Sacrifice and Salvation

 Preached at Silverton Friends Church

April 28, 2024

William Blake wrote a poem: “To God / If you have form’d a circle to go into / Go into it yourself and see how you would do.” This is exactly what God did in the Son, Jesus. Jesus came into the world, our circle, and we can see how God did and what God did in that circle.

Central to Christian belief is that God loved the world in this way: Jesus came as God’s only begotten Son to seek for and save the lost so that they might not perish. Jesus said that he came not to condemn the world, but so that the world through him could be saved. He was killed for his message of inclusive grace and and for teaching the need to align one’s heart and words and deeds and for his insistence that he would not play the game of power so dear to human beings.

Jesus’s choice to embrace sacrifice and the result that we now are at one with God have been preached around the world.  The way we explain to ourselves why Jesus died at the hands of human beings has enormous significance for how we view God and ourselves and our mutual relationship. I think that each explanation can cite passages from the Bible in support. The discussion, and even enmity, around these explanations underlines the centrality of sacrifice for Christians. Some Christians are uncomfortable and perhaps even queasy about the idea of such a sacrifice being necessary. So I want to think with you about the distinction between being a sacrifice and being a victim, and spoiler alert, the distinction centers on agency.

Probably most obvious is that a victim suffers without having chosen it.  I think about the near death of Isaac in the Old Testament.  The story goes like this: after decades of waiting for a son with his wife Sarah, God sent her a son.  Now, what often goes unsaid is that Abraham had an older son with Sarah’s slave, Hagar, which was apparently an acceptable version of surrogacy in those times.  Ishmael could have inherited, but he would have been known to be the son of the slave. But God showed up to Abraham and promised that Sarah, in her 90s, would have a baby, too.  And she did, recognizing the joke on her by calling him Isaac, which means laughter.  She forced Abraham to banish Hagar and Ishmael so Isaac would be the only son, and he did. In this case, both Hagar and Ishmael were victims of Sarah’s jealousy and Abraham’s spinelessness.  But God stepped in and met Hagar and led her and Ishmael to water and safety. You can read this whole story in Genesis 12-23.

Then, when Isaac was old enough to help carry firewood, God told Abraham to take him up on a mountain and offer him up to God at that place. I have wondered whether this took place in a culture that practiced human sacrifice, but I don’t know. Abraham followed God’s instructions, even proceeding to the point of tying Isaac on top of the firewood, lifting his hand with the knife in it. God halted the proceedings at that point, saying, “Now I know that you are in awe of God—you have not withheld your son, your only one, from me.” And God provided a ram for the sacrifice instead of the boy.  

If Abraham had gone through with the offering, he would have sacrificed, but Isaac would have been the victim, having had no choice in the matter. However, like his banished brother Ishmael, Isaac got to witness God taking care of him when God provided the ram in his place. This is God’s repeated posture in the scripture—identifying with the victim, caring for the victim.

I’ve speculated about this story more than once, wondering why an omniscient God had to find out whether Abraham would be obedient, wondering if instead Abraham had to find out whether he would be obedient. God only knows what lessons God wanted Abraham to draw from that incident, but it’s likely Isaac did not draw the same ones. I’ve wondered how Isaac viewed his father after this event, and how Isaac viewed his father’s God. I’ve thought about how it connects up with Jesus saying that anyone who loves father and mother and wife and children more than they love Jesus is not worthy of him (Matthew 10:37-39). Or even more shockingly, Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.(Luke 14:26, NRSV). These passages, particularly the reference to hatred, make me so uncomfortable. I had to try to soften them, and the word itself does not actually permit softening.  So we have to look at how Jesus behaved as he followed the Spirit of God to help us understand. What does it look like to live putting everything second to God’s Spirit?

Jesus had no wife or children, though people like to speculate, and the possibility is that because his conception was irregular, he was in something of a marginalized position in Jewish society. He did have a mother, and we can look at how he treated her in order to understand what he said.  At the age of 12, which is the Jewish age of manhood, he let her know he would put God’s business first. He listened to her and granted her request at the marriage in Cana, turning the water into wine, but he pushed back, rebuking her a little.  When she came to see him, worried he was in danger of losing mind and life, he refused to go out to see her, saying, “My mother and family are those who hear the word of God and do it.” But when he was dying, he committed her welfare to the disciple he loved, John, who from that day took her into his family. He let her know that obedience to God was top priority, making Mom happy was second at most, but he cared for her.

Further, I want to point out that Jesus also called to account those religious people who let their parents suffer while they designated big sums for the temple, and he condemned those who made it hard for children to approach and trust him and his Father. He said that what people do to the little ones they do to him, so all that has to be carried in the mind while meditating on the absoluteness of the call of God on our lives. Following God first does not mean carelessness about those we love or cruelty to our neighbors.

Jesus made his all or nothing statements in reference to the decision to follow him, so we need to observe closely and intelligently what Jesus did with his life.  Crucially, he depended always on God to tell him what to do and how to do it.  “I do only what I see the Father doing,” he said.

One way Jesus resembled his Father is in looking beyond surfaces to see what another human being is prioritizing. He looked at the rich young ruler and saw that, despite his goodness, what he held as a priority was riches. So he said, “Give them away and come follow me.” He looked at Peter, Andrew, James, and John, and saw that they prioritized their family business and heritage as fishermen. So he said, “Come follow me and I’ll make you fishers for human beings.” He looked at Nicodemus and saw he prioritized his age and intelligence and knowledge of the law. So he said, “You must start over as a new baby in order to follow me.” He looked at Judas and saw he prioritized political expediency and personal advantage. So he said, “Make your choice about what to do and choose quickly.” He looked at the woman caught in the act of adultery and saw she prioritized being desired and desiring. So he said, “Go and sin no more.” He looked at Pharisees and saw them basking in superiority about their knowledge and observance of the law. So he said, “You exempt yourselves from the spirit of the law by following your interpretation of the letter, and you make it impossible for others to measure up. Unless you change direction, you are the children of the devil.” He looked at Zacchaeus and saw that he prioritized getting to see Jesus at the cost of personal dignity. So he said, “Come down and I’ll eat with you.” And Zacchaeus said, “I’ll repay everyone I’ve defrauded and pay damages as well.” 

Some of these people indeed set aside what they had made central to their lives and identities, choosing to follow Jesus. Occasionally they expressed the feeling that they hoped this would pay off tangibly somehow, and occasionally Jesus pointed out that how people treated him was a good indication of how they would treat those who follow him.

When Jesus chose to allow himself to be arrested and crucified, he sacrificed himself despite all his human fear of pain, his ordinary desire for life and happiness. In the garden he sweated drops of blood as he contemplated his near future of torture and death, and on the cross he cried out his sense of abandonment by God. He protested against pain and death and aloneness, but he held fast to his intention because it brought and brings good for us. His ultimate act of agency was choosing to forgive his torturers. Forgiveness reclaims agency and is so good for our souls when we come to a place where we find it possible.

Jesus said that there is no greater love than this, that a person will lay down their life for a friend.  Paul said that some might be brave enough to die for a good person. but we know God really loves us all, because Christ died for, as Paul puts it, the ungodly (Romans 5).  Jesus said that he himself is the good shepherd, and what makes him good is that he lays down his life for the sheep, unlike the hired hand, who runs for his life (John 10). We are the sheep of God’s pasture (Ps. 121). What we learn by observing and listening to Jesus is that God has acted and eternally acts sacrificially for our good. 

Jesus was clear that there is a cost to discipleship, and that top priority would always have to be listening to what God’s Spirit says and doing what God’s Spirit says to do. And Jesus warns us not to judge others for how well they’re doing this hard work, noting that the severity of our judgment will rebound onto us. 

God always knew that the only way to make clear how much God loves us is to show us God’s Son entering into our world to be a willing sacrifice, enduring the results of human choices. It’s as if God was willing to go through the experience Abraham was spared in order to cement our understanding of how much God is committed to loving us. This kind of sacrifice was and is chosen by the one who will be sacrificed. Because of what Jesus chose, we see that we can trust God with our whole selves and lives. 

Jacob, Esau, and Peace-Making

 Peace-Making

Today, I’m going to tell you a story about someone who is mostly a negative example of peace-making, Jacob from the book of Genesis. I encourage you to look at chapters 24-33 of Genesis for the detailed story, which is unsparingly honest about this man.

Jacob was born one of twins, but his brother Esau was born first. Esau meant Rough and Hairy and Jacob meant Trickster, or Heel-Grabber. Their characters were also different— Esau was the outdoorsy type, Jacob liked being indoors. Also, each of their parents had a favorite child: Esau was his father’s favorite, and Jacob was his mother’s. And the custom of the time gave first-born sons highly preferential treatment in the distribution of property and power over the other children. So from childhood, Esau and Jacob were set up to be at odds with each other.

As their father Isaac aged, he became blind, and he felt he was nearing his death, so he sent for his favorite Esau and said, Go hunting and bring me a savory meal from the meat you kill, and I will bless you as my first-born son.

Their mother Rebekah overheard this, and she said to Jacob, You go kill a couple of kid goats and I will make your father the kind of meal he loves, and then you can have the blessing meant for Esau. So Jacob did what she said.

Jacob was worried that his father would detect him as an imposter; his mother suggested putting the hairy skins on his arms and the back of his hands and his cheeks and she brought him some of Esau’s well-worn and not recently laundered clothes.  He dressed in the clothes and fixed the goat hair on his smooth skin, and went in to his father Isaac.

His father was puzzled. He brought Jacob near and smelled him, then he felt his arms and hands, and then he muttered, “The voice is Jacob’s, but the smell and hairiness are Esau’s.” Nevertheless, he accepted the savory meal and ate it, and then he blessed Jacob with the blessing he had prepared for Esau. This blessing, besides promising prosperity, also promised that the other son and his offspring would serve the son being blessed.

Esau came in several hours later with his savory dish of game he had hunted and prepared. Isaac was distressed, and they both realized the trick played on them by Jacob and Rebekah. Esau wept and begged for a blessing, and Isaac did what he could, telling Esau that he would be a nomad, that he would serve his brother, and that at some point, his descendants would rebel and throw off that servitude.

In his anger, Esau let it be known that when Isaac was dead, he would kill Jacob. Again, Rebekah stepped in to protect her favorite. She told Jacob he would have to leave home, and she arranged it so that it appeared he was traveling to relatives in order to find an appropriate wife.

Jacob left on the run, with almost nothing but the clothes on his back and some small provision of food (undoubtedly). The blessing for which he had betrayed his brother had instead resulted in his running for his life.

We can see from the lofty distance of time and psychology several things that killed the willingness of Esau and Jacob to live at peace with each other.  The uneven inheritance of children prescribed by their culture, the preferential love of each parent for one of them, with the all-important father’s love going to Esau—these made for a relationship of competition and envy.  Add in that they were very unlike in their characters.  Jacob played the long game, and Esau lived more in the moment, and Jacob took advantage of that.

Even though Jacob himself acts as if everything depends on his wiliness, we find that God has not abandoned him  As Jacob sleeps, he dreams of a ladder between earth and heaven and angels going up and down. In the dream, God tells Jacob: “I am the God of your father and grandfather; I will give you and your descendants the land where you lie; I will give you many descendants and will bless the whole earth through you. I am with you, and I will keep you wherever you go, and bring you home again. I will not leave you until all my promises to you have been fulfilled.” 

When Jacob wakes, he says, “Whoa, God is here ,” and sets up a memorial stone.  Then he says to God, actually ignoring the grace God has offered him: “If you take care of me, providing food, clothing, and keeping me safe until I return to my father’s house, then you will be my God and I’ll pay you 1/10 of all I have.”  

We can see from this that Jacob wants to strike a bargain with God. His understanding seems pagan, in that he locates God in that place and then thinks that offering God material things will ensure God takes care of him. Craftily, Jacob requires God to go first with the bargain before Jacob pays him the tenth. And we learn that God is immune to such nonsense as Jacob proposes.  God has already promised to take care of Jacob despite Jacob’s untrusting character. As, in fact, God is also taking care of Esau despite Esau’s vengeful character.

We can also see that God reaches out to people in conflict to remind them that God’s grace and love are available. The love of God is not scarce but instead infinite.

I skip over the next 20 years except to note that Jacob connives a genetically improbable method to increase his flocks at his father-in-law’s expense, causing his brothers-in-law to be resentful and angry. Jacob decides to run for it, though this time he is encumbered by wives, children, flocks, and employees. Now he is running for home.

On the way home, Jacob hears news that Esau is coming to meet him accompanied by 400 men.  Jacob reasonably assumes this is a fighting force, and he is caught. Going forward is dangerous, and he has promised Laban not to go back.

He sets up wave upon wave of livestock gifts to Esau. Then he arranges his belongings in two companies in case Esau massacres one of them. Then he sets up his children and their mothers in groups and places himself before any of them, in case by killing him, Esau will be satisfied and Jacob’s family will live on.  

Jacob spends a lonely anxious night before his meeting with Esau. While he is alone, a man wrestles with him until daybreak. The anonymous wrestler does not win, so he dislocates Jacob’s thigh and lames him.  Still Jacob holds on, and the wrestler says, “Let me go.” Jacob says, “Not until you tell me your name.” The wrestler says, “What is your name?” Jacob admits his name, which means trickster, and his character. The wrestler says, “Your new name is Israel because you have striven with God and with me and have prevailed.”

When Jacob (now Israel) meets Esau, he bows before Esau. To his surprise, Esau dismounts, runs to meet him, and kisses him, and they weep together.

God has also been with Esau, as it turns out, and Esau has plenty and clearly has forgiven his trickster brother.  Perhaps that is the unexpected way he threw the yoke of Jacob off his neck.

What do we learn from these brothers about conflict? 

1. 1.All conflict is essentially between siblings—all humans are fundamentally related.
2. 2.Conflict often begins in the perception of one party that the other party has more of something—love, food, material goods, freedom, charisma.  In other words, the deadly sin of envy is in the heart of conflict, with the related deadly sin of greed, resulting in the third deadly sin of bitterness, which allows the aggrieved party to justify deceptive, violent, cold-hearted actions.
3. 3.Conflict intensifies when one party’s legitimate rights are taken away by trickery or force. It continues because the deprived party wants justice and even revenge.  It also continues because the oppressive party begins to fear and then hate those they have wronged. Hatred, another deadly sin.

What do we learn from these brothers about making peace?

1. 1.Each must set aside fear of the other—fear of trickery, fear of violence, fear of loss.
2. 2.This is enormously helped along by each recognizing God’s infinite love is for all, and there is enough for all. (I have plenty, says Esau.)
3. 3.Making amends is helpful for the party who has deprived the other. (Jacob needed to give gifts to Esau.) Justice and generosity meet and embrace. 
4. 4.Acknowledging that God is actively involved in the lives of all those in conflict, that they are all under God’s loving and disciplinary care, helps us set aside the desire to control events and other people.
5. 5.Sometimes, it helps to let some time pass.
6. 6.There is no way to bribe God, and no need either.

Charles Wesley wrote a song about how Jacob’s experience spoke to him personally, and I’ll close with that.

Come, O thou traveler unknown, whom still I hold but cannot see;

My company before is gone, and I am left alone with thee.

With thee all night I mean to stay, and wrestle till the break of day.

I need not tell thee who I am, my sin and misery declare;

Thyself hast called me by my name, look on thy hands and read it there.

But who, I ask thee, who art thou? Tell me thy name, and tell me now.

In vain thou strugglest to get free; I never will unloose my hold!

Art thou the man that died for me? The secret of thy love unfold;

Wrestling, I will not let thee go, Till I thy name, thy nature know.

Yield to me now; for I am weak; but confident in self-despair;

Speak to my heart, in blessings speak, Be conquered by my instant prayer.

Speak, or thou never hence shalt move, and tell me if thy name is Love.

‘Tis love! ‘Tis love! Thou diedst for me; I hear thy whisper in my heart;

The morning breaks, the shadows flee; pure universal Love thou art.

To me, to all, thy mercies move, thy nature and thy name is love.

Lame as I am, I take the prey; Hell, earth, and sin, with ease o’ercome;

I leap for joy, pursue my way, and as a bounding hart, I run

Through all eternity to prove thy nature and thy name is love,

Thy Name is Love.

May we each be visited and overwhelmed by the infinite love and care of God, and may we allow that experience to change our hearts toward others, particularly toward those with whom we are in conflict.

Freedom, Simplicity, Honesty, and Humility: the Human Side of Prayer

Matthew 6:9-13 “The Lord’s Prayer”

October 26, 2014

Preached at Newberg Friends Church, Newberg, OR

The simplicity of this prayer speaks honestly of the simplicity of our approach to God.  Acknowledge God as Father, acknowledge that God is immediately present, acknowledge that God is holy in character. Welcome the coming of God as King and present ourselves as ready to do God’s will. Ask simply for what we need for the day. Ask for forgiveness and to be able to forgive. Ask for protection from pain, trouble, and evil.

So simple, and all we need.  And at the same time, the apex of teaching from the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, about who we are in relationship to God. Jesus invokes the Psalms, the Proverbs, the Law, the Prophets, and personal stories in this simple prayer.  I think it will temporarily defamiliarize it for us and thus enrich our experience of it to hear the echoes from the sacred texts that Jesus read. I have adapted some of these to speak directly to God as prayers.

Our Father

Jesus's scriptures spoke of God as our Father.

Psalm 68:4-5 We sing to You, God, we sing praises to Your name; we extol You, the God who rides on the clouds, by Your name YAH, the One Who is and Who makes things happen, and we rejoice before You. A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, are You, God, in Your holy habitation.  (NKJV, modified per Howard Macy)

Psalm 103 Bless the LORD, O my soul; and with all that is within me, I bless Your holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul; I do not forget all Your benefits: the God Who forgives all my iniquities, Who heals all my diseases, Who redeems my life from destruction, Who crowns me with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies my mouth with good things, so that my youth is renewed like the eagle’s. You, LORD, execute righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed…You, LORD, are merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. You will not always strive with us, nor will You keep Your anger forever. You have not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is Your mercy to those who fear You; as far as the east is from the west, so far have You removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so you, LORD, pity those who fear You. For You know our frame; You remember that we are dust. … LORD, You have established Your throne in heaven, and Your kingdom rules over all. (NKJV)

Isaiah 63:15-16 Look down from heaven, and see from Your habitation, holy and glorious. Where are Your zeal and Your strength, the yearning of Your heart and Your mercies toward us? Are they restrained? Doubtless You are our Father, though Abraham was ignorant of us, and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name. (NKJV)

Isaiah 64:8 O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand. (NKJV)

In heaven

When we say “our Father in heaven”—what does that exactly mean?  I have always felt myself to be directing my prayer “up there” somewhere.  But Dallas Willard tells us in The Divine Conspiracy to look at the places in the Old Testament where God speaks “from heaven” which show us “that heaven is here and God is here, because God and his spiritual agents act here and are constantly available here” (69). Willard directs our attention to Jacob’s dream of the ladder going up to heaven in Genesis 28, and particularly this verse:  And behold, the Lord stood over and beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac…by you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed and bless themselves (AMP). Our Father who is in our atmosphere, in Whom we live and move and have our being, Who “speaks out of thin air” (Willard) is a more helpful way to understand “in heaven.” 

Hallowed be Your Name

The Name of God refers to the entire character of God, all God is known for.  The prayer we pray is that the person and character of God will be revered and known as holy. We very likely underestimate the grandness of God when we get used to being God’s family. Just to give us a picture that depicts that grandeur, here is a description from the prophet Ezekiel while in Babylon with the Jewish captives.  He saw “a whirlwind coming out of the north, a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself; and brightness was all around it and radiating out of its midst like the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire…Above … was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone; on the likeness of the throne was a likeness of a man high above it. Also from the appearance of his waist and upward I saw, as it were, the color of amber with fire all around within it; and from the appearance of His waist and downward I saw, as it were, fire with brightness all around. Like a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.  So when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one speaking. (Ezek. 1).  Bright light, fire, wind, rainbow, and someone with a human shape towering above him on a toweringly high throne.  Hallowed be thy name, amen! Let us admire and tremble at Your greatness, O God, and treat You with respect and humility.

Immediately out of our awareness of the holiness of God, the perfection and wholeness of the same being who also gives us life and speaks to us out of thin air, comes the prayer that God’s kingdom come and God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

What does God’s Kingdom look like in the Hebrew Testament?

Psalm 89:5-9, 11, 13-16, 19-22, 26, 35-37 The heavens will praise Your wonders, O LORD; Your faithfulness also in the assembly of the saints. For who in the heavens can be compared to the LORD? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the LORD? God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints; all those around You hold You in reverence. O LORD God of hosts, who is mighty like You, O LORD? Your faithfulness also surrounds You. You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, You still them….The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; the world and all its fullness, You have founded them. … You spoke in a vision to Your holy one, and said: …”I have found My servant David; with My holy oil I have anointed him … The enemy shall not outwit him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him… He shall cry to Me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.’” (NKJV)

Here is one picture from the prophet Isaiah: Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, who will teach us God’s ways, and we shall walk in God’s paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. God shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore (Isaiah 2).

Ezekiel shows us how God’s will is done in heaven: The living beings, the cherubim, four faces, four sets of wings, ready to rush off in whatever direction God tells them to do what God wants, accompanied by the wheels rimmed with eyes, which roll beside them wherever they go—that’s what it looks like in heaven.  Worship, listening, instant obedience.  In this prayer we commit to humility before God: we do not use God; God uses us.

Give us this day our daily bread

We have a picture of daily bread in the exodus narrative miracle of manna. In

Exodus 16, when the Hebrew people had left Egypt and were walking through the desert, they became hungry, and they murmured against Moses and God. God in graciousness sent them quail in the evening and manna bread to gather in the morning.  This prayer remembers the daily provision of God in the past and humbly requests similar provision in the present.  It is humble and temperate in what it asks for.

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors

This prayer extends the principle that restrained vengeance: Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, wound for wound, stripe for stripe (Exodus 21:23-25).  This defines and limits what is owed for an injury. Jesus takes us into the territory of generosity by teaching us that our forgiving what is owed to us goes hand in hand with God forgiving what we owe to God.

Two clear examples of forgiveness from the Hebrew Testament: After Jacob defrauds Esau of his first-born blessing, Esau swears he will kill Jacob as soon as their father Isaac dies. Jacob flees the country.  When he returns decades later, Jacob hears Esau is coming to meet him. He sends ahead of him many gifts to placate Esau, and even places his wives and children ahead of him to receive Esau’s vengeance.  Jacob cannot evade the meeting, however, and to his surprise, Esau runs to embrace him and kisses him. They weep together.  Then Esau returns all Jacob’s gifts to him because Esau has all he needs already.  Esau deserves all kinds of credit for being a class-A forgiver (Genesis 33).

We can see forgiveness also operating in the life of David when he is on the run from Saul (I Samuel 24).  Saul has tried again and again to kill David, whose popularity and anointing are a threat to Saul’s kingship. David and his warriors/bandits hide out in wild places, and here is what David prays when he is hiding in a cave. Psalm 142: I cry out to the LORD with my voice, with my voice to the LORD I make my supplication. I pour out my complaint before You; I declare before You my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then You knew my path. In the way in which I walk they have secretly set a snare for me. Look on my right hand and see, for there is no one who acknowledges me; refuge has failed me; no one cares for my soul. I cried out to You, O LORD: I said, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low; deliver me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise your name; the righteous shall surround me, for you shall deal bountifully with me.” (NKJV, adapted)

Saul pursues David to the wilderness of Engedi, and while there, goes aside into a cave to relieve himself, as the Amplified Bible puts it with some degree of restraint.  As Saul is in this unguarded moment, David and his warriors line the darkness at the back of the cave, watching.  David’s men whisper to him, “God has delivered your enemy into your hand. Kill him!” Instead, David cuts off a bit of Saul’s robe. When Saul reenters the light of day, David follows him out, bows to the ground, and shows Saul the bit of cloth.  “See, my father, see the skirt of your robe in my hand! Since I cut off the skirt of your robe and did not kill you, you know and see that there is no evil or treason in my hands.  I have not sinned against you, yet you hunt my life to take it. May the Lord judge between me and you, and may the Lord avenge me upon you, but my hand shall not be upon you….May the Lord be judge and judge between me and you, and see and plead my cause, and deliver me out of your hands.” And then Saul wept, and he replied to David, “You are more upright in God’s eyes than I, for you have repaid me good, but I have rewarded you evil…Therefore may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done for me this day.”

David’s honest prayer to God makes it possible for him to respond to Saul in a peace-making way, deferring judgment and justice to God. We have no need to hide our anger and even our hatred of our enemies from God, who sees our hearts.  Much better to express it to God as colorfully as we need to and then trust God to judge between us and those who have done us harm.

Lead us not into temptation

The very provision of God in the wilderness, the quail and the manna, was a trial of the wanderers. God said to Moses: I will rain bread from heaven, and the people will go out and gather it at a certain rate every day and I will test them, I will prove them, to see whether they will do as I direct them. God left the nations of Canaan in the land that the Israelites settled to test them, to prove them. Out of this context, Jesus teaches us to pray instead along the lines of the writer of Proverbs, who prays: Remove falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with the food allotted to me; lest I be full and deny You and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal, and profane the name of my God. (Prov. 3:8-9). Both abundance and scarcity test us, and each has its own temptations.

Deliver us from evil, from the Evil One

The Psalms are chock-full of prayers for deliverance from evil—from persons who want to harm us, from our own tendency to do evil, and from evil itself.

Psalm 25:19-20 Consider my enemies, for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred. Keep my soul and deliver me; let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You.

Psalm 17:13 Deliver my life from the wicked with Your sword, with Your hand…

Psalm 39:7-8 And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You. Deliver me from all my transgressions; do not make me the reproach of the foolish.

Psalm 116:3-5 The pains of death surrounded me, and the pangs of the grave laid hold of me; I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the LORD: “O LORD, I implore You, deliver my soul!” Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yes, our God is merciful.

Psalm 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

My hope today is that we will sense the richness of the stories and poetry and prophecy that echo through this simple prayer, and that we will pray with greater freedom, simplicity, honesty, and humility as a human creature addressing a divine Creator, a God Who chooses to be in loving and tender relationship with us and Who is near to us at all times, Who hears our wails and our hurrahs, and Who is close enough to hear our whispers and even what we cannot speak.

Peace and Justice/Just Us

Preached at Reedwood Friends, Jan. 6, 2013

Genesis 3, 4, 27, 32, 33

When Ken invited me to preach during Peace Month, he laid before me all the options—World Peace, the end of racism or sexism or prejudice of any kind,  or reconciliation between persons.  I actually believe all peace begins in the individual heart, that a heart at peace cannot hate or disparage or belittle or slander or badmouth another person, group of people, or nation.  So I chose the topic I think is most important, and also the one I am always working on.

As a child, like many or most children, I felt unjustly treated, shamed, bullied, and lied to.  As a result, I conceived a huge passion for justice.  My favorite Bible story was the sudden justice delivered to Ananias and Sapphira when they lied to the Holy Spirit and Peter and dropped dead.  But as I grew up and recognized some of my own unjust, shaming, bullying, and deceptive actions, I became more of a fan of mercy.  As GKChesterton wrote, “For children are innocent and love justice; while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy” (On Household Gods and Goblins, 1922).

As the wise writer Jeremiah wrote, “The human heart—i.e. “the seat of internal processes, including both feeling and thinking, as well as dreading, ruminating, aspiring, and so forth” (Dr. Joel Hoffman, “Five Bible Images You Probably Misunderstand,” Huffpo)—what we might more accurately call the self—is is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9).  Or as Bob Dylan wrote, “Heart of mine, so malicious and so full of guile, Give you an inch and you’ll take a mile.” Or as Jesus pointed out, “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies; these are the things which defile us, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile us” (Matthew 15:19-20).

There are two responses that will make the rest of this sermon hypothetical rather than useful.  One is resisting this point.  My self isn’t desperately wicked, my self isn’t malicious and full of guile, my self is not the seat of all those awful sins. I have some good qualities! But this is a serious problem in the way of a peaceful heart. If we have never noticed that a large part of our internal processes are self-justifying, we will not ever ask ourselves why we need to justify ourselves, and we will not ever see that we might at some time have done something despicable and harmful to another person. St. Paul writes to Timothy about those who speak lies in hypocrisy, having their consciences seared with a hot iron (2 Tim 1:3).  We can for a long time avoid an accurate self-understanding that includes our potential for evil.

Another unhelpful response is yes, I am a terrible person and there is no hope for me.  St. Paul writes to Titus about those whose conscience is defiled, which means it is unhelpful in sorting things out, and that lovable apostle St. John writes, “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”  Sometimes our consciences are poorly trained and either let us off the hook too often or keep us on the hook too often.  Neither is helpful.  We need to submit our consciences to the guidance of Jesus, who promises to lead us into all truth, and who can retrain our consciences.

So the first step to a peaceful heart is an accurate self-understanding, which includes submitting our consciences to examination by Jesus and living into the repentance and discipline Jesus prescribes.  Let me encourage you to let down your guard and invite Jesus to examine your selves, your consciences, your hearts.  Then please be obedient to what he prescribes for you to do.

A second step toward peace is laying down our swords.  A vivid bad example of a heart not at peace is provided by the interpersonal conflict between Cain and Abel.  Here is the whole story from Genesis 4: Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground.  Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and bel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions.  And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.  So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.  The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him.  Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” And the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.  When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”

Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me.” Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who came upon him would kill him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

This conflict seems to have existed without Abel knowing about it.  Both brothers offered the fruits of their work to God, and God accepted only Abel’s. God tells Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted?” And, as the saying goes, the proof was in the pudding.  The reason why God accepted only Abel’s offering is made clear when Cain throws a fit.  Instead of looking inside himself to see what might have made his offering unacceptable, Cain solves the problem more primitively and eliminates the competition.

A question for us to consider is this:  Is there someone in my life who stands between me and my goals or hopes? Does the person who stands between me and what I want actually represent something inside me? A fear, a shame, an unwillingness to risk?

I recently had to confess to a close friend that I had blamed him for years for an action he took that I believed stood between me and my goals.  I had to admit that what really got in my way was my own ambivalence and fear.  It was much easier to blame someone else.

As a woman in a patriarchal culture, I have wanted to blame men in general and specific men in particular for the fact I have not achieved my dreams.  I was brought up short in this pattern by a young woman who said, “My real barriers are inside me.” 

Another step toward peace is laying down our shields. Another vivid bad example of hearts not at peace comes from Genesis 3.  Just after Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God comes to visit them as usual.  They are hiding in the trees and have become afraid because they are naked, as Adam says.  When God asks Adam, “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat,” Adam answers: “The woman whom you gave me to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.”  Adam manages in this statement to admit what he did but blame both Eve and God for his disobedience.  When God asks Eve, “What is this that you have done?”, she replies, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” She also admits what she did, but she passes the blame on to the serpent.  The serpent is speechless. 

More questions: Is there someone in my life I blame for the fact I have made mistakes or strayed from the right path? Does the blame I place on another person allow me to avoid confronting my own contribution to the conflict? Does blaming someone else help me to avoid shame?

It is possible to work for years to come to terms with admitting what I contributed to an estrangement—what I did wrong, in other words.  I can pray for justice, work to forgive, apologize for what I can see I did wrong, and still feel that the other person blames me for everything, and this is not fair or just. I have to admit that I am still more interested in being heard than in listening, that I want to explain why it isn’t my fault, or at least isn’t all my fault, and I want the other person to admit his or her errors of judgment and behavior also.  Can I move into actual reconciliation?  Not with my shields up.

I knew a married couple who fought bitterly over their understanding of the grace of God. The first accused the second of believing she was saved by good works and the second accused the first of believing that once he was saved, he could behave any old way.  Underneath this theological argument were two people disappointed in each other and disappointed in their marriage who were fighting each other to avoid admitting any disappointment with themselves. Failing to be a good spouse was too shameful to be looked at squarely. After years, their hearts softened and with the help of a counselor, they could lay down their swords and shields, accept grace from God and each other, and extend grace to each other.  Their essential characters are not changed, but their demeanor toward each other is so vastly different it is like a miracle. 

More questions: Is there someone in my life who has failed to measure up to what he or she should be or believe or do? Is it possible that my disappointment with this person masks some sort of disappointment with myself?

And now, a good example of brothers laying down their swords and shields that starts off, of course, bad.

Genesis 27, 32 and 33 tell the story of twin brothers, Esau and Jacob.  They were nothing alike, and seemed to be struggling for top dog status even in the womb.  Esau is famous for trading his rights as first born to Jacob for a bowl of soup, and Jacob is famous for cheating Esau out of his blessing as first born by deceiving their blind father Isaac.  Add into all this the fact that the dad favored Esau and the mom favored Jacob. And that Esau was a man’s man while Jacob could hardly grow a beard. Trouble everywhere. 

Esau’s original response to Jacob was this, “Soon my father will die and then I will kill my brother Jacob.” Esau felt like Cain, that if he could simply remove the competition, he would regain all he had lost of God’s blessing and his first-born rights.  He blamed Jacob for all he had lost, even though to an outside observer, he seemed pretty careless with his birthright and maybe should have partly blamed himself. 

Their mother heard of Esau’s threat, called Jacob in and warned him.  “Your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you.  Flee to your uncle’s and stay awhile until your brother’s fury lessens, until his anger turns away and he forgets what you have done to him.”  So Jacob took off.   Jacob’s essential trickster character remained constant through his time with his uncle, and he became rich at his uncle’s expense.  God told him to go home, and he and his wives and children and servants and animals took all his property and started for home. 

As he neared home, he began sending messengers to Esau, announcing his arrival and reporting back to him how Esau took the news.  They told him, “Esau is coming to meet you with four hundred men.”  Jacob was scared. It sounded to him like a fighting force.  He split up his wealth so that at worst he would lose only half.  He sent presents ahead to Esau of herd after herd of livestock with space in between.  He prayed for God to protect him from his brother, and in that prayer he said to God, “I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant.”  This prayer reveals that at long last, Jacob is telling the truth about himself to God, a truth that he may have been avoiding his whole life by clawing his way to wealth and position through hard dealing and deceitfulness.

That night, Jacob wrestled bodily with God.  Symbolically, this is the same wrestling match that he had been engaged in his whole life.  When the Spirit he was wrestling puts his hip out of joint, laming him for life, this was the same limp he had been covering for his whole life.  God blessed him with a change in name, symbolizing a new view of himself, a change from “Cheater” or “Supplanter” to “One who strives with God” –a change from “low-life” to “full human being.”

In the morning, Jacob saw Esau approaching.  He knew he had done Esau wrong, and he approached him as a supplicant, bowing seven times.  And here is the surprise.  Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.   

Who knows what process Esau went through to move from wanting to kill Jacob to welcoming him home like the father welcomes home the prodigal son in the parable told by Jesus.  It is clear that Esau no longer feels himself held down by Jacob’s tricksy manipulations.  The yoke of anger and hatred has been broken off his neck.  He is forgiving, even to the point of allowing Jacob to try to make things right by giving him gifts.  As my daughter Liz pointed out to me, Esau is the first example of an outright forgiveness in the Bible.

More questions:  Is there someone in my life who makes me feel inferior?  Is my conflict with that person standing in for admitting my own sense of worthlessness, my shame at somehow not measuring up? If I just admit the truth about myself to God, what does God say to me?

Here are the signs that my heart is not at peace:  I am competing for attention, blaming others, judging and criticizing others, and cheating to get ahead. 

To have a heart at peace means that I no longer am acting in my own defense. I have wrestled with God, admitted to God my worst stuff, accepted that God values our relationship because God values me, not my innocence, not my perfection, not my achievements, not my rightness, not my religious devotion.  God values you and me, knowing full well how easily we make mistakes, how easily we slip into self-justifying and blaming others, how easily we try to cover up for ourselves.  God values us and loves it when we get honest and open and accept God’s love without trying to earn it.  God loves us because God is love.  And there is enough love for all.

Pray for justice when you are in conflict with another person.  If you pray for justice, God will be help you be just, which involves seeing both the other and yourself more clearly.  And then lean into the help Jesus gives to repent and forgive.