A Review of the Book "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" by Barbara Robinson

Title: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Author: Barbara Robinson

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Year: 1972

108 pages

From the Back: The Herdmans are the worst kids in the history of the world. They lie, steal, smoke cigars, swear, and hit little kids. So no one is prepared when this outlaw family invades church one Sunday and decides to take over the annual Christmas pageant.

    None of the Herdmans has ever heard the Christmas story before. Their interpretation of the tale - the Wise Men are a bunch of dirty spies and Herod needs a good beating - has a lot of people up in arms. But it will make this year's pageant the most unusual anyone has seen and, just possibly, the best one ever.

Personal Thoughts: I'm not ashamed to say that sometimes I read children and teen books. There are times when nice, easy reads are required to allow the brain to rest a little. Even better are the books that end up with an amazing lesson within the pages. This little book is about more than just a Christmas pageant. It's about not judging other people, about caring for our neighbours, and about realizing that not everyone has heard the good news of Jesus Christ. In a multicultural and ecumenical world, we ca no longer assume that the majority of the people around us are Christian. Also, if you are going to talk about your faith, you can no longer assume the person in front of you has read a bible. This cute story is a lesson in humilty, and an understanding that if you're going to talk to someone about Jesus, you just might need to start from the beginning. And bring refreshments!

A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 40

Chapter 40 – The Good Eye

 

As we get into the final few weeks of our exploration of the Sermon of the Mount, we begin to delve into some of the more difficult verses. Matthew 6:22-23 talks about eyes and lamps, darkness and light. Quite a curious pair of verses.

 

If your eyes are working properly, they will take in the light of the room and allow you to see. If they aren’t working, you will be in darkness. This same description is used in Luke 11. Timothy Keller links both metaphors to money, materialism, and greed. He declares that “Jesus says … this darkens your eye spiritually.” (p. 254)

 

According to Keller, the darkness comes from not wanting to talk about greed, not wanting to admit that we are quite likely greedy, we just don’t realize it. We compare ourselves to someone richer than us, and there’s probably always someone richer than us, and decide that because rich people exist, we aren’t greedy. But just because someone might be more extravagant than you, doesn’t mean your greed is non-existent. Did you choose your job because of enjoyment or money? Or are you turning a blind eye to the damage your employer is causing to the environment?

 

The darkness of materialism is everywhere in our society. Perhaps it’s time for us to reassess how we spend out money. Even just by focusing on buying Canadian and/or local, we are letting our eyes see the reality of where our money goes after it leaves our hands.

A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 39

Chapter 39 – Lasting Treasures

 

Not only is humanity full of selfishness and greed, but it also seems to be incapable of letting go of things and stuff. It’s as if the accumulation of “stuff” is the most important thing to many people. And the richer you are, the less likely you’re willing to let go of anything, especially money. Basil the Great states, “if everyone took for himself enough to meet his immediate needs and released the rest for those in need of it, there would be no rich and no poor.” (p. 249)

 

I took economics in school, and I still couldn’t tell you what’s happening in today’s economy. Pries are skyrocketing, especially when it comes to food and other necessities. And how about the salaries for professional athletes? Why do they need all of that money? Probably just to buy more stuff. It’s hard to comprehend why the few richest people feel like they need more when so many people have nothing, can’t even buy food to feed their family.

 

And it’s not like you can take it with you when you die. All these earthly treasures that are being accumulate will just be left behind once you’re gone, so why not spread the wealth while you’re around to see the joy on someone else’s face? As Clement of Alexandria says, “In the end it is not the one who keeps, but the one who gives away, who is rich.” (p. 251)

A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 38

Chapter 38 – Deliver Us

 

…but deliver us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:13)

Now that we’ve asked God not to lead us into temptation, or to save us from the time of trial, our next request is to be delivered from evil, or the evil one. But what is this evil, or who is this evil one? Our minds automatically go to Satan. Makes sense that we’d ask God to deliver us from Satan and his evil ways. This feels too simple, though.

Romana Guardini says, “The evil I have to contend with is a distillation from past evil that comes from others or myself.” (p. 240) The evil we come across in our lives is not Satan, but humanity. The selfishness and greediness of God’s creation have done more harm in this world than Satan ever has. Guardini continues, “Wars are not started by the force of nature, but by selfishness everywhere.”

Repeatedly we hear how humanity is destroying the planet, and how if we were to take better care of our resources, there would be enough for everyone. And yet, the world is run by a select few with millions barely able to get their hands on a loaf of bread because “the real evil does not stem from nature, but from the coldness and hardness of selfishness, the negligence of the indolent, the thoughtlessness of the superficial and pleasure-loving.” (p. 240)

The good news is that God can deliver us from this evil, if only we would put our faith into God and follow God’s lead. Jesus has given us the roadmap to deliverance, now it’s up to us to listen.

A Review of the Book "The Fire Sermon" by Francesca Haig

Title: The Fire Sermon

Author: Francesca Haig

Publisher: Gallery Books

Year: 2015

370 pages

From the Back: Four hundred years after a nuclear apocalypse, the Alphas have inherited the earth - or what's left of it. All humans are born in pairs, the deformed Omegas getting split from their flawless twins and exiled to bleak farming villages while the Alphas exploit and oppress them almost unto death. But despite their claims of superiority, the Alphas cannot escape one harsh fact: whenever one twin dies, so does the other.

    Cass is a rare Omega whose mutation is psychic foresight - not that she needs it to know that as her powerful twin, Zach, ascends the ranks of the ruling Alpha Council, she's in grave danger. Zach has a devastating plan for Omega annihilation. Cass has visions of an island where a bloody Omega resistance promises a life of freedom. But her real dream is to discover a middle way, one that would bring together the sundered halves of humanity. And that means both the Council and the resistance have her in their sights.

Personal Thoughts: This was a very entertaining book! The story was engaging, the characters enthralling, and you couldn't help but compare events to what's happening in our society. As with most dystopian science-fiction, the story doesn't fall far from reality. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.

"Anything You Can Do": A Sermon for the 20th Sunday After Pentecost

May only truth be spoken and may only truth be heard. Amen.

 

Sometimes life feels like a giant competition. We are always trying to one-up the other person – better job, bigger house, faster car, cuter child, larger bank account. Social media hasn’t helped one bit. We are constantly in a state of comparison and vying for the most likes and shares. With people posting pictures of their lives, we only ever see the best parts and the good days but none of the struggles or bad days. The perfect family photo – but no sign of how long it took to get everyone ready and looking at the camera. With digital photography, you know right away if you need to keep taking more pictures until you have the perfect one for social media posting. So, when you look at your friends’ Facebook post and see perfect, smiling people, you can’t help but compare your life to theirs and wonder why yours looks so different.

 

Today’s parable also seems like a competition – the Pharisee against the tax collector, each vying for God’s affection. These are two characters that couldn’t be more opposite. The Pharisee was a highly religious man who knew all of the laws that would have needed to be followed in order to be considered properly pious. Based on what we read here, he was a good man. He isn’t a thief or an adulterer. He fasted and he tithed more than what was required. He peeks over and sees the tax collector, off in the corner with his eyes to the ground. The Pharisee prays to God, which is what he was there to do, but he does so in such a way to show people how good of a person he is. “Look at me,” he says, “I’m so glad I’m not a tax collector. Look at all the good things I’ve done.” It’s almost as if rather than giving thanks to God for all that he has in his life, the Pharisee is giving God a run-down of his resume as proof of having earned his position in heaven.

 

And then we have the tax collector. A real scumbag. He harasses his fellow Jewish community for money on behalf of the Roman empire and then skims a little off the top for himself. He’s as dishonest as you can get and cruel to his fellow countrymen. Compared to the Pharisee, a tax collector would never have been considered good or pious. And yet, he also finds himself in temple each week, praying to God with a simple declaration, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”, as his beats his chest while keeping his eyes on the floor. This tax collector knows that he’s a sinner and all he asks is that God forgives him. According to Jesus, this tax collector would have been more justified than the Pharisee. In Paul’s vernacular, this would have been justification by works versus justification by faith.

 

And the justification championship goes to – the tax collector! Hardly seems fair, though, does it? The tax collector who does everything wrong during the week that he possibly could receives God’s justification over the Pharisee who does everything right by the law. There should have been no comparison. But as with social media posts having more behind them than meets the eye, so does the comparison between the Pharisee and the tax collector. God isn’t looking for the one who is perfectly pious. God is looking for the one who is truly penitent. The new standard is no longer the code of the law the Pharisee is following so closely, it’s the love of God on which the tax collector threw himself.

 

The Pharisee is showing off to God and to anyone in earshot, listing off all the ways he is perfectly following the letter of the law which should put him closer to God. The tax collector knows who he is and asks for God’s forgiveness, week in and week out, casting himself onto the mercy of God. And week in and week out, he gets the mercy and forgiveness he seeks. That’s called grace. Robert Farrar Capon tells it this way. The Pharisee is like the perfect church member. He does everything by the book. He gives everything he has to the church. He gives thanks to God for everything that he has (or at least makes it seem like he is). The Pharisee is the perfect candidate for vestry, and any church would be lucky to have him on their parish list. But what about the guy who takes a twenty from the plate as it passes by? The guy who spends Monday through Saturday crossing off every deadly sin as if it were a checklist? The guy who comes in every Sunday morning, staring down at his feet, and saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner?” Probably not the first one you’d ask to join the vestry or any other church committee, for that matter.

 

Between the Pharisee and the tax collector, we can all admit to ourselves who we’d be more likely to welcome through our door. But God does things differently. To God, the Pharisee is no better off than the tax collector. In fact, the Pharisee is worse off because at least the other guy can admit that he is a sinner. According to Capon, “The fact is that they are both equally dead and therefore both alike receivers of the gift of resurrection.”

 

And this is good news for us! How many of us can claim that we had the perfect week? A week where we committed no sin, or error, or mistake? We can’t! The good news is that we can come here every Sunday, give everything we’ve done over to God, admit that we are sinners, and start over. Why? Because Jesus died for our sins on the cross so that we can have eternal life with God alongside the resurrected Jesus.

 

As church people, we aren’t supposed to have it all together. We are human beings who fail daily at perfection. And that’s okay because God doesn’t expect perfection. God’s justification is based on love, faith, and trust, not perfection, pride, or piousness. God expects us to love God, to love ourselves, and to love one another. God expects us to have faith in God’s plans for us. And God expects us to trust that God knows what God is doing.

 

The point of today’s parable is not to see who the best is at praying to God. It’s not about creating competition amongst the people of God to see who deserves the most justification. It’s not about who has scored the most points with God in order to get closer to heaven. God doesn’t keep score of our deeds, good or bad. God doesn’t monitor to make sure you’re praying properly. The point of today’s parable is a lesson in trusting in God’s grace and mercy, for if a tax collector can find mercy before God, then who could possibly be excluded?

 

God’s greatest act of mercy is found in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. All people are drawn into the mystery of redemption through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, at the foot of the cross, we can make the tax collector’s cry for mercy our own: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” In Luke’s Gospel, we see this enacted in the penitent thief who says, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus replies, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

 

Amen.

Resources

"New Collegeville Bible Commentary" New Testament" edited by Daniel Durken

"Luke for Everyone" by N T Wright

"Feasting on the Word" edited by David L Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor

"The Parables of Jesus" by Neal F Fisher

"The Parables of Grace" by Robert Farrar Capon

pulpitfiction.com

episcopalchurch.org

Be Persistent for Change: A Sermon for the 19th Week After Pentecost

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O God. Amen.

In the Parable of the Unjust Judge, Jesus selects a widow as the model for discipleship. This widow, as any other widow in Jesus’ time, had no one to intercede for her in the decisions of the judge. The widow, as a woman alone in the first century, was vulnerable to being taken advantage of in any number of ways. She was easy prey to those who would take advantage of her dire financial straits and her physical vulnerability. She was probably up against a wealthy opponent and his bribes, but she was so poor that she had no money by which to bribe the judge for herself.

 

The question of bribery is not out of question for this parable, for this judge was one who had “no fear of God and no respect for anyone.” The person who would have heard these words while listening to Jesus speak would understand that the lack of fear for God naturally entailed lack of respect for human beings, since the two were closely related throughout the Hebrew Bible. A judge in Israel was not only expected to be an unbiased umpire, but a defender for those who had no defender, the champion of the oppressed – the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the foreigner. Because God was the one who cared especially for the victims of persecution, it was necessary for any judge to see that the rights of the powerless were heard.

 

The judge in the story today did not fear God and therefore considered himself under no mandate to be a defender to the defenseless. The widow came to the judge asking him to secure her rights, but the judge refused to act on her behalf. There is no indication of what her cause is, who has wronged her, or what she wants. And no details about the judge’s reluctance to do so. We don't know what the opponent she wants justice from has done to her, but whatever it is, she is not going to stand for it. The woman persisted in her demands for justice.

 

Finally, the judge succumbed to her persistence and said to himself:

“Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone,

yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice,

so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”

 

The translation that she will “wear him out” has been diluted over time. A more literal translation of the judge's grievance is that the woman "is giving me a black eye." Like all black eyes, the one the widow's complaints threaten to inflict have a double effect, representing both physical and social distress. That is, the judge complains that the widow's relentless badgering may not only cause him physical harm but also risks publicly embarrassing him. For this reason, he says – perhaps justifying his actions to his wounded sense of self – that he relents not because he has changed his mind but simply to shut up this dangerous widow.

 

After the judge grants the woman’s request, Jesus proceeds to put the questions to the hearer: “And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?” Here, Jesus is not holding up the conduct of an unjust judge for commendation. He is saying that if even an unrighteous judge will grant justice out of fear and self-interest, will not God, who is the champion of the poor and the oppressed, grant them the justice that they pray for and seek day and night?

 

The reign of God is vindication of the oppressed. It is glimpsed when the oppressed get justice, even when they have to take it from an unwilling and an unjust judge. It is glimpsed when we see one who is powerless demand and obtain for herself the justice that is hers.

 

Luke’s point with this parable seems to be that we need to be persistent. Where has the persistent widow showed up in your life? Or, maybe better, who has been the persistent widow in your life? Perhaps it was an advocate for 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusion, motivated by the love of a gay son, lesbian daughter, or transgender child, pushing for rights in school, government, and church. Perhaps it’s the mother of a child in a wheelchair demanding better accessibility at school. Perhaps it’s people you know on either side of the climate change debate, one passionate about care of creation and the other against the economic cost of proposed climate protections. Perhaps it was you, fighting for something you believe in even if no one else was on your side.

 

Persistence is important when encouraging ourselves and those suffering injustice to continue complaints and demands for justice. Persistence is needed for not only continual demands for justice, but also for change in the systems that are doing the oppressing in the first place. Jesus calls on us to “pray always and not to lose heart,” reminding us that faith is not a passive undertaking. The things we toss and turn with in the night call out for our attention, advocacy, and justice. To fulfill this call, we must be willing to be persistent. We must be willing to bring our prayers to God unceasingly, trusting that our petitions will be heard. God, the Bible has persistently insisted, gives special attention to those who are most vulnerable; therefore, we should persist in our complaints, even to the point of embarrassing the powers that be in order to induce change.

 

But as you fight alongside God for the widow, the orphan, the poor, the foreigner, and anyone else who has been oppressed, remember this one word…Empathy. Empathy for the person on the other side of the conversation. Empathy for the widow or judge or someone in between. Empathy for each other and for ourselves. For while we are fighting to right an injustice, we must remember that we are all human beings who deserve to be respected and who crave the mercy, care, and justice of the God we know in Christ.

 

Amen.

Resources

pulpitfiction.com

workingpreacher.com