Calumet Yellows Reunion Sermon: Rowdy Faith in A Rowdy God

What follow's is a rough manuscript of a sermon I preached this past Sunday at Camp Calumet Lutheran during a reunion retreat weekend for the previous summer's teenage campers.  There's a few inside jokes throughout the text, but hopefully they won't be too distracting.  For a full Twitterfeed from the event, click here.  For more info about our curriculum for the weekend, click here.  I'd love to here what you think!

So, you may have heard at some point that we’ve been live tweeting throughout the Yellows 2012 Reunion. There were some pretty good tweets out on the tweetosphere this weekend… on one end of the spectrum we had some about exploring our faith. On the other, we had some about the smellyness of our farts… all of these were good tweets. That said, my favorite tweet of the weekend was one of the first… it was written by Rachael. She was probably heading back to her cabin Friday night when she wrote something along the lines of “that was a rowdy devos.” A rowdy devos… a rowdy devotionals… who would have thought! Those two words don’t usually go together, but Rachael was definitely right… while we were learning about each other’s faith and playing people bingo and singing a bunch of camp songs, things got pretty rowdy.

[ROWDY SONG INTERRUPTION]

Ya know, sitting by the fire last night, thinking about the weekend and going over the Bible texts for today, I eventually realized why I liked Rachael’s tweet so much… it was filled with really, really good news. And that good news is that we have a faith that can make things get a little rowdy… we have a rowdy faith. In fact, God Herself was getting a little rowdy in today’s gospel story. It’s a pretty well known one… three wise men, or sometimes we call them the three kings, came from the east, or from basically really far away, and told King Herod they came to worship the baby Jesus because they were led by a star in the sky. Herod wasn’t a big fan of baby Jesus, so he tried to use the wise men to find Jesus and kill him, but luckily, Herod’s plan didn’t work… Instead, the wise men followed the star all to Bethlehem; they knelt down and worshiped Jesus, and eventually, they went back home by a different road.

Now, I imagine you’re wondering, how was God getting so rowdy in the story? The answer begins with the fact that God didn’t put that star in the sky for some priests in Jerusalem or for King Herod… She put that star in the sky for three wise men from far away, which means three folks that were far outside God’s old covenant with Israel. By putting that star in the sky for the three wise men, God proclaimed the good news that all are welcomed, that all are saved and that all are loved through Christ. You see, for all the religious authorities and King Herod, this news would have been completely unexpected… they thought the Messiah was only coming for Israel… by shaking things up, God was getting pretty rowdy.

[ROWDY SONG INTERRUPTION]

You see my friends, we have a rowdy God, and we have a rowdy faith, and that is amazingly good news. And you know what, we learned a bit this weekend that at least in some ways, we have a rowdy church too… As Lutherans we have the largest charitable organization in the United States, Lutheran Social Services, shaking things up and helping folks out… that’s pretty rowdy. Through it's Young Adults in Global Mission Program, the ELCA is sending about fifty young adults, some just a couple years older than you all, abroad ever year to shake things up and help folks out… that’s pretty rowdy too.  We also have offices at the international, national and state levels advocating for a more just society.  Of course, our church needs to do more… the world is changing really, really fast, and as faith communities we’ve got to change too. In our world, in this time and place, the church can’t look like it used to. We talked a lot this weekend about what Calumet means to us as well, and for me at least, by providing such a powerful model of serving others, of loving others and of worshiping God in fun and life giving ways, Camp Calumet is one place that represents the change we need to make as a church… it’s a place shaking things up with a rowdy faith in a rowdy God.

The good news of the rowdy things God is doing through Christ… that’s what today’s gospel message is all about and it’s the same good news that Christians all over the world are celebrating today. You see, today’s a very special church holiday called Epiphany… in many Spanish-speaking congregations it’s actually a bigger celebration than Christmas. On Epiphany, the reason we read the story of the wise men is that when God put that star up in the sky, guiding folks from far away to the newborn Jesus in Bethlehem, the good news that through Christ, God loves, accepts and cares for all us was proclaimed. So my friends, as you go home on this Epiphany Sunday, celebrate and share the good news of our rowdy faith in a rowdy God… a God that loves you and you and you… a rowdy God that loves all of us, whether we’re young or old, gay or straight, black or white, rich or poor, whether we’re outgoing or shy or even a weird kid that loves cats, fireworks and margarine. In short my friends, celebrate God’s good news, and get rowdy.

[LOUD, ROWDY ENDING SONG ABOUT GOD’S LOVE]

Dustin is currently a vicar at the Lutheran Office for World Community and Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan, having recently completed his second year of a Masters of Divinity program at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice building in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin really likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.

Turn! Turn! Turn!: An Exegesis of Ecclesiastes 3: 1 - 15

What follows is a prospectus I just wrote for my OT2 class for a exegesis of Ecclesiastes 3: 1 - 15.  I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions before I get into the heart of the paper!

The song “Turn! Turn! Turn!” written by Pete Seeger but popularized by the Byrds in 1965, puts forward a message of peace and nonviolent resistance.  Borrowed from Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8 of the King James Version of the Bible, the song’s lyrics are only slightly modified from the original Biblical text, with a few changes of verse order and the addition of “I swear its not to late” after the “a time for peace” line.  Beneath the flower power of the popular 1960s anthem however is the centuries old message of Qoheleth, a teacher, preacher, king or assembler living under the political oppression of Ptolemaic Jerusalem.  Once subjected to contemporary methods of textual, historical, sociological and literary criticism, the lyrical source of “Turn! Turn! Turn!” combined with the seven verses following it can become a deep spring of meditative wisdom and reflection.  What I propose then is a type of cultural reading of Qoheleth 3: 1 – 15 that first illuminates the intended message of its original author and then brings the light of that message into the present context of those baby boomers who first heard it with the jingle-jangle of Roger McGuinn’s twelve-string Rickenbacker playing in the background.  My thesis is that when read as indicated above, Qoheleth 3: 1 – 15 wisely argues that peace can only be found in the balance of working solely for the good of God and experiencing the joy of God’s many gifts, despite the relative freedom of fleeting human life.

Proposed Bibliography

Burkes, Shannon. Death in Qoheleth and Egyptian Biographies of the Late Period. Atlanta, Ga:

Society of Biblical Literature, 1999.

Freedman, David Noel. The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary. New Haven, Conn: Yale University

Press, 2008.

DeYoung, Curtiss Paul, Wilda C. Gafney, Leticia A. Guardiola-Saenz, George “Tink” Tinker

and Frank M. Yamada, eds. The Peoples' Companion to the Bible. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010.

Krüger, Thomas, O. C. Dean, and Klaus Baltzer. Qoheleth: a commentary. Minneapolis, Minn:

Fortress Press, 2004.

Patte, Daniel, and Teresa Okure. Global Bible Commentary. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2004.

Rindge, Matthew S. "Mortality and enjoyment: the interplay of death and possessions in

Qoheleth." Catholic Biblical Quarterly 73, no. 2 (April 1, 2011): 265-280. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed March 31, 2012).

Sneed, Mark R. The Politics of Pessimism in Ecclesiastes: A Social-Science Perspective. Atlanta:

Society of Biblical Literature, 2012.

Whybray, Roger N. "A time to be born and a time to die:" some observations on Ecclesiastes

3:2-8." In Near Eastern studies dedicated to H I H Prince Takahito Mikasa on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday, 469-483. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1991. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed March 31, 2012).

Zimmermann, Frank. The Inner World of Qohelet. New York: Ktav Pub. House, 1973.

Dustin is a Masters of Divinity candidate in his second year of study at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice building in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin really likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.

Live Music @ Wired Beans Cafe (in video)

I had an epic experience last night.   While I headed over to Wired Bean Cafe (my new favorite coffee shop in Mt. Airy) planning to sit quietly and get some work done I instead ended up getting treated to one of the best open mic nights I've heard in quite a while.  After talking with the cafe's owner Robert Wheeler, it turns out that Wired Beans hosts family friendly open mic nights every Wednesday from 7 - 9p.  One of the folks present informed me that there can be thirty folks in attendance on good night, and sometimes there's traveling musicians that stop in from all over the country.  The open mic night is in addition to poetry nights which are held every Thursday from 7 - 9p (one of which I walked into last week).

The host for the evening, Sad Patrick, opened up by playing John Prine's "Angel from Montgomery," which really got my attention.  As more folks gathered into the small coffee shop, Beorn Sunflower took the mic to play a few original songs, mostly off his album "Songs From the Fridge."  I was able to pick a copy of the album and it's got a sweet sound... sepia toned folk music drenched in Beorn's weathered yet powerful voice.  Next up were two sisters with absolutely amazing voices, singing everything from Beyonce to Etta James's "At Last."  I got their permission to tape a rendition  of Jill Scott's "The Fact Is."  Bethlehem is the main singer here, although I didn't catch her sister's name:



Wow... what a voice!  Bethlehem and her sister are regulars at Wired Bean's open mic nights, so be sure to come by and check em out.  After that Bethlehem sang a couple songs with Sad Patrick, but the highlight of the evening was when her father showed up with a couple friends.  He had just gotten out of choir practice at New Covenant Church, so he sang a hymn called "Touch the Hem of His Garment."  For a finale he then sang "Stand by Me" (with his daughters backing him up from the audience).  I fell into sheer musical ecstasy at this point, listening to the family sing such a moving song while other audience members drummed along on cafe tables.

I'm always someone that needs to be getting something done... checking emails, reading various articles, etc. so for most of the night I was on laptop while listening to the performance.  During the duets though, Bethlehem graciously motioned for me to pay closer attention, and she was absolutely right.  I ended up shutting my laptop and instead soaked in what was going on all around me, and I'm very grateful for it.  That's the sort of place that Wired Beans Cafe is... while you can certainly have your privacy, it's a coffee shop where folks congregate to learn from each other, affirm each other and pay attention to each other.  It's a place that creates community amongst the unforgiving grid of Philadelphia's urban landscape.

God's peace,
Dustin