Those Parentheses
Sermon
Sermons On The First Readings
Series I, Cycle A
Your name is very important.
Your name on a suitcase in an airport or bus station can eliminate an argument. Call someone a name and you can start an argument, and maybe a fight. A name written in a book at a bookstore can increase its value, if it's the autograph of the author. Sign a contract and it's your name that makes it legal. Your name is the sign of possession, of power, a part of you that signifies your character and identity, even when you are absent.
A name packs meaning like a suitcase. The outside of a suitcase is not really so important. It's what's inside that counts.
We should guard our names like prized possessions - we don't want any harm to come to a name we hand down like a trust from parents to children.
As Logan Pearsall Smith said, "Our names are labels, plainly printed on the bottled essence of our past behavior."
Our identity, name, reputation, how we think of ourselves, determines how we greet and treat others.
Think, if you will, what you would get if you wrote down your name and tried to unpack it - to get at the real deep down meaning of that name. Not just what it means in Old English or German or Swedish or whatever language it came from, but the meaning that you have given your name by living with it.
A name packs meaning like a suitcase. The outside of a suitcase is not really so important. It's what's inside that counts. The meaning of a life is packed into a name like a suitcase. There are also suitcase words: words which pack meaning that carries a lot of freight.
There is another device we use in English - the parenthetical phrase. It's when you have a phrase that's not really part of a sentence - you could put parentheses around it and take it out of the sentence, and the sentence would still make just as much sense. But the words in the parentheses amplify, qualify, or explain the fact of the sentence. They do some work on the meaning.
Look at the reading from Acts, verse 36. Peter is speaking. "You know the message he sent to the people of Israel." Fact. "Preaching peace by Jesus Christ." A parenthetical phrase explaining "message" and "He is Lord of all." A parenthetical phrase amplifying "Jesus Christ." In fact, in the old Revised Standard Version, this phrase is actually in parentheses. Peter unpacks the name and title of Jesus the Christ, in this parenthetical phrase: He is Lord of all.
A fact can be amplified, qualified, or explained between parentheses. Peter's parentheses said, He is Lord of all. And this phrase did work on the meaning of his life. What will our parenthetical phrase say? Could you put parentheses around Jesus and take him out of your life, and it will still have meaning? Or is it Jesus that amplifies, qualifies, and explains you?
An individual has a life that has a beginning, a middle, and an end - like a sentence. But any word in a sentence can have a parenthetical phrase that explains, qualifies, or amplifies the plain fact of that word. What's between the parentheses does more than the word itself. What will they write between the parentheses of your life?
What would you write, say, about the fact of the life of Benjamin Franklin? Inventor - a stove, bifocals. Scientist - discovered electricity. Philosopher - his proverbs still influence our thinking. He might even be called a doctor - he invented the first monitor of blood circulation. But Franklin himself fills his parentheses for us. He wrote this epitaph for his gravestone, which was never used:
REVISED EDITION. The body of Benjamin Franklin, printer (like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out, and stripped of its lettering and gilding) lies here, food for worms. Yet the work itself shall not be lost, for it will (as he believes) appear once more in a new and beautiful edition, Corrected and amended by the Author.
What a statement of faith! The facts are explained by the parentheses. A fact can be amplified, qualified, or explained between parentheses; what will ours say?
Will our parentheses qualify? You qualify a statement with ifs, ands, and buts. You qualify an offer, such as in an advertisement, with a disclaimer. You qualify for something, a pension, insurance benefits, a job. That just means some ifs, ands, and buts have been met.
Look at Peter's parentheses - they could have qualified his statement - "Anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him."
Now remember that at that time the church was little more than a Jewish club - the big thing for Peter here is accepting people not of his own race - the chosen people of the Old Testament - into the fellowship of the body of Christ.
Look at Peter's parentheses. Jesus is Lord of all. All brotherhood. All humanity.
Newsman Eric Severeid in (his book) Not So Wild A Dream says:
[if you can call a group a name such as] Bourgeois, bolshevist, capitalist, nigger, honky, hippie, pig, imperialist [and the like], the one so labeled may be reviled, imprisoned, tortured, killed or exiled because he is no longer a human being, but a symbol. He does not bleed when pricked; his heart does not cry in the night. By this conjuring trick, conscience is made to disappear. It is, perhaps, the profoundest corruption of our time.1
Eric Severeid is saying that we are not our brother's keeper, because that makes our brother less than human. We are our brother's brother. Peter puts it this way: God shows no partiality - even race is not a qualification. These parentheses do not disqualify. They qualify us for the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Will our parentheses explain? In Acts 15 is recorded the first General Council of the Church. The issue: Should Gentile Christians have to follow the Jewish Law? Peter says, No!
Do these parentheses say, Jesus is Lord of those who participate in empty ritual? Jesus is Lord of those of who don't do evil? Jesus is Lord of those who try to do good? No. Lord of all! Peter's parentheses do not explain what you must do for Jesus to be Lord. He is Lord. And the parentheses of Peter's own life said that, too.
Will our parentheses amplify?
George Ives was the father of Charles Ives, America's most original and extraordinary composer. Both father and son were church organists all of their lives. George Ives was himself an extraordinary man. He encouraged people to sing out in their own way and not worry about being in tune or such minor details. Once a young music scholar complained to Ives about the singing of the best bricklayer in town. The student said, "He sings offkey, the wrong notes, and everything ... and that horrible raucous voice ... he bellows out and hits notes no one else does - it's awful."
Ives said to this student, "Watch him closely and reverently. Don't pay too much attention to the sounds - for if you do, you may miss the music. You won't get a wild heroic ride to heaven on pretty little sounds."
Peter says, "You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ." Sure, who hasn't heard that? But look what's in the parenthetical phrase. He is Lord of all. The parentheses amplify. The fact of the message is made more powerful by the parentheses. These are not pretty little sounds - not in tune with the times, not even what people want to hear - they want to hear about themselves, not somebody else. But these words in the parentheses are the wild heroic ride to heaven - Jesus is Lord of all.
Sometime after Stanley died, his widow, Tillie, was finally able to speak about what a thoughtful, wonderful man her late husband was.
"Stanley thought of everything," she told them. "Just before he died, Stanley called me to his bedside. He handed me three envelopes.
" 'Tillie,' he told me, 'I have put all my last wishes in these three envelopes. After I am dead, please open them and do exactly as I have instructed. Then, I can rest in peace.' "
"What was in the envelopes?" her friend asked.
"The first envelope contained $5,000 with a note, 'Please use this money to buy a nice casket.' So I bought a beautiful mahogany casket with such a comfortable lining that I know Stanley is resting very comfortably."
"The second envelope contained $10,000 with a note, 'Please use this for a nice funeral.' I arranged Stanley a very dignified funeral and bought all his favorite foods for everyone attending."
"And the third envelope?" asked her friend.
"The third envelope contained $25,000 with a note, 'Please use this to buy a nice stone.' "
Holding her hand in the air, Tillie said, "So, do you like my stone?" showing off her ten--carat diamond ring.
A stone on a grave means death. A stone on a finger means a diamond and maybe marriage, or maybe greed. A stone in a flood can mean life. It's all in how you unpack the name. Today we are talking about a stone that means life for all who live and die in the Lord.
A fact can be amplified, qualified, or explained between parentheses. Peter's parentheses said, "He is Lord of all." What will yours do? Peter's amplified - resounding his faith, even against his tradition and background. Will ours? How will they pack your parentheses? With the power of the Holy Spirit? By grace, through faith in Christ Jesus? He is Lord of all.
____________
1. Eric Severeid, Not So Wild A Dream (Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1995), revised edition.
Your name on a suitcase in an airport or bus station can eliminate an argument. Call someone a name and you can start an argument, and maybe a fight. A name written in a book at a bookstore can increase its value, if it's the autograph of the author. Sign a contract and it's your name that makes it legal. Your name is the sign of possession, of power, a part of you that signifies your character and identity, even when you are absent.
A name packs meaning like a suitcase. The outside of a suitcase is not really so important. It's what's inside that counts.
We should guard our names like prized possessions - we don't want any harm to come to a name we hand down like a trust from parents to children.
As Logan Pearsall Smith said, "Our names are labels, plainly printed on the bottled essence of our past behavior."
Our identity, name, reputation, how we think of ourselves, determines how we greet and treat others.
Think, if you will, what you would get if you wrote down your name and tried to unpack it - to get at the real deep down meaning of that name. Not just what it means in Old English or German or Swedish or whatever language it came from, but the meaning that you have given your name by living with it.
A name packs meaning like a suitcase. The outside of a suitcase is not really so important. It's what's inside that counts. The meaning of a life is packed into a name like a suitcase. There are also suitcase words: words which pack meaning that carries a lot of freight.
There is another device we use in English - the parenthetical phrase. It's when you have a phrase that's not really part of a sentence - you could put parentheses around it and take it out of the sentence, and the sentence would still make just as much sense. But the words in the parentheses amplify, qualify, or explain the fact of the sentence. They do some work on the meaning.
Look at the reading from Acts, verse 36. Peter is speaking. "You know the message he sent to the people of Israel." Fact. "Preaching peace by Jesus Christ." A parenthetical phrase explaining "message" and "He is Lord of all." A parenthetical phrase amplifying "Jesus Christ." In fact, in the old Revised Standard Version, this phrase is actually in parentheses. Peter unpacks the name and title of Jesus the Christ, in this parenthetical phrase: He is Lord of all.
A fact can be amplified, qualified, or explained between parentheses. Peter's parentheses said, He is Lord of all. And this phrase did work on the meaning of his life. What will our parenthetical phrase say? Could you put parentheses around Jesus and take him out of your life, and it will still have meaning? Or is it Jesus that amplifies, qualifies, and explains you?
An individual has a life that has a beginning, a middle, and an end - like a sentence. But any word in a sentence can have a parenthetical phrase that explains, qualifies, or amplifies the plain fact of that word. What's between the parentheses does more than the word itself. What will they write between the parentheses of your life?
What would you write, say, about the fact of the life of Benjamin Franklin? Inventor - a stove, bifocals. Scientist - discovered electricity. Philosopher - his proverbs still influence our thinking. He might even be called a doctor - he invented the first monitor of blood circulation. But Franklin himself fills his parentheses for us. He wrote this epitaph for his gravestone, which was never used:
REVISED EDITION. The body of Benjamin Franklin, printer (like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out, and stripped of its lettering and gilding) lies here, food for worms. Yet the work itself shall not be lost, for it will (as he believes) appear once more in a new and beautiful edition, Corrected and amended by the Author.
What a statement of faith! The facts are explained by the parentheses. A fact can be amplified, qualified, or explained between parentheses; what will ours say?
Will our parentheses qualify? You qualify a statement with ifs, ands, and buts. You qualify an offer, such as in an advertisement, with a disclaimer. You qualify for something, a pension, insurance benefits, a job. That just means some ifs, ands, and buts have been met.
Look at Peter's parentheses - they could have qualified his statement - "Anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him."
Now remember that at that time the church was little more than a Jewish club - the big thing for Peter here is accepting people not of his own race - the chosen people of the Old Testament - into the fellowship of the body of Christ.
Look at Peter's parentheses. Jesus is Lord of all. All brotherhood. All humanity.
Newsman Eric Severeid in (his book) Not So Wild A Dream says:
[if you can call a group a name such as] Bourgeois, bolshevist, capitalist, nigger, honky, hippie, pig, imperialist [and the like], the one so labeled may be reviled, imprisoned, tortured, killed or exiled because he is no longer a human being, but a symbol. He does not bleed when pricked; his heart does not cry in the night. By this conjuring trick, conscience is made to disappear. It is, perhaps, the profoundest corruption of our time.1
Eric Severeid is saying that we are not our brother's keeper, because that makes our brother less than human. We are our brother's brother. Peter puts it this way: God shows no partiality - even race is not a qualification. These parentheses do not disqualify. They qualify us for the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Will our parentheses explain? In Acts 15 is recorded the first General Council of the Church. The issue: Should Gentile Christians have to follow the Jewish Law? Peter says, No!
Do these parentheses say, Jesus is Lord of those who participate in empty ritual? Jesus is Lord of those of who don't do evil? Jesus is Lord of those who try to do good? No. Lord of all! Peter's parentheses do not explain what you must do for Jesus to be Lord. He is Lord. And the parentheses of Peter's own life said that, too.
Will our parentheses amplify?
George Ives was the father of Charles Ives, America's most original and extraordinary composer. Both father and son were church organists all of their lives. George Ives was himself an extraordinary man. He encouraged people to sing out in their own way and not worry about being in tune or such minor details. Once a young music scholar complained to Ives about the singing of the best bricklayer in town. The student said, "He sings offkey, the wrong notes, and everything ... and that horrible raucous voice ... he bellows out and hits notes no one else does - it's awful."
Ives said to this student, "Watch him closely and reverently. Don't pay too much attention to the sounds - for if you do, you may miss the music. You won't get a wild heroic ride to heaven on pretty little sounds."
Peter says, "You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ." Sure, who hasn't heard that? But look what's in the parenthetical phrase. He is Lord of all. The parentheses amplify. The fact of the message is made more powerful by the parentheses. These are not pretty little sounds - not in tune with the times, not even what people want to hear - they want to hear about themselves, not somebody else. But these words in the parentheses are the wild heroic ride to heaven - Jesus is Lord of all.
Sometime after Stanley died, his widow, Tillie, was finally able to speak about what a thoughtful, wonderful man her late husband was.
"Stanley thought of everything," she told them. "Just before he died, Stanley called me to his bedside. He handed me three envelopes.
" 'Tillie,' he told me, 'I have put all my last wishes in these three envelopes. After I am dead, please open them and do exactly as I have instructed. Then, I can rest in peace.' "
"What was in the envelopes?" her friend asked.
"The first envelope contained $5,000 with a note, 'Please use this money to buy a nice casket.' So I bought a beautiful mahogany casket with such a comfortable lining that I know Stanley is resting very comfortably."
"The second envelope contained $10,000 with a note, 'Please use this for a nice funeral.' I arranged Stanley a very dignified funeral and bought all his favorite foods for everyone attending."
"And the third envelope?" asked her friend.
"The third envelope contained $25,000 with a note, 'Please use this to buy a nice stone.' "
Holding her hand in the air, Tillie said, "So, do you like my stone?" showing off her ten--carat diamond ring.
A stone on a grave means death. A stone on a finger means a diamond and maybe marriage, or maybe greed. A stone in a flood can mean life. It's all in how you unpack the name. Today we are talking about a stone that means life for all who live and die in the Lord.
A fact can be amplified, qualified, or explained between parentheses. Peter's parentheses said, "He is Lord of all." What will yours do? Peter's amplified - resounding his faith, even against his tradition and background. Will ours? How will they pack your parentheses? With the power of the Holy Spirit? By grace, through faith in Christ Jesus? He is Lord of all.
____________
1. Eric Severeid, Not So Wild A Dream (Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1995), revised edition.
