Following A God Who Flip Flops ...
Sermon
Sermons On The First Readings
Series II, Cycle B
Following A God Who Flip Flops ...
I'd like to share an observation that I've made over the past couple of decades. Perhaps you haven't noticed this, but it seems to me that one of the standards of judgment that we hold for our political leaders is that they must be consistent. We want leaders, it appears to me, who never budge, who never change, and are resolutely the same no matter what happens. Does this ring true for you?
A few years back, during a terrible international situation in Africa, the sitting president of the time set a policy of non-involvement in this crisis. There were some folks who felt that humanitarian aid and other engagement might help stop the slaughter, so they lobbied the White House with all kinds of information. The president reviewed the information, and saw that maybe our nation could make a difference. He changed his mind and got our relief agencies and diplomats involved. This man's adversaries jumped all over him, saying he was inconsistent, that he was "flip-flopping."
This is not a unique story. Politicians and public leaders of all types are held to this standard of consistency, and if they violate it for any reason there is heck to pay.
I wonder, though, if consistency is such a good policy. Things change, after all. New information comes to light; circumstances and situations change. It seems to me that remaining flexible and responsive to the card that life deals may be a better way of going. But then I'm just a preacher. To me, this consistency thing gets carried too far. It's sort of like saying, "My mind's made up. Don't confuse me with the facts." Philosopher Bertrand Russell, who was known for traversing a broad range of viewpoints during his long life, once responded to criticism by saying that "consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
I know that as a parent, flexibility is best. Things change. People change. The ground we walk upon changes. As a pastor I have learned over more than two decades that in spite of church folks' best efforts to the contrary, things change constantly. In fact, I am going to go out on a limb and tell you that probably the only thing you can absolutely count in this life -- besides God's ever-present grace -- is change. And yet, somehow we are drawn to what we think is unchanging, dependable, fixed. Maybe it's because we're insecure as a species? Perhaps with life as fluid as it really is, we seek stability in other places? I don't know.
But I do know that things change. Even God changes. Think with me about this. The church has a rather large investment in the idea of an immutable, immovable, unchanging holy deity. But walk with me a moment through our history. You will see that God changes. During Israel's liberation from slavery, God was a liberator for the people. When the people made it to the promised land and had to do a little conquering, God suddenly emerges with a lot of warrior-like characteristics. This goes on through the exile and the promised return and so forth, and ends up with God present with us in Jesus Christ, talking to us about forgiveness, love of enemy, and self-giving love. If you follow these stories, you see a God who is anything but consistent.
Look at the Jonah story that we shared earlier today. At the point where we join the action, Jonah has already been swallowed and spit back up by the great fish. All this happens because he tried to avoid God's call to him to go to Nineveh and warn the people to repent of their evil ways. So one more time, God comes to ask Jonah to go into Nineveh and give them this message, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" This is it. The last warning. God wants to give the people of Nineveh one last chance to repent before he destroys them. Jonah, however, didn't really want Nineveh to repent. These were some nasty folks, and Jonah really wanted God take care of them once and for all. He hated the idea that God might change God's mind. It was unthinkable. God said he would destroy Nineveh, and that should be that! After all, it's not as though they didn't deserve it. Why should Jonah have to travel a three-day walk throughout the city so that these people could get off scot-free?
But, with the fish thing still fresh in his mind, Jonah thinks he had better go. So on through Nineveh he goes, shouting all along the way, "Forty more days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" If it was up to Jonah, he'd have given them about twenty minutes. And don't you know that Jonah's worst fears were confirmed. The King listened. He heard the warning and got all of the people to repent and change their ways, and Nineveh was saved, because they changed their ways, and God changed God's mind.
It seems to me that we need to promote flexibility instead of consistency. Whether it's in our personal lives, our family lives, our church or our community, it makes sense that we work to be adaptable as change comes. It makes sense that we lean into the forgiving and loving arms of grace, rather than adhere to the rigors of legalism and law. Indeed, isn't that one of the main things Jesus came to tell us? That "the Sabbath is made for people, not the people for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27). Our traditions, our rules, our doctrines, and our laws are there for the benefit of people. And so often we find that we bend people around the rules. Sometimes we even break them. So often we find that the rules and laws become an end in themselves, and the impact they have on individuals and communities is overlooked because we have to follow the rules.
Friends, this is not to say that rules and regulations aren't important. We need to know what the boundaries and limits are for our lives. Otherwise things would be really chaotic. We need the benefit of common understanding and common ground that our laws provide. All this is good.
But if we fail to understand that one of the most primal pieces of our lives together is the truth of constant change, then we will crucify people on our rules as surely as we nailed Jesus to a tree. Jonah found extreme pain and unhappiness because he couldn't handle God or Nineveh changing.
What ways do we resist change, and in the process cause ourselves, and others, a world of pain? If we're parents, it's often hard to accept and navigate the changes our children experience. Let's pray for openness for all of us who are parents. In the places where we work and labor, change can be difficult and even feel threatening. Let's pray for the ease and grace to embrace changes in our workplaces. There are times when we are locked in conflict with someone, and are unwilling to deal with the possibility of change in the heart of our adversary. Let's pray for our adversaries and for our own anger.
There are so many ways that we can work to bring God's way of being into sight for the world, and most of them involve our willingness to embrace change. Where is change coming for you? In your own body as you age? In your marriage or love relationship as time marches forward? Does change come in the way you experience God? Do we grow into different ideas and understandings of the holy? Can we live with a flip-flop God? A God who can change his mind? A God who can repent of anger and turn to us in love? Can we follow love's energy, even though it is unpredictable and yes, changeable? Perhaps if we can open our hearts to a God of change, maybe then we can welcome change in others? Maybe then we won't feel the need to hold our politicians and our friends, our neighbors and our families up to some false standard of rigid consistency.
Instead, let's hold one another accountable in love. The question to ask doesn't really have to do with consistency; it has to do with love. It's not about whether someone's actions reflect consistency. It's about whether our actions are healing and loving. I'd much rather vote for someone who may be erratic or flip-flopping who knows how to love, than I would for someone who is consistently arrogant and prideful. How about you? What kind of leaders do you want? How is it that we hold these people accountable?
Let us make a new beginning today as we hold one another accountable for love; as we become the witness and the example for God's grace as the way into and out of our struggles.
Amen.
I'd like to share an observation that I've made over the past couple of decades. Perhaps you haven't noticed this, but it seems to me that one of the standards of judgment that we hold for our political leaders is that they must be consistent. We want leaders, it appears to me, who never budge, who never change, and are resolutely the same no matter what happens. Does this ring true for you?
A few years back, during a terrible international situation in Africa, the sitting president of the time set a policy of non-involvement in this crisis. There were some folks who felt that humanitarian aid and other engagement might help stop the slaughter, so they lobbied the White House with all kinds of information. The president reviewed the information, and saw that maybe our nation could make a difference. He changed his mind and got our relief agencies and diplomats involved. This man's adversaries jumped all over him, saying he was inconsistent, that he was "flip-flopping."
This is not a unique story. Politicians and public leaders of all types are held to this standard of consistency, and if they violate it for any reason there is heck to pay.
I wonder, though, if consistency is such a good policy. Things change, after all. New information comes to light; circumstances and situations change. It seems to me that remaining flexible and responsive to the card that life deals may be a better way of going. But then I'm just a preacher. To me, this consistency thing gets carried too far. It's sort of like saying, "My mind's made up. Don't confuse me with the facts." Philosopher Bertrand Russell, who was known for traversing a broad range of viewpoints during his long life, once responded to criticism by saying that "consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
I know that as a parent, flexibility is best. Things change. People change. The ground we walk upon changes. As a pastor I have learned over more than two decades that in spite of church folks' best efforts to the contrary, things change constantly. In fact, I am going to go out on a limb and tell you that probably the only thing you can absolutely count in this life -- besides God's ever-present grace -- is change. And yet, somehow we are drawn to what we think is unchanging, dependable, fixed. Maybe it's because we're insecure as a species? Perhaps with life as fluid as it really is, we seek stability in other places? I don't know.
But I do know that things change. Even God changes. Think with me about this. The church has a rather large investment in the idea of an immutable, immovable, unchanging holy deity. But walk with me a moment through our history. You will see that God changes. During Israel's liberation from slavery, God was a liberator for the people. When the people made it to the promised land and had to do a little conquering, God suddenly emerges with a lot of warrior-like characteristics. This goes on through the exile and the promised return and so forth, and ends up with God present with us in Jesus Christ, talking to us about forgiveness, love of enemy, and self-giving love. If you follow these stories, you see a God who is anything but consistent.
Look at the Jonah story that we shared earlier today. At the point where we join the action, Jonah has already been swallowed and spit back up by the great fish. All this happens because he tried to avoid God's call to him to go to Nineveh and warn the people to repent of their evil ways. So one more time, God comes to ask Jonah to go into Nineveh and give them this message, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" This is it. The last warning. God wants to give the people of Nineveh one last chance to repent before he destroys them. Jonah, however, didn't really want Nineveh to repent. These were some nasty folks, and Jonah really wanted God take care of them once and for all. He hated the idea that God might change God's mind. It was unthinkable. God said he would destroy Nineveh, and that should be that! After all, it's not as though they didn't deserve it. Why should Jonah have to travel a three-day walk throughout the city so that these people could get off scot-free?
But, with the fish thing still fresh in his mind, Jonah thinks he had better go. So on through Nineveh he goes, shouting all along the way, "Forty more days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" If it was up to Jonah, he'd have given them about twenty minutes. And don't you know that Jonah's worst fears were confirmed. The King listened. He heard the warning and got all of the people to repent and change their ways, and Nineveh was saved, because they changed their ways, and God changed God's mind.
It seems to me that we need to promote flexibility instead of consistency. Whether it's in our personal lives, our family lives, our church or our community, it makes sense that we work to be adaptable as change comes. It makes sense that we lean into the forgiving and loving arms of grace, rather than adhere to the rigors of legalism and law. Indeed, isn't that one of the main things Jesus came to tell us? That "the Sabbath is made for people, not the people for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27). Our traditions, our rules, our doctrines, and our laws are there for the benefit of people. And so often we find that we bend people around the rules. Sometimes we even break them. So often we find that the rules and laws become an end in themselves, and the impact they have on individuals and communities is overlooked because we have to follow the rules.
Friends, this is not to say that rules and regulations aren't important. We need to know what the boundaries and limits are for our lives. Otherwise things would be really chaotic. We need the benefit of common understanding and common ground that our laws provide. All this is good.
But if we fail to understand that one of the most primal pieces of our lives together is the truth of constant change, then we will crucify people on our rules as surely as we nailed Jesus to a tree. Jonah found extreme pain and unhappiness because he couldn't handle God or Nineveh changing.
What ways do we resist change, and in the process cause ourselves, and others, a world of pain? If we're parents, it's often hard to accept and navigate the changes our children experience. Let's pray for openness for all of us who are parents. In the places where we work and labor, change can be difficult and even feel threatening. Let's pray for the ease and grace to embrace changes in our workplaces. There are times when we are locked in conflict with someone, and are unwilling to deal with the possibility of change in the heart of our adversary. Let's pray for our adversaries and for our own anger.
There are so many ways that we can work to bring God's way of being into sight for the world, and most of them involve our willingness to embrace change. Where is change coming for you? In your own body as you age? In your marriage or love relationship as time marches forward? Does change come in the way you experience God? Do we grow into different ideas and understandings of the holy? Can we live with a flip-flop God? A God who can change his mind? A God who can repent of anger and turn to us in love? Can we follow love's energy, even though it is unpredictable and yes, changeable? Perhaps if we can open our hearts to a God of change, maybe then we can welcome change in others? Maybe then we won't feel the need to hold our politicians and our friends, our neighbors and our families up to some false standard of rigid consistency.
Instead, let's hold one another accountable in love. The question to ask doesn't really have to do with consistency; it has to do with love. It's not about whether someone's actions reflect consistency. It's about whether our actions are healing and loving. I'd much rather vote for someone who may be erratic or flip-flopping who knows how to love, than I would for someone who is consistently arrogant and prideful. How about you? What kind of leaders do you want? How is it that we hold these people accountable?
Let us make a new beginning today as we hold one another accountable for love; as we become the witness and the example for God's grace as the way into and out of our struggles.
Amen.
