Welcome to Pastor Jack Buckley's weekly blog and podcast.
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Thursday, September 29, 2011
Caring Enough To Change
Matthew 21:23-32
Near the end of the movie "Junebug," a young wife whirls around, halfway up the stairs, to rebuke her abusive husband: "Jesus loves you just the way you are... But way too much to ever let you stay that way!"
At the end of his story about two brothers and their delicate relationship to their father, Jesus rebukes his listeners because they couldn't care less about letting him change their ways.
The story: Dad asks the older son to go work in their vineyard. "No way," says the young man. "I've got other things to do today." But later on, he has a change of heart and goes to work as requested. Meanwhile, Dad asks the kid brother to go out to the vineyard. "Yes, sir!" he says. "I'm on it." But he stalls around and never does go out to do his father's bidding.
"Which son," Jesus asks. "Do you think did what his father wanted?"
"Well, duh!" the people say. "The one who actually went to work!"
If asked the moral of the story, these smart people might reply, "Better late than never."
But Jesus' moral point is sharper by far. "Better to do God's will than simply talk about it!"
And that's right on target for the people he's telling this story to. They're religious leaders, scholars in the Law of God -- the Torah, God's Way with the world. Mentally, they're experts at arguing the finer points of the will of God... at defining and outlining it... refining its contours ever more precisely....
And yet, their hearts have turned to stone. They're spiritually blind and tone-deaf. All their teaching has become mere lip service to God. In the final analysis, Jesus tells them, "You simply don't care enough to change your hearts and minds!"
Here they were, confronted with God's own one-and-only Son, a brand new way of God getting through with the latest word on righteousness and peace, goodness and light. And they didn't even care and they certainly didn't want to change their ways in any way at all.
So, what else is new?
Truth be told, very few of us are eager to change anything in our lives. To let go of the familiar, the regular, the comfortable... in order to embrace the new and different, which might well turn out to be the better, even the best ever.
The old joke asks, "How many Presbyterians does it take to change a light bulb?"
To which the answer is, "Change? Change?!"
After which a meek small voice is heard to say, "And besides, that light bulb was given to this church by my godly grandmother!"
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
4:14 PM
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
The Mathematics of Mercy
Matthew 18:21-35
One reason so many Christians gravitate to Peter among all the disciples is that he's a lot like us, only more so.
Here's a prime example...
When Jesus talks about forgiving people's sins, failures, offenses, blunders, and such, Peter pipes up with what to him is a very practical question about how and when forgiveness actually works.
"How many times," he asks, "should we repeat the process if a person persists in sinning?" And before Jesus has a chance to answer, Peter suggests, "Maybe seven times will do."
Can't you just picture Peter -- or yourself for that matter -- counting down?
O-o-o-o-kay, that makes five; two more to go. And then... Oh boy, oh yeah, and then!
But Jesus comes back with another number. "Only seven?! No, no, let's go for something really big -- how about 70 x 7?!" When you consider the tedium of counting that high then we're basically talking about infinity.
So that's how my sermon began. Along the way I shared and unpacked three key thoughts about forgiveness...
1. It's a decision: Instead of holding onto anger, pain, blame, I let them go -- hard as that may be.
2. It's a process: Over time I may have to choose forgiveness all over again -- if the anger, pain, and blame resurface for some reason.
3. It's a gift: The benefits of forgiveness bless the one who's forgiven, the one who forgives -- and the world in which the forgiving gets done.
By the time I finished my sermon, for better or worse, I broke into song. Really.
I dare you to hear it for yourself.
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
5:38 PM
Thursday, September 08, 2011
Getting To Yes
Matthew 18:15-20
In my early years of married life (and I do mean early, for Joanne and I were all of twenty-one when the parson tied our knot), we were so idealistic about "two becoming one," eternal romance, and such. And we were mighty puzzled by another couple we knew, and their unusual approach to marital bliss.
Actually, it was more like marital blitz! For they seemed to delight in bickering and to go out of their way to tick each other off. I don't know, maybe it was the making up afterwards that really turned them on.
It's not that conflict isn't common. In fact, it's downright universal. Yes, you and I are real live specimens of human imperfection, ready to defend ourselves against all attack and to launch a counterattack if the need arises. And there's probably such a thing as preemptive counterattack or something like it just waiting to be invented.
This couple's M.O. is one way that some rare people handle conflict. They not only enjoy it; they go out of their way to make it happen. Thank God they're a small minority, at least for the time being.
Many others do their best to avoid conflict when they see it coming. Just leave it alone, let it go away if it will. Let conflict take care of itself, if that's really possible. All this, so that conflict won't even matter any more, having disappeared for good. One hopes.
Some people try to manage conflict passively. If the problem isn't going to change on its own, simply adjust your own attitude, so it doesn't matter to you anymore. Turn your other cheek, see what happens after that; and don't forget you can keep on turning cheeks as long as you have two of them.
Then there's passive aggression. Unannounced, one day on the refrigerator door appears a Dear Abby item about a relationship problem that has a familiar ring to it. As if your own spouse had submitted the question about your own marriage. Hmmm...
In our Gospel passage this time, Jesus briefs his faithful few disciples about how the growing church they'll soon be starting should deal with conflict between its members.
What?! Conflict in the church?! Yup. Just like in "real life" outside the church.
Now, sometimes conflict is simply a fact of sinful life. We're all of us habitual sinners, trouble-makers all. It would wear us out if we tried to solve every problem that bothers us, makes us uncomfortable, or unhappy. So we try to pray for a problem person, live and let live, affirm the good where we can find it amidst the not so good.
But when a serious problem between two or more church members takes on a life of its own, we have to face it squarely and do our best to resolve it. For the sake of the offended person and for the offender, too. And for the spiritual health of the entire church community.
That's exactly what Jesus wanted his disciples then, and now, to get a grip on. A firm grasp on "tough love's" power to transform our lives and our life together. And, God help us, the world itself.
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
12:59 PM
Thursday, September 01, 2011
Difficult Discipleship
Matthew 16:21-28
One outstanding characteristic of human nature is the ability to make mistakes. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why erasers were invented.
And one all too familiar way we manage to be wrong is by getting something almost right. So close and yet so far from being true. Almost right... and oh so wrong.
Usually, though, our mistakes aren't really a matter of life and death. In fact, they can be laugh-out-loud funny.
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll every so often publishes what he calls Mondegreens, which are song lyrics or popular phrases that are first misheard, then forever after misspoken. For instance...
"Gladly the Cross-Eyed Bear" is not really an unfortunate forest animal, but a line from a hymn about self-sacrificial discipleship -- "Gladly the cross I'd bear."
Coke and Pepsi don't really come in "cheerleader size," but you can buy them in 2-litre bottles.
A store clerk confided to her favorite customer that her in-laws' wealth didn't make life so easy, as they spent a lot of time on their suburban back deck "drinking themselves to Bolivia."
In a similar vein, Maria Muldaur's famous hit song has been known by some as "Midnight After You're Wasted."
And Crystal Gayle's emotional golden oldie takes on new flavor when you think of it as "Dougnuts Make Your Brown Eyes Blue."
Ah well, so close and yet so far. So almost right, but so completely wrong. But no great loss in any case. Yet sometimes, our near misses with the truth are perilously serious.
That's exactly where St. Peter stood in this week's Gospel story. Right on the heels of his "great confession" of faith in Jesus as God's Son and our Savior (Matthew 16:16), he now expresses "great confusion" about just what kind of Messiah Jesus believes he must be.
When Christ predicts he will be taken prisoner, beat up, and finally crucified, Peter protests, "God forbid it! And I'll prevent it from every happening!" To which Jesus responds roughly, "Get behind me, Satan!"
Theologically speaking, "Sheesh."
The story unfolds from that surprising pass with some surprising grace. But, as usual, God's amazing grace is anything but free and easy.
Since Peter pretty much stands for all the disciples... And since all the disciples really stand for all of us who have believed in Christ ever since their time... I'd like you to tune in for a few minutes to what I said on Sunday about every Christian's calling to a life of Difficult Discipleship.
posted by Jack Buckley at
11:41 AM
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