"A Left-Handed Judge: Ehud" Judges 3: 12-30

Lots of interesting stuff in this story.

The "city of palms" mentioned is Jericho.  Remember the story of how Joshua defeated Jericho.  now it goes back o the enemy.

The Moabite King Eglon is fat and cool in in his palace; Israelites are hot and barren outside the realm of power.

Ehud is left-handed, or in the Hebrew a "man restricted in his right hand."  He is a Benjamite, which ironically means "son of the right hand."  Left-handedness was considered peculiar and unnatural.  Some scholars think that Ehud had a deformed right hand.  This all becomes important when the Moabite guard only checks Ehud's left-side for a knive -- since most men were right-handed and would carry their weapon on their left side.

Ehud crafts his own improvised weapon.  This is a pattern in Judges -- the deliverers creatively develop weapons to use.

there are sacrificial overtones to the story, including the sacrifice of Eglon, the fatted calf (Eglon actually derives from th3e world for calf/bull.  We also note that he has gotten fat off the tribute paid to him by the Israelites.

Hebrew is much more graphic in describing Eglon's death than the translations we read.  It actually says something like, "even the handle entered after the blade and the fat closed around the blade...and the excrement came out."  this apparently was a sign of death -- in other battle descriptions of the time references would be made to soldiers whose excrement had come out.  The term used for "fat" is the sacrificial term used for the choicest parts of the sacrifice.

Ehud makes his escape because the door to the bathroom is locked.

After escaping, Ehud leads the Israelites to victory over the Moabites.

In the midst of this farcical story of Ehud delivering Israel, we need to remember that the Moabites had controlled the area for 18 years. They certainly were not bungling idiots during that time.  Or, if the Moabites are that gullible and dumb, it magnifies the power of God who gave them power over the Israelites as punishment for Israel's unfaithfulness.

This is a humorous story.  Surely the Israelites laughed as they heard about the fat Moabite king being killed while on the toilet by the left-handed Ehud.

What does it tell us about God?  Maybe that God continues to work through strange people?  What do we do with the idea that God "gave" Israel to the Moabites?  That seems like a hard theology to apply in our world, although sometimes we readily claim God has given us our successes (generally I find that we are less ready to give God credit for the bad things that happen).  We have the recurring theme of God rescuing Israel.

Where do you see the sermon in this story?

Reflections on Judges 3: 7-11; Judges 2: 16-23

The sermon worked out better than I expected (from my perspective, of course), but I already see the challenge of trying to take these colorful stories and figuring out where God is in them.  This first week was rather simple -- but soon we get into violence and bloodshed.  Part of the challenge is figuring out how we approach the text and what we understand God's Word to be.  Can we see God in the story differently than the ones who told the story?

Someone asked why I was preaching on Judges and the answer is rather simple -- I thought they were fascinating stories that most of us don't read very often.

“Here Come the Judges” Sept. 23, 2012; Judges 3: 1-7; Fall Judges series; FPC, Troy

Introduction: The stories from Judges are colorful and challenging -- lots of violence, sin and God saving Israel through the judges that heroically come to the forefront at critical times.

Move 1: The primary question the stories ask of us is this: do you believe that God is at work in the world?

a. That question confronted God's people as they lived in the time between the strong patriarchal leadership of Moses and the reigns of the kings beginning with King Saul.

1. Here was the dilemma. On the one hand, they need to show that they needed kings.
2. They had to make the case that the Israelites could not stay faithful to God, could not survive without kings.

3. How could they do that? Tell their story in way that points out all their failings and problems that lead to their needing a king.

4. Easy enough, except they did not want to suggest that God was not at work in their midst.
5. So we get these stories about God's people who continually find themselves in trouble (thus the need for a king); but stories that also have heroes or heroines who come in and rescue God's people (thus proving that God is at work in the world in all circumstances).
b. These stories are very contextual.
1. that is, they take place in the lots of different locations.
2. We recognize this because if we add up the sum total of all the years mentioned that each judge led their people, it is a lot more years than the actually time period between Joshua and King Saul.
3. These stories are a collection of stories from lots of different places where God's people lived. WE may read about some of these judges and question whether we agree that this was how God was at work.

100. We read these stories as the testimony of God's people of how God was at work in their world.
     1. We may read s story and think – that does not sound like God to me.
     2. Or we may marvel at how God was at work.
     3. In both cases, we are challenged to push the question back on ourselves – do you believe God is at work in the world?

Move 2: The first judge we meet is Othniel.

a. Othniel offers the standard pattern about each judges story that we will discover.

1. Israel does evil;
2. God sends an enemy;
3. Israel cries in distress;
4. God sends a judge to deliver Israel
5. Israel again does evil, and the cycle repeats itself.

b. There is an overall decline of Israel as the cycles continue dilemma for the people who are telling the stories of God's people and how god is at work in the world.

100. Here is the important point to note – God works to save Israel.
     1. No matter what God's people do, God hears their cry and returns to save them.
     2. If you want to know where God is in the world, we better look at the places that need to be redeemed or find the people that need to be saved.
     3. God's who created out of love does not stop there; God continues to seek us out to be at work in the world, working out our salvation and redemption.

Move 3: God works through all sorts of people.

a. Judges has all sorts of characters who save the day.

1. Woman who leads the Israelites into battle; Judges has a one of the Bible's largest concentration of women characters (19 mentioned), who reflect a variety of characters. 
2. Left-handed man who carries a knife and is not afraid to use it.
3. A man who tests God and then tests God again.
4. Judge who can't keep a secret from his girlfriend and somehow gets his power from his hair.

b. how many of you have heard of Samson? How many have heard of Othniel?

1. Irony that Othniel is probably the best of the judges and Samson the most flawed.
2. Othniel story seems rather innocuous.

1. some scholars think this story may be included because it is the only judge from the tribe of Judah.

2. He is a Kenizzite (read nobody important), who had

become part of the story earlier when Caleb, one of the leaders during the time of Joshua, Caleb offered his daughter to any warrior who would attack and defeat the Canaanite city of Kiriath-sepher.

3. God works through real humans, despite our flaws.

100. Think about your own life of faith.
     1. What strange, flawed characters you have known who have been part of God working in your life.

1. Jr. High SS teacher – understood the call to salvation in way I still can't claim; no longer in Presbyterian Church; but she challenged me to think about what it meant to have a personal relationship with Christ.
2. Lots of people go into my call story. One minister I knew very briefly. David Berry – minister who played the critical part in my call to ministry. I didn't know him before that critical moment, and I only knew him briefly after. He had a significant flaw – he could not stay faithful to his spouse. He is no longer a Presbyterian minister. But, in that critical moment, he mediated God's call for me.
3. 2nd grade SS teacher – in my eyes she was perfect; still is
4. some of us are that strange, flawed character in other people's call stories!

500. But go back to the original claim of these stories – God is at work in the world.
     1. Who besides people like us does God have to work with?
     2. there was Othniel at a critical time, filled with the Spirit of the Lord, serving God to help save God's people.
     3. That is not just Othniel's story – that is our story. God at work through us at different times in different ways.

Conclusion: read these stories with curiosity. Ask questions. I spoke with an OT/preaching professor this week and she challenged me to read these stories in Judges and ask questions, even argue with the text.

But, do not dimiss the stories. Read them and lay claim to the God who was at work in the world in the time of the judges and the God who is at work in the world in our time.

The God who is at work saving your and me.

The God who is at work through you and me.

"Here Come the Judges: Othniel" Judges 3: 1-7;

I am beginning a series on the Book of Judges this week.

The stories from Judges are colorful and challenging -- lots of violence, sin and God saving Israel through the judges that heroically come to the forefront at critical times.  Here are some initial thoughts about Judges.

1.  The judges play an important role between the time of Moses and the rule of kings.

2. If you add the number of years ascribed to the judges in Judges, it equals more time than the stories actually cover, which suggests that some of these judges' stories were overlapping in time.  If the judges were found in different regions, that would also fit with so many years.

3.  "Judge" in this context does not mean someone in a court of law.  Rather, the judges were often warriors, mediators of disputes, and the ones who focused on maintaining Israel's religious life.

4.  Judges has a one of the Bible's largest concentration of women characters (19 mentioned), who reflect a variety of characters.

5. Typical cycle:  Israel does evil; God send and enemy; Israel cries in distress; God sends a judge or deliverer; Israel again does evil, and the cycle repeats itself.  There is an overall decline of Israel as the cycles continue.

6.  There is an interesting interplay between the argument that Israel needs a king and Israel does not need a king.

7.  Judges faces an interesting dilemma:  the story needs to show that Israel needs kings in order to move the story to the history of kings.  At the same time, however, the belief that God is at work in the world has to be maintained.  So, how do the storytellers lift up God's saving grace while also pointing toward the need for a king?  Read Judges and you might get a pretty good answer.

Peace,

Richard

Reflections on "Grieving: A Personal Story" Genesis 23: 1-20; John 11: 17-27

There were several people in the congregation whose father's had died recently, which made this sermon particularly poignant.  One member noted that her father had died several decades ago, but it still touched an emotional chord.

Not sure if this was preaching a sermon to be helpful to the congregation by preaching God's Word, or if I just worked through part of my own "stuff."

Probably a series on grief one day would be useful.

“Grieving: A Personal Story” September 16, 2012; Genesis 23: 1-20; John 11: 17-27

Introduction: From the last week of Dec., 2011 through the end of March, 2013, I had participated in an average of one memorial service a week – from TX to PA to Troy to Casstown; the deaths included long-time members; parents of a friend; people I did not know; my wife's great-grandmother; my close friend and colleague Ed DeLair; and then my father.

I have spent a lot of time this year grieving and reflecting on the grieving process.

This morning, I invite you to reflect with me on the the grief process.

I share these reflections not as a model for you to follow, but as the testimony of a fellow traveler along the path of faith and grief.

Move 1: Everyone must deal with grief.

a. rabbi Lewis, in his sermon on his looming death, tells the story of the minister who begins his
sermon by announcing, "everyone here in this parish is going to die." A man breaks out into a
smile, which causes the minister to stop and ask him, "Why are you smiling?" "I'm not from this
parish. I'm just visiting today." Mitch Albom, Have a Little Faith: a true story (231)

b.  None of us will escape death or dealing with the death of friends and loved ones.

I am fascinated by how Abraham reacts when his wife Sarah dies.

1. He wants a special place to bury his wife.
2. WE recognize that desire.
   
   
3. He goes to the king of the Hittites to ask to buy some land and a cave at Machpelah to 
   
   bury Sarah.
   
   
4. The king readily agrees; he even offers to give it to Abraham.
   
   
5. Abraham does not understand. He wants to make it a business deal.
   
   
6. But the king knows the pain of death. He wants to help Abraham in his grief.
   
   
   
   
   
   c.  We Christians do not have a monopoly on grief.
   
   1.   Everyone, regardless of their faith or lack of faith, will experience Grief.
   
   2. we have a something to share.

Move 2: Grieving is personal

a. I have held hands with family members as their loved one died; I have been the one to tell someone their family member has died; I have walked the journey of grief with many people. I have dealt with the death of close friends and other relatives.

b. But when I received the phone call from the ICU nurse to tell me that my father had unexpectedly died, it began a journey like no other.

1. No one, not even my brother, who I suppose would have the most similar relationship with my father to mine, knows exactly what I feel and think.
2. Likewise, as I watch my mother, I know that I cannot feel exactly what she feels at the ongoing absence of the her husband and lover.

3. I could have told you before my father's death that everyone grieves differently; but it has moved from a truth I can tell to a reality I live.
   c. that is not to say that others cannot share with us from their own grief and help us based on their own experience of grief.
   
   
   4.  We can offer great comfort to others out of our grief.

2. But our grief is personal.

Move 3: To do or not to do

a. Death disrupts our normal routines and we quickly move into days if not weeks of doing things we do not usually do.

1. Should I do this or that.

2.  Should you play in the basketball game

3.  Should you go to school or not?

4.  to preach or not to preach is how the questions finds me.

b. With the questions come expectations.

1. sometimes from the person who has died – it was clear my father hoped I would preach at his memorial service. Thanks dad.
2. It was clear my siblings expected me to do the sermon. No pressure there!
3. But those expectations are not the final answer. Each of us must make our way through the grieving process as best we can. If that means doing what people expect. Okay. If not, then do not do it.
   b. For me, I find that preaching at the services of relatives is a gift I give to them.

100. It also allows me to cling to something familiar in a time of grief.
     1. When I am in worship service, I am used to being part of the leadership.
     2. As we gather for the memorial service, my place of comfort is in leadership.
     
     
     d. I also recognize that participating in the worship is part of my avoidance mechanism.

1. In the couple of days before my father's memorial service, I had the ready-made excuse “i need to work on the sermon,” or “IO need to run down to church and practice,” to leave when I needed to get away.

2.When the family gathers together before the service and hugs and cries, I am off with the ministers preparing for the worship service.

3. when the family sits together in the pews, I sit by myself up by the pulpit.

4.when the family cries together, I am focused on preaching.

5. I confess to using the chance to preach as part of my own way of dealing, or avoiding, with my father's death.

d. As you grieve, you will make decisions about what to do or not to do. There are no right answers, just ways that help you grief or avoid grieving.

Move 4: Power of community

a.  Abraham experiences the power of the larger community as he grieves the death of Sarah.

b. In the story from the Gospel of John, Martha has Jesus, her good friend, coming to be with
her as she grieves the death of her brother.

100. We are also told that people from Martha's faith community were 
     
     
     already gathering with her.
     
     
     
     
     d. I experienced the power of community in many ways.

1. My mother's church family (and the one I grew up in) surrounded her and my family.

2. Others from the her extended community.

3. Here in Troy my family and I felt the ongoing presence of this community of faith.
   
   
4. Community matters.

Move 5: We need to grieve and it plays an important role for us.

a. “all those years I fell for the great palace lie that grief should be gotten over as quickly as
possible and as privately. But what I’ve discovered since is that that lifelong fear of grief keeps
us in a barren, isolated place and that only grieving can heal grief; the passage of time will
lessen the acuteness, but time alone, without the direct experience of grief, will not heal it.” (I
found this qoute with my sermon illustrations, but it had no reference. It was with several other
Ann Lamott qoutes from her book Traveling Mercies, so it may be from there.)

b. I can say with certainty that we must grieve when people we are close to die.

1. we can put it off.

2. WE can run away from it.

3. But grief will find us one way or the other.

4. and that's a good thing.

Move 6: grieving continues

a. Not a day goes by that I do not miss my father or think about him.

1. I actually think about him more in his absence than when he was alive.

2. Even though I did not see him daily, each day had the possibility that we might talk; and as the year moves forward, the opportunity for him to visit is gone.

3. maybe one day the remembrances will be less vivid. But even today I can see him and hear his voice as if he were here. And I miss him.

c. But that is part of the grieving process..

Move 7: It's a God thing.

a. Facing death and going through the grieving process brings us face to face with the questions about life and death that matter.. In other words, death and grief send us back to God.

b. I shared on my sermon blog the following conversation I had again and again with God.

Richard: God, what's going on. I don't like this. This isn't how it was supposed to work.
God: I'm God and you're not. Go read Job.
(repeat, repeat, repeat)
Richard: I'm glad I'm not you. God, I don't really want your job, but I don't think you're doing a very good job.
God: I'm God and you're not.

Grieving can call into question who we are and whose we are.

100. I hear lots of things said to people in their time of grief. I had lots of things said to me as I stood in line and greeted people.

1. Much of it is well-meaning.

2. some of it has theology that I do not think is true to the God we discover in the biblical text.

500. But we Christians have a word to speak about God in the face of death.

1. God created out of love.

2. God gave us free will, which means that bad decisions get made and we develop a world where bad things happen and people sin and turn away from God.

3. God's response – to send Christ. Who not only lives among us, but joins us in our death.

5. Christ is resurrected and we join him in his resurrection.

6. A word about God who comforts, God who resurrects.

Conclusion: Where better to speak and hear the words of faith than in the face of death and in our grief.

Jesus says: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

And then he asks: Do you believe this?’

Martha, still grieving the death of her brother replies: ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’

Amen.

"Grieving: A Personal Story" Genesis 23: 1-19; John 11: 17-27

This sermon grows out of my own experience of dealing with the death of my father earlier this year.  It is not intended to be a theological or biblical analysis of death and grief or just sharing of my own personal experience, but a sermon that begins with my own grieving process and is informed by theological and biblical insights.

Here are the thoughts racing through my mind:

Personal stuff:
   a.  Due to my own experience as a minister, I have dealt with many people's deaths. I have held hands with people as they died; spent time with them and then left just before they died; been away on vacation when they died; been with family members in complete shock at sudden death; prayed with family members as they made decisions about life support; and had some relatively straight-forward experiences of death.

But it feels different when it is my own father.

  b. I have experienced the shock of sudden death three times:  an officer at my door to inform me that my aunt and uncle had died in a plane crash; a phone call to tell me that my friend Ed DeLair had died a few hours earlier; a phone call from the ICU nurse to tell me to return to the hospital, which led to her telling me that my father had died unexpectedly.

  c.  Community of faith support matters.

  d.  all the conversations and public gatherings related to the post-death process can be helpful and insightful.  I know my father better after hearing from others about how they knew him.  I have preached that before as a truth, but I experienced in a new way when it happened with my father.

  e.  I have preached at my grandmother's funerals; my aunt and uncle's funerals; my wife's great-grandfather and grandfather's funeral; Ed DeLair's memorial service; several other relatives funerals; and at my father's funeral.  I know some ministers who do not want to preach at relatives' funerals, but it has been something that I have done through the years.

  f.  as I flew home for my father's funeral, I kept having this conversation with God.
 
       Richard:  God, what's going on.  I don't like this.
       God:  I'm God and you're not.  Go read Job.
        (repeat, repeat, repeat)
       Richard:  God, I don't really want your job, but I don't think you're doing a very good job.
       God:  You don't have my job, so don't worry about it.

Theological/biblical insights:

  a. The pain Martha feels as she races to meet Jesus in John 11 is one people often feel.  Our loved one has died; we want Jesus (God) to do something about it; and we are  a bit angry and accusing as we turn to God.  And there is Jesus with the hope and the promise:  "I am the resurrection."  It does not change the reality of the earthly death, but it reshapes how we move into the future.

 b. Grief and trying to figure out what it means when a loved one dies is not just a Christian response, but a human response.  In the Genesis passage Abraham wants to make Sarah's burial place significant.  he approaches the non-Israelite king to buy a place worthy of her burial.  He does not know how to respond when the king not only recognizes his grief, but also offers to help Abraham find a suitable spot to bury Sarah.  The king my not follow God, but he understands the issue.  We Christians have no monopoly on grief or struggling with death; but we do have a hope in the face of death.

c.  there cannot be a resurrection without a death.  Our great hope is intimately tied to our great fear.

d.  death humbles us as we discover that we cannot control it, or manage it, or make it go away.  Death reminds us that we are not God.

e. God has a plan.  I hear that a lot.  I know people who find great comfort in that thought.  I believe it.  But I believe it in the context of God saving and redeeming the world, not necessarily in the specific context of "God needed an angel in the choir," (when a child dies) or "God needed a director for the next play" (int he case of my father's death).  We struggle to live in the ambiguity of our humanity and try to resolve that by attributing to God more than ought to at times.  But, I strongly affirm that God is in the midst of our grief comforting us and leading us to a new place, and God's plan to save my father and the world gives me hope.

What do you think?

Peace,

Richard

Bicentennial Kick-off

Last week we had Rev. Diane Ziegler as our guest preacher (I did preach a brief sermon at Kirkmont for the worship there), and this week we have Rev. Ed Sensenbrenner, Pastor Emeritus, preaching as we begin our monthly Bicentennial celebrations.  Very seldom in my time as an ordained minister have I been in worship while someone else was preaching.  It will be an unfamiliar role for me, but one that I will fill several times over the next year as we have other guest preachers as part of our Bicentennial celebration.