Jeremiah 23:1-6 Righteousness
Colossians 1:11-20 Visible and Invisible
Luke 23:33-43 Jesus, remember me
During my sophomore year at Sheboygan South High School I sat in Miss Beck’s English class. Each week we were given the task of writing an essay. Then Miss Beck would critique it and give it a grade ----- all in the attempt to help us become better writers.
I don’t remember the exact assignment, but for one particular essay I wrote about Bible interpretation. I contrasted the fundamentalist, literalist approach to Bible interpretation to the liberal, contextual approach to Bible interpretation. (Yes, I believe I used that nasty word --- in a rather general religious sense. No, I did not want to make the Bible into a "tax and spend liberal" document!) My argument was that the Bible was not meant to be taken literally and that you have to understand the Bible as a book which tells us the "whys" of life and not the "hows." I probably even made the wildly liberal assertion that there really wasn’t a tree or a Garden of Eden, but that this was a story to explain why God created the world.
Now, this was all fine for me to write in an essay. But my teacher must have had an ax to grind, so to speak. Because to my very great surprise she called me forward and instructed me to read my essay. Little did I know that prime, proper Miss Beck was a closet religious liberal! Being a dutiful student who wanted to get a good grade, I hesitatingly walked forward, with sweaty palms took my essay from Miss Beck, and with quavering, tremulous voice read my essay to the rest of the class. Somehow I made it through the essay, but I was extremely relieved to get back to my seat.
After I had returned my fundamentalist friend Marvin, with a kind but condescending smile on his face, asked me what my father, the Rev. George A. Mohr, pastor of Zion Reformed Church, United Church of Christ on the corner of 6th and St. Clair, would think of what I had written.
Little did Marvin know that I had learned what I wrote because of dinner table discussions with my father, sermons I had heard from my father, and confirmation lessons learned under my father and a Mission House seminary student named Charles Eversman. My father had given me permission to explore, question, and think. In his house I had read such heretical magazines as The Christian Century and Time. From my father and my mother I had learned certain religious and moral values which have guided me in my 59 years on this earth.
All of these values I believe started with a serious and pious, but open and inquiring respect for the Bible.
In recent weeks and months it has been all the rage for politicians and newspaper columnists to ponder and pontificate over "moral values." If anyone has a right to think and speak about "moral values" it should be a pastor. Let me share some of the values that I have acquired by my exposure to the Holy Bible and some holy, caring parents, who did and do follow Christ the King, Christ the crucified one, Christ the loving savior.
1. Read the Bible seriously and piously, but not literally
I learned this lesson first from my parents as we read Bible stories after supper around the kitchen table. In Confirmation, as I struggled with my doubts and beliefs I read the Gospel of Mark. During a college course on Amos I learned the challenging call to social justice and then later in the day joined my Lakeland College choir to sing the prophet Isaiah’s words about the "poor and needy.".
(Isaiah 41:17 (KJV)
17When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.)
During invigorating lectures from seminary professors like Walter Brueggemann I discovered the liberating call to freedom in the Old Testament chant: "Once we were slaves. Now we are free." and the New Testament affirmation: "Christ has set us free from sin." After I was ordained and in the ministry for a number of years I took training to teach the Bethel Series, which urged us to "Think Hebrew." The point: The Bible is always concerned about us, not me. Perhaps that is why I was so disappointed in both presidential candidates who were really concerned more about me ---- not we, and who instead to championing the cause of the poor pandered for votes by championing "the middle class."
Yes, one value I learned from my parents was to let the Biblical faith ---- the whole Biblical faith ----- guide my life.
Arising out of this Biblical faith, come some other "moral values." Each of them I learned from my parents
2. Give of yourself in generous service.
My father was a pretty easy going kind of guy. He was more of a pastor than a prophet. Even though he could pound the pulpit, he was best known for pounding the pavement as he visited the sick and elderly of his congregation. However, one time he really got righteously angry It was at a youth rally. The young people who organized the meeting had invited a man from Kohler to speak. During his speech this fellow basically upheld the virtue of selfishness. His message was if I take care of myself first then everything will work out for the rest of the people. I should not give to charitable causes or the church. I should look after my own. My father was incensed at the bald-faced anti-Christian philosophy. The exact opposite of Jesus Christ, the suffering king who died on the cross. The opposite of the one who talked about foxes having holes, but the Son of Man having nowhere to lay his head. Yes, my father was incensed at this "Gospel of Selfishness" and he demanded that I get up and say something. Fortunately for me someone else refuted this fellow first.
From this incident I learned a prime moral value. The value of generosity and care for others. The challenge for me is to live up to such an ideal.
3. Be charitable and forgiving toward others
At the church I attended we had a loyal high school Sunday School class. Many of us were there every Sunday to study with a dynamic young professional man who had married the daughter of a prominent member of the community. Unfortunately he tried to run with an expensive crowd and was caught embezzling from his nonprofit organization. One of the leaders in my father’s church and a member of the non-profit’s Board of Directors, wanted to prosecute this fellow to the fullest extent. But my father spoke against this approach and wanted to give the fellow another chance. . Offering forgiveness in the name of the one who forgave the thief on the cross. This my father saw as a cornerstone of his faith
Being charitable toward one another. Offering forgiveness. Seeking rehabilitation instead of retribution. These were all Christian values I learned from my father. Not that my father didn’t believe that one had to pay for one’s mistakes. I learned that when I had a traffic accident and didn’t drive the family car for a year. Certainly in my life I have received the benefit of charity and forgiveness and I am grateful for it. Now the challenge is for me to also practice such charity and forgiveness.
4. Be conservative.
My mother is a good conservative woman. I would describe her as a true "compassionate conservative." Because the United Church of Christ does have a good pension program she is living comfortably now at the age of 84. But at one time she and my father had to pinch pennies. One Christmas my father wanted to surprise her with a nice gift. But for some reason he let her try out the new vacuum cleaner he had purchased for her. However, my mother was concerned that this would throw our family budget all out of whack. She made him take it back. A few years later she had some birthday money that she didn’t know what to do with, and instead she gave it to me for a new suit coat.
My mother has taught me the value of conserving our resources and not being lavish in our consumption. In this way she holds up the Biblical value of conservation and respect for God’s creation. In our lesson from Colossians this morning we learn that all of creation is under the rule of Christ. Christ the King. As Christians we have a great responsibility to uphold the Value of Conservation ------ and reject the antithetical value of unbridled consumption. Just this week I read that if the rest of the world were to live like we do in the USA it would take four planet earths. A sobering thought for us as our nation struggles with its responsibility as the dominant power in this world.
5. Be willing to grow and learn. "God is still speaking."
Both my grandfather and my father died in 1983. Long before our new UCC identity and advertising campaign was conceived. However, each of them told me how they had continued to hear God speaking throughout their lives and ministries. My grandfather described how he had grown in his understanding of God and his interpretation of the Bible. Remembering the old, adversarial relationship he had experienced with Roman Catholics in his earlier ministry, he rejoiced in the opportunity to go to Christmas Eve Catholic mass with the handicapped son of his landlord.
As my father was culling his books in expectation of a retirement he never would be able to enjoy he gave me a book entitled Is the Homosexual My Neighbor? Back in the early 1980s there was also turmoil and disagreement about homosexuality. The point of this book was that Jesus treated the outsider as his neighbor and that in the late 20th century this applied to homosexuals. I think my father was trying to tell me that he himself had changed in his attitudes about homosexuality. I can only wonder what kind of a discussion he now might have with his own adult grandchildren, each of whom he baptized into the Christian faith.
Values. Moral Values. What do they have to do with our relationship to people we have at one time disagreed with or even vilified? How does God come into our lives and open up our minds and hearts? What are the limits of morality? Does it only have to do with sexually related topics like homosexuality and abortion? Or, like Barack Obama, recently elected Illinois Senator and proud member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, contended ---- does morality also have a public and communal dimension? What does morality have to do with conservation, consumption, care for the needy, and war and peace?
I would contend that our Christian morality has much to say about all of these issues. But I suspect that I have bored you long enough with my talk of family and history. I share them with you simply as one imperfect person attempting to grow in the grace of God. Let us continue the discussion.
Amen.
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