University Christian Church C. Kutz-Marks

Thanksgiving Odyssey
November 23, 2008
Deut. 8:7-18

Let me confess at the outset my ambivalence as we enter this season. My loving wife, bless her, will confirm this confession is necessary, as will my parents who still recall the Christmas that I essentially refused to participate in all the family celebrations. I can become a capital G grouch when it comes to Thanksgiving and Christmas… not because I don’t like traditions, I do, really, but because the WAY we celebrate so often seems so contradictory to the theme.

So often we trivialize the reason for the season and find ways to ignore what my gut screams we should acknowledge…no, we should confess. That’s the right word, “confess,” because at once it implies our complicity… and our need for God. It seems to me that our ideals get so far separated from the realities of the celebrations and the traditions… that the traditions mock the ideals.

The best example of course, is that there is probably little more antithetical to love and compassion at the heart of the Gospel story of the birth of Jesus Christ, than the rapacious consumerism of a modern American Christmas celebrations. They clearly stand in opposition, yet we hold the two side by side and rarely admit the terrible tension…. Between what is and what should be. But this is just the most egregious example, Thanksgiving will do nicely to make my point.

After all, it was their honoring of God that drove those intrepid Pilgrim souls in the first place. It was July 21, 1620, a bittersweet day for some of the residents of Leyden, Holland. They were gathered on a windswept dock to hear parting words from their pastor, John Robinson. English Separatists who had fled England’s persecution of their faith during the realm of Elizabeth I, they were anxious to emigrate to a new land across the vast ocean, a place known already as New England, where they could practice their faith in purity and freedom. Preaching a little more than a century after the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, Robinson had already seen evidence of stagnation among the disciples of Luther and Calvin—of what could go wrong when Christianity succumbed to cultural twists of the Gospel message-- and he wanted his flock to avoid that at all costs in their new home across the sea. He wanted them to focus on only one thing: the Word of God and the will of God, and what would come forth from those wellsprings to meet the new needs they would surely have.

To that end, Pastor John Robinson admonished the Pilgrim’s as they prepared to sail: "Brethren, we are now quickly to part from one another, and only the God of heaven knows whether I will see your face again. I charge you before God and His blessed angels that you follow me no further than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. I am verily persuaded that the Lord has more truth yet to break forth from His holy Word.”

So 46 brave and determined folks left Holland on the ship "Speedwell", joining up in England with the ship, "Mayflower" and many more folks. On August 5 the 2 ships left England, only to have ship trouble and having to leave behind l8 people and forge ahead on only the Mayflower with 102 folks aboard. 41 of these were called "Saints" ‑ sailing because of religious reasons, among others. But did you know there were 18 servants on board, belonging to the Saints? Only a small step away from slaves. Such AMBIGUITY… such a mixture of high ideals, and poor meeting of them would come to characterize the Pilgrims’ experience.

But especially for those who were deeply religious, who hoped to escape religious persecution in Europe and to purely practice their religion, every step of the way their expectations were confounded by a stern reality that seemed to teach them… things will not be simply, easy, or nice. Life will be filled with AMBIGUITY. The life you attain – and the spiritual maturity you reach…with the help of God – is the life you are willing to forge in the furnaces of commitment despite this AMBIGUITY.

So it would unfold that their sixty-day voyage landed them in Provincetown Harbor on November 11, 1620. Cold, wet and near starvation, these weary travelers stumbled into an abandoned Indian settlement and found corn that had been clearly set aside for spring planting. It wasn’t their corn and they knew that by taking they might cause someone else to starve next year if they had nothing to plant. But these pious Pilgrims determined that their survival own outweighed their concern for the property of others...or anyone's future crops. They stole ten bushels of the Native's seed corn. AMBIGUITY.

But they did not find the area suitable for settling – or maybe they were just too ashamed to face those they’d robbed- so they got back on the Mayflower and sailed on to Plymouth.

Does it dim our respect for the Pilgrims to hear that their faith and discernment was so tested? Does it ruin our appreciation of the life that they were able to carve out of this trying new land? I hope not. May the fuller reality of their struggles give us a richer admiration for the imperfect, but deeply committed folk that they were. It is only fair to ask, too, who are we, with our pantries full and food options without limit-- to judge them in their time of need.

Peter Gomes, who has served as Pastor of Memorial Church on Harvard’s campus for 34 years, reflects in his book, The Good Life: "That first winter in New England was a terrible one for the Mayflower pilgrims, who were hardly prepared for the ferocity of the weather and the hard work of establishing a new colony. More than half their number died that winter in what they called ‘the starving time,’ where a ration of five kernels of corn was apportioned to each adult for the day’s meal."

It was the next year, when a successful harvest was in, that they set aside a day for Thanksgiving. It’s important to remember:
that just a few months before they were facing starvation, digging graves in the rocky soil for their children, wives, husbands;
that as they sat down to eat a Thanksgiving feast together.
Their hearts were still broken from the grief and trauma. One might have expected their leaders would call for a service of mourning than a service of Thanksgiving…AMBIGUITY… but there is a message here for us if we will search it out.

Gomes, who grew up in Plymouth, says that a local custom there is that on Thanksgiving Day, in the middle of the bountiful tables, five kernels of corn are placed on a red maple leaf at each place setting to remind people, who now enjoy a good bounty, of the "starving time" of long ago (p. 151).

Thankgiving….the Thanksgiving story that has been passed down to us starts almost a year later, then. Hope was renewed by a bountiful harvest of corn. Squanto, the Pawtuxet Indian, helped the colonists to prepare the fields and plant corn. He also became a negotiator between tribes-people and the Pilgrims, helping to arrange the treaty that allowed the Pilgrims and Indians to live in peace and to celebrate the meal which we commemorate on Thursday... The First Thanksgiving.

The famous feast was shared by about 50 colonists and 90 Wampanoag Indians. In the only surviving firsthand account of the meal, Edward Winslow describes it this way:

"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."

The first official Thanksgiving- declared so by government- was declared by the Governor of the Mass Bay Colony in 1637. It is sad to say, but the AMBIGUOUS truth is that Gov. Bradford proclaimed the holiday to commemorate the massacre of 700 Indian men, women and children during their annual harvest celebration. According to Prof. Newell, himself a Penobscot Indian and recently the chair of the anthropology dept of the University of Connecticut, the Governor of Massachusetts ordained Thanksgiving Day for the next 100 years- a day for thanking God for victory in this battle with “the savages.” AMBIGUITY.

President George Washington issued the first National proclamation for a day of thanks on November 26, 1787. In the same year, the Protestant Episcopal Church announced that the church would celebrate a day of thanks giving on the first Thursday of November unless there was another day appointed by the civil authorities. Neither the church nor the state declared a day of Thanksgiving for years after that one time.

Not until the most dismal days of the Civil War.

President Lincoln, responding to pressure from Sara Josepha Hale, declared a day of national Thanksgiving. It seems that Ms. Hale's magazine was one of the most widely circulated women's magazines of the late 19th century. Ms. Hale had been publicly promoting a national day of thanksgiving for nearly 40 years! In the midst of the devastating Civil War she pushed harder for a nationally declared celebration of, and this is her word, “opulence.” "Fasting,” she warned in her magazine, "only accented the terrible condition of the country and the deeds of men...while feasting, on the other hand, exalted God and the culinary prowess of women." Hmmm.

Each year for the next 75 years, the President of the U.S. formally proclaimed that Thanksgiving Day would be celebrated on the last Thursday of November. In 1939, Pres. Roosevelt changed it to one week earlier. Why? He wanted to help businesses during the depression by lengthening the Christmas shopping season by one week. AMBIGUITY…

Seems to me it has been lengthened a lot more than that. As one astute commentator put it, we have already entered the mushed Seasons of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas that he dubbed, “HallowThanksMas.”

In 1942 Congress ruled that Thanksgiving would be celebrated annually on the fourth Thursday of November and declared it a legal federal holiday...

So here we are.... preparing for the fourth Thursday of November, 2008. 388 years of European American history between those Massachusetts Bay pilgrims and us.

Thanksgiving is a doorway through which we pass into the festive glow of the holiday season, and don’t get me wrong, this is good. Thanksgiving has come to be a time of homecoming, a time of festivity and sharing. It is also a time of opulence and over indulgence. From football to turkey.... this is the kick-off to that time of year.... when our calendars can fill and our bellies can fill up at a rate surpassed only by the rate at which our pockets empty out....[i]

Here is my central point, friends, our celebrations can either give voice to the ideals by which we are trying to live our lives.... or they can be dismal contradictions to those values. We choose, each year how we celebrate- and what we affirm.

Holidays can be full of joy and fulfillment and at the same time show conscious awareness of the realities, which confront our world. There is a festive way to give thanks and still be mindful of the strife in the Middle East, the struggles of native peoples, the homelessness in our city streets.... of wars….economic and military. We can create a Thanksgiving which is not only warm and memorable, but one which is also sensitive to the whole of our human family and more caring of our earth.

But it will always be wrapped in AMBIGUITY… that frustrating mixture of ideal and reality that we are destined to navigate. My prayer for us, is that with the same kind of faith, the same kind of trust in God that the Pilgrims evidenced in even being able to celebrate that first Thanksgiving, that their spirit might come alive in us, too, and we join with them, and St. Paul and the Saints of the ages in words of Philippians Chapter 4,
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice….
6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Amen

[i] Some of this material and this particular phrase comes from a sermon by colleague Rev. Elaine Pesuha delivered November 24, 2002.

University Christian Church - Austin

with C. Kutz-Marks, preaching

Coming in Glory?
1 Thess. 4:13-18
Nov. 9, 2008

Our scripture passage for this morning is considered by many scholars to be the very earliest writing that would later become a part of our Bible. From the very beginning Christians were encouraging one another, saying,

16 For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever.

In our weekly recited communion liturgy, we say “We remember his death, we proclaim his resurrection, we await his coming in glory.”

And as our closing hymn this morning we will sing, “with an earthy faith, we sing a song of heaven; all life fulfilled, all loved, all wrong forgiven. Christ is our sign of hope, for Christ is Risen.”[ii]

For, you see, Jesus’ resurrection and the disciples’ encounters with this Risen Christ confirmed their faith in their own resurrection, but at the same, threw a wrench in their understanding of how it would transpire.

It seems that the earliest Christians had absorbed from their Pharisee predecessors a belief in what we would call the “general resurrection.” That is, the belief that at the end of time the Lord would suddenly intervene, break into history and raise back to life those who had died.

• 
  The confusion for these early Christians is that while they expected the resurrection to happen all at once for every one, what they experienced was that only Jesus was resurrected on Easter, not everyone. So they quickly came to understand that Jesus Christ was the pioneer of the resurrection experience and that there would be another general resurrection at the end of time.
  
  But, interestingly, it is my bet that most Christians today do not hold to the early Christian belief in the resurrection, per se. What most Christians today believe is that at the time of death, the spirit or soul leaves each person and their bodies are no longer a part of the plan. This is really an understanding that many of us Christians picked up, not from the Bible, but from Greek philosophy. You see, in conventional biblical resurrection thinking, at the end of time the Lord raises the body up again and animates it with the spirit again, so that we are no longer talking an afterlife that is so spiritual, a disembodied soul, an ethereal new life, we are talking some enhanced version of flesh and blood.
  
  
  
  “Preacher, this is all just speculation,” I imagine some of you thinking. “What difference does it make, anyway?”
  
  
  
  I would like to draw your attention to the fact that exactly how we understand this life to come does make a huge practical difference. How we understand the afterlife and Jesus’ Second Coming has implications even for our politics and foreign policy.
  
  
  
  For example, I hope you had the opportunity to read Eileen Flynn's article in Monday's Austin American-Statesman, entitled Israel Rally Reveals Complexities Among Christians, Jews[iii]. On the surface it is the story of two friends, a liberal Jew and a conservative Baptist, who traveled down to San Antonio for a “Night to Honor Israel” event staged by John Hagee, pastor of the Cornerstone Church and well known tele-evangelist. The article briefly mentions the phenomenon of Christian Zionism that is at the core of the Hagee event that evening. I have attached some very important articles about this phenomenon to this sermon file on our church website. Please take a few minutes to read those articles for better background on this movement.[iv]
  
  
  
  Christian Zionism grows out of a particular theological system called premillennial dispensationalism, which originated in early 19th-century England.[v] The preaching and writings of a renegade Irish clergyman, John Nelson Darby, and a Scottish evangelist, Edward Irving, emphasized the literal and future fulfillment of such teachings as the Rapture, the rise of the Antichrist, the Battle of Armageddon, and the central role that a revived state of Israel would play during the end days. Darby and Irving argued that portions of the books of Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah and Revelation predict when Jesus will return and how the final battle of history will take place.
  
  
  Darby brought these doctrines to the U.S. during eight missionary journeys. They captured the hearts and minds of those who attended Bible and prophecy conferences in the years just after our Civil War. Darby’s teachings were then featured in the sermons of some of the great preachers of the 1880-1920 period: the evangelists Dwight L. Moody and Billy Sunday; and Cyrus Scofield. Scofield then applied Darby’s view of the Second Coming of Jesus to his version of the Bible and provided an outline of premillennial dispensationalist notations on the text. That Scofield Bible published in 1909 gave dispensationalist teachings much of their prominence and popularity. The Scofield Bible became the Bible version used by most evangelical and fundamentalist Christians for the next 60 years.[vi]
  
  
  How does it become political? For one thing, Christian Zionists insist that all of historic Palestine -- including all the land west of the Jordan which was occupied by Israel after the 1967 war -- must be under the control of the Jewish people, as one of the necessary stages prior to the second coming of Jesus. Among their other basis tenets:
  
  
  • God’s covenant with Israel is eternal, exclusive and will not be abrogated.
  • The Bible speaks of two distinct and parallel covenants, one between God and Israel, one between God and the church. The church is a "mere parenthesis" in God’s plan and as such it will be removed from history during an event called the Rapture and they use this morning’s 1 Thess. 4(:13-17; 5:1-11) passage and the following chapter as their scriptural basis. At that point, Israel, the nation, will be restored as the primary instrument of God on earth.
  • Further, Christian Zionists say that the Genesis passage, "I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you" (Genesis 12:3) should be interpreted literally -- which leads to Christians providing maximum political, economic, moral and spiritual support for the modern state of Israel and for all the Jewish people regardless of the claims of others – such as the Palestinians- for justice.
  • Apocalyptic texts like the Book of Daniel, Zechariah 9-12, Ezekiel 37-8, I Thessalonians 4-5 and the Book of Revelation refer to literal and future events, and become the basis of legions of books like Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth scenarios that sold over 35 million copies and was translated into 54 languages, and such as the so called biblical basis of Tim LaHayes and Jerry Jenkins’ 16 book Left Behind[vii] series that has sold over 65 million copies[viii].
  These Christian Zionists rejoice at the establishment of the state of Israel, and expect:
  
  
  >the rebuilding of the Third Temple in Jerusalem on the site of the Temple destroyed in 70 C.E.; >the rise of the Antichrist and the buildup of armies poised to attack Israel as signs leading to the final end of times battle and
  >Jesus’ return for his thousand-year reign. This Christian Zionist movement looks for
  > the escalating power of satanic forces aligned with the antichrist that will do battle with Israel and its allies as the end draws near.
  >Judgment will befall nations and individuals according to how they "bless Israel."
  
  
  These active Christian Zionists probably number only about 15% of the evangelical Christians in the U.S., but if you follow the news and watch what’s happening you’ll see that they have an inordinate effect on American Middle East foreign policy for their numbers, just as they have an extraordinarily strong presence on Christian radio and television broadcasting. [ix]And some of their thinking is now even infiltrating mainline congregations.
  
  
  While studying in Jerusalem in Oct. of 2004, I had the pleasure of meeting and then worshipping with a small group of dedicated Palestinian Christians at their center named Sabeel[x] in Jerusalem who have faced first the corrosive effects of premillennial dispensationalism. Sabeel was founded by Dr. Naim Ateek, a saintly, highly revered figure to many in that part of the world, who was at that time working on a book on the history and nature of Christian Zionism. The final paragraph of the introduction to that book[xi] reads:
  
  
  "God is not the God of Armageddon but the God of Golgotha. This is the God who continues to call us to a loving service of our fellow human beings. Ultimately, it is only by the grace of God and the toil of dedicated people throughout the world that we can address not only the heretical teachings of Christian Zionism but all the evils and myths that are preventing us from a just peace in Israel-Palestine where Palestinians and Israelis can live as neighbors in peace and security and share the land under God. We call on all people of faith to pray and work for the achievement of this goal. "
  
  
  Though last Monday’s Statesman article described Christian Zionism as an interesting religious perspective, I quite frankly, agree with Dr. Ateek and find it a frightening and threatening perspective because it has already influenced American participation in Middle East in powerful but mostly unhelpful ways. Underlying elements of this perspective that upset me are:
  -- a blanket, uncritical support for anything that buttresses the self-interests of the State of Israel;
  -- it’s determination that all Arabs and Muslims are God's enemies and that they will be at the final battle of Armageddon siding with the adversaries of Israel and thus the Christian Zionists consistently portray Arabs and Muslims in the most negative light [xii];
  -- This perspective is hampering any movement towards a two state solution between the Israelis and Palestinians because its proponents are adamant that all of the land that was described in Bible times as belonging to the Israelites because it was God's gift must be kept sacrosanct,
  - Oh, and by the way, according to the scripture passages they rely on, in addition to holding on to all of Palestine, they have deemed it necessary for the Jews to also be in control of all the territory that is present day Jordan, all of present day Syria, and half of Iraq all the way to the Euphrates River.[xiii]
  - Further, beyond that claim, they are convinced that that there must also be a war waged against Iran, before Jesus Christ can return again.[xiv]
  Scary stuff! And all this proceeds from a premillennial dispensationalist reading of the Bible. It does matter what we believe about the 2nd coming of Christ & resurrection.
  
  
  
  [i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostles%27_Creed
  
  [ii] Chalice Hymnal #703, “When All Is Ended”
  [iii] http://www.statesman.com/search/content/life/stories/faith/11/03/1103zionists.html
  
  [iv] Challenging Christian Zionism http://www.christianzionism.org/
  
  Dr. Naim Ateek intro to Christian Zionism book http://www.sabeel.org/etemplate.php?id=25
  Christian Zionism Distorts Faith And Imperils Peace http://www.warc.ch/update/up134/01.html
  Churches speaking out on “Left Behind” theology http://www.christianzionism.org/churchesN.asp
  
  How Should Christians Relate to the State of Israel? (by Rich Nathan)
  http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/01/how-should-christians-relate-t.html
  
  Donald Wagner presents an hour long lecture on contemporary Christian Zionism and its effects at:
  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4515761169636548436
  
  [v] This section of the sermon is largely lifted from the most insightful article, “The Evangelical-Jewish Alliance” by Donald Wagner June 28, 2003 issue of The Christian Century magazine, found at http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2717
  
  [vi] For an example of this thinking and timelines, see http://religiononline.org/Documents/Bible_Prophecy/Antichrist_part1.htm##2-BRIEF%20OUTLINE%20FROM%20ISRAEL
  
  [vii] http://www.leftbehind.com/
  
  [viii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_Behind_(series)
  
  [ix] “Christian Zionism has significant support within Protestant fundamentalism, including much of the Southern Baptist Convention and the charismatic, Pentecostal and independent churches. The movement can also be found in the evangelical wings of the mainline Protestant churches (Presbyterian, United Methodist and Lutheran) and to a lesser degree in Roman Catholicism. Its reach is broad, since premillennial dispensationalist themes are advanced through Christian television, radio and publishing. The National Religious Broadcasters organization, which controls almost 90 percent of religious radio and television in the U.S., is dominated by a Christian Zionist orientation” From “The Evangelical-Jewish Alliance” by Donald Wagner June 28, 2003 issue of The Christian Century magazine, found at http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2717
  
  [xi] http://www.sabeel.org/etemplate.php?id=25
  
  [xii] See articles at this website for background http://www.jewsonfirst.org/
  
  [xiii] http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/01/how-should-christians-relate-t.html
  
  [xiv]From Donald Wagner’s video present at an Oct. 21, 2006 Conference hosted by Sabeel http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4515761169636548436

C. Kutz-Marks, preaching

The Morality of Armed Conflict
Luke 6:27-35
Oct. 26, 2008
Forum Sunday on the same theme

This afternoon at 2 p.m. right here in this Sanctuary where we worship - will be another important gathering. Oh, many of the people will be similar, in that we hope all of you will join in the fellowship lunch downstairs and then make your way back to the Sanctuary. But there will be more people joining us: Jews, Muslims, and Christians from a variety of backgrounds. We expect a broad spectrum of beliefs to think together, to reason together about when- if ever- a person of faith can morally justify violence upon another child of God. It should be a fascinating discussion as we have a distinguished panel of scholars to lead our thinking about the matter.

But before we join together with a diversity of folks this afternoon, it seems proper that this morning we take a careful look at what our particular tradition, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has said and taught about this matter, as a prologue for our forum later today. Now, you might rightly chuckle, since we are the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), intent on making sure that each Christian makes her or his own determination about such matters, you would be correct in saying that almost every conceivable position has been espoused.

You might further rightly assume that throughout the nearly 200 years of our development, Disciples have often mirrored the values of other Christians in North America, with a wide spectrum of belief about violence and war. That is true, as well. But as you shall hear, the leadership of our movement, has consistently taken one position on the matter at hand.

I.

Now, I’d like to draw your attention to 3 periods in our Christian development to ascertain the major influences on our thinking about armed violence generally, and its extreme, war. The first, as Disciples, is a return to scripture. We have for two hundred years as Disciples, we have called ourselves, a people of the Book. We said, Where the scriptures speak, we speak; where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent… Our people of have said, “No Creed but Christ, no book but the Bible.” Our people have said, “Christ’s New Testament teachings are the first and best guide for living, and for RESTORING churches to theessential faith seen in New Testament Christianity.” So let us look together at the New Testament witness.

We have already begun our review with what Jesus taught us about violence in our scripture lesson this morning :
Jesus was responding to Lev. 24, in how violence is to be dealt with when it said: Lev. 24:19 Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return:
fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered.


So in Luke, Jesus says, "But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt….
35 …. love your enemies…

Jesus taught a radical renunciation of revenge, so that Jesus was known to the early church as the Prince of Peace. They found in the Hebrew scriptures ancient prophecies that the early Christians said pointed to Jesus, foretelling that as messiah He would usher in a reign of peace that would bless all the world, such as the Is. 2:4 passage: “He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

Let me quickly grant that there are passages in the book of Revelation and other rare places in the New Testament that envision an apocalyptic struggle between the forces of evil resisting the inbreaking of God’s victorious forces of good. There is some expectation of violence ahead, but time and again the earliest Christians, not only refrained from violence in any form, but from war in particular. With Jesus’ words echoing in their ears at the time of his arrest in the Garden, "Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”

In response to Jesus’ teaching, those who followed Jesus for the first 150 years were indisputably pacificists, and then overwhelming still pacifists for the next 150 years until the reign of Contantine. These early Christian simply would not fight in war. The early church to which our Disciples forbearers pointed us for guidance, would not allow their sons to join anyone’s army. They would not even fight for their own liberation from Roman oppression.

To those who would challenge these early Christians that they were being naïve or impractical, that people have to stand up for themselves and defend themselves or the world will trample them in its path, Christians would quote their paradoxical Jesus in Matt. 10 “whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

II.

With this background, perhaps we should not be surprised how our forvbearers, the early Disciples stood on the issue. They believed that a simple, straightforward reading of Scripture should guide the Christian, and the New Testament teachings against the use of violence, even in self-defense, are clear.

Though the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has never been lumped as a whole in the Peace Church tradition of the Mennonites, the Church of the Brethren, and their like, one wonders why. [i] For, if I ask to you to name the one most important speaker and teacher in the founding of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), who would you name?

Barton Stone, declared “Nothing appears so repugnant to the kingdom of heaven as war;” In the July 1835 Christian Messenger, Stone [approvingly] published portions of a letter from a minister who refused a commission as a chaplain for the Maine militia because, in his view, "war was at variance with the Gospel that calls us to love our enemies and pray for them."[ii]

Alexander Campbell is unequivocal in concurring with Barton Stone here. In the year 1848, which Texans will recall as the conclusion of the Mexican-American War, Campbell delivered his famous ADDRESS ON WAR at Wheeling, Virginia, 1848.

89 years later as the U.S. was on the brink of WWII the Hon. Joseph B. Shannon of Missouri had Campbell’s address entered into the U.S. Congressional record with these words, “Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to extend my remarks and to include an Address on War made in 1848 by that great Christian and scholar Alexander Campbell. It is the most eloquent discourse I have ever read on that subject. His arguments against war are as tenable today as they were when advanced by him in 1848.”It is interesting to note that here as WWII was about to begin, 69% of Disciples ministers were pacifists.[iii]


But what does Campbell say? His carefully worded address would take something over two hours to read aloud, so I invite you to find his address in its entirety by linking to this sermon’s file at our congregation’s website.[iv]

But let me say , Campbell confesses that as important and central as this issue of violence and war is, he wished he’d spoken to the issue decades earlier, or at least before the beginning of the Mexican-American War so that his ideas might have saved “some lives that since have been thrown away in the desert.” That us, friends.

Campbell reminds his audience that for the first 3 centuries the Church of Jesus Christ would not allow anyone to bear arms, then he goes on to summarize:
“(5) The precepts of Christianity positively inhibit war - by showing that "wars and fightings come from men's lusts" and evil passions, and by commanding Christians to "follow peace with all men," and
(6) The beatitudes of Christ are not pronounced on patriots, heroes, and conquerors but on peacemakers, on whom is conferred the highest rank and title in the universe: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God." “

How would nations then deal with aggression by another?

Perhaps here Alexander Campbell was far ahead of his time, and our time, too. He said, “Why not have a bylaw-established umpire? Could not a united national court be made as feasible and as practicable as a United States court? Why not, as often proposed, and as eloquently, ably, and humanely argued, by the advocates of peace, have a congress of nations and a high court of nations for adjudicating and terminating all international misunderstandings and complaints, redressing and remedying all wrongs and grievances?” He envisions a United Nations and World Court with teeth enough to maintain the peace.

III.

But let us make one more stop in the history of Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), stopping this historical train at our own time. What are Disciples now saying about violence, about war and peace?

15 months ago about a dozen of us from UCC participated in the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Ft. Worth with many thousands of Disciples from all over the U.S. and Canada. This is the biennial gathering of the Disciples and it is an opportunity for the delegates there to speak a word from the assembled church to the churches back home. In 2007 the General Assembly voted[v]:

1.) A resolution that any and all use of torture is totally unacceptable—that it is contrary to the Word of God[vi]

2.) A resolution that “after due reflection and a respectful discussion, [the General Assembly would] go on record as conscientiously opposing the war in Iraq as an action inconsistent with the teachings and example of Jesus Christ, and a violation of the traditional standards of just war,”[vii]

But that also said, “we lift up the men and women of the armed forces who are stationed there for their courage and sacrifice and hold them and their families in our prayers”

3.) “ BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) affirms the God-given right of conscience and offers moral support to men and women who volunteered for military service but who, on the grounds of Christian conviction, refuse deployment to Iraq, realizing that this action may subject them to military discipline,
4.) And finally, that same Resolution directed the General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Rev. Sharon Watkins, to write a pastoral letter to the churches, which she did only 3 moths ago, and which can also find on our website.[viii]

And I tell you, you can almost hear her tears as she lists in the letter:
- the pains suffered by families of Americans killed in the war;
- the pain of the Iraqi people.
- the pain of those among us who view peace not only as a point on a distant horizon, but who insist that non-violent interaction is a way of life to be lived right now. who believe… God’s commandments to love our enemy actually apply in our own time, [whose] pain is multiplied as their faithful insistence on waging peace causes their love of country and patriotism to be questioned.
- There is the pain…of those who absolutely believe it was and is right to have entered Iraq …. who believe at the core of their faith that we must defend liberty and justice in all places….[who also suffer the] pain of being labeled warmongers or lovers of hatred.

Rev. Watkins’ letter then calls us to work together for the common good in Christian love, to talk civilly and honestly with one another, as we will together here this afternoon.

So, here is what our tradition has taught. But that is not a prescription, or a proscription, but just a prologue. For as a Disciple, you are now charged to discern afresh your own position; to make your own rationale and communicate it; and to stand boldly as you understand the call of Christ in your life.

May God give us all the strength and the wisdom for such a task. Amen.


[i] “A.T. DeGroot says that "this background enables us to understand why, with the exception of Walter Scott, most of the best known early Disciple leaders were pacifists".[2] Most notably, our founders, Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone were both pacifists.” DeGroot, A.T. Disciple Thought: A History. Fort Worth, TX: Texas Christian University, 1965, p. 168. Found at http://dpfweb.org/discipleshistory.html
[ii] Williams, D. Newell. Barton Stone: A Spiritual Biography. St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2000, p. 234-236.
[iii] Kirby Page, a Disciples minister who published The Sword or the Cross in 1921, he sent a questionnaire on the topics of war and peace to 100,000 Protestant ministers in 1935. Of the 935 Disciples who answered, 69% were pacifist in belief- the highest percentage among the ten largest denominations.[16]
[iv] http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/acampbell/ac2.html
[v] http://www.disciples.org/Portals/0/PDF/ga/pastassemblies/2007/resolutions/0728.pdf
[vi] http://www.disciples.org/Portals/0/PDF/ga/pastassemblies/2007/resolutions/0721.pdf
[vii] http://www.disciples.org/Portals/0/PDF/ga/pastassemblies/2007/resolutions/0728.pdf
[viii] http://www.disciples.org/OfficeoftheGeneralMinisterandPresident/NewsandUpdates/PastoralLetterabouttheWarinIraqfromGMP/tabid/350/Default.aspx

REMEMBER YOUR CROSSING OVER

Charles Kutz-Marks preaching

REMEMBER YOUR CROSSING OVER
Pentecost 24, Nov. 2, 2008
Joshua 3:7-17

It was not Joshua’s first crossing through the water. But with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, everyone else passing through the waters of the Jordan had only heard about the Red Sea parting and the Hebrew’s crossing over the beginning of their 40 years in the wilderness. All others coming out of Egypt had died in the wilderness.

What Joshua and Caleb must have been remembering as they walked across that dry riverbed! It was a moment of redemption, a moment of exaltation, a moment of fulfillment. They were coming full circle. The long journey to the Promised Land had started with a parting of the waters and would be bookended with another. The only way to the promised land is through the river.

For us, living in Texas, we understand particularly well the challenges posed to immigrants from Mexico and Central America who “cross over” the Rio Grande to make it into the United States. Next year a new movie now in production will comeout entitled, “Crossing Over”[i] that will star Harrison Ford, Sean Penn and Ashely Judd, a movie that will explore a full canvas of characters who struggle, first to enter the U.S. and then struggle on and on to obtain legal status in Los Angeles.

For millennia, immigration has been a series of trials to test to the mettle of a people. Few stories, however, can match the drama of our forbearers in faith, the Hebrews, who after 40 years in the wilderness, now ready themselves to invade the land of Canaan from the east side of the Jordan river near Jericho.

As our passage this morning begins, right in front of them is the Jordan River, a glorified stream of muddy water most of the year, but which, as luck would have it, is in the flood season and flowing with more water than at any time of the year...and, of course, not a single boat in sight. Yes, for the Hebews it was a time of anticipation, but also a time of fear. IT WAS TIME TO CROSS OVER.

The Hebrew word “abar” implies crossing over a boundary, whether physical like a river, political like a nation's border, or moral, as to enter a covenant or transgress a commandment. The word “abar” is used 21 times in this story of their crossing over.[ii]

As the priest carrying the Ark of the Covenant stepped foot into the river swollen by the spring rains, God acted to stop the flood. I think it is very significant that one has to step into the roaring waters before they are parted, rather than waiting for them to first be parted. It was when the soles of the feet of those bearing the ark touch the water that the waters part. Not before.

In our faith journeys, there comes times when it looks like we
are backed up against a barrier, a river at flood stage. The promised land is on the other side of the raging river. And you can’t just wait for the water to part, you have to step into it... step in FIRST!


As the story unfolds, the water backed up all the way to Adam, some eighteen miles north of Jericho. The priests stood, holding the ark at the riverbed’s midpoint while the children of Israel passed over into the land of promise. And, when all had passed over, and the last priest carrying the ark stepped out of the riverbed and onto dry land, the river was released again and flowed on to the Dead Sea. It was the Red Sea parting before Moses and the Hebrews, déjà vu, all over again.

But just as the promise of that first Red Sea crossing was followed by obstacles, crises, and moments of failure, stepping into the Promised Land would be followed by obstacles, as well. Though standing in the Promised Land, it had to be taken from its current inhabitants. This, by the way, is the origin of the current day’s Palestinian/Israeli struggle. The Hebrews believed God gave them the land. But the Palestinians living there didn’t say, “OK, well, come on in then, take our lands, and kill our people.” No. They resisted.

There were formidable powers, seven pagan peoples (the test of every Bible student’s reading skills), and some thirty-one powerful kings would need to be conquered. The euphoria of the crossing over was tempered by the challenges of what lay before them.

This is not just some remote historical account. This is a commonly repeating spiritual progression. You and I have to have those "abar" times, those crossover experiences, if we are to grow in faith. The crossover experiences can be and usually are frightening. There are moments when we stand shuddering at the edge of the Jordan, knowing that before us are rushing waters, the fortress city of Jericho, chariots of iron and even rumors of giants in the land, and yet that is clearly the path forward.

There is a lesson here for us: each Red Sea, each Jordan River, you and I face in our lives, each moment when God acts to deliver us, leading us closer to the promise of the gospel, is followed by a new set of obstacles and challenges which must be faced, armed only with trust in the power of God and a determination to persevere.


We see the pattern in the observable stages of our lives. As each new chapter of our lives opens up, these new obstacles will appear:
>At high school graduation... even as adulthood beckons, decisions about a job or vocational training, or college... suddenly loom large...., or when
>That special loved one you find, that you cannot live without... as you move into a more committed relationship... all sorts of new challenges and difficulties arise!, or when
Ø the new child your wanted so, now brings with her new financial responsibilities and a reordering of your life’s priorities... or when,
Ø that new job you’ve bee given, even with its raise in pay, brings incredible, new stresses and anxiety with it.
Each new stage brings its challenges.
For each of us our spiritual development has that very same character. Think of your own spiritual development. You can see the stages, the changes, and the challenges that you’ve overcome with God’s help as you progress spiritually.

When you get home, pick up your Bible in a quiet moment and continue the story from where Chapter 3 of the Book of Joshua ends. Read chapter 4, especially focusing on Joshua’s actions.

A purely practical leader might have had his scouts race ahead to do some more reconnoitering the inhabitants of Jericho whom these Hebrews would soon be facing in battle. A singularly focused leader might have turned his attention to setting up camp for his thousands of itinerants... feeding and providing shelter for them.

But Joshua does neither. Chapter 4 tells us that, while the priests stand in the middle of river that is parted upstream and downstream, Joshua orders one member of each of the 12 tribes of the Hebrews to move one large stone from the newly achieved shore, to carry it back into the river bed and place the stone underneath the feet of the priests who were holding there the ark of the covenant, the symbolic presence of God. Joshua says these stones are to remain in the river bed forever as a silent, invisible, but ever present witness to what God did that day there for the Hebrew people.

Joshua also orders that one representative of each of the 12 tribes to move, probably by rolling, one of the large stones from the river bed and cross it over, “abar” it, to their new home’s shore, the west bank of the Jordan River. The stones were moved to the place where they would camp that evening, not far at, all, a location that was right near Jericho, a location that came to be known as Gilgal. The name Gilgal comes from a Hebrew word which means “a wheel,” which in turns comes from a word, ga„lal, which means “to roll some object to.” So Gilgal comes to mean“a circle of stones.” Every time the people of Israel would return to Gilgal they would see the circle of stones and remember what God had done to bring them into the Promised Land. The very site of the stones was to be an encouragement, and also a reminder of the power of God to do the amazing, the astounding.

And Joshua told the people that in years to come when their children asked about the strange circle of stones there in Gilgal, that it would be their responsibility, and their great joy, to recount the wondrous works of God and the story of God’s blessing.

In our personal spiritual development, too, it is nearly all about recognizing God’s powerful working... nearly, I say. But not entirely. Born of 40 years of trusting God and discovering God so active in his life, Joshua showed the action that we need take when God has so blessed us. We need to mark the place, and we need to mark the time as sacred.

This is even more true for you and for me than it was for those tight-knit Hebrews.
>Maybe it is the scientific and often materialistic age in which we live.
>Maybe it is the prideful character of a nation and a culture that seem to have subdued every non-human power we have faced.

However you want to describe the reasons for our sense of distance from the Divine, our sense of being removed from the sphere of God’s influence, it is, I think, perfectly clear that for people of our age, and perhaps even for us, God often seems disconnected from daily living.
But when we can recognize some special moments....
some special settings...
some special effect of a work of art or piece of music,
some scene in the natural world,
some incredibly blessing relationship...
whatever way it is that God breaks through to us... and we sense the IMMEDIACY OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD... those rare moments MUST BE HONORED... THEY MUST BE TREASURED.

Let me tell you a secret. It is only as recognize the hand of God and the presence of God, that the land we inhabit BECOMES Promised, blessed, flowing with milk and honey.

When you celebrate a birthday, you honor a miracle.

When your Thanksgiving Day celebration becomes more than a feast of food and a Cowboys football game, and you sense deep within, the whole litany of goodness that God pours over you.....in that moment... those precious moments... you honor a miracle.

Yes, there are spiritual disciplines that can heighten this attention:
Prayer, spiritual journaling, worship, meditation…
And I recommend them all to you. But the central point is this:
as God has blessed you, you simply must find a style of living that thankfully remembers your crossings over. You must make your own circles of stones on the new land’s riverbank... and tell your children... and your neighbors... and anyone else who will listen how it is that God blesses and enriches you! Friends, this is not even for evangelistic purposes... but for your own spiritual survival... your own spiritual growth.

Count your blessings, yes, but also, tell your blessings....

Tell your blessings... to those who will listen the special moments that God has turned your life right-side up. And as you do, you will see more and more of those blessings flowing your way.

This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And what Good News, indeed, it is!

[i] “Crossing Over is a multi-character canvas about immigrants of different nationalities struggling to achieve legal status in Los Angeles. The film deals with the border, document fraud, the asylum and green card process, work-site enforcement, naturalization, the office of counter terrorism and the clash of cultures. Written by Wayne Kramer” from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0924129/plotsummary.

[ii] between Joshua 3:1 and 5:1