Archive for November, 2007

IN SACRED SOLIDARITY

Monday, November 26th, 2007 by mswora

I Peter 4:1-12

12Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 13But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 14If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. 16However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. 17For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18And,
   "If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,
      what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?"[a]

19So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

Peter tells us that "It is time for judgment to begin with the house of God." Just when you might think that Peter is telling us to just turn our backs upon a world that has turned its back on his suffering disciples, Peter issues a statement of radical solidarity for both the saint and the sinner, under both the grace and the judgment of God. Understood rightly, this judgment, which begins in the church, is actually a work of grace, to free us from our slavish dependence upon the values and the approval of the world. Think of it as holy house cleaning. What does this say for our witness to the world? And what might it say for the current Senate investigation into some big ticket mass media Christian ministries? How about an interesting option for a Christmas card to send to friends and neighbors? See the picture at: http://www.pacifichighlander.postkiwi.com/2007/jesus-washes-osamas-feet-in-seattle-malls/

For more on these questions and others, check out yesterday’s message (November 25, 2007) at Emmanuel Mennonite Church, by clicking on at Download judgmentfirstword.doc .

Peace be with you,

Mathew Swora, pastor

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THE END IS NEAR!

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 by mswora

I Peter 4: 7-11
7The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. 8Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. 11If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

“The end is near!” No, I didn’t get that from some long-bearded crank out in the streets wearing a robe and sandals and carrying a sign saying: “The End is Near!” I got it from St. Peter, in today’s Bible passage.

And I believe that the end of all things is near, but not because things are melting down between the Israelis and the Palestinians and among the Palestinians, and between America and Iran, and inside Pakistan. Those things are happening, and they scare me, but we’ve lived with such scary things for a long time. I believe that the end of all things is near for the same reason that Peter seems to believe that it is near: the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead, in our banner verse from chapter one, verse three. That fact sets the stage for everything else Peter says in this letter.

So if we believe that The End is Near, what does Peter say we should do (see above)? Dig a hole, build a cement bunker, and stockpile food and ammunitions for an apocalyptic end-time meltdown? Lobby our government to attack Iran and thereby provoke the battle of Armageddon and the return of Jesus?

And what does this have to do with our curious custom, at Emmanuel Mennonite Church, of renewing our membership annually, as we did last Sunday (November 18), when the message with the answers to the questions above was delivered? When anyone joins Emmanuel Mennonite Church, they are not only joining other members, they are effectively joining a mission. To keep that mission current and meaningful, members renew their membership each year. But whether one joins or renews says nothing about our love for anyone whom God brings our way to love. Membership is about the rights and responsibilities of voting and holding office, based on one’s personal ownership of our mission. But once we have a connection with anyone (with whom do we not?), once God brings anyone our way to love, then love is just a given, in all its sacrificial forms of support. And thus I risk giving away the answer to the question, What do we do if we believe that The End of All Things is Near? For that, please read on by clicking on the following link to: Download membershiprenewal07.doc

Mathew Swora, pastor

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ARM YOURSELVES WITH…….

Sunday, November 11th, 2007 by mswora

I Peter 4:1-6

"1Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, so that the one who has suffered in his body may be done with sin. 2As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. 3For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. 4They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. 5But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit."

I strikes me as poignant and ironic that Peter would urge his followers to "Arm yourselves…" when his own history of arming himself and coming out swinging in Jesus’ defense, on that terrible night of his Lord’s betrayal, was met with Jesus’ rebuke. "Put away your sword…..for whoever will live by the sword shall die by the sword."  And yet the verb which Peter employs is based on the Greek word for "weapon." But the weapon Peter has in mind is not one we would carry in our hands, but one which we would carry in our hearts. And it is not to be used against other people and their evils, but against our own temptations to do evil, the evil of striking out or of selling out in the face of persecution. What is that weapon, and how do we deploy it? Read Rosie’s story, and the stories of my friends at the Salvation Army Drug and Alcohol Rehab Center, to find out what this weapon is and how we wield it, at Download armyourself.doc, the message which was delivered at Emmanuel Mennonite Church today, on Sunday, November 11. 

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A CALL TO COURAGE

Monday, November 5th, 2007 by mswora

I Peter 3: 17-22

17It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 18For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, 19through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison 20who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

How do we measure our witness, as Christians, in the world? By numbers? By immediately visible impact? In this part of my preaching series on I Peter, I suggest that our witness, like that of Jesus, be measured by what it–and we–are up against. In his testimony, Jesus was up against "the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago, in the time of Noah (I Peter 3:19)." Just who those rebellious spirits were has long had saints and scholars scratching their heads. For one possible answer, and what it means to us (and to a conscientious objector in the former Yugoslavia) read the message delivered during worship at Emmanuel Mennonite Church on Sunday, November 4, 2007, by clicking on: Download Noahword.doc

Mathew Swora, pastor

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THE BOMBS THAT KEEP ON KILLING

Friday, November 2nd, 2007 by mswora

Falling from a supersonic bomber, or fired from a cannon or a self-propelled artillery piece, the shell splits open, releasing a cloud of bomblets that explode in bright orange bursts of sharp and molten shrapnel. Indiscriminately, each fragment burns as easily through tank armor as it cuts through clothing and human skin. More often than not, the skin is not covered with a military uniform. Bomblets that fail to explode will remain, perhaps for years, hidden in the soil, hanging from trees, or embedded in roofs and walls until a child or a sudden shift sets them off.

“How do these cluster weapons square with the just war theory?” David Sperry asked the presenters at last Tuesday night’s presentation (October 30, 2007) at Luther Seminary. The criteria of a just war, by which we reassure ourselves of the rightness of our causes and conduct in war, include the stipulation that only the duly appointed soldiers of duly appointed armies are to be targets of other duly appointed soldiers of other duly appointed armies. No answer was given to David’s question, and frankly, I see no good answer to it. The practice and technology of warfare has long left the just war theory in the dust. Some estimates now put the proportion of civilian to military casualties at nine to one.

The presenters included Titus Peachey, U.S. Peace Educator of the Mennonite Central Committee, and four visitors with intimate personal experience with cluster bombs: two from Laos and two from Lebanon. Their stories included:

  • Ahmad, who, on the day of his fifth birthday, found and played with a cluster bomb dropped or fired by Israeli forces over his home in Lebanon. His father, Raet, travels and speaks in the memory of his son, and in advocacy against these weapons.

  • Phounsy Phasavaeng, of Laos, who, in childhood played in the forest with her nephew, only to lose him when he found a cluster bomblet, thought it was a toy, threw it against a tree and was killed in the ensuing explosion.

  • Sida Douangtasivilai, whose Laotian village was bombed during the Vietnam War, and whose husband was killed and whose son was injured when he accidentally struck a hidden cluster bomb with his hoe while farming.

  • Bassam Chamoun, of Lebanon, who has directly experienced all the conflicts in South Lebanon since he was five years old, and who works with Mennonite Central Committee as country representative.

We learned about the work of these resource persons as educators and advocates in their own countries. But as important as education and de-mining are, the more important thing is that no more cluster bombs be sent and used. Their use has been so extensive in this last decade (Iraq, the former Yugoslavia, to name a few recent places) that demining is not keeping up with “remining.” This year, eighty-one countries agreed to sign a treaty banning cluster bomb use by 2008. The list does not include the United States, but bills are in process in both houses of the U.S. Congress, about which you can write or call your representative http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200709/090707.html

For more information, check out the MCC website at http://www.mcc.org/clusterbombs/

Our thanks for the Tuesday night presentation (and other events around the cluster bomb tour) to Virgil Wiebe, law professor at the University of St. Thomas, and activist and advocate against mines and cluster bombs, as well as the UST students who helped with the resources, maps and logistics, and to all the others at Emmanuel Mennonite Church and Faith Mennonite Church who helped with lodging, food, transportation, etc, during the visit of our friends from MCC.

Mathew Swora, pastor

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