history

History, with a capitol H, holds all the big dates, but history, with the little h, is what is lived.  One is scaffolded on the other.  History, big H, is what is taught, but history, little h, is what teaches.  It is a combination of the two that creates our reality.

The week ahead of us, holy week, is one of the busiest on our church calendar.  If not the busiest.  I had to look a few times to make sure I had the right scripture for todays message.  Seems there is a bit of a choice depending how you spend your Good Friday.  Some churches talk more about the passion of Christ because many do not have a service Friday, even fewer Thursday.

We have done a variation over the years.  Often in partnership with other churches.  I remember the first time we had a Thursday service which much to my interest was basically the Passover story.  There was horseradish which I loved and there was never enough around.  I guess it was to remind people of the bitterness of life.  To me as a youth it was sweet.

Horseradish is included on many Seder tables as a symbol of the bitterness of slavery and the harshness of life today. Horseradish is also known as maror in Hebrew, which translates to "bitter herb". The tradition of eating bitter herbs comes from a passage in Exodus, where God commands the ancient Hebrews to hold a Passover feast to commemorate their deliverance from bondage in Egypt.

But before we get to this busy week we have the Triumphal Entry of Palm Sunday.  A bible written by men might end on this Sunday.  This was the end most of the people around Jesus were hoping for,  that was their small h history, but there is no doubting the importance of today in big H history.

It may not have worked out easy, but it worked out.  The Triumphal Entry was really what leads to everything else.  The ground work had been laid.  The first 10 chapters of Mark documented a movement that everyone could see.  Something like art we know it when we see it.  And here we are still talking about it.

Mark 11:1-11 I read from the Amplified Bible - The Triumphal Entry

11 When they were nearing Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of His disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the [a]village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a [donkey’s] colt tied, which has never been ridden by anyone; untie it and bring it here.

Sometimes things just make sense with a little h and a big H.  Both the disciples and the crowds recognized What Jesus was doing with no doubt.  A colt that had not been used was considered holy by the Jews and was fit to carry a king.  

 3 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it’; and immediately he will send it here.”

Here we have a wonderful and whimsical glimpse into the workings of our Lord.  God to be sure works in mysterious ways, but they are not all so mysterious.  Sometimes God puts things on peoples mind.  Imagine that person who asks being completely contented with,  ‘The Lord needs it.’

I actually love this idea that God can so disarm us as to make us blind.  I know that happens because I have come down long trails.  As Pastor Wilma says, "Somehow all those people lined up."  I know I can be contented at times by the spirit.  I don't always know what that means.

You know it is difficult in this life to have a game plan.  I like to go with the flow.  When I applied to the Peace Corps I told them that I would go anywhere.  This strategy I have used often in my life and found miraculous bounty.  Well know I have always done things this way so it really is no proof that what I do is the best.  

Had I planned for each step I might might be somewhere studying marine animals.  Perhaps that was my best self?  Well there certainly would have been bounty.  It is not life that is bountiful it is our Lord.  It doesn't really matter your strategy.  What really matters is the faith you can muster to keep moving forward.

It is another of the blessings of having children that I worry very little about this concern.  I look to those two and know that there was no other way.  We come down certain paths in certain ways, but it is God who brings us through.  It is the devil that believes in you.  The Lord knows and loves you.

When his disciples heard him asking for a colt that had not been ridden,  They did not rebuke or question him.  ‘The Lord needs it,’  they knew this made perfect sense.  They had also been around Jesus long enough to know he would be right again about what they would find where he sent them.

 4 So they went away [to the village] and found a colt tied outside at a gate in the street, and they untied it. 5 Some of the people who were standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?”

This a proper response.  Yet these people knew the colt and were astonished I am guessing that a Lord would know to ask.  This was a different Lord.  The type that people have always wanted.  A King that could understand because he knew. This colt had not been used and was considered holy by the People there, fit to carry a king.   

The Russian Peasants used to believe the Tzar would do better if only he had better information.  It is one thing to forgive your leader everything.  Quite another when your leader actually knows everything.  ‘The Lord needs it.’ was a reasonable request to them.  It made sense.

 6 They replied to them just as Jesus had directed, and they allowed them to go.

This is what worked: ‘The Lord needs it.’  It is mysterious why this does not always work.  God calls to each of us to move forward.  We often do not want to do what we must.  More often we do not know what we must do.  There will be times in our small h history where we should do things that surprise us.

I think those people on the street surprised themselves.  ‘The Lord needs it’ - this was music to their ears.  There was no confusion who this man coming down the road was.  It is big H moment here too.  In the capital city of the holy land.  A high water mark of the Jesus revolution against Rome.  Like any high water moment in big H History: due to the tides and currents of the time.  

The Palm perhaps the most important symbol.  Witnessed by so many.  Spoken of by so many.

 7 They brought the colt to Jesus and put their coats on it, and He sat on it. 8 And many [of the people] spread their coats on the road [as an act of tribute and homage before a new king],

These people wrapped up in their small h history did they lose their minds?  This colt imagery was agreed upon by all.  Suddenly the coat on my back not important as the person in front of me.  I have never had an experience like that.  So visceral.  This day about our reaction and everything good we can be with the grace of God.

Holy week is about something else I think.  The Glory of God alone, but today we celebrate this modest man riding into essentially the capitol of our world on the least modest mode of transportation.

and others [scattered a layer of] leafy branches which they had cut from the fields [honoring Him as Messiah]. 9 Those who went in front and those who were following [Him] were shouting [in joy and praise],

This was madness of the very best kind.  People responded which is what should give us hope even in  the harshness of life today.  Luke adds in his narrative:  39 Some of the Pharisees from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples [for shouting these Messianic praises].” 40 Jesus replied, “I tell you, if these [people] keep silent, the stones will cry out [in praise]!”

People responded which is what should give us hope!

“Hosanna (Save, I pray)!

Blessed (praised, glorified) is He who comes in the name of the Lord!

10“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!

Hosanna in the highest [heaven]!”

11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple [enclosure]; and after looking around at everything, He left for Bethany with the twelve [disciples], because it was already late [in the day].

The ending of this story highlights more than anything.  That this is not the end.  And we are going to be busy with Big and little h history till the next Triumphal Entry.

So why isn't this the end?  Well that would be because of what Jesus does the next time he returned to the Temple. In Chapter 12 of Mark - 15 Then they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple [grounds] and began driving out [with force] the people who were selling and buying [animals for sacrifice] in the temple area, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers [who made a profit exchanging foreign money for temple coinage] and the seats of those who were selling doves; 16 and He would not permit anyone to carry merchandise or household wares through the temple [grounds, using the temple area irreverently as a shortcut]. 17 He began to teach and say to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a robbers’ den.” 18 The chief priests and the scribes heard this and began searching for a way to destroy Him; for they were afraid of Him, since the entire crowd was struck with astonishment at His teaching. 

They recognized him on the colt.  This Jesus they did not recognize.  This is where despair comes from in the world.  People did not respond, but the powers that were did.  There seems no end to the senseless violence in the holy lands, a robbers' den.  If the grace of God was not for everybody I am sure we would already be done.

John 12:15 "Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!"

Let Us Pray

Help us to recognize you whenever you are in front of us

We want the Triumphal

We don't want the despair

The separation

Help us face the life ahead

How you faced this week ahead 

Help us to bring your kingdom to all

Make your house a house of prayer for all the nations

We ask in the name of your son Jesus Christ

Amen

Benediction

Let us always respond well before any rock to the glory of our Lord

Amen

3/24/2024 Nottingham UMC

history

 History holds all the big dates, but history is what is lived.  One is scaffolded on the other.  History is what is taught, but history is what teaches.

Dark Star

There is a dark star on the rise
The shadow of the moon on its way here

The first times

Could have traveled to a shadow

Opportunity cost a good US trade deficit

Meaningless math can be balanced easily

Close to a few countries away

Now less than thirty days

Less than one orbit of us

They know when down to the second

Can't say I know what to expect

It's Cleveland so I am going to work

Exit Ramp

There are roads that end before you know it

I have come to learn the design of many exit ramps

In life you can surf too just follow your heart

Baby Hairs

We learn things we do not know

You have to want to know

Children have nothing else to do

Neanderthal is something we do not know

In front of us now

We will know better

The past opens like the future

Now closes  like the wind

Do not have to scratch an itch

The Global House of Art

While it seems we just celebrated the new year.  Here we find ourselves at the end of February already and the second week of lent.  There have been several thing I have been thinking about preparing for this message.

First I thought about what David said two week ago when he thanked everyone for the opportunity.  Unlike David I don't feel like I have done this too much.  I do enjoy the opportunity and find it remarkable how many times we have gone through the years and back again. 

Starting back when we were all on zoom in some ways doesn't seem very long, but in other ways it seems like 200 years since our 200th anniversary.  My goal in giving these messages was to be as radical as I could be until I was asked not to do a message again.

A funny thing happened, I found I could not be as radical as our savior.  Oh I have tried, but again and again I have been shown more radical love in the teachings of our Lord.  The process has allowed me to grow in faith and find themes repeated  Our scripture today is no different and fits right into what we have been talking about.  There really isn't a choice in life as much as there is a requirement to recognize life.

Well with many words there I don't know if I said this simple thing: thank you for the opportunity, this is something I have enjoyed.  There is something else David talked about two weeks ago that we also are talking about.  Our good friend Peter.

We often think we know somebody's story.  In many ways it is these expectations being upset that make certain things important to us.  In a sense whatever we have somehow becomes normalized.  My grand father described it as walking crooked paths.  We walk them so long that they seem natural.

The interesting thing is it doesn't take long for us to have expectations.  Another thing that came to mind this week was the new artificial intelligence industry.  I would be surprised if you haven't heard some of the excitement generally in our society.  

Personally as someone who has worked with computers for more than forty years it is very easy to see that we are dealing with something new.  The current record stock market run is based on the assumption that artificial intelligence will impact every industry

In this context last week there were reports that ChatGPT was having a stroke.  People were getting results they did not expect.  This technology, first released in November 2022, already has people set in their expectations.  There had been talk that these large language models, as they are called, often hallucinate.  That was a term given to some bad data included in mostly good information.

One example is when a lawyer used artificial intelligence to create a brief and some random wrong case references were added.  These simple mistakes people already knew to watch out for, but this was something different all together and people certainly noticed.  The settings on these systems can change the results generated.  

People posted many examples.  One person asked if it was ok to give a dog cheerios and got a lengthy response.  At one point the system even said, "well seems I was off track there."

In another example, when a Reddit user asked ChatGPT, "What is a computer?" the AI model provided this response: "It does this as the good work of a web of art for the country, a mouse of science, an easy draw of a sad few, and finally, the global house of art, just in one job in the total rest. The development of such an entire real than land of time is the depth of the computer as a complex character."

This passage stopped me a bit here in Lent.  Contemplating creation these systems will tell you themselves that they are not creative, but part of creation just is.  We create by creating.  This is what we find hard to translate into code.  Why in the immense creation is it required for the son of man to suffer.  As we see in our scripture today we don't get every answer.  Somethings are created.  The global house of art is the best description of a computer I have ever heard.  Who created that?  That it is created is not in doubt.

People worry about the future of artificial intelligence.  As if there is something new in the world.  When we say that everything comes from our creator we are also talking about things that we do not know exist.  The road ahead is hard for sure.  Jesus tells us here directly, but before we start on our scripture, just to say yeah our creator created this too.  

I read Mark 8:31-38 again from the Amplified Bible.  We are in the middle of Mark.  And we are in the heart of the story.  A story for then and for now.  For people dealing with Roman or AI overlords.

31 And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must [of necessity] suffer many things and be rejected [as the Messiah] by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and must be put to death, and after three days rise [from death to life]. 32 He was stating the matter plainly [not holding anything back]. 

Imagine you left your nets behind.  You followed.  You saw miracle after miracle.  You were sure everything was going the right way.  You knew who you were following confident at times to tell others.  Then this lesson.  Of necessity.  Well you would hope there was no other way.  It is not the most satisfying answer in the bible.  We know it is our own sin and separation from creation that needs to be reconciled.  We must in our saving cause these sufferings.  Or so it feels to me at times.  Times I recognize this Peter, that David does a much better impression of.  This blue collar revolutionary

 

Then Peter took Him aside and began to reprimand Him. 

Ok not the best idea.  This savior confounds us it is true.  At the same time we have never known him to be wrong or let someone down.  Well if someone was let down it was because they turned away and left.  Jesus is there for everyone.  That is the responsibility.

I have two children and it has been the honor of my life to take responsibility for them.  It wasn't easy and I'm not sure how many more people I could take responsibility.  For us all simply put I could not.  Perhaps if I was Peter I would not want my friend and savior to be required to suffer either.

33 But turning around [with His back to Peter] and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan; for your mind is not set on God’s will or His values and purposes, but on what pleases man.”

This is the temptation of our world.  We are reminded that our savior was tempted with the idea of avoiding suffering.  Peter didn't want him to suffer.  He did not want him to suffer many things either.  He did not want his master to be rejected.  He did not want him to be put to death.  He did however want him to rise.  The transfiguration story is yet to come in chapter 9 of Mark.  Jesus would rise and Peter would be confounded again.  

If someone so important in creation can be wrong I think it should make us feel good.  Peter is a rock.  He could in the end take it.

34 Jesus called the crowd together with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to follow Me [as My disciple], he must deny himself [set aside selfish interests], and take up his cross...

He was stating plainly to these people.  They did not have our image of the cross.  We often come across the symbol of the cross and find ourselves hopeful.  We have taken the greatest insult and made it our greatest comfort.  This is often done in our world.  Most of the names of artistic movements were first insults.  We can imagine what the people listening to Jesus thought.  Cross?  

...[expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me].

So for this necessity we are promised everything.  The deal of the creation.

 35 For whoever wishes to save his life [in this world] will [eventually] lose it [through death], but whoever loses his life [in this world] for My sake and the gospel’s will save it [from the consequences of sin and separation from God]. 

From the consequences of sin and separation from God, there is our answer again for what needs reconciled.

36 For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world [with all its pleasures], and forfeit his soul? 37 For what will a man give in exchange for his soul and eternal life [in God’s kingdom]? 

38 For whoever is ashamed [here and now] of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

It is important how we understand the suffering of Jesus.  If I was in Peters shoes I might have also thought we were already saved.  Following the Savior would certainly make you think you found you niche in life.  I think what was hard for Peter and what is hard for us is that Jesus must suffer to heal us.  Jesus' faithfulness to God's healing mission will inevitably result in his death. Jesus "must" die because his commitment to human healing will not falter.

Been thinking this week about suffering.  We had a memorial for my cousin Kathy yesterday.  She was and RH negative baby back when that was a serious problem.  My own kids mom is RH negative and today that is of little concern, but my cousin had a ninety percent hearing loss among other health challenges.  What is amazing is people around her did not know.  She was able to learn to lip read and managed to fight her way into this world.  I now kind of look at her as a super hero.  Now what all her suffering made possible was the most wonderful gratitude she had.  This allowed her to make family wherever she went.

Seems we often need to suffer to appreciate what we have.  For Jesus he had to suffer for what he appreciated: Us.  This is why we are family.

Let us Pray

Creator of everything

We thank you for saving us

We wonder at the suffering for our sake

We grieve that we made it necessary

Help us to see your will in this world here and now

Help us stand unashamed with the truth of the kingdom of heaven

Help us build it here and now

We ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Amen

Benediction

The development of such an entire real

an easy draw of a sad few

In the global house of art

Understand the road ahead

Jesus stating the matter plainly [not holding anything back]

We take up our cross

The beautiful and the dreadful

and follow

Amen

Nottingham UMC 2-25-20022

The Global House of Art

In another example, when a Reddit user asked ChatGPT, "What is a computer?" the AI model provided this response: "It does this as the good work of a web of art for the country, a mouse of science, an easy draw of a sad few, and finally, the global house of art, just in one job in the total rest. The development of such an entire real than land of time is the depth of the computer as a complex character."