Sermon Library
“Open Truth to the Soul”
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson
August 31, 2008
Service Theme: Pentecost XVI - 2008
Source: Psalm 11: 1-7
Pentecost XVI-2008 August 31, 2008
Open Truth to the Soul
Psalm 11: 1 - 7
Gregg Anderson
There’s Always Been a Hole in the Church
Last week I entitled my message, There’s a Hole in the Church. This was my paraphrase of a parable by Thomas Troeger in the opening of his book entitled Preaching While the Church is Under Reconstruction. The parable is about a church sanctuary which has a hole in its stained glass wall behind the altar. One of the primary points of Dr. Troeger’s book is that there is almost always a hole in the church and it is always under “reconstruction” in one way or another, metaphorically speaking.
There are many New Testament historians who would state that there was a hole in the church not long after the crucifixion of Jesus, especially when there may have been a number of people who were expecting Jesus to return within their life time. People began to gather in Christ’s name, both Jew and Gentile. The life and death of Christ was not simply and clearly understood within the first century. There was ambivalence and uncertainty. The Christian church has often simplified and even glamorized the early Christian church which, at first, did not even call itself Christian. There is one reference in the book of Acts which states that disciples of Christ were first called Christian and that would have been closer to the year 100. There was certainly testimony of a new spirit and new life introduced by Jesus. The thought of resurrection was significant, but there were also different perspectives of resurrection including a notion of resurrection before the life of Jesus. Christianity flourished, but for the next two hundred years there were many different types of people who were gathering in the name of Jesus and there were many different interpretations of who Jesus was and what he did.
Council of Nicaea
Almost three hundred years after the life of Jesus, in the year 325 AD, Constantine and the Roman Empire attempted to solidify the Christian Church with one doctrine and belief. The new Roman Church was relatively successful in doing this, but not without continual controversy. One of the doctrines they created was from the council of Nicaea which became the Nicene Creed. This was not a document dictated by God, but debated significantly over a period of a few decades. Even after its final establishment, debate continued for centuries and a second council was called in 787 AD. The church has always attempted to be one and solidified, but in reality, the church has always been fragmented and diversified. That statement is significant and factual even though there have been and still are people who believe there is only one Christian belief and doctrine. I believe Thomas Troeger’s premise that the church has always had a hole in it, one way or another, and has always been under reconstruction is true and an important insight for all of us to remember.
Psalm 11
Even before Christianity, Judaism and the temple were challenged. One extreme example Troeger sites, is the devastating time that the Babylon Empire destroyed the Jewish temple and led the Israelites into exile again in 587 B.C.E. This was an unfathomable and gigantic God-shaped hole because the inviolability of the temple had been an article of faith for many believers. Furthermore, it was believed Yahweh had a special relationship to the land and particularly to the temple in Jerusalem. With the destruction of Yahweh’s dwelling place, Yahweh’s power was called into question.
Presumably, the Psalmist in chapter 11 cries out: “In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to me, ‘Flee like a bird to the mountains; for look, the wicked bend the bow, they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his gaze examines humankind. The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and his soul hates the lover of violence. On the wicked he will rain coals of fire and sulfur; a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.”
Within this psalm, chapter 11, there exists very distinct responses to the problems which faced the Israelites in the sixth century B.C. They had lost everything, their temple, their land, their livelihood, and some their faith. Previously, they had lost everything to Egypt and had become slaves. They previously had recovered and began to regain their land, the religion and their lives. But now they were attacked again and they lost everything again.
Flee, Fight, Right
So within this particular Psalm, Psalm 11, there are three options to the response of complete destruction with the only hope of their faith to see them through. The first option is to flee. The psalmists suggest, flee like a bird to the mountains. Troeger says that it is tempting for clergy to offer the old time religion, by refusing to deal with the fact that the foundations are destroyed, “that the world falls apart, that the dome of meaning has a God-shaped hole. Flee like a bird to the mountains and hide there as comfortably as people hide in their gated communities and second homes. Give me the safety of that old-time religion.”
The first response is flight. When there is a hole in the temple or in the church, the first reaction is to flee. Many clergy have done this today. I heard a most incredible statistic from Dr. John Eckridge a couple of months ago. As a physician for many Lutheran ministers, he stated that even after four years of graduate school and often four years of ordination process, many ministers are fleeing the church only after 5 years of ministry. There are many successful churches today, but the majority of the churches, 75 percent of churches, have a membership between 100 to 200 members and are struggling to simply exist. Too many people are fleeing the church, even the clergy.
The second response is to fight and to believe that God is behind a very select group of believers. While decrying the violence in the streets, the psalmist pictures God as a God of violence, a fire-booming deity who “on the wicked . . . will rain coals of fire and sulfur.” These people used to justify their curses against those whom they would eliminate from the human community. As Mieke Bal has observed: “The Bible, of all books, is the most dangerous one, the one that has been endowed with the power to kill.” Troeger states, “Whatever the shape of a reconstructed church, we do not want it to be a house of meaning in which the Bible or any other symbol functions as a lethal weapon.” There are some religious bodies whose mission is to fight what they determine as evil including other churches that are not like them.
In the final verse, the psalmist turns from fleeing to fighting to righteous deeds, to acting with integrity even when the foundations are destroyed. For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.” After all, the essence of the church is really not the building, but the people and how the people relate to one another. There exists today exclusive Christianity and inclusive Christianity. An exclusive Christian may believe they are more righteous than others. Personally, I do not call that righteous but judgmental, and Jesus had something to tell us about being judgmental. I think it was, “do not judge, lest you be judged.” I think the righteous the psalmist was referring to was doing right and behaving justly especially toward others. Ultimately, the temple and the church are to be about compassion. Any reconstruction is toward that goal. The church has served people with compassion and justice. Christ’s influence today is extraordinary.
Open Truth to the Soul
Troeger mentions another time where there was a hole in the church. When Galileo declared that the earth is not the center of the universe and is, in fact, a very minute part of the universe and is just another small planet which happens to revolve around the sun. On February 19, 1616, the church again went into turmoil. They even excommunicated Galileo for such a preposterous proposition which contradicted the whole bible and the entire church.
One priest and philosopher, however, named Tommaso Campanella, defended Galileo’s right to make his claim. He was unable to be convinced of his claim, but defended as a principle of faith the astronomer’s right to continue unimpeded his scientific work. Campanella wrote at the time, “One who participates in open inquiry does not impugn faith, but rather, opens truth to the soul. For it is an essential part of the glory of the Christian religion that we permit Galileo’s method of discovering new knowledge and of rectifying the old.”
Galileo created a God-shaped hole in the dome of meaning which very quickly opened up a newer theology. Galileo advanced science and astronomy and also theology, although theology lagged behind. It took 400 years for the Roman Catholic Church to apologize and finally admit that perhaps the earth does revolve around the sun after all. Opening truth to the soul should never be impeded. If God is God, then there is no truth which can deny nor defeat God. If there is, then there is really no God. We should seek God in all truth and in all realms of meaning. If God is God then there is no truth in which we can understand that is greater than God. God is infinite truth and we, as people, can only grasp finite truth. This is another humble truth which we must humbly realize. It is like always recognizing that there is always a hole in the church because the church, even though it is about the infinite, is very finite and therefore infinitely in reconstruction.
God is not fragmented and does not collapse, but it is our temporary images and projections of God which become fragmented and collapse from time to time. This is not an easy process for us human beings because, like Adam and Eve, we innately want to fully know the tree of knowledge. We keep wanting it all and God keeps giving us the message in various ways that we cannot know it all, nor have it all. Like the church, we all have holes in our understanding. Even the Apostle Paul knew this when he wrote, “Our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect.” I wonder why it is that we, as people, have such a difficult time with this truth. Our task is to live under the hole in the dome of our sanctuaries and in the ambiguities of our very existence. This is why Paul emphatically states that it is not about having everything in order and all the hopes plugged and to realize that for now we can only see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now we only know in part, then we shall understand fully, even as we have been fully understood. Therefore in between these two existences, there remain three virtues; faith, hope and love. Essentially this is the church living under the hole and in constant reconstruction. It is about opening truth to the soul. This is a very similar theme to Rabbi Irwin Kula’s book which we discussed last year entitled Yearnings, Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life.
It takes a little more courage to open various truths to the soul. Just like the example of Galileo, we need to keep opening our souls to contemporary truths today, wherever they may originate. It is not easy, but I believe there is always a need for faith in our lives and our faith and our facts need to keep walking hand in hand for the survival of both. I love Troeger’s phrase, “opening truth to the soul.” Amen.
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson
Aspen Chapel
0077 Meadowood Drive
Aspen, Colorado 81611
http://www.aspenchapel.