Sep 18, 2023 |
A World of Forgiveness
| The Rev. Philip DeVaulA World of Forgiveness
The story that Jesus is telling is about a working-class guy who owes his boss 10,000 talents or about 60 million dollars today. Does that sound a little
unreasonable? Yeah, it is. Friends, it's not possible. Jesus is telling a story about a person who owes a completely
unreasonable and unpayable debt.
It's such a ridiculous number that when the master says it's time to call to account and pay for it, the servant says, I'll do whatever I can. I'll work for the rest of my life. I'll pay you back. I swear. And the master's like, I mean, no, you won't. You're never going to make 60 million. Are you going to play the lottery? Like what's your plan?
In that moment, the master forgives him. And the point isn't that he forgives a big debt. The point is that he forgives an unforgivable debt. The point isn't that he forgives something that the slave would have to spend the rest of his life trying to pay off. The point is that he's forgiving something the slave will never, ever, in all of history, possibly pay off.
So this slave is forgiven, and then he turns around, and he's so excited, and he goes out, and in the middle of his excitement, he sees his other slave friend, who owes him a hundred denari, about 5k today. It's kind of small compared to 60 million. He's just been forgiven an unforgivable debt. He has just been forgiven a 60 millions dollar debt. And he sees someone who owes him 5k. And he goes, put that guy in jail. It's the debtor's prison for him.
This is the story Jesus is telling. Is he telling a story of how often we should forgive? Of how many times? No. Is he even telling a story of how big a sin we should forgive? Again, no. Jesus is trying to change our relationship with forgiveness. How do you and I, how do we relate to forgiveness? What is our relationship with forgiveness? How do we understand it? He recognizes that most of us keep score.
It's such a ridiculous number that when the master says it's time to call to account and pay for it, the servant says, I'll do whatever I can. I'll work for the rest of my life. I'll pay you back. I swear. And the master's like, I mean, no, you won't. You're never going to make 60 million. Are you going to play the lottery? Like what's your plan?
In that moment, the master forgives him. And the point isn't that he forgives a big debt. The point is that he forgives an unforgivable debt. The point isn't that he forgives something that the slave would have to spend the rest of his life trying to pay off. The point is that he's forgiving something the slave will never, ever, in all of history, possibly pay off.
So this slave is forgiven, and then he turns around, and he's so excited, and he goes out, and in the middle of his excitement, he sees his other slave friend, who owes him a hundred denari, about 5k today. It's kind of small compared to 60 million. He's just been forgiven an unforgivable debt. He has just been forgiven a 60 millions dollar debt. And he sees someone who owes him 5k. And he goes, put that guy in jail. It's the debtor's prison for him.
This is the story Jesus is telling. Is he telling a story of how often we should forgive? Of how many times? No. Is he even telling a story of how big a sin we should forgive? Again, no. Jesus is trying to change our relationship with forgiveness. How do you and I, how do we relate to forgiveness? What is our relationship with forgiveness? How do we understand it? He recognizes that most of us keep score.
Sep 11, 2023 |
Saved for Each other
| The Rev. Melanie W. J. SlaneSaved for Each other
Now working at a coffee shop can teach you a lot about
humans. The one I worked at called itself People's Third Place. You have your
work, you have home, and you have your third place. A place where you feel like
you belong. Where you know that people are looking for you to be there. Where
you're loved and you can show up in pajama pants and a messy bun and people are
just glad to see you.
Some people though come into a third place and they take their cup and they leave, telling themselves that they know coffee.
But what I've seen is that the people who stay, get comfortable, and settle in, and share their lives together, and tell stories together, and try Sam's weird smoothie concoction he came up with that has espresso in it for some reason, the people who hold the alley door open for you on trash day, those were not just coffee people, but coffee shop people.
What I found is that Jesus is a lot more like a French press than a Keurig cup.
Some people though come into a third place and they take their cup and they leave, telling themselves that they know coffee.
But what I've seen is that the people who stay, get comfortable, and settle in, and share their lives together, and tell stories together, and try Sam's weird smoothie concoction he came up with that has espresso in it for some reason, the people who hold the alley door open for you on trash day, those were not just coffee people, but coffee shop people.
What I found is that Jesus is a lot more like a French press than a Keurig cup.
Sep 04, 2023 |
You Are Loved
| The Rev. Philip DeVaulYou Are Loved
If we pay attention to Jesus fully and we pay attention
to the first generation of Jesus followers, we understand that to pick up our
cross and to follow Jesus is not to follow Jesus out by ourselves into the
wilderness all alone. It is to follow Jesus deep into the heart of community
where we are meant to live our lives, building relationships of love. To love
one another the way we are loved. To create a space where people can know even
an inch, a smidge, just an iota of what it means to be loved
unconditionally because we experience it with one another.
We have the audacity to think that that's not radical? What is more radical in this world than to create a space for people where they are told and then they are able to experience true belonging, unconditional?
You and I are not conditioned to believe that it's true. This life does not train us to believe that we are loved like that. We are over and over again taught the message that our value in this world is based on our performance. That how much we are loved will be based on what we bring to the table.
We are told this. by our culture. We are told this by our work. We are told this sometimes even in our families and in our friend circles. We have built communities, many of which are very wonderful, that are based on all sorts of things. Are they based on complete and utter belonging and belovedness?
We have the audacity to think that that's not radical? What is more radical in this world than to create a space for people where they are told and then they are able to experience true belonging, unconditional?
You and I are not conditioned to believe that it's true. This life does not train us to believe that we are loved like that. We are over and over again taught the message that our value in this world is based on our performance. That how much we are loved will be based on what we bring to the table.
We are told this. by our culture. We are told this by our work. We are told this sometimes even in our families and in our friend circles. We have built communities, many of which are very wonderful, that are based on all sorts of things. Are they based on complete and utter belonging and belovedness?
Aug 28, 2023 |
Specs of Glitter
| The Rev. Melanie W. J. SlaneSpecs of Glitter
This week, my boys collectively convened at the kitchen table to discuss a lesson that they had both had in their first and third grade classes. And my ears perked up as I heard little Arlo say, And that's how the world was made. My parental anxieties leapt from my skin. We do live in Ohio, after all.
What are you guys talking about in here? Oh, we're just talking about how the world was made. Intrigued, I pleaded, tell me more. Well, our teacher took a great big balloon and she shook it up and she passed it around and we all got to hold it and squish it and then she took it back and she popped it and glitter went flying everywhere.
And all the particles and atoms and stuff, well they're all over our classroom. And we'll be finding glitter for years. Did I mention I love school? Because they play with glitter there and not at my house.
I love that my children get to wonder and explore and expand their minds, their world views in this diverse environment of thought and experience. I really do love that the two creation narratives we find in the book of Genesis are not the only way that they will understand God's marvelous work in making this world.
I love that science and faith are not mutually exclusive in their minds. And I love that they get to see glitter everywhere.
Now, I don't know exactly what the opposite of glitter is, but I think I saw it this week, too.
What are you guys talking about in here? Oh, we're just talking about how the world was made. Intrigued, I pleaded, tell me more. Well, our teacher took a great big balloon and she shook it up and she passed it around and we all got to hold it and squish it and then she took it back and she popped it and glitter went flying everywhere.
And all the particles and atoms and stuff, well they're all over our classroom. And we'll be finding glitter for years. Did I mention I love school? Because they play with glitter there and not at my house.
I love that my children get to wonder and explore and expand their minds, their world views in this diverse environment of thought and experience. I really do love that the two creation narratives we find in the book of Genesis are not the only way that they will understand God's marvelous work in making this world.
I love that science and faith are not mutually exclusive in their minds. And I love that they get to see glitter everywhere.
Now, I don't know exactly what the opposite of glitter is, but I think I saw it this week, too.
Aug 21, 2023 |
In Your Infancy
| The Rev. Philip DeVaulIn Your Infancy
I don't think that he was just doing a sort of a
performative act of false humility in front of us. 'Oh, I'm just very young.'
What I realized was that he was orienting himself in the truth of his infancy in God's eyes, because for him, that was a proper perspective on how to
approach the whole conversation of his relationship with God.
You, right now, as you are, imagine for a moment that you are, in fact, only in your infancy when it comes to your understanding of the power of God's love in your life and the power of God's love in the life of this creation. Many of us, I'm only 44, and I already am starting to do the thing where I'm like, I don't want to learn that thing.
Like, cars without drivers, I hope I die before it happens. I'm down in my 40s, and I'm already picking the things that I don't want to learn. And so many of you were like, 'I'll never get online,' and then the pandemic happened and you're said, fine I'll learn Zoom, but you don't really want to.
We're already saying, I've learned enough, I'm old enough, I've gotten far enough. I'm done, I'd like to kind of coast a little bit. And yet wherever you are in your life, whatever age you are, however, close you are to the end of your life on this Earth, you are still in your infancy when it comes to learning the power, the magnificence of God's love.
You, right now, as you are, imagine for a moment that you are, in fact, only in your infancy when it comes to your understanding of the power of God's love in your life and the power of God's love in the life of this creation. Many of us, I'm only 44, and I already am starting to do the thing where I'm like, I don't want to learn that thing.
Like, cars without drivers, I hope I die before it happens. I'm down in my 40s, and I'm already picking the things that I don't want to learn. And so many of you were like, 'I'll never get online,' and then the pandemic happened and you're said, fine I'll learn Zoom, but you don't really want to.
We're already saying, I've learned enough, I'm old enough, I've gotten far enough. I'm done, I'd like to kind of coast a little bit. And yet wherever you are in your life, whatever age you are, however, close you are to the end of your life on this Earth, you are still in your infancy when it comes to learning the power, the magnificence of God's love.
Aug 07, 2023 |
The Real You
| The Rev. Philip DeVaulThe Real You
"As a child, you might remember, I know I do, your parents, the way they'd be when company was around, making sure the house looked appropriate for people to see. 'They don't want to know how we really live.' You'd remember this. You'd remember the shift.
Sometimes their voices would change when others were around. And then they'd leave and their energy would shift completely. You've probably seen this and you even remember as you got older, maybe your first job, how everyone was the first week or two weeks or how you felt and how you acted. You have this idea you want to put your best foot forward, and so does the company. After a few weeks, a few months all of a sudden, people start to see how the place really works, and how they really fit in...
Oftentimes we might even measure who our closest friends and loved ones are by the fact that we were able to be ourselves with them more quickly. You know, this feeling there is a, there's a fear of being yourself that we all experience. There's a mask we are accustomed to placing upon ourselves. Some of it is just for common courtesy and decorum, but some of it is because we're scared of what people will see."
Jul 31, 2023 |
Inseparable
| The Rev. Melanie W. J. SlaneInseparable
As humans, we are constantly making choices that require
separation. We cannot have everything, so we are forced to choose. We cannot do
everything, and so when we do anything, we must decide not to do something
else.
The French philosopher Paul Ricoeur once wrote, Ugh, if only I could grasp and embrace everything. And how cruel it is to choose and to exclude. And, of course, sometimes life chooses for us. No one would choose to grow up and become an adult. And yet, here we are. No one would choose to have their children leave home, and yet... There they go.
At the very heart of what it means to be human is the inevitable separation from the things and people that we love most in this world. Life is hard. Distress, and hunger, and suffering, and being laid bare in all of our weaknesses. These are all a part of the human experience. Suffering is for us. a predestined condition, and the Apostle Paul knew this all too well. He himself enacted unimaginable suffering on some of the first followers of Jesus Christ. He stood there and watched as Stephen was stoned to death for proclaiming Jesus as the Son of the Living God.
The French philosopher Paul Ricoeur once wrote, Ugh, if only I could grasp and embrace everything. And how cruel it is to choose and to exclude. And, of course, sometimes life chooses for us. No one would choose to grow up and become an adult. And yet, here we are. No one would choose to have their children leave home, and yet... There they go.
At the very heart of what it means to be human is the inevitable separation from the things and people that we love most in this world. Life is hard. Distress, and hunger, and suffering, and being laid bare in all of our weaknesses. These are all a part of the human experience. Suffering is for us. a predestined condition, and the Apostle Paul knew this all too well. He himself enacted unimaginable suffering on some of the first followers of Jesus Christ. He stood there and watched as Stephen was stoned to death for proclaiming Jesus as the Son of the Living God.
Jul 17, 2023 |
Saved not Solved
| The Rev. Philip DeVaulSaved not Solved
Paul's not trying to get us to be fixed. And he's trying to
get us out of the mentality that we are fixable. Or that Jesus came here to fix
us. To solve us. There is a difference between being solved and being saved.
There is a difference between being fixed and being loved.
God loves you. God lives for you, dies and lives again for you. God saves us as we are, not fixes us so we can be savable. And those are different things. Now many of us, many of us in this room, have been quite successful at solving problems. And I want to say, there's a place for it. It's not bad. Well, Phil told me today that problem solving is bad.
Now we got to solve problems, I get that. There's a bunch of things we got to work on, I understand that. Us being ourselves is not a problem to be solved though. And there are things that we cannot muscle our way through. We cannot use our bodies and our minds so strongly and so perfectly that finally we will be acceptable to God because we are already acceptable to God, the God who loves us and is faithful to us. Thanks be to God in Jesus Christ
To have a mind set in the flesh is a mind set in the belief that you can use your body to make yourself perfect. And Paul says that leads to death. Death, when you try to make yourself perfect in relationship with others, when you try to make yourself perfect in relationship to God, when you think you've just got to keep working or else you cannot love and be loved, you are killing yourself, my friends.
God loves you. God lives for you, dies and lives again for you. God saves us as we are, not fixes us so we can be savable. And those are different things. Now many of us, many of us in this room, have been quite successful at solving problems. And I want to say, there's a place for it. It's not bad. Well, Phil told me today that problem solving is bad.
Now we got to solve problems, I get that. There's a bunch of things we got to work on, I understand that. Us being ourselves is not a problem to be solved though. And there are things that we cannot muscle our way through. We cannot use our bodies and our minds so strongly and so perfectly that finally we will be acceptable to God because we are already acceptable to God, the God who loves us and is faithful to us. Thanks be to God in Jesus Christ
To have a mind set in the flesh is a mind set in the belief that you can use your body to make yourself perfect. And Paul says that leads to death. Death, when you try to make yourself perfect in relationship with others, when you try to make yourself perfect in relationship to God, when you think you've just got to keep working or else you cannot love and be loved, you are killing yourself, my friends.
Jul 05, 2023 |
Implications of Grace
| The Rev. Gary LubinImplications of Grace
Concerned that people would not just see it as a free ride, but a joy ride, a license to sin. Not exactly. To Paul's way of thinking, saving grace has ethical implications. And to do that, to make that explanation, Paul uses the analogy of slavery. It's something that everyone in the Roman world could relate to.
One out of five folks in the Roman Empire were slaves. It was commonplace. Paul makes reference to it, like eight times in today's short reading. So, the Jewish contingent in the Roman Church would recall, of course, the exodus. Their escape from slavery in Egypt and the lessons learned while they wandered in the wilderness as lost souls, and then finding the promised land, the challenges, and the responsibilities of what it means to be free. Now, they would've certainly been relieved of not having to perfectly meet the law, the Old Testament Ten Commandments and all the many burdensome, oppressive, interpretive rules and regulations that went with it. They've been relieved greatly. But so that we don't get the wrong idea, The New Testament summary of the law to love God and love your neighbor as yourself well, that's not a cake walk either.
As a matter of fact, that may be even more difficult to comply with to meet as a goal. And that is because no one is perfect, and therein lies the conundrum of being a human. Paul reminds us therefore that grace is possible because of the life, the death, and the resurrection of Christ.
One out of five folks in the Roman Empire were slaves. It was commonplace. Paul makes reference to it, like eight times in today's short reading. So, the Jewish contingent in the Roman Church would recall, of course, the exodus. Their escape from slavery in Egypt and the lessons learned while they wandered in the wilderness as lost souls, and then finding the promised land, the challenges, and the responsibilities of what it means to be free. Now, they would've certainly been relieved of not having to perfectly meet the law, the Old Testament Ten Commandments and all the many burdensome, oppressive, interpretive rules and regulations that went with it. They've been relieved greatly. But so that we don't get the wrong idea, The New Testament summary of the law to love God and love your neighbor as yourself well, that's not a cake walk either.
As a matter of fact, that may be even more difficult to comply with to meet as a goal. And that is because no one is perfect, and therein lies the conundrum of being a human. Paul reminds us therefore that grace is possible because of the life, the death, and the resurrection of Christ.
Jun 26, 2023 |
YOLO
| The Rev. Melanie W. J. SlaneYOLO
Drowning didn't make me perfect, but I think it did maybe
make me a little bit better. I was more conscious of what was going on around
me, more thoughtful around water. I trained in CPR, the same thing that saved
my life and became a lifeguard, helping others to be safe in the water.
I didn't altogether throw out though the notion that you only live once. YOLO is what the kids call it these days. I've heard this phrase ad nauseam in our culture. Live life to the fullest. Take the trip, try the thing, go out there. Spend all that money, just do it. And while I, I understand the sentiment, Yolo, you only live once, I think our focus on Paul's letter to the Romans today is asking us a deep and abiding question about living. And about what we're living for. It asks us, are you just out there living your best life so that you can have more than your neighbor? Is yolo your excuse to spend your entire paycheck on a new car or a bigger house, or the latest Chanel bag? We're all alive, thank God, but what are we living for?
I didn't altogether throw out though the notion that you only live once. YOLO is what the kids call it these days. I've heard this phrase ad nauseam in our culture. Live life to the fullest. Take the trip, try the thing, go out there. Spend all that money, just do it. And while I, I understand the sentiment, Yolo, you only live once, I think our focus on Paul's letter to the Romans today is asking us a deep and abiding question about living. And about what we're living for. It asks us, are you just out there living your best life so that you can have more than your neighbor? Is yolo your excuse to spend your entire paycheck on a new car or a bigger house, or the latest Chanel bag? We're all alive, thank God, but what are we living for?