10/01/23 - Water & Peace by Rev. Chip Roland - Westminster Presbyterian Church Westminster Presbyterian Church | Serving God and others with open mind, hands and heart - 10/01/23

10/01/23 – Water & Peace by Rev. Chip Roland

WATER AND PEACE

October 1, 2023
World Communion Day
Peace & Global Sunday
Exodus 17:1-7, 78:1-4, 12-16, Philippians 2:1-13, Matthew 21:23-32
Rev. Chip Roland

I’m always fascinated by people who have radically changed direction in their life. Maybe it’s because I often think of my life as a fairly predictable straight line where the past has generally predicted the future. I was always known as a good talker in my family, a good arguer. So, I think I was assumed to either become a lawyer or a minister. But I also know people who have radically altered their life direction. I know people who have not only switched careers, but careers in whole different paradigms of thought. I even know people who have pulled up stakes and begun living iterate lives in vans. “Van Life” as it’s often called. There’s something compelling about the bravery of it, the openness to change. Of course, Christianity resonates with that turn around, that radical change that brings newness and re-negotiates your way of being with yourself, your God and others. The Greek word we translate as repentance, metanoia literary means to change your mind, often in the New Testament context a reversal, a return to God to dance in rhythm with the Kingdom.

So, I find myself fascinated with an unspoken part of Jesus’ parable in the gospel lesson today. Maybe the son who refused initially to work in the vineyard came to consider how his father had selflessly and lovingly cared for him throughout his life and was inspired to do the same. Perhaps he was angry and resentful of his father for some reason and confronted him. In the middle of his hard, maybe unfair words he found his father’s patience and grace, he found some water in the desert that turned his anger away and made a pathway to peace. Of course, he could have just run across somebody in his life who was angry enough at him or comfortable enough with him to just call him out on his nonsense. We all need that from time to time. How many of us have stories where we were taken down a peg? It felt pretty rough when we were on the receiving end of it, but if we’re really honest with ourselves, in hindsight we really needed it. And it made our lives better in the long run.

It’s hard to be a leader! Moses is learning that for approximately the eight hundredth time in our Old Testament narrative today. So, yeah there’s an element of absurdity in the intensity of the people’s complaints, in how quickly their hearts can turn. After all, they’ve born witness to so many overwhelming wonders in God’s acts of liberating them. Did they really think it was plausible that Moses and God had led them through all that to now just give up and let them die of thirst? But I also feel for them. In all the newness, in all the uncertainty of these events it would be almost beyond reason not to be afraid. And one of the easiest ways to express fear is through anger. Moses’ response is fascinating to me. Because immediately when Moses accuses them of just being, well a pain in his rear end, he couples that with testing the Lord. Some have suggested that this is a bit of a power move on Moses’ part, making it clear that in shade cast on him is also shade cast on the Lord. I also wonder if this is astute psychological knowledge on Moses’ part. Maybe he’s observing that while Moses had become the focus and scapegoat for their anger, it was truly God they were afraid had abandoned them. The final line of this narrative seems to suggest this. It also adds a bit of sting to Moses call to God that the people were ready to stone him. The subtext is, I’m going to get killed because You aren’t stepping up.

God isn’t activated or appears defensive. Rather, he acts to give the people what they desperately need. He also tells Moses to take some elders with him. Maybe this was to protect Moses a bit, not make him the sole focus of the people’s anxiety. The story pretty much ends there with a declaration of what the people were saying in their hearts. This is how God turned their hearts, changed things, and brought peace. Did they take the water grudgingly, saying to themselves this is the least God can do? Were they moved to regret their fear and anger? The story doesn’t say. Maybe what we suspect says more about us than the Bible.

People can change. Peace can be brought in times of conflict, and we move, step by step, into dancing in rhythm with the Kingdom of God. Jesus trapped the authorities of the temple pretty hard. He clapped back soundly. Of course, this is after his satire of a triumphal march into Jerusalem, his healings, his cleansing of the temple. A subtext of their question might be the implication that he was a simple charlatan. Or perhaps a sorcerer who got his powers from evil spirits. We know that all this led to Christ’s crucifixion. But I hope that this being taken down a peg moved at least some in their hearts. People can change as God moves through our lives. Hope and peace can be found even in the midst of desperate fear and anger. We can change with God’s help.

My Story

“Throughout the week, there are many worldly things pulling me away from my commitment to God. I come to church on Sunday at Westminster to reconnect and renew my relationship with Him. Part of my worship is to ask him for forgiveness for my lack of faithfulness. I leave, reminded that he loves me, forgives me, and walks beside me every day. What a profound blessing that is!”