Our unison reading is found on page 489. There are only two kinds of people for the psalmist who wrote Psalm 1: the righteous and the wicked. The righteous are those who worship the one God, Yahweh, who think on God's law day and night, who delight in the law of God, not the counsel of the wicked. To the psalmist, the wicked are the rich who extort the poor by charging 50% interest rates; those who commit perjury in court to their own gain; those who prosecute the innocent, those who lie for their own benefit, those who are not truthful witnesses.
Listen for the word of God as we read it together from Psalm 1.
1 Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;
2 but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.
3 They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.
4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6 for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
This ends our reading from the Psalms. Our gospel reading is found on page 111. It is called Jesus' farewell prayer. Jesus does more than just say good-bye. He talks with God, putting the church's future into God's hands, and invites the disciples and us to listen in on the conversation. He prays about the unity of God the father, himself, and the believers. Listen for the word of God as it is found in John 17: 6-19.
6 "I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you ; 8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.
11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.
14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. 16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
This ends our gospel reading.
Our pew Bibles translated the phrase in verse 12 “the one destined to be lost” but it is literally “son of destruction.” Even though the words are Greek, the phrasing is Hebrew. To be a “son of something” is to share in it or be worthy of it, or be a member of it, or somehow be in relation to it. To say that Judas was destined to be lost” is one way of interpreting “son of destruction” but it could also be interpreted as “The one who was destroyed “ or “the destructive one” or “ the ruined one.”
The reason that distinction is important to me is that a I have difficulty figuring out how God could destine anyone to be evil or create anyone to do evil. I don't believe God causes evil to happen.
The last line of Psalm 1 is that the way of the wicked will perish. It's nice to think that evil will not have its final way; that way will be destroyed, and innocence and righteousness will be left.
A Lutheran pastor friend of mine said of this passage “Wicked people at work in the Church cannot thwart God's plan to bring peace and justice into the world. God will simply use the wickedness of the wicked, allow them to suffer the consequences of their actions, and replace them with others called to fulfill God's plan by witnessing to Christ.” 1
Jesus said “Mine are yours, and ours are mine.” He calls God "father", and asks that the disciples will be one, as he and God are one. I contrast these words about family and belonging with Judas being the son of destruction; we are not children of destruction, destined for ruin; we are sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of Christ.
Peter also betrayed Jesus, not to the authorities, but he did deny that he knew him; and yet, Peter was forgiven. Peter stayed in relationship with Jesus.
The book of Acts is the story of the disciples after Jesus' resurrection; it is the story of the first churches. Our reading from Acts is found on page 118-9. Listen for the word of God s it is found in Acts 1:15 -17 and 21-26.
15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (together the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons) and said, 16 "Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus -- 17 for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry."
21 So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us -- one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection."
23 So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias.
24 Then they prayed and said, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen 25 to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place." 26 And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.
This ends our reading from Acts. Can you imagine us choosing elders and deacons by rolling a dice? Or deciding our church budget by cutting the cards? It seems a little crazy that they cast lots to decide who the twelfth disciple would be. But in this case, they had two well-qualified people. Either one would be fine; they just had to choose one, so they cast lots. When you have to make a decision and it's six of one and a half dozen of the other, the important thing is not to dither, but to decide.
But those eleven didn't just decide by chance among themselves. They got all the believers together, the 120 persons which included Jesus' mother Mary, the women, , Jesus' brothers, and the eleven. They announced it, discussed it, and prayed about it before they drew lots. It was interesting to me that they included all 120 of the believers in the discussion and in the prayer.
It is as if they took to heart Jesus' words “That they may be one, as we are one.” Unity isn't easy and it isn't quick. We like to be comfortable, and we like to get trouble over quickly. Sometimes we convince ourselves what we want is best for everybody, no matter how much it inconveniences or even harms anyone else. We need to be reminded that we are sisters and brothers in the faith.
The psalmist tells us that the righteous delight in the law of the LORD. Often we would rather just do what we want, whether or not it follows God's law to love thy neighbor. We're supposed to meditate on God's law day and night, but much of the time, we would just rather rest or at the very most, be entertained.
I though of all this scripture, about unity, evil, and God's law when I read this story in the newest Horizons magazine. I was so taken with the story that I asked the author if I could use it, and she said yes. So here is the most recent dispatch from Forbearance Church, “A Few Words in Closing” by Charlotte Johnstone. 2
This was it, they realized. Marian Lloyd – age 82, widow for 12 years, mother of three, Forbearance choir member and retired bookkeeper – was dying from pneumonia after a series of small strokes. They were silent as they watched the thready pulse, shallow breathing and falling numbers on the machine by her hospital bed.
Fred, her oldest, held her hand. Allison, her middle child, stroked her hair. And Jim, her youngest, stood by the foot of the bed, watching and waiting. Fred's wife, Gwen, stood with her hand on her husband's back. Allison's husband and their two children watched by the door, while Jim's wife, Bethany, stared out the window. Rev. Hustiford, Forbearance's pastor, arrived, led them in a brief prayer and then, quietly and almost imperceptibly, Marian's life came to its end.
Arrangements were made and the service was held at Forbearance, but unfortunately, as it turned out, the family unity of Marian's last hours began to unravel as the complications of sibling relationships surfaced in the ensuing days.
Marian had often wondered how three people born to the same parents could be so different from each other. Fred was a goal-setter, competitive and frequently disparaging of those who couldn't keep up with him. Allison, a softer personality, though no less ambitious, had remained closest to their mother and shared Marian's distaste for needless confrontation. Jim had drifted from one thing to another with, in the opinion of his brother and sister, an unsettling nonchalance – at least he did until he married and his wife started calling the shots.
They had shared a mother, the unifying person in their disparate lives, but now the familial bonds began to fray. As they gathered at Marian's house to begin sorting though her things, old patterns began to emerge once again, just as their mother, it turned out, had anticipated.
Fred, whose home was far away, questioned why Allison, the daughter who lived in her mother's town and who had moved Marian to her own home after the first stroke, had “allowed” the pneumonia to develop so rapidly. “Were you paying enough attention?” he asked, adding gratuitously, “You were always the flaky one, you know, even more than Jim. I should have been the one making the decisions.”
“Well, where were you, Fred?” Allison shot back. “Did you check with her doctors? Did you call more than once a month? Did you ever ask if I was stressed out? Did you ever come to sit with her at night like I did? Let's face it, Fred, you were always like that – didn't like the dirty work and left it to others to pick up the pieces. While you were leading your life elsewhere, I was managing mother, my job and my family – doing the best I could with precious little help from you or from Jim, I might add.”
Jim and Fred objected, but any attempt at self-defense was cut off as Fred's wife, Gwen, who once did some postgraduate work in psychology and never let anyone forget it, delivered a short lecture on the stages of grief, exhorting them to “get in touch with your feelings,” and managing to annoy everyone within earshot.
And Jim didn't help matters when he announce that he and his wife – well, if truth be told, mostly his wife – had taken it upon themselves to decide how Marian's “effects” would be distributed. Jim and Bethany's home was several states away and, while they hadn't visited very often, they professed to know just who should get what. And it quickly became apparent that Bethany was quite intent on acquiring as much of what she called “the good stuff” as she could get her hands on. It was, in short, an attempted coup that scattered them all throughout the house in pursuit of unclaimed treasures.
Out to Jim and Bethany's car went Marian's silver tea set. And antique end table was spirited to Fred's van. Allison nabbed the jewelry. Gwen stuffed the silver flatware into a tote bag. China disappeared in one direction, while two crystal lamps went in another. Downstairs, an argument erupted over their mother's favorite rocker, while upstairs, competing claims were made for a maple bedroom suite. And, through it all, the middle-aged children of Marian Lloyd, presumably of sound mind, revisited their childhood alliances and rivalries, their inherent strengths and weaknesses, with the unsettling license of those newly unconstrained by a parental presence.
Then, in walked Rev. Hustiford. “I think you need to see this,” he said to them all. “Your mother came to see me just before her 80 th birthday. She wanted to preplan her funeral, but she also gave me this rather long list detailing how she wanted her household goods distributed, instructing me to give it to you after the service. It seems she anticipated that you might find the process a bit, um, difficult – something about how you hadn't agreed on much since you were kids? – and she wanted her intentions to be clear. It's a bookkeeper's list – everything neatly accounted for and, from the looks of things here, I suspect it will be, uh, shall we say, clarifying? So… I'll just go now and leave you to it.”
Above a comprehensive list of items with names attached, was a handwritten note. “To My Children: As you begin dismantling your childhood home, I want you to remember your childhood lessons. Share your toys. Play fairly with others. Do not take what is not rightfully yours. Find kind words to say. Think of others first. Do what is right, not what is easy. Cultivate your better natures. Practice good manners. You are my family so I expect you to behave yourselves!”
Well, what ensued was a contrite scene as the subdued siblings rediscovered their maturity and followed their mother's instructions. The tea service and end table were retrieved from car and van. The jewelry was divided, piece-by-piece. Flatware, china, lamps and furniture were allotted as directed, while a number of prized items were set aside, much to Bethany's dismay, for Marian's closest friends. All the rest of it was tagged for Forbearance's resale shop.
Allison was relieved and silently thanked her mother. Fred found himself newly impressed with Marian's organizational skills. And Jim, who hadn't cared very much about who got what in the first place, finally got fed up with Bethany's whining and made her go sit in the car until they had it all sorted out.
Marian's children, when they closed her door for the final time to go their separate ways, took with them pieces of their mother's life, but more importantly, they took with them the rueful knowledge that their mother may have known them better than they knew themselves. And somewhere, perhaps, Marian Lloyd permitted herself a hint of a smile. I hope God smiles at us every time we hear God's word correcting us so that we act like real brothers and sisters of Jesus. Amen.
1 VanSant, John, personal communication, lectionary study for May 15, 1994.
2 “A Few Words in Closing”, Horizons, May-June 2006, p. 26-7. permission given by personal communication 5-24-06. |
First Presbyterian Church