A Wee Blether » shirley guthrie

Individuality and Community

Adam J. Copeland — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:00:11 +0000

It’s easy to crack on our culture, in particular, our penchant for selfish individuality. You’ll often hear phrases like, “Well, ultimately it’s not about THEM is it?” Implying it’s ultimately just about yourself. We celebrate the self in ways extreme and dangerous.

In response to our individualistic society, Christians preach and try to practice a self-giving rather than selfishness. Jesus is held up as the ultimate example of self sacrifice, and we’re told to do as he did. Of course, this extreme–total selflessness–can be really dangerous, and is ultimately unfaithful in practice. Too often, especially for women, the giving of oneself for others becomes dangerous and abusive. Lack of self-respect and self-dignity is no good either.

Enter Shirley Guthrie.

As human beings created in the image of God, we can realize our distinctive individuality only in and for the sake of community with God and other people; and we can live in true community with them only as we respect, preserve, and defend our own unique individuality and that of other people. True individuality and true community cannot be separated; each has to be understood in inseperable connection with the other… [Christian Doctrine, p. 209]

May more of us better walk this balance beam of Christian individuality and community.

image by spekulator

Sermon: Food Trough Festivities, Luke 2:1-20, Christmas Eve

Adam J. Copeland — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 12:07:53 +0000

Here’s the Christmas Eve sermon I preached, well, on Christmas Eve. Actually, I didn’t feel particularly good about how it was received. Though the congregation was huge, they were mostly visitors or rare attenders so the atmosphere felt less like a friendly congregation worshiping and more like a gathering of folks seeing a concert. I could say more, but I’m off to Christmas lunch. Cheers.

Food Trough Festivities

Luke 2:1-20

How many of your know the television show Sesame Street? I used to love that show–still do, in fact (though Megan doesn’t like me to watch it). I’m a big Ernie fan. I find Elmo hilarious. And every time I watch it I learn something new. One of my favorite parts of Sesame Street is a segment in which they give the viewers a little quiz.

Four items will appear on the screen, each in a different corner. And then someone will sing the song:

Three of these things belong together
Three of these things are kind of the same
Can you guess which one of these doesn’t belong here?
Now it’s time to play our game (time to play our game).

And you’re supposed to guess which item of the four doesn’t belong. I’d like to play a few rounds with you this evening. So, since Tom refused to install a big screen TV in the pulpit, I brought along some low-tech sheets that will have to do.

Here’s four things, which one of them doesn’t belong with the others?

red, yellow, blue, hedgehog
Christmas tree, knife, fork, spoon
Chicken, goose, dinosaur, duck
Apple, the color blue, fish supper, mince pie
Rangers, Celtic, Nibs, Heaven (laugh, drop card, woops how did that get in there?)
Washington, D.C., Nebraska, Georgia, Oregon
7, 19, 16, 43
Matthew, Jeremiah, Mark, John
Biblical teaching, scandal, Christmas carols, disciples of Christ

That’s right, we don’t expect scandal in Church. And we certainly don’t usually think of scandal and God. Here’s one more to consider.

Jesus, food trough, extreme poverty, backwater village, savior of the world, defenseless baby, illegitimate child

Scandal.

As we immerse ourselves in the comforts of Christmas–family and friends, fires and festive food, lights and presents–it may be a bit unsettling to consider the scandal of that first Christmas. God, the savior of the world, as a dirty baby in a barn.

What a scandal. What was the innkeeper thinking? Couldn’t Joseph have tried somewhere else? What an inappropriate setting for the savior of the world. Among the animals. No crown for his head. A manger for a crib.

And Luke writes that the news was first shared with, not kings and queens, armies or politicians, but with shepherds. Shepherds–those who watched dirty animals with sticks–those at the bottom of the social ladder, shepherds who didn’t know a thing about Christmas.

Luke writes, an angel appeared before the shepherds, and they were terrified. “Don’t freak out,” the angel said, “for I bring you good news of a great joy for everyone. Today the Messiah is born. Our savior. The Lord.”

And then more angels appeared. They praised God and said, “Glory to God, and peace.”

And the text says, after they were gone, the shepherds spoke to each other. Eventually, the shepherds decided to go investigate for themselves to go find the baby. Who knows, maybe they argued over whether or not the angel’s announcement was true. Was the Messiah truly born in Bethlehem, or did the clever sheep-watchers think baaah humbug?

The shepherds went quickly, and found Jesus there, wrapped in bands of cloth, as was the custom, and lying in, of all things, a food trough.

And there it was: the scandal that should rule our lives.

God, born, in a real place (Palestine), in a political world (during a census), in an economic structure (a barn and a manger), to real fallible parents (Mary and Joseph), to save us from ourselves.

As Shirley Guthrie writes, God invading our “real world where we live all year long–a world where there is political unrest and injustice, poverty, hatred, jealousy, and both the fear and the longing that things could be different.”

God living in manger. Born to an unmarried teenager, engaged to a common laborer. “What an inappropriate way for God Almighty to come to us” (Guthrie). It’s a scandal.

And so, 2000 years later, we must try to respond to this scandal, however inadequately.

Perhaps we should sing hymns, and give presents, and tuck in the turkey, but that’s not responding fully.
Perhaps we should spend time with family, celebrate with friends, remember those departed. But that’s not enough.
Perhaps we should read the Bible, practice the faith, pray for guidance. But it’s only a start.

There is plenty of work for us Christians to do. As long as God’s peaceable kingdom is not yet realized, there is work to be done. Still today…

There are those who do not know the hymns: we can teach them.
There are those who receive no presents: we can include them.
There are those who are starving: we can feed them.
There are those with no family and few friends: we can love them.
There are those who are ill: we can heal them.
There are those with no faith, no trust, no hope: we can guide them.

Friends in Christ, we believe in a scandalous God. We are members of a scandalous faith. But are we living scandalous lives for God?

Surely not. Surely not.

*[pause, change]

But Christ came for us, wrapped in bands of cloth.
The savior was born for us, and laid in a manger.
The Lord entered the world for us, as a humble baby.

Thanks be to God.

Blogging Advent with the (online) community of faith

Adam J. Copeland — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:56:07 +0000

I’m participating in an Advent series with other bloggers organized by Brother Maynard, another CCBlogger. About twenty of us will be posting reflections throughout Advent using texts from John and the Old Testament chosen by Brother Maynard who just wrote a book on the same topic.

Last year, one of my seminary friends unwittingly became the center of the most ancient of theological debates. As he came before the committee that was to approve his next move towards ordination, a heated discussion broke out among the committee members as to whether Jesus existed before he become incarnate.

To be fair, I think the discussion centered more around what form Jesus took before incarnation, rather than whether or not he existed at all, but it all took my friend a bit off guard as these meetings generally get bogged down in where one stands on homosexuality, the authority of the Bible, or questions of the lordship of Christ and the like.

Regardless of what Jesus looked like before the incarnation, or how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, the Bible tells us of God who from the very beginning created.

So we come to the first few verses of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”

And to Proverbs 8:22 on wisdom “The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.”

The opening verses of John clearly enough describe Jesus (or the Word at least, “logos” in Greek) as existing “from the beginning.” Way over-simplification of hundreds of years of church history: this is one reason why we have Nicene Creed which makes it clear Jesus is co-eternal with the Father and begotten not made from God.

One could go any number of ways from here, but as this is the first week of Advent and the theme of hope, perhaps I’ll borrow from Shirely Guthrie. In his book, Christian Doctrine, Guthrie writes, “The Bible says not only that God was but that God is and will be Creator.” The Triune God’s act of creating is not confined to distant lands of the past, but God still creates anew.

Still today, God is making all things new (Rev 21). Still today, God is making us to be new creatures in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). Still today, we hope for God’s new creation, and the time when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and all manner of things shall be well (Is 6).

So, this Advent, we can look for ways God is continuing God’s creative acts. We can remember that God creates within and without the Church. With the Spirit’s guidance, we can seek to encourage, uphold, even help begin God’s acts of new creation.

Here are the other Johannine Advent bloggers: