Aug 28, 2009

Meet Your Maker, Vol. VI

I know, I know. "Mike is still doing these?!" Yes. Yes, I am. Cant a working man take a vacation?!

Im back from a hiatus, and returning to the trendy SOTHblog scene. I was predestined to take a break and predestined to return. Nothing could have prevented either.

Well, actually, the predestination talk above is nothing more than a segue into this week's Wesleyan wisdom:

In this sermon, Wesley presents counter arguments to the idea of predestination, also referred to as "election," "preterition," and "reprobation." These all give name to a school of thought that essentially states that God has selected, as per His will and His will only, some people to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven and others He has chosen to bar from the gates of Heaven forever. It is a predetermined list which cannot be added to or subtracted from.

Wesley takes vehement opposition to this theology. While he lists several reasons with support in the sermon, I will directly address only a chosen few (get it?!):

1) Wesley states that if "one part of mankind are infallibly saved, and the rest infallibly damned" then "all preaching is vain" because it is "needless to them that are elected...and useless to them that are not elected." This hinges on his premise that the end or ultimate goal of preaching is "to save souls." So folks like Adam and I would be out of a job. There is a written note (Im assuming of Adam's) in the margin of the book I am reading these sermons from that reads "Calvinists preach'n helps elect see implications and obligations." But given Wesley's argument, even this is non-sensical and ultimately pointless, for the elect have no need to fear falling out of favor whether they are aware of the implications or meet any obligations thereto associated with being an elect.

2) It takes the passion and activity out of our relationship to God. He writes: "For if a sick man knows that he must unavoidably die or unavoidably recover, though he knows not which, it is not reasonable for him to take any physic at all. He might justly say (and so I have heard some speak, both in bodily sickness and in spiritual), 'If I am ordained to life, I shall live; if to death, I shall die. So I need not trouble myself about it." Essentially, our relationship to God is moved out of the loving father realm and into a relationship that more nearly resembles the one shared between the young child with a magnifying glass and the ants below him on a sunny day. Or, for those interactive learners in the crowd, its just like this game: http://www.addictinggames.com/godsplayingfield.html. Yeah, I went there.

3) Wesley argues that the supporters of such a theology pull their ideas from a select number of verses while seemingly ignoring the greater number of verses that directly contradict the former. He lists these among them (emphasis is Wesley's; no translation listed):

"The Lord is loving unto every man, and his mercy is over all his works." Psalm 145:9

"He is the Savior of all men." 1 Timothy 4:10

"He gave himself a ransom for all." 1 Timothy 2:6

"He tasted death for every man." Hebrews 2:9

As Methodists, as followers, then, of Wesleyan theology, we do not subscribe to the idea that there is a chance that we do not and can not find favor in the eyes of God. By that statement, I do not intend to submit that we, as Methodists, believe we are all "elect," either. We believe instead that all have access to God's graces because He so freely gives them. As Wesley exclaimed in his opening statement:

"How freely does God love the world! While we were yet sinners, 'Christ died for the ungodly.' While we were 'dead in sin,' God 'spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.' And how 'freely with him' does he 'give us all things'! Verily, free grace is all in all!"

- Adkins

Aug 25, 2009

Sermons

So, SOTH...what do you want to hear me preach about?

I'm open to suggestions, most definitely.

Here's the thing: I had September all nicely planned...and then plans have changed. We made an adjustment on the church calendar with regard to the timing of some things that we're going to do in October/November, and now my September preaching calendar has suddenly become wide open.

Here's the other thing: I don't think it ought to be just up to the preacher to decide what parts of the "bread" get broken each Sunday. I'd love to hear from you.

What sermons do you need to hear? What parts of our faith are you curious about? What do you think would help our congregation?

Come on...feedback, feedback in the comments below. I'm going to post over on facebook too so we'll bait the hook in a couple of places and see what comes.

Peace --- Adam

Aug 13, 2009

Waiting and Watching

Psalm 130 (The Message)

1-2 Help, God—the bottom has fallen out of my life!
Master, hear my cry for help!
Listen hard! Open your ears!
Listen to my cries for mercy.

3-4 If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings,
who would stand a chance?

As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit,
and that's why you're worshiped.

5-6 I pray to God—my life a prayer—
and wait for what he'll say and do.

My life's on the line before God, my Lord,
waiting and watching till morning,
waiting and watching till morning.

7-8 O Israel, wait and watch for God
with God's arrival comes love,
with God's arrival comes generous redemption.

No doubt about it—he'll redeem Israel,
buy back Israel from captivity to sin.

I remember one of the fancy words I got taught in seminary (well, I remember more than one, but I generally try not to use them).

My Pastoral Care teacher taught us about "liminal time." She said, "it's the hardest kind of time of them all."

The phrase actually comes from astronomy. It describes the turning of the earth, and the time that is neither quite day nor night. Dusk. The time of change and waiting. What will be is not quite yet.

It is the time of "waiting and watching." It's the hardest.

So, what are you waiting and watching for right now? Whatever it is, Psalm 130 reminds us that, "morning is on the way."

Grace & Peace,
Adam

Aug 5, 2009

Clean

So...how are you?

A good question, one to be answered honestly.

When the Psalmist asked that of himself, his answer was the brutal truth.

Better question: How is God?

See below...I think Psalm 51 says it all..


Psalm 51:1-17 (The Message)

1-3Generous in love—God, give grace! Huge in mercy—wipe out my bad record.
Scrub away my guilt,
soak out my sins in your laundry.
I know how bad I've been;
my sins are staring me down.

4-6 You're the One I've violated, and you've seen
it all, seen the full extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you;
whatever you decide about me is fair.
I've been out of step with you for a long time,
in the wrong since before I was born.
What you're after is truth from the inside out.
Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.

7-15 Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean,
scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don't look too close for blemishes,
give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don't throw me out with the trash,
or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Bring me back from gray exile,
put a fresh wind in my sails!
Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
so the lost can find their way home.
Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
and I'll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.
Unbutton my lips, dear God;
I'll let loose with your praise.

16-17 Going through the motions doesn't please you,
a flawless performance is nothing to you.
I learned God-worship
when my pride was shattered.
Heart-shattered lives ready for love
don't for a moment escape God's notice.

Grace & Peace,
Adam

Aug 4, 2009

You are the Man

Revised Common Lectionary entries for this week:

August 2, 2009 [Green]
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a
Psalm 51:1-12 (UMH 785)
Ephesians 4:1-16; John 6:24-35



Let's Roll:

2 Samuel 11:26-12:13 (The Message)

26-27 When Uriah's wife heard that her husband was dead, she grieved for her husband. When the time of mourning was over, David sent someone to bring her to his house. She became his wife and bore him a son.

27-3 But God was not at all pleased with what David had done, and sent Nathan to David. Nathan said to him, "There were two men in the same city—one rich, the other poor. The rich man had huge flocks of sheep, herds of cattle. The poor man had nothing but one little female lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up with him and his children as a member of the family. It ate off his plate and drank from his cup and slept on his bed. It was like a daughter to him.

4 "One day a traveler dropped in on the rich man. He was too stingy to take an animal from his own herds or flocks to make a meal for his visitor, so he took the poor man's lamb and prepared a meal to set before his guest."

5-6 David exploded in anger. "As surely as God lives," he said to Nathan, "the man who did this ought to be lynched! He must repay for the lamb four times over for his crime and his stinginess!"

7-12 "You're the man!" said Nathan.

How well do we see our own sins?

Sometimes too well. Certainly one struggle that people have with Christianity is daring to believe that God really loves them and is willing to forgive them.

But maybe even more often, our self-deception can be so complete that only drastic measures will break through and free us from ourselves.

King David had even managed to justify killing another man (by sending him into a hopeless battle) and then taking his wife.

God decided to break through. He sends the prophet Nathan to tell David the truth. The King was ready to condemn the evil man in Nathan's story. He had to learn that "you are the man."

What things do we stand ready to condemn with our own kind of kingly authority? Where might God say to us, "you are the one." How could God call each of us to deeper self-examination, and real repentance?

Grace & Peace,

Adam

Just In Case You Missed It

Here is a link to the joke David told on Sunday morning: