Spokane Friends Meeting

Today, throughout the Roman Catholic Church, The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is celebrated. The idea of Mary being taken up, body and soul, to heaven is based on a book written by an unknown fifth century author who relates the story that the Apostles witnessed Mary’s death and entombment. Later, on a request by the ever-doubting Saint Thomas, the tomb was opened and found to be empty. The Apostles concluded that she had been taken up into heaven. The story has persisted to this day. The Catholic Encyclopedia says of the “day, year or manner of Mary’s death, we know nothing certain.” Because of my father’s Catholic family I still remember the discussion that followed when in 1950 Pope Pious XII declared as a dogma of the Catholic Church that, free from original sin, Mary was assumed into heaven. Vatican II affirmed that and declared that in heavenly glory she is “exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things”.

As you might imagine, the Protestant view has been quite different.

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Let’s say you get an email that tells you you’ve just won millions or you just inherited a bundle or you get an unsolicited phone call from an enthusiastic person who tells you that you’ve won a wonderful cruise for one and all you need to do is secure with your credit card the accommodations for the person who will travel with you. We are all leery, aren’t we? Well, maybe we all still share the nostalgia of a childhood Christmas or a birthday. When someone truly significant in our lives gives us something it is a really good day. But generally can we really imagine someone giving us something, something of inestimable worth, for no other reason than it makes them happy?

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In the middle of God’s indignation God hesitates, with parental love doubting how he can give this one he loves over to punishment. God is at once judgment and grace, destruction and life.   One of the things that makes this passage so powerful is that Yahweh’s holiness and love come together in oneness. Yet God turns from terror and wrath. “My heart recoils within me” God says, “my compassion grows warm and tender”. This ‘holy one in your midst’, this divine presence is at one moment will break the age long cycle.

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In this brief vignette, common courtesy would expect Jesus to affirm the one who welcomes him and his followers into her home and prepares all that is needed to make them comfortable. Our instincts tell us that Mary should help her sister. Yet our instincts also tell us that Jesus should not chide his hostess for suggesting that her sister should help with the work of caring for the guests. If Martha is a bit distracted by her many tasks, should he add insult to injury by praising Mary for choosing “the better part?”  Our primary inclination is to justify what Jesus does. Yet I’ve heard some women say that thought Jesus was just being a jerk.

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”…for you we always thank God.’

How Paul tells us he prays for the people of the Colossian church gives us a wonderful inside look at his heart. What he says about his praying for these people gives us insight into what is important for the life of the church today. The first fourteen verses of this epistle are filled with meaning and could the basis of a whole series of messages. What we are going to try and do this morning is tap into the heart of them to see what they may tell us of how we might well pray for each other. Hear the words of the Apostle Paul from Colossians 1:

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From a classical perspective missionaries are those who are sent out as announcers of God’s grace. In a very real sense they are evangelists.   These missionary evangelists that go as Jesus’ representatives in Luke 10 are told to declare that “the kingdom of God has come near (to you)”. Have you ever noticed how such a message is upsetting? Actually it’s divisive. The theme appears As early in the Jesus narratives as when Simeon blesses the infant Jesus and declares that he “is destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed”.  And of course the theme continues as Jesus tells his disciples about his going to Jerusalem. Both Jesus’ own ministry and the story of the church’s early mission in Acts play this out this theme.   Some who hear the message respond positively, and others, for some reason, oppose it – bitterly. Some of the verses in our New Testament reading anticipate the rejection Jesus will experience, others accentuate the positive by celebrating their own missionary experience. Taken together, the positive and negative aspects combine to emphasize that the gospel message calls for decision. Now were God’s kingdom exclusively future focused maybe there would be less opposition but, as our text declares, the Kingdom of God has come near, and is here and begins its work in this present moment. That means change.

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Living by the flesh involves a life focused on the self and its needs above all else. We seek to satisfy our desires by consumption and control, rather than relationship and care. The obvious examples of living by the flesh include the contrast between fossil fuel consumption and global warming, opulent living and starvation, and suburban security and inner-city violence. On the other hand, living by the spirit involves behaviors that build community and create interdependence. Guided by the Spirit, we go beyond the artificial boundaries of ethnicity, race, class, and nation to experience the unity of all life in God’s spirit. Our own self-interest expands to see the well-being of others as essential to our own well-being. 

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It seems that God doesn’t respond to exaggerated claims of self-importance. Rather Elijah  is instructed to go out and stand on the mountain before Yahweh. Placing yourself before God sometimes has a way of putting things in perspective. 

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Forgiveness is unconditional or it is not forgiveness at all. For the sinner, forgiveness has the character of “in spite of,”. For the righteous forgiveness is endowed with the character of “because.” Unlike the righteous, sinners cannot transform the “in spite of” into a human “because.” They can’t demonstrate evidence because of which they should be forgiven. God’s forgiveness is unconditional. There is no condition whatsoever in a person which would make you are me worthy of forgiveness. If forgiveness were conditional no one could be accepted and no one could accept their own self. We know that this is our situation, but we hate to face it. It is too great as a gift and too humiliating as a judgment.

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For the first time in the Old Testament we have a new story form, a prophetic narrative that describe in speech and deeds the work of the Prophet. The stories of Elijah are the first to use such a literary device. And, as we soon learn, the Elijah narratives are unruly pieces of literature.   Elijah enters sacred history from an unknown place and without pedigree. A Tishbite of Tishbe tells us nothing – except that he is a traveler, a stranger in the land. We are told that Elijah is the prophet who “stands before the Lord”. For one to ‘stand before the Lord’ is rare indeed. Only Abraham and Moses share this distinction. In the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel that appellation is reserved for angels. Jewish Cabalist thought Elijah to have been an angel, others saw him as a priest of the timeless order of Melchizedek. Beyond Elijah’s need to eat, which even in parched and desolate land of thirst and hunger seems almost incidental – Elijah himself never seems worried about from where his next meal might come – , unperturbed by droughts and distances he strides the earth with little about him that seems human. Without divine warrant or credentials; no battles won, no patriarchal heritage, no miraculous birth narrative, he is a man who simply speaks.

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