Often when people think of Calvinism and the reformed tradition they seem to latch on to predestination, and if they have a little more knowledge, double predestination, conditional predestination, and so on. The term “predestination” itself is daunting and for some even scary! I remember a debate I had with a friend once who asked how I could believe that God had predestined my life, as if I had no choice in things.
This is common to people’s interpretation of the understanding of predestination, but it is not really what predestination is about. Actually, the understanding that everything in life has been predetermined is really fatalism not predestination. In the most simple of descriptions predestination is the understanding that God has pre-ordained, or elected his people to salvation. In fact, in much of the church writings we have veered away from using the word predestination because the colloquialism has taken over the theological understanding. Today we use the term “election.” Calvin arrives at the understanding, but contrary to what many see as a foundational cornerstone of the reformed tradition, Calvin adopts the theology more by means of logic than a deep understanding. Like Paul’s pericope I call, “if God is with us, who can be against us” found in Romans 8:31-39. For both Calvin and Paul, salvation occurs because God is intimate in our lives. However, we also have free will. This is where the understanding of fatalism falls apart. While God has brought us into this world and has elected us to go to heaven, he has given us free will to make choices; sometimes they are choices that reject God. We see this played out in the passage we have this week. In the parable a king throws a wedding and sends out the invitations. But those who were invited rejected their invitation. At this point the wedding is heaven and those invited were the Jews. So the king opens the wedding up to people in the busiest part of town inviting all of them to come. This is the call to those outside the faith, to the gentiles. So they came, but there was one person who came not dressed appropriately and he was summarily rebuked by the king and thrown out. This man represents those who accept the call to be Christian, but do not live the life. The final verse Matthew 22:14 “For many are called, but few are chosen” is an interesting conclusion. But it makes sense, if we accept that our election or predestination into heaven we are accepting an invitation to be made part of a greater whole. Secondarily, if we reject the invitation like someone who rejects an invitation to a banquet, we also reject the benefits. Moreover, if we accept the invitation, but do not take it seriously, we are really no better then the people who chose to reject the invitation all together. So if we embark on the fishing metaphor that is found in the Bible, so often there is a big net that is thrown out to collect all people with the promise of life eternal. But we are left with the free will of how we chose to live, whether we live to ourselves or live to God.
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Continuing on the theme of self-acceptance, I want to approach self-acceptance from a little different angle than we often approach it. I want to look at it through the eyes of self-understanding and in particular the self-recognition of our spirituality.
Whenever we talk about spirituality we enter a very difficult area. Like many things in the Christian world, the word “spirituality” alone is wrought with misunderstandings and clichéd expressions that the majority of people have difficulty even beginning to understand what it is all about. Personally, I had a lot of friends who would tell me that they were “spiritual and not religious” but when I asked them what that meant they had a difficult time explaining it to me beyond the declarations that organized religion was bad. I can accept that the church had burned them but there was always something lacking in that statement. By the time I made it to seminary I had a very negative feeling about spirituality. It seemed that, like many relativistic lifestyles, the spiritual one basically allowed people to justify almost anything. But in seminary I began to think of spirituality as a piece of how one comes to understand God, not a movement in itself. As one of my mentors said, “spirituality is how we come to know God, the church is how we sustain that relationship.” OK, that sounded a whole lot more profound when I was 23. But it made sense, and with my elementary education background, I began to understand spirituality in the same terms as individual learning styles. This means that just as people all learn differently, people also come to understand God differently. The ah-ha moment really came when I read the book by Corinne Ware called Discovering Your Spiritual Type, which, while overly simplified in many ways, helps the reader understand what spiritually connects them with God, and what spiritually turns them off. This is important because it takes away judgment. Instead of looking at spiritualty or acting spiritually good or bad, it recognizes that each spiritual way is equal, yet different. This also means that there is no singular way to understand God. For me, this was a very freeing time recognizing that what my friends were saying was not that the church was bad, but that the churches they were going to were not matching their spiritual needs. Understanding is a great thing! Here, understanding that makes a world of difference because when we understand that people all have different spiritual types, it allows us an easier time being community. While a church will never be fed spiritually in the same way, by understanding how we all connect with God and the differences we learn patience and acceptance. This week we are going to embark on talking about ways in which we understand God. Instead of the usual back and forth homily and discussion, we are going to share ways in which we have connected with God over the years. This is more than what Les Montgomery has coined “God Winks,” though, that may be part; the stories that we will be discussing are more personal, more revelatory, to how we are not just seeing God, but how we come to understand God. A good example can be found in the book “This I believe” published by Henry Holt and NPR. We will also include a couple of the essays in the service. Click here for a link to the book This I Believe on Amazon.com In 1933, in the wake of global unrest and early years of the Great Depression, a Presbyterian Congregation in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania started a new tradition, World Communion Sunday.
World Communion Sunday grew out of the Division of Stewardship at Shadyside [Presbyterian Church]. It was their attempt to bring churches together in a service of Christian unity—in which everyone might receive both inspiration and information, and above all, to know how important the Church of Jesus Christ is, and how each congregation is interconnected one with another.[1] By the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the US, a predecessor denomination to the PCUSA, in 1936 the tradition had started to catch on with other congregations and became adopted by the PCUS. Finally, in 1940, the predecessor organization to the National Council of Churches adopted the day, and it became widely recognized by many other denominations and in some other countries. Outside of days like Easter, Pentecost and so on, World Communion Sunday is my favorite because it reminds us of our place within the greater faith. It also reminds us that we are not alone. Sadly, over the past 30 years Christendom has been attacked from within (much like it was in the early 1900’s) with a focus on individualism and autonomy. We see this in the “non-denominational” movements most pronounced, but we also see it in the independence movement within denominations like ours. In fact, one of the big “advantages” that the proponents of leaving the PCUSA have is that the new denomination will give the congregations more freedom and independence. I won’t get into why this is a flawed reasoning in this letter, and it is, but when I sat in a discussion with other clergy wishing to leave this was a big point. If there is something that I have learned, it is that the more inwardly-focused people, churches, communities, even countries are, the more isolated they become. Moreover, in the case of churches, often the more independent they are the more they struggle in the long run over issues that effect most congregations. This is seen most where Christianity meets Culture. When I say this, I am really talking far more than the “hot button” issues that people love to debate. I am hitting on the questions that are more inline with, “why it is so difficult to see congregations grow?” I will give you an insight; 99% of Presbyterian Congregations are asking that one. The sad thing is that often because they don’t work with other congregations, they reach out and try gimmicks or things that, while successful in the short term, have been proven not to work over time. The truth today, as it was in the 1930’s, is that World Communion Sunday is about recognizing that we are not only part of the global witness of Christ, but we need each other to propagate the message of Christ. Moreover, we need to hold ourselves and other congregations accountable to how we serve and follow Christ. In the traditional service, we will be including some traditions that come from the Cameroonian community among others, as well as other breads from around the world! In the Gathering we will explore some of the gifts found in the Spanish-speaking communities. And in both services we will be collecting for the peacemaking offering, an expression of how we are called to care for each other both within and without the church to bring peace and heaven on earth. In Christ, Bryan [1] https://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/worship/world-communion-sunday/ I have read a bit online about the beheadings that ISIS is doing, but I cannot compel myself to watch any of the videos. I have a hard time with the pornographic fake violence coming from Hollywood let alone seeing real life pornographic violence being used to further fear. This is not new. Beheadings, stoning, crucifixions and other means of execution have been used throughout history to scare people into either following a cause, submitting to power, or accepting status. There is no difference today. Interestingly, of the three forms of execution, the beheading is the quickest and least painful of the three, though at the same time, for many it is the most effective in causing fear.
I bring this up because the passage this week is all about a land grab, unjust killing, and dishonesty. This Sunday’s scriptures have Jesus engaging the chief priests and the Pharisees in a parable. We know that Jesus often uses the parables to trap the priests in a logic game, often making them come to a public profession that their way is wrong. While the gospels do not tell many stories of the violent nature of the groups in power, outside of the crucifixion narrative, they do paint a picture of fear which had been established not only among the followers of Christ, but also in many of the people that would become followers. One method that is common is the act of stoning. It is horrible; if someone is lucky enough to be knocked unconscious early then maybe it is not that bad, but think about your body being pummeled with rocks and stones until you die. From witness testimonies of people who have seen modern day stoning, the pain is indescribable. Even for many in the crowd the pain is unbearable as you hear bones break and the stoned person crying out. In this passage Jesus talks about a field, where the owner built and worked hard to establish the vineyard. He leased the vineyard to tenant who was tasked with caring for the land and he would come back at the harvest. The problem was, the tenants did not want to give back the land; moreover, not only that but the tenants killed anyone who attempted to come through means of stoning. The owner was left no choice but to go back in person, and have no mercy for those who abused the relationship and kill every last one of them. The people on the land asserted terror to take over something that was not theirs. Obviously this is not about the vineyard, but about God’s kingdom. God came into the world, established good land and everything that would be needed for a successful existence. But people, in this case the chief priests and the Pharisees, got greedy and turned from God, willing to kill and terrorize anyone who threatened them. In fact, you could say that they would do anything to keep their power. I think this is a great text for world communion Sunday because it reminds us of two very important things. First, this is God’s land and we are working to keep it going, not for ourselves. Second, we need to recognize how quick we are to use fear and violence to maintain our power. And third, that no matter how much power and fear we enforce on others, God can still come back and assert more on us. For the chief priests and the Pharisees, they quickly realized that they were the ones who were the tenant who turned on the landowner who was really God. Like anyone, they were ready to take down Christ, but then they had fear. The were afraid that the crowd who saw Jesus as a prophet might turn on them, and they left him be, but in the Greek there are pointers to the revenge they would get, that ultimate act of terrorism we know so well, an act predicted in the parable itself. Interestingly, even knowing what was right, the chief priests and the Pharisees continued to conspire along with the other groups to “take down” Christ. Unfortunately, I am pessimistic when it comes to world peace; while I believe it could happen, I think people love power too much to change, just like the Pharisees. People are addicted to the pornographic violent images of war and terrorism, and we often cannot allow ourselves to be welcoming of whomever God might send our way, because we are so busy fighting to protect what we claim to be ours. So when I think of world communion, especially this year, I am seeking ways that we might find peace and understanding. Where we can set down the stones of power and pain and open our hearts to God and each other by turning from violence and seeking love. |
AuthorRev. Dr. Bryan James Franzen Archives
September 2018
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