Religious Load-Management
Sermon
Light in the Land of Shadows
Cycle B Sermons for Advent, Christmas, And Epiphany, First Lesson Texts
Object:
One of the major ingredients in any kind of endeavor is load-management. A college student, for example, must have special permission from the dean to take more than a certain number of courses per semester. Past wisdom has taught that students experience inevitable time-management problems and personal stress when they overload a schedule.
In the realm of everyday consumption of energy, most cities now have load-management regulators which are placed on homes. City energy departments give a discount to customers who employ such devices. During peak load periods the load-management device will not allow your air conditioner or hot water heater to kick on. This enables the whole city system to avoid going to pieces when the desires and urges of all its customers might overload that system in extreme weather conditions.
For years a certain city had labored with a major soft-drink company to secure an electronic scoreboard for its little league baseball park. Finally the scoreboard arrived and a crew from the city installed it. It worked fine for two games, showing runs, hits, errors, the inning, and the balls, strikes, and outs. Then, rather mysteriously, during the second evening of operation, it froze. The control would not activate it. The lights stayed on the same inning and the same score. It had to be shut down. Someone took the control box home and tested all the connections. They were fine. Consequently, they thought they had big trouble inside the unit. But the next day an electrician from the city came out and it only took him a second, without even looking at anything, to discern the problem: "Somebody pushed all the buttons at the same time," he said. "You can't push but one button at a time." Inside that complicated apparatus is a little fuse. Pump more current into that little fuse than it can bear and it goes out.
The human machine has a little fuse between the ears. It's called a brain. It can handle joy, frustration, grief, love, anger, and just about everything that passes through it -- that is, one at a time. Push all the buttons at once and it freezes; it becomes catatonic. Its fuse blows. Even though all the vital signs look great, the big machine shuts down. We call it "being depressed."1
Indeed, as conflicts between desires and ambitions, powerful human urges and the prohibitions of society, and dreams and abilities tend to unhinge us and make us "go to pieces," some kind of predictability is needed. Load management is no less real and necessary in the field of religion. There are so many manifestations of God out there to choose from.
Is God a dominant, powerful force ready to lash out at the slightest provocation or shattering of a commandment? Or is God a submissive entity, at the beck and call of every devout prayer group? Is God an exhibitionist or a perfectionist? If most of our human problems have finding a religious outlook on life as a common last resort, is there any consistency which helps us manage the load of competing claims about God?
As a confused and desperate world looks for truth amid many pagan and secular claims, what manages its religious load? Does God have a certain predictable character? The central thrust of today's passage (Deuteronomy 18: 15-20) is a big "yes." In a world of competing religious claims and much human confusion, the Israelites are told that God will raise up a "prophet" to reveal God's will. This "prophet" will be like Moses so everyone will be able to recognize him. This "prophet" will bear remarkable consistencies with Moses.
Jesus' own understanding was in line with the life of Moses. Regardless of the "unhinged" nature of life on earth as it became scatterbrained and went to pieces, God's dealings with humans would be dependable and reliable. There would be no knee-jerk reflexes to human actions, no multiple selves of God responding to various human attitudes. There would be a unified character of God, a certain recognizable predictability, that would manage the load. The key would be Moses' life. It would help ferret out true from false prophets. The old tradition (Moses) would help make the new tradition (Jesus) recognizable. God's revelation would be a continuous and recognizable epiphany.
The parallels between Moses and Jesus are rather obvious. Moses and Israel are in bondage to Egypt just as humankind today stands in bondage to sin and death. The Egyptian pharaoh receives a sign in the form of a dream, consults with his staff, and decides to massacre male Hebrew children. In like manner King Herod receives a sign in the form of a star, consults with his priests, and decides to massacre all male Hebrew children. The infant Moses is rescued from the Nile and secures an Egyptian education. Mary and Joseph rescue the infant by fleeing to Egypt where their son receives his formative training.
The Egyptian soldiers die in the sea by water to give liberation to those who were in bondage. In like manner the waters of baptism symbolize the death of one's old life and the birth of a new one. Moses and Israel wander for forty years in the wilderness where God feeds God's people on manna and at Sinai delivers to them the purpose of their calling. In like manner, Christ is tempted in the wilderness forty days where his purpose is revealed, enabling him to emerge as the bread of life.
The parallels could continue. Suffice it to say that the Exodus and the Cross are tied together with remarkable clarity. Whereas the old exodus delivers a nation, the new exodus delivers a world, a species, a universe. This God who relates to us does so in rather familiar and consistent patterns. Both the Exodus under Moses and the cross of Jesus are actual events in human history, both create groups -- the nation Israel and the Christian church -- and both proclaim a saving message. This saving message points to the humanness of the endeavor. The Exodus and the Cross are not isolated events, participated in by the generation among whom they occurred. Rather, each generation as it tells those stories encounters the same God at work and experiences the same liberation from bondage to sin and death.
In short, the recognition of the birth of our Savior has to be brought down to earth. It is not a remnant of a fairy tale first learned in childhood, as we encountered Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, or today, the Lion King and Forrest Gump. It is a real, predictable human story. It relies on the most ancient words heard about a Promised One: "The Lord will raise up from you a prophet like me from among you, from your brethren." When he comes, he does not come in the mystery of some other-worldness; he comes as a consistent, down-to-earth, liberating human reality that is recognizable.
Consequently, we find ourselves back there with the Israelites at the foot of Mount Sinai, remembering the clouds and the storm that churned over the heights. We encounter a God who paints in this-world colors and shades so we can manage the competing claims about God in our world. The presence of God is not a psychedelic dream world of legends and fantasy and make-believe. It is the world where rough people bless and curse, where exhausted fugitives from the blessings of society feel real pain, and where people are troubled and preoccupied. It is a very real liberation from some very real problems.
Look at Moses! Look at Jesus! They had to overcome personal torments, inner struggles, self-doubts, and fear through commitment to their higher calling. In spite of their strained and burdened lives, they were so poised and at peace.
The long connection between Moses and Jesus rests solidly on a conviction that God operates not by fate, reflex, or blind chances, but by one predictable, righteous will.
Following the death of Moses the title of prophet served Israel well. When the Christian faith moved into the Greek world, the title was replaced by "Lord." Our joy in the Christ experience has deep roots. Its unity between testaments exhibits a powerful concentration of purpose and drive. Like a river, the unity of God from Moses to Jesus to us, consists not in its absence of cross-currents but in its total flow and main direction.
The tie between Moses and Jesus represents a marvelously integrated God. If ever there was a need to have some clarity in our religious world to manage an overloaded system, such a time is now. Deep within us the messianic passion still burns. People in all lands cry out like ancient Israel for world deliverance. And our overloaded human hopes seem always to betray us. We pant for military messiahs and put our confidence in law, political reform, and social programs. And they frequently fail us as we try to push all the external buttons at once.
And, frankly, the same desperate passion burns in us as we flip the channels of the television, panting for spiritual messiahs on the airwaves. We encounter absorbing devotions -- money, prestige, fame -- to the pursuit of which all electronic power seems to be subjugated. It's enough to blow a fuse at a low ethical level.
What a load manager is the tie between Moses and Jesus. Authentic religion is always rooted in redemption. Exodus and Cross are symbols of a new aliveness in our own experience. They serve as part of a predictable, continuing force, which keeps on happening to people who find new birth out of the darkness of bondage and death. Even we Christians have to manage our load! So be it.
____________
1. This illustration can be found in Harold C. Warlick, Jr., Homeward Bound (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, 1991), p. 64.
In the realm of everyday consumption of energy, most cities now have load-management regulators which are placed on homes. City energy departments give a discount to customers who employ such devices. During peak load periods the load-management device will not allow your air conditioner or hot water heater to kick on. This enables the whole city system to avoid going to pieces when the desires and urges of all its customers might overload that system in extreme weather conditions.
For years a certain city had labored with a major soft-drink company to secure an electronic scoreboard for its little league baseball park. Finally the scoreboard arrived and a crew from the city installed it. It worked fine for two games, showing runs, hits, errors, the inning, and the balls, strikes, and outs. Then, rather mysteriously, during the second evening of operation, it froze. The control would not activate it. The lights stayed on the same inning and the same score. It had to be shut down. Someone took the control box home and tested all the connections. They were fine. Consequently, they thought they had big trouble inside the unit. But the next day an electrician from the city came out and it only took him a second, without even looking at anything, to discern the problem: "Somebody pushed all the buttons at the same time," he said. "You can't push but one button at a time." Inside that complicated apparatus is a little fuse. Pump more current into that little fuse than it can bear and it goes out.
The human machine has a little fuse between the ears. It's called a brain. It can handle joy, frustration, grief, love, anger, and just about everything that passes through it -- that is, one at a time. Push all the buttons at once and it freezes; it becomes catatonic. Its fuse blows. Even though all the vital signs look great, the big machine shuts down. We call it "being depressed."1
Indeed, as conflicts between desires and ambitions, powerful human urges and the prohibitions of society, and dreams and abilities tend to unhinge us and make us "go to pieces," some kind of predictability is needed. Load management is no less real and necessary in the field of religion. There are so many manifestations of God out there to choose from.
Is God a dominant, powerful force ready to lash out at the slightest provocation or shattering of a commandment? Or is God a submissive entity, at the beck and call of every devout prayer group? Is God an exhibitionist or a perfectionist? If most of our human problems have finding a religious outlook on life as a common last resort, is there any consistency which helps us manage the load of competing claims about God?
As a confused and desperate world looks for truth amid many pagan and secular claims, what manages its religious load? Does God have a certain predictable character? The central thrust of today's passage (Deuteronomy 18: 15-20) is a big "yes." In a world of competing religious claims and much human confusion, the Israelites are told that God will raise up a "prophet" to reveal God's will. This "prophet" will be like Moses so everyone will be able to recognize him. This "prophet" will bear remarkable consistencies with Moses.
Jesus' own understanding was in line with the life of Moses. Regardless of the "unhinged" nature of life on earth as it became scatterbrained and went to pieces, God's dealings with humans would be dependable and reliable. There would be no knee-jerk reflexes to human actions, no multiple selves of God responding to various human attitudes. There would be a unified character of God, a certain recognizable predictability, that would manage the load. The key would be Moses' life. It would help ferret out true from false prophets. The old tradition (Moses) would help make the new tradition (Jesus) recognizable. God's revelation would be a continuous and recognizable epiphany.
The parallels between Moses and Jesus are rather obvious. Moses and Israel are in bondage to Egypt just as humankind today stands in bondage to sin and death. The Egyptian pharaoh receives a sign in the form of a dream, consults with his staff, and decides to massacre male Hebrew children. In like manner King Herod receives a sign in the form of a star, consults with his priests, and decides to massacre all male Hebrew children. The infant Moses is rescued from the Nile and secures an Egyptian education. Mary and Joseph rescue the infant by fleeing to Egypt where their son receives his formative training.
The Egyptian soldiers die in the sea by water to give liberation to those who were in bondage. In like manner the waters of baptism symbolize the death of one's old life and the birth of a new one. Moses and Israel wander for forty years in the wilderness where God feeds God's people on manna and at Sinai delivers to them the purpose of their calling. In like manner, Christ is tempted in the wilderness forty days where his purpose is revealed, enabling him to emerge as the bread of life.
The parallels could continue. Suffice it to say that the Exodus and the Cross are tied together with remarkable clarity. Whereas the old exodus delivers a nation, the new exodus delivers a world, a species, a universe. This God who relates to us does so in rather familiar and consistent patterns. Both the Exodus under Moses and the cross of Jesus are actual events in human history, both create groups -- the nation Israel and the Christian church -- and both proclaim a saving message. This saving message points to the humanness of the endeavor. The Exodus and the Cross are not isolated events, participated in by the generation among whom they occurred. Rather, each generation as it tells those stories encounters the same God at work and experiences the same liberation from bondage to sin and death.
In short, the recognition of the birth of our Savior has to be brought down to earth. It is not a remnant of a fairy tale first learned in childhood, as we encountered Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, or today, the Lion King and Forrest Gump. It is a real, predictable human story. It relies on the most ancient words heard about a Promised One: "The Lord will raise up from you a prophet like me from among you, from your brethren." When he comes, he does not come in the mystery of some other-worldness; he comes as a consistent, down-to-earth, liberating human reality that is recognizable.
Consequently, we find ourselves back there with the Israelites at the foot of Mount Sinai, remembering the clouds and the storm that churned over the heights. We encounter a God who paints in this-world colors and shades so we can manage the competing claims about God in our world. The presence of God is not a psychedelic dream world of legends and fantasy and make-believe. It is the world where rough people bless and curse, where exhausted fugitives from the blessings of society feel real pain, and where people are troubled and preoccupied. It is a very real liberation from some very real problems.
Look at Moses! Look at Jesus! They had to overcome personal torments, inner struggles, self-doubts, and fear through commitment to their higher calling. In spite of their strained and burdened lives, they were so poised and at peace.
The long connection between Moses and Jesus rests solidly on a conviction that God operates not by fate, reflex, or blind chances, but by one predictable, righteous will.
Following the death of Moses the title of prophet served Israel well. When the Christian faith moved into the Greek world, the title was replaced by "Lord." Our joy in the Christ experience has deep roots. Its unity between testaments exhibits a powerful concentration of purpose and drive. Like a river, the unity of God from Moses to Jesus to us, consists not in its absence of cross-currents but in its total flow and main direction.
The tie between Moses and Jesus represents a marvelously integrated God. If ever there was a need to have some clarity in our religious world to manage an overloaded system, such a time is now. Deep within us the messianic passion still burns. People in all lands cry out like ancient Israel for world deliverance. And our overloaded human hopes seem always to betray us. We pant for military messiahs and put our confidence in law, political reform, and social programs. And they frequently fail us as we try to push all the external buttons at once.
And, frankly, the same desperate passion burns in us as we flip the channels of the television, panting for spiritual messiahs on the airwaves. We encounter absorbing devotions -- money, prestige, fame -- to the pursuit of which all electronic power seems to be subjugated. It's enough to blow a fuse at a low ethical level.
What a load manager is the tie between Moses and Jesus. Authentic religion is always rooted in redemption. Exodus and Cross are symbols of a new aliveness in our own experience. They serve as part of a predictable, continuing force, which keeps on happening to people who find new birth out of the darkness of bondage and death. Even we Christians have to manage our load! So be it.
____________
1. This illustration can be found in Harold C. Warlick, Jr., Homeward Bound (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, 1991), p. 64.
