his book Moral Man, Immoral Society. Niebuhr concluded that work by saying:

“…justice cannot be approximated if the hope of its perfect realization does not generate a sublime madness in the soul. Nothing but such madness will do battle with malignant power and “spiritual wickedness in high places.” p. 277

I think Niebuhr is right. And I think what the author of Ephesians is promoting is a sublime madness in the soul.

That madness tells us that all is well with the world and all will be well.

Now get out there and make it so.

Theologian Sallie McFague, in her latest book, A New Climate for Theology: God, the World and Global Warming, concludes her work appropriately, with words of hope. She writes:

Hope is trust, trust in God—not in things, events, or people. To trust in God means God can be counted on to hold one’s life and all life in trust, safekeeping. It means that one can rest one’s life—and the life of the whole planet—in God, knowing that this trust will somehow be honored.

She goes on to say:

This, then, is an odd kind of hope. It does not mean that things will necessarily turn out “as we hope,” nor does it mean that we will be successful in our attempts to “save” the planet, but it does mean that God will “make all things well….”

This is not sentimental or romantic hope that things will turn out okay, but rather the faith that however they turn out, the world and all its creatures are held, kept, within God. Pp. 170-1.

We cannot see how it will work out. We cannot calculate it. Trying to calculate it can lead us to despair. That is no good for anyone. The great wisdom, the deep wisdom of our spiritual traditions reminds us that through our trust, a way is shown. We don’t know what that way is now. We cannot see it. We will find the way in time. It may not be us. It may be our descendants who find the way.

At the center of Reality, to use Christian language, Christ is where she needs to be. She is at the center within, among, and through all living things. She is in us. We are the divine reflection as is all creation. She has been with us for this universe’s 14 billion year history. She has made all things and all things are holy.

It could be that this shaking of the foundations, to use a phrase from theologian Paul Tillich, may open us to a deeper sense of who we are. It could be a time to discover what we value. This could be a time in which Christ is inviting us to turn toward one another.

Even as I am a snarky skeptic, I know from my own experience that I am able to get things done, and get good things done, when I operate from a sublime madness in the soul. When I put my trust in the hope that all will be well, that the friendly universe bends toward justice, that love reigns, and that I am in the loving care of Christ, I tend to be more creative and less despairing.

I am going to close with a poem by Christine Fry. I found this on Joanna Macy’s webpage. She included it under poems that she loves.

We read this last night at the United Religions Initiative dinner.

THE GREAT TURNING

You've asked me to tell you of The Great Turning, of how we saved the world from disaster.
The answer is both simple and complex.
We turned.

For hundreds of years we had turned away as life on earth grew more precarious.
We turned away from the homeless men on the streets, the stench from the river, the children orphaned in Iraq, the mothers dying of AIDS in Africa.

We turned away because that is what we had been taught.
To turn away, from our pain, from the hurt in another's eyes, from the drunken father or the friend betrayed.

Always we were told, in actions louder than words, to turn away, turn away. And so we became a lonely people caught up in a world moving too quickly, too mindlessly towards its own demise.

Until it seemed as if there was no safe place to turn. No place, inside or out, that did not remind us of fear or terror, despair and loss, anger and grief.

Yet on one of those days someone did turn.

Turned to face the pain. Turned to face the stranger. Turned to look at the smoldering world and the hatred seething in too many eyes. Turned to face himself, herself.

And then another turned. And another. And another. And as they wept, they took each other's hands.

Until whole groups of people were turning. Young and old, gay and straight. People of all colors, all nations, all religions. Turning not only to the pain and hurt but to beauty, gratitude and love, Turning to one another with forgiveness and a longing for peace in their hearts...

The Great Turning

Tonight at the United Religions Initiative Thanksgiving Dinner, we are going to read this poem by Christine Fry. It is one of Joanna Macy's favorite poems.


THE GREAT TURNING

You've asked me to tell you of The Great Turning, of how we saved the world from disaster.
The answer is both simple and complex.
We turned.

For hundreds of years we had turned away as life on earth grew more precarious.
We turned away from the homeless men on the streets, the stench from the river, the children orphaned in Iraq, the mothers dying of AIDS in Africa.

We turned away because that is what we had been taught.
To turn away, from our pain, from the hurt in another's eyes, from the drunken father or the friend betrayed.

Always we were told, in actions louder than words, to turn away, turn away. And so we became a lonely people caught up in a world moving too quickly, too mindlessly towards its own demise.

Until it seemed as if there was no safe place to turn. No place, inside or out, that did not remind us of fear or terror, despair and loss, anger and grief.

Yet on one of those days someone did turn.

Turned to face the pain. Turned to face the stranger. Turned to look at the smoldering world and the hatred seething in too many eyes. Turned to face himself, herself.

And then another turned. And another. And another. And as they wept, they took each other's hands.

Until whole groups of people were turning. Young and old, gay and straight. People of all colors, all nations, all religions. Turning not only to the pain and hurt but to beauty, gratitude and love, Turning to one another with forgiveness and a longing for peace in their hearts...

-- Christine Fry (October 19, 2004)

Obama's Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy

H/T Mr. Snarky

Stunning Break with Last Eight Years

In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.

Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on CBS' "Sixty Minutes" on Sunday witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal tick, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth.

But Mr. Obama's decision to use complete sentences in his public pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last eight years many Americans may find his odd speaking style jarring.

According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota, some Americans might find it "alienating" to have a President who speaks English as if it were his first language.

"Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement," says Mr. Logsdon. "If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist."

The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete sentences in his speeches, the public may find itself saying, "Okay, subject, predicate, subject predicate - we get it, stop showing off."

The President-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

"Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she said.

Thank you Ash-Lee!

This is in today's Johnson City Press:

The world has made great strides in social justice, but there is still much work to be done. Injustice, hatred, ignorance and bigotry still exist in the world, and they still plague communities. There are those willing to stand up and speak out against these injustices, and they were honored Thursday night.

Two who have worked tirelessly, not only on the ETSU campus, but also within the community, to promote the idea that all are created equal were honored with the Patricia E. Robertson Diversity Leadership Award on Thursday night....

.... Ash-Lee Henderson received the student award. Henderson has been very active in social causes from a young age. She has worked on numerous voting registration drives, helped organize the campus gay pride parade and in 2005 worked in the 9th Ward helping those hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina.

At 23, she’s still working to improve life and promote acceptance for everyone. She has served on numerous committees such as the female majority alliance, the Rainbow Coalition and has served as president of the black student association....

....The Robertson award was established in 2002 and recipients are chosen by a campuswide vote. The award was named after the current ETSU professor and chairman of the department of human development and learning in the Claudius G. Clemmer College of Medicine.

Thank you Ash-Lee and Patricia for making the Tri-Cities a better place!

A Warm Fuzzy!

Thanks to Wormwood's Doxy for this award:






Thank you! I am most honored. She has a great blog.

Careful when you visit; she does not suffer fools lightly.



With awards come rules. Here they are:

• Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.
• Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.
• Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to this post, which explains The Award.
• Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!
• Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

Each of my award winners blogs daily:

Rev's Rumbles by Fred Anderson. Fred is a retired PCUSA minister and always has good stuff about theology and politics. I steal from him on a regular basis.

Notes From Off-Center by Andrew Tatusko. Drew is a fellow Princeton Seminary grad. He offers original material on issues of culture, religion, and politics.

Exploring Our Matrix by James McGrath. James is a professor of religion at Butler. He is on my list because he sees his role as a scholar to communicate what he is learning to non-professionals. Besides he likes science fiction.

Sharon Cobb by Sharon Cobb. I go to Sharon for Tennessee and National politics. Sharon has a clear mind and a compassionate heart.

Grand Divisions by Chris Sanders. Chris blogs for the Tennessee Equality Project. He always has good stuff about Tennessee politics especially as it relates to LGBTQ issues.

There are many more great blogs I check out that are award-winners as well. Check the sidebar. If you would like to be listed there, let me know!

Care for the Soul During the Holidays

We have put our calendar of events on-line for Advent. I have added it to the sidebar. One of the services we have added this year is called "Tidings of Comfort." This is a service especially designed for that part of us that finds the holiday season difficult. This service will acknowledge the loss we experience in life. Even though we hear "what a wonderful time of the year" again and again and again, sometimes this time of year is not so wonderful.

This service of candlelight, readings, music, and silent reflection is care for the soul and will take place Monday, December 15th at 7 p.m. Anyone in the community is invited to attend and you might take this opportunity to invite a friend who could use a little soul care.

Ten Thousand Villages!

Volunteers are setting up tables for our Ten Thousand Villages Festival Sale. Tomorrow from ten to three and Sunday from one to three, you can get some high quality, handmade items. See the pics from last year's sale. Here is the news release.

Dr. Monkey Von Monkerstein visited with us last year. Here is his report.

See you Saturday!

Old Fat Naked Women for Peace

This is great! We definitely have to sing this in church. Call for auditions.

Old Fat Naked Women for Peace

Give it up for The Righteous Mothers!

H/T Wounded Bird

Why I Blog

Carolyn Caldwell, the Instructional Technology Administrator at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, e-mailed me the other day. She wrote that she is teaching a class called "Practices and Skills to Support a Parish Ministry." She said she had been reading Shuck and Jive for about a year. She asked:

Would you be willing to write a short answer to why you blog and what do you get out of it personally and professionally so that I could share this with my students? You could always post an answer on the blog if you might be willing to share your experiences with seminarians others than ours.

How could any self-respecting blogger who hides in the open pass up that opportunity?

I began this blog in August 2006 as a personal reflection. I was feeling depressed about the state of the world. That coupled with a move to a new location after an ambiguous experience in my last church had me feeling melancholy. I needed an outlet. I had also been going through some changes in my thinking about faith and theology. What kind of theological reflection is required for a planet in peril? It is a personal blog. The masthead covers that:

A Presbyterian minister blogs about spirituality, culture, religion (both organized and disorganized), life, evolution, literature, Jesus, and lightening up.

I also wanted to get the word out about our great congregation, even as I do not want or claim to speak for them. I do blog about my church on occasion (never anything negative). I blog about things that we are doing. I blog about church members if it is positive and public news. Few church members ever comment, but many/most? read it at least once in a while. It is a fantastic outreach tool. In fact, better than I anticipated. People have joined our church because of it. Some people have probably left because of it, too. In those cases, it is not really the blog but the fact that the minister and/or the direction of the church isn't their cup of sweet tea.

There was an unwritten rule that I might have learned in seminary. Clergy should withhold their opinions. We are guarded. We are not open with our theological views, questions, doubts, and inconsistencies. I never liked that rule. Of course, if we give our opinions, we should respect the opinions of others. I try to do that. I have found that people need "permission" to think differently than how they are supposed to think. If a clergy person can model honesty and openness to at least some degree we empower others to do the same.

More than personal opinions are at work here. I really feel that this blog is one way in which I can reflect and at times get passionate about what I think is the Gospel. Even though I can be silly, snarky, and screedal on occasion, the Gospel (as I understand it) is the focus. The blog allows me to say things in ways that cannot be said from the pulpit or in a class. It has been of great personal help to put my thoughts out there, receive feedback, and read the views of others.

When I completed my PIF (Personal Information Form) that led to my call at Elizabethton, I answered the question about the most important theological issue in this way:

I am 42. My nephew, Hunter, is one. The most important theological question is what will the world be like when Hunter is 42?

It is crunch time for humanity. Climate change is our grim reaper. Ecological and economic justice is the heart and soul of the Gospel at this point in time. What will it take for us to get our house (Earth) in order? I don't pretend to have the answer, but we need to be asking that question every day in every area of life. What are we doing now for our descendants 20, 30, and 40 years from now?

Forgive me for being rude, but the church has its head up a dark place. We continue to take "no action" on issues critical to our planet's well-being. The church has so many resources--money, history, influence, people--yet we are fighting over church buildings! So I use the blog to talk about issues in the denomination.

I use the blog to talk about local things in my area (East Tennessee). Many people read it who are not in the church. It has been helpful to connect with others who are working for social justice in Elizabethton and the Tri-Cities (Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol). I am also the blogger and webpage keeper for PFLAG Tri-Cities. I think our web presence has been helpful to the success of that organization.

Our church secretary, Snad, also blogs. There is a new twist. What are the theological implications of a blogging church secretary? I met Snad at a peace rally she organized for a ragtag group called Concerned Tennessee Citizens. She fits in well with our little club of bandits. Snad said of me that I hide in the open.

There are risks to blogging. Anything you write on the internet can and will be used against you. These things can bite you if you are looking for a position or are considering a run for president. I am all over the internet. That is a fact of life and it won't be changed even if I were to stop blogging today. Any illusions of becoming a respectable, suit-wearing, tall steeple pastor are long gone. I am happy with that. Appalachia is home. I have planted my stake here and plan to be with this church through thick and thin for as long as they will have me. I am fortunate to be with an exceptional group of people both in the church and in the larger community.

I suppose since seminarians will be reading this, I should say something about that. I have no advice. I don't know if it is right or wrong to blog. The technology wasn't available when I was in seminary. Had it been available I don't know if I would have blogged at that time or not. I do know that finally after 16 years of ministry I think I have something to say. I wouldn't have had anything to say if I hadn't experienced the great joys and great disappointments of parish ministry.

Blogging friend and colleague, Carol Howard Merritt, blogs at Tribal Church (a blog named for her important book). She posted about blogging preachers and received a number of good comments expressing a variety of views. Check it.

Carolyn also asked me to take a look at Sermons from Caldwell Chapel. I have added it to the sidebar. Here you can read and hear sermons from faculty at LPTS.

So, seminarians at LPTS (and elsewhere), there you have it. If you feel up to being on the internet (you can always use a fake name) please comment. I would enjoy hearing your opinions. It has been a while since seminary and things have changed a great deal I am sure.

Christ be with you in your studies and in your quest to live the gospel.