Sermon On Pentecostalism

Here:
https://soundcloud.com/stthomas-3/2015-5-24-texts-sermon

Compare to this article:
http://sojo.net/blogs/2015/05/21/finding-cracks-walls-ecclesiological-separation

Quotable

Hat Tip: The Maverick Philosopher

"The essential sermon is one's own existence."- Kierkegaard

WONDERFALLS Bible Study Week 11

Episode 11: Cocktail Bunny

Judith 8:11-20

When the officials arrived, Judith said to them,
    Please listen to me. You are the leaders of the people of Bethulia, but you were wrong to speak to the people as you did today. You should not have made a solemn promise before God that you would surrender the town to our enemies if the Lord did not come to our aid within a few days. ¹² What right do you have to put God to the test as you have done today? Who are you to put yourselves in God's place in dealing with human affairs? ¹³ It is the Lord Almighty that you are putting to the test! Will you never learn? ¹⁴ There is no way that you can understand what is in the depths of a human heart or find out what a person is thinking. Yet you dare to read God's mind and interpret his thoughts! How can you claim to understand God, the Creator? No, my friends, you must stop arousing the anger of the Lord our God! ¹⁵ If he decides not to come to our aid within five days, he still may rescue us at any time he chooses. Or he may let our enemies destroy us. ¹⁶ But you must not lay down conditions for the Lord our God! Do you think that he is like one of us? Do you think you can bargain with him or force him to make a decision? ¹⁷ No! Instead, we should ask God for his help and wait patiently for him to rescue us. If he wants to, he will answer our cry for help. ¹⁸ We do not worship gods made with human hands. Not one of our clans, tribes, towns, or cities has ever done that, even though our ancestors used to do so. ¹⁹ That is why God let their enemies kill them and take everything they had. It was a great defeat! ²⁰ But since we worship no other God but the Lord, we can hope that he will not reject us or any of our people.

Jonah 1:1-16

One day the Lord spoke to Jonah son of Amittai. ² He said, “Go to Nineveh, that great city, and speak out against it; I am aware of how wicked its people are.” ³ Jonah, however, set out in the opposite direction in order to get away from the Lord. He went to Joppa, where he found a ship about to go to Spain. He paid his fare and went aboard with the crew to sail to Spain, where he would be away from the Lord.

⁴ But the Lord sent a strong wind on the sea, and the storm was so violent that the ship was in danger of breaking up. ⁵ The sailors were terrified and cried out for help, each one to his own god. Then, in order to lessen the danger, they threw the cargo overboard. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone below and was lying in the ship's hold, sound asleep.
⁶ The captain found him there and said to him, “What are you doing asleep? Get up and pray to your god for help. Maybe he will feel sorry for us and spare our lives.”
⁷ The sailors said to each other, “Let's draw lots and find out who is to blame for getting us into this danger.” They did so, and Jonah's name was drawn. ⁸ So they said to him, “Now, then, tell us! Who is to blame for this? What are you doing here? What country do you come from? What is your nationality?”
⁹ “I am a Hebrew,” Jonah answered. “I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made land and sea.” ¹⁰ Jonah went on to tell them that he was running away from the Lord.
The sailors were terrified, and said to him, “That was an awful thing to do!” ¹¹ The storm was getting worse all the time, so the sailors asked him, “What should we do to you to stop the storm?”
¹² Jonah answered, “Throw me into the sea, and it will calm down. I know it is my fault that you are caught in this violent storm.”
¹³ Instead, the sailors tried to get the ship to shore, rowing with all their might. But the storm was becoming worse and worse, and they got nowhere. ¹⁴ So they cried out to the Lord, “O Lord, we pray, don't punish us with death for taking this man's life! You, O Lord, are responsible for all this; it is your doing.” ¹⁵ Then they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea, and it calmed down at once. ¹⁶ This made the sailors so afraid of the Lord that they offered a sacrifice and promised to serve him.

Job 30:20-25
I call to you, O God, but you never answer;
    and when I pray, you pay no attention.
²¹ You are treating me cruelly;
    you persecute me with all your power.
²² You let the wind blow me away;
    you toss me about in a raging storm.
²³ I know you are taking me off to my death,
    to the fate in store for everyone.
²⁴ Why do you attack a ruined man,
    one who can do nothing but beg for pity?
²⁵ Didn't I weep with people in trouble
    and feel sorry for those in need?

1 Kings 21:1-16

Near King Ahab's palace in Jezreel there was a vineyard owned by a man named Naboth. ² One day Ahab said to Naboth, “Let me have your vineyard; it is close to my palace, and I want to use the land for a vegetable garden. I will give you a better vineyard for it or, if you prefer, I will pay you a fair price.”

³ “I inherited this vineyard from my ancestors,” Naboth replied. “The Lord forbid that I should let you have it!”

⁴ Ahab went home, depressed and angry over what Naboth had said to him. He lay down on his bed, facing the wall, and would not eat. ⁵ His wife Jezebel went to him and asked, “Why are you so depressed? Why won't you eat?”

⁶ He answered, “Because of what Naboth said to me. I offered to buy his vineyard or, if he preferred, to give him another one for it, but he told me that I couldn't have it!”

⁷ “Well, are you the king or aren't you?” Jezebel replied. “Get out of bed, cheer up, and eat. I will get you Naboth's vineyard!”

⁸ Then she wrote some letters, signed Ahab's name to them, sealed them with his seal, and sent them to the officials and leading citizens of Jezreel. ⁹ The letters said: “Proclaim a day of fasting, call the people together, and give Naboth the place of honor. ¹⁰ Get a couple of scoundrels to accuse him to his face of cursing God and the king. Then take him out of the city and stone him to death.”

¹¹ The officials and leading citizens of Jezreel did what Jezebel had commanded. ¹² They proclaimed a day of fasting, called the people together, and gave Naboth the place of honor. ¹³ The two scoundrels publicly accused him of cursing God and the king, and so he was taken outside the city and stoned to death. ¹⁴ The message was sent to Jezebel: “Naboth has been put to death.”

¹⁵ As soon as Jezebel received the message, she said to Ahab, “Naboth is dead. Now go and take possession of the vineyard which he refused to sell to you.” ¹⁶ At once Ahab went to the vineyard to take possession of it.

Why does Jaye ‘torture’ the wax lion?

(Note: She’s trying to get the lion to reveal the reasons why everything is happening around her.)

Reflect on this quote: “tell me there’s a reason.”

What does Judith say about trying to force God to reveal His mind to us?

 (Note: She says it is a waste of time, since we cannot even understand our own mind, much less 

God’s.)

How do the people try to ‘hold themselves hostage’ before God?

(Note: They think that if they are in mortal danger, that God will save them anyways, so it is no use to actually try to do anything at all.)

What does Judith think about this?

(Note: She sees it as presumptuous, as if anyone could actually know God’s mind.)

What has become of Jaye? Where has everything taken her to this point?

(Note: She is a broken person, lost as to where she is or what she wants. Her missions are now causing her great pain, and she doesn’t understand. What hurts her most is the lack of understanding. She is so lost that she’s actually opening up to the therapist.)

Reflect on this quote: “he’s praying, and you know how he feels about that sort of thing.”

What does it say that Aaron is praying?

(Note: Obviously, Aaron’s views on things have radically changed. He’s a very different person than he was at the beginning of it all.)

What was the result of Jonah’s running from God, for the men on the ship? What is the significance of this change?

(Note: Jonah brought the men to God, they are now praying to Jonah’s God. It is ironic, because Jonah had been running from a mission to bring God’s Word to Gentiles, and that is exactly what he ends up doing.)

Reflect on this quote: “you’ll never get rid of all of us.”

(Note: The animals are not Jaye’s problem, but rather the Force behind them all. And that Force is not something Jaye can escape.)

How does Jonah try to run from God?

(Note: He tries to sail as far from God’s Temple as he possibly can.)

Why, do you think, Jonah believed this would work?

(Note: Jonah thinks God literally lives in the Temple, and that the Temple is real locus of God’s activity and power. But God is no more limited to the Temple than Fate is limited to the animals Jaye has in her house.)

How does God respond to this running away?

(Note: He creates a giant storm that stops the ship.)

How is Jaye’s situation similar to Jonah’s?

(Note: Jaye, too, is trying to escape the animals in various ways, to run from all that is happening to her. But the storm around her is just growing.)

How does Jaye see the events that have happened to her, according to her conversation with the doctor?

(Note: She thinks about the promotion, and then various conversations that led to the conversations with the animals, who wear her down and force her to do what she wants.)

Reflect on this quote: “Do you do everything [the animals] tell you to do…even if it causes you pain?’

What concerns Jaye’s parents about her situation? What do you think of these concerns?

(Note: They are worried that her episodes are indicative of a broad psychological disorder. They are concerned for her safety, but they also worry about how this reflects on them. They are good people, if a little self-centered.)

What do you think of Jaye putting on a brave face for her parents and others?

(Note: She isn’t doing a very good job of it.)

What is the scene like where Mahandra holds her as she grieves?

(Note: It is beautiful. Mahandra obviously cares about Jaye.)

What kind of service is it to grieve with a person?

(Note: The highest we can possibly know.)

What does it say that Job lists this as proof of his virtue?

(Note: It is a virtue that Job gave to others, that was not returned to him. The people around Job are trashing him in his suffering.)

Reflect on this quote: “my sins have been paid for.”

(Note: Heidi is full of it. She’s trying to salve her conscience. She wants to feel everything is alright.)

What do you think of Heidi’s attitude towards Jaye?

(Note: She is a nasty person. She is blaming Jaye for her problems, which are all her own fault.)

What kind of person is she?

Reflect on this in light of the Job passage.

(Note: Heidi is a terrible person who is winning. Job was a good person who lost. Jaye is a not-great person who lost because she did the right thing. Irony abounds.)

Why does Jaye react as she does to Aaron’s ‘shrine’?

(Note: She trusted Aaron to destroy these things, and instead he’s using them for his own ends. She wanted him to help her get rid of the problem, when he doesn’t see it as a ‘problem’ at all, but something he wants for himself. Is this selfish spirituality?)

What was Aaron doing with the shrine?

(Note: He was looking for evidence of the animals coming to life.)

What do you think of this?

(Note: Again, Aaron is looking the wrong place. The power is not in the animals, at all. Jaye is where the study needs to take place.)

How does Judith’s exposition reveal the difficulties of dealing with a God like Yahweh?

(Note: God does what God wants to do. You can’t figure it out simply, or contain it in some exact formula. There is no straightforward A-B-C route to getting where God wants you to go.)

What is the evil of framing someone? Why is watching it on film so particularly abhorrent?

(Note: To inflict injustice on another while hurting someone else is a compounded sin. The idea of getting pleasure from it, seeing someone else hurt for what you did, it is disturbing.)

What did ‘salvation’ mean for Jonah?

(Note: It meant living, surviving.)

What did it mean for Jaye?

(Note: It means understanding why things are happening the way they are.)

How did Jonah bring salvation to various people in spite of himself?

(Note: The sailors are brought to God as Jonah runs from him, the Ninevites are saved from destruction and change their ways despite Jonah’s hatred of them and God’s unambiguous warning to them.)

How did Jaye?

(Note: Jaye saved the psychologist though she was only focused on Eric and her own problem, she brought many people to an awareness that there may be something more to life than they thought.)

Reflect on this quote: “why me? Why do you talk to me?”

How and why could Jonah and Job have asked these same questions?

(Note: Jonah was a bad guy who had no reason to be chosen by God. Job knew God was there but God’s behavior makes God inscrutable to him. They both have very different reasons for asking the same question: “Why?”)

What do you think of the monkey’s answer?

(Note: It is perfect. There is something special about Jaye, but it is not that she is good, or smart, or capable. It is that she attuned. But the question is: “WHY is SHE attuned?” The monkey answered without really answering.)

How would this appeal to the Biblical prophets as well? How does this enlighten the lives of people like Job and Jonah?

(Note: The only thing that really sets prophetic figures apart, and the only thing that they have in common is that they can hear the voice of God. But why could they hear Him?)

Reflect on Jaye’s mother’s conversation with the killer.

(Note: Jaye’s mother is brilliant and wise. She says just the right things to the killers, realizes her own shortcomings. She opens up and makes herself vulnerable and thereby saves the day. Her statements about the profundity of life and her own penitence maker her monologue very moving.)

Accountable Relationships

One of the things I learned from NA is that a web of accountable relationships is vital to a well-lived life. You have to have friends and companions that hold you to account, that call you when you are doing wrong. If a relationship cannot handle an honest moral challenge, it is completely worthless. I see these internet memes all the time that say things like, "a real friend will stand by you no matter what you do." Yes, a true friend will never leave your side. But no, a real friend will not let you wallow in unethical behavior without a challenge. If you cannot honestly say to a person, 'what you are doing is wrong' then you are in no kind of relationship at all.

Loyalty is not my highest value. At all. Period. There are gang members and drug dealers that are loyal. All over this world, there are the worst kind of sinners wallowing in their sin collectively, all the while telling one another, 'it is alright, what you're doing is fine', and never being disloyal. Loyalty to another person must be subverted to loyalty to God and what is right and wrong. My friends and I can tell each other the way it really is. I can take the truth. So can those I am close to.

Blessed Are Those Who Do Not See But Believe

The famous "Doubting Thomas" story. John 20:24-29. Thomas Didymus (the Twin) is told by the other disciples that Jesus has come back, and refuses to believe unless he sees and feels for himself that it is so (or that is how it is normally interpreted, we are never told in the text that Thomas actually feels Jesus' wounds). Jesus obliges, but comments, "blessed are those who have not seen but believe." But as my friend Andrew Jeffery pointed out to me oh so long ago, perhaps the more important part of the story is that Jesus acquiesces to Thomas' need for evidence.

I am a naturally skeptical person. I needed to see to truly believe. I have seen, and so I believe. I am very much like Thomas. So what do I make of Jesus' negative response to Thomas' need for evidence?

My interpretation of this text is different from most. I agree with Andrew that the more important point is that Thomas gets his evidence. I think that, perhaps, there is a cost to 'seeing', and that when Jesus says that those who do not see but believe, those who do not need evidence, are 'blessed'. They are blessed because they can have the faith they need without the cost of 'seeing'.

Once you see, you see. God is always there, what changes when you are granted vision of God Father, Son and/or Holy Spirit is you. God opens your eyes. But once opened, it seems it is very hard to shut one's eyes again. You can see the grand drama playing out all around you. The good, the bad, and the ugly. The Book of Revelation represents this perfectly. John is bombarded by imagery too much for any person to bear. You get assaulted by the truth.

"The Truth will set you free, but not until the Truth is done with you." Once you've had vision, once you've seen your savior face to face, it is hard to live without it. Additionally, once you see, you can see all that opposes God too. Yet life without this vision becomes dull and grey. You at once need to KEEP seeing, and yet it all becomes so overwhelming sometimes. There is a deep blessing in those who have faith enough to believe without seeing.

Quotable

"When you are attacked by a demon, it is like being struck by the back hand of God. It sets you apart, makes you special. There is a glory in it...the glory of suffering even. And so I ask you one question: do you want to be normal?"- from the show PENNY DREADFUL

Guest Post By Collin Thomet

A youth from the youth group I help lead gave the homily Sunday. It was great. You can find it here:

http://www.stthomasepiscopalchurch.org/texts-sermons/

Off-Beat Music I Use For Personal Worship

This is the kind of music I'd play on my own personal Christian Station:

A Must-Read Article

http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2015/may/christian-sky-is-not-falling-my-piece-for-usatoday.html

Traffic Up

I don't know why, but readership is way up today. All seemingly from reputable sites, too. Thanks to everyone who frequents this blog.

More Prayers From Children

"Dear God, somebody I know broke his pinky finger playing soccer. Also my brother's knees hurt bad."

"My friend has leukemia"

"God please solve other problems other people can't solve. Thank you."

"Thank you God for everything you have given me. Food, water, shelter, mom and dad that love me. I will always worship you and I will pray."

"Thank you for a great life and people God. If we didn't have a great life or people we would be broke."

"Dear God, I hope you have my fish in Heaven. I want him to be protected."

"Dear God, can you please help me make friends."

"God please let my grandmother be well."

"Please heal [my relative] who has kidney cancer."

"In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, help me do good in the future."

"Dear God, please pray for my dog that died. Please take good care of my dog."

A N Whitehead Vindicated

http://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/the-man-who-may-one-up-darwin/39217?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=OZYpost&utm_campaign=SA_FLB

I like these ideas and this guy. I like the ideas because they are deeply Whiteheadian. Compare to the following from my unpublished book on the Holy Spirit:

Another vital theological movement of the 20th century, one I reflected on in a limited way in my last book, that will play a significant role in my own thinking, is process theology. Process theology began as a philosophical movement started by Alfred North Whitehead, a mathematician and philosopher. Alfred North Whitehead was an agnostic before he began his quest to develop a comprehensive worldview that could make sense of the scientific revolutions taking place at the turn of the century. Whitehead thought that the mechanistic model of reality, seeing the world as a giant clock whose workings could be perfectly described through math and science, had about run its course. It no longer served to push the cause of science and humanity forward, and some new thinking was going to be required if we were to engage in the big paradigm shifts that the future looked like it would be forcing on us. Whitehead thought the line between life and non-life, as well as the line between the world of the mind (the human condition) and the world of the unminded was blurry, at best. Rather, the world and the things that make it up are lifelike and mindlike, and all of reality could be modelled this way. The world by Whitehead's lights was a realm of freedom, and the laws of physics were descriptions of the regularities in the behavior in the use of this freedom. What's more, all things are themselves only societies of other things, all things are organic and societal, this is one reason why his philosophy is often called "The Philosophy of Organism". Strange as this may sound, not long after Whitehead's theorizing about metaphysics, physics itself started to turn in this direction. Quantum mechanics changed our view of the world as something hard, fast, material and determined. Later, influenced by Whitehead and others, a new field of science called systems theory started to permeate all branches of science, from biology and chemistry to physics and even social science. Systems theory very much treats reality and the things that make it up as lifelike and often even mindlike. I personally believe that in time, Whitehead's influence in science will be as great or greater than even Albert Einstein.

I like the guy because he believes in God and sees the limits of science. He knows science isn't everything. We need the 'next Darwin' to be a guy like this one. It would be good for the culture.