MMC: Attitudes about Faith and Worship

Each Monday I send an email to members and friends of Bethlehem with some announcements and thoughts on the text for the upcoming Sunday.  Below is this week's email. 



Good Morning!

Is it really Monday again?  Where did the weekend go?  

Some announcements and reminders as you go about your week.  

• Due to travels and busy schedules, the weekly bible studies are canceled for the rest of the month.  Look for details about their return in early September
• If you like to cook or have a favorite dish you like to prepare, consider signing up to make and deliver meals to our homebound members and others in need of a good meal.
• We are in the process of creating a photo directory, you can sign up to have a family picture taken by Ellen after worship one Sunday or you can email her a picture 
• This week's Book of Faith Puzzler is: Who lived the longest: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob or Joseph? If you know the answer (even if you have to do a little research to find it) email me the answer by noon on Wednesday to be entered into our weekly drawing. 

Now onto the text:

Our first lesson for Sunday is Isaiah 58:9b-14.  The beginning of this passage promises that if you stop speaking evil about others and offer your food to the hungry, your despair will go away.  When have you helped another and ended up receiving more in return?  Starting in verse 13, the passage talks about if you honor the sabbath "then you shall take delight in the Lord."  How does your attitude about worship effect how you worship?  When have you changed your actions in order to change your mind?  

The second lesson is Hebrews 12:18-29.  In all honesty, I had to read this passage 3 times just to gleam a general meaning.  The passage begins by saying that faith cannot be touched.  Does it ever annoy you that faith is not tangible?  Or is faith not being tangible something that comforts you?  The passage ends by saying that since our faith and the kingdom of God cannot be touch, therefore it cannot be shaken and for this we should give thanks through worship.  How do you give God thanks for your faith?

The gospel lesson is Luke 13:10-17.  Jesus healed on the sabbath (and in a synagogue to boot) much to the dismay of the leader of the synagogue.  Jesus response by saying the woman's ailment was a bondage and just like any animal she should be freed from her bondages on the sabbath.  How have illnesses been a bondage for you?  What else keeps you in bondage?  How does worship help free you from these bondages, even if only temporarily?  How else do you become free from those bondages?

I hope these questions start to bring some thoughts and discussion to your mind and with others.  Please feel free to respond with either your answers to these questions or your own questions on these text or faith in general.  

Faith Brings Division

Today's sermon was primarily based on the gospel, Luke 12:49-56 with references to the second lesson of Hebrews 11:29-12:2.  I ended up using a combination of the NRSV and The Message for the gospel
And you can find my entire reasoning for doing so here at yesterday's post.  But this is the actual text that I used for today:

Jesus said: I’ve come to start a fire on this earth

and how I wish it were blazing already.

 I have a baptism with which to be baptized

and what stress I am under until it is completed!

Do you think I have come to bring peace,

to smooth things over and make everything nice? 

No I tell you.  I’ve come to bring division, to disrupt and

confront. 

From now on, five in one house will be divided,

                Three against two, and two against three

                Father against son and son against father.

                Mother against daughter

and daughter against mother

                Mother in law against daughter in law

                                Daughter in law against mother in law

He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising

in the west you immediately say “storm’s

coming”  and you are right

And when you see the wind blowing from the south,

you say “There’s going to be scorching heat”

and you’re right. 

You hypocrites and frauds! 

You know how to interpret the appearances of the earth

and sky, the changing of the weather, but why do

you not know how to interpret the present time?”

Enjoy the sermon:

Oh this is not the Jesus we are used to. Can we please speed up to or reserve back to December when we get text and hymns with messages like “Peace on Earth goodwill to men”?! That is a much more comforting message, one that is filled with hope, one that little children sing songs about “I’ve got peace like a river.” Instead it is August, and we have a gospel text where Jesus proclaims, announces, declare, pronounces that he is not here to bring peace, to smooth things over and make everything nice. No instead he is here to bring division, to disrupt and confront. This isn’t the Jesus that we know! This isn’t the Jesus that we love!

But maybe it is the Jesus, the God, that we love and worship. Jesus didn’t come to maintain the status quo. He tipped over the money changers’ tables. He ate with tax collectors, prostitutes, and other well known sinners, the people the rest of society gossiped about. He offended the religious and political leaders of his time by disputing their authority. He caused more things to overturn and disrupt that he did to heal and smooth over.

And Jesus still brings division today! Denominations do not get along with other denominations. Congregations do not get along with other congregations, even in their own denomination. Christians do not get along with other Christians, even in their own congregations. There are divisions as a result of our faith in Jesus. And because we follow Jesus there should be division.

When we follow Jesus, when we put God first in our lives, we are putting others second, our family, our friends and that causes division. We are no longer fully devoted to them. When we follow Jesus we are announcing that we will stand up for what is right, even if it means standing along. Now that doesn’t always happen, but it is our hope in Jesus, our hope in faith that we will be able to do what Christ wants us to do instead of what society wants us to do. Can you see how division happens?

But we don’t always have conflicts. We play polite; we get along for the sake of others, and in many cases that is good. It is human nature to avoid conflict, to let people get away with doing wrong because you don’t want to cause a scene. To do the “Christian thing” and silently forgive or at least let bygones be bygones. But yet here is Jesus saying that he is coming to cause conflict, so maybe we need conflict in order to be Christian. We need to disagree with society, with the community at large and even with each other so that we can do God’s work in this world. Because it is when the status quo is upset that faith happens, that people are able to prophesy God’s word in this world and that people are able to hear God’s words and do God’s work.

Maybe one of the worse things that could have happen to Christianity is that Christianity became the status quo, Christianity became the norm. It became mainstream to be a follower of Jesus, and you were banished for not being a regular worshipper much less a non-believer. Because when Christianity became the status quo, and following Jesus means upsetting the status quo, following Jesus meant upsetting the church that Jesus is the lead of.

But now in this new millennium, in this post-modern society that we are a part of, this age of the internet and social media, Christianity is no longer the status quo. Yes Christianity is still the most popular religion in the United States, with 76% of Americans identifying themselves as Christians, but as few as 20% of Americans actually attend worship on any given week. Christianity is no longer the status quo, so maybe it is time that we, Christian, we followers of Jesus, upset the status quo.

We are being called to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. To point out and loudly proclaim against the hypocrisy that exist in society, to invite sinners and outcast into our homes and our sanctuary, to offend religious, political and community leaders by disputing their authority and fighting for those who voices so often go unheard. To create the division in society that Jesus himself created so that faith can happen, so that we are able to prophesy God’s word in this world, so that people are able to hear God’s words and do God’s work, so that Christ may be proclaimed, so that God’s grace can be known to all people.

This is scary, it is hard to be an outsider, to be a proclaimer of God’s words. We might end up like those people that we heard about in Hebrews, the people who were tortured, mocked, flogged, chained and imprisoned as a result of their faith. People who were stoned to death, cut in two, killed by the sword. People who hid in disguises to keep from being destitute, persecuted and tormented. But yet for all those people, faith kept them. Faith kept them alive with Christ. Faith kept them in their hardest moments, faith kept them knowing that what they were doing was right.

And faith will keep us. Faith will keep us when we are mocked and persecuted for our beliefs. Faith will keep us alive with Christ. Faith will keep us knowing God’s will for this world and doing what is right. Faith sustains us during division, especially division that is a result of faith. For faith is a gift from God. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And we are saved by grace through our faith, regardless of what divisions are created because of Jesus.

Wrestling with The Message

This last week I have been wrestling with the idea of reading this Sunday's gospel, Luke 12:49-56 (NRSV link), from Eugene Peterson's biblical paraphrase The Message.  (Luke 12:49-56, The Message) Normally, Bethlehem uses the NRSV and the verses are printed in Celebrates, a bulletin insert provided by Augsburg Fortress.  The NRSV translation is what I use for biblical storytelling, granted I almost always change a word or two because it is easier to memorize, or I add "Jesus said" or change a pronoun to a proper noun in order to clarify for people who are listening to a portion of the text instead of the full story.  And overall I'm satisfied with the NRSV.  


But I also look that The Message for personal use.  I read from The Message Remix for my personal devotion and bible reading since it reads a little smoother and it has also allowed me not to gloss over the text since it is not the same translation I have heard all my life.  When preparing for my sermons, I almost always read The Message version of my key text in order to gain new insight into the read, (granted I often look at multiple translations and my Precise Parallel New Testament is a wonderful resource for that).  I have even used The Message before in worship, (but it was a youth worship service that while I preached at, I wasn't the main worship planner).  


Overall I find looking at a variety of translations to be helpful in preparing for preaching or general bible study.  


But that is the problem, The Message is not really a translation, more of a paraphrase or transliteration, and even if you call it a translation, it must be prefaced that it is not an accurate nor ever intended to be.  So their is something that holds me back with wanting to bring it into worship.  And even this text is an example, but there it is also an example of why I want to use it in worship.  


So maybe I should start with my specific reasons against using it first.  

• There are times that The Message changes verses in ways that don't make a lot of sense 
• For example verse 50 in the NRSV is "I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! " but in The Message is "'I've come to change everything, turn everything rightside up—how I long for it to be finished!"  Those are far from the same verse! 
• I believe it is important to stick to the Greek or Hebrew.  
• It we each write our own paraphrase or transliteration we can make the Bible say just about anything that we want.  
• It seems sacrilegious to change scripture in worship, especially to something that is not a translation.  
• On a practical level, even though the majority of the congregation does not read along when I say the gospel, for those that do because they listen better that way, I don't want to confuse them by using a different translation, even if I do warn them that what is written is not the same.

But I also have many reasons for using The Message in this case.

• Verses 54 and 55 are much more "down to earth."  They sound like something people would actually say.  
• You say "This'll be a hot one" (The Message) not "There will be scorching heat" (NRSV)
• The descriptive words in verse 51 have more meaning for me.  
• "Smooth things over and make everything nice" compared to "bring peace on earth" and "disrupt and confront" instead of "division"  
• The Message is often easier to understand.
• Such as in the example of verse 50 above, the NRSV takes background information and study to understand while The Message is easier to understand without additional information. 
• We hear the NRSV so often that it is easier to tune out, glaze over, since we have it partially memorized.  This partial memorization is also why the gospel has less of an impact than it should.  We already know what it has to say.
• Really this is how I passed Greek so easily in seminary, once I figured out about three words from a sentence I was able to recall the rest of the verse.  
• I think often The Message keeps to the heart of Gospel message more even if the text is not accurate
• In last week's gospel, Luke 12:35a is an example of this.  The NRSV's "Be dressed for action" doesn't quiet get to Greek's essence which is more accurately translated "Gird your loins," but The Message's "Keep your shirt on" does keep that essence a bit more.  But notice that neither are an accurate translation.  
• I kinda want to use The Message in worship primarily because I have been told not to do it! 

Yes I am that kinda of person, do something just because I was told not to.  See I put up on Facebook my dilemma about using The Message, and I got back fairly strongly from my pastor friends to either not do it at all because The Message has no place in worship or to read the NRSV during the normal gospel time and then start off my sermon with rereading any key verses in The Message and maybe say why I like The Message more for that verse.  Well I don't agree with the former and the later seems repetitive and like a lecture in biblical translations instead of a preaching on the text itself.  

But I also asked the same question on chat board on Raverly, an online community for knitters and crocheters that I belong to.  On the chat board, made up of liberal Christians from around the world, many of which are not pastors, the people who replied to my post were divided in their answer (hmm maybe this week's text about Jesus bringing division is at heart here).  Most said that they enjoy hearing from different translations but do like a heads up if it is a different translation than what is printed.  The others said that they prefer a more accurate translations but admit that they have studied Greek and therefore it is important to them.  And one person was absolutely against The Message, saying it inspires revulsion in her.  But there were two people's responses who brought back to me why I'm struggling with this.  

The first said "Jesus used colloquial language. He wanted to be understood. The most important point of the sermon is to be understood." And the second said "Ask God. See what He leads you to do."  Hmm The Message is using colloquial language and is easier to understand than the NRSV at times.  And I must be struggling with whether or not to use The Message because God is leading me to figure out how this text can have the most meaning for the congregation on Sunday.

So what am I going to do?

Well after much internal and external debate, a mini-fight with my husband, asking others, asking God through prayer, thought and reflection, I have decided that I really don't like either translation for use in this Sunday's worship service.  Instead I'm combining the two - yes I know I'm a heretic, I'm sure the bishop's office already knows but in case you would like to report me here is the phone number for the synod office: 508-791-1530.  

So here is my version Luke 12:49-56, a combination of the Message and the NRSV, which will be printed in the weekly announcements so anyone who would like to read along can.  

Jesus said: I’ve come to start a fire on this earth

and how I wish it were blazing already.

 I have a baptism with which to be baptized

and what stress I am under until it is completed!

Do you think I have come to bring peace,

to smooth things over and make everything nice? 

No I tell you.  I’ve come to bring division, to disrupt and

confront. 

From now on, five in one house will be divided,

                Three against two, and two against three

                Father against son and son against father.

                Mother against daughter

and daughter against mother

                Mother in law against daughter in law

                                Daughter in law against mother in law

He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising

in the west you immediately say “storm’s

coming”  and you are right

And when you see the wind blowing from the south,

you say “There’s going to be scorching heat”

and you’re right. 

You hypocrites and frauds! 

You know how to interpret the appearances of the earth

and sky, the changing of the weather, but why do

you not know how to interpret the present time?”