Friday, October 9, 2020
Sunday, October 4, 2020
A MESSED UP VINEYARD - Pastor Johnnie Simpson Jr
Psalm 80:7-15 (New King James Version)
7 Restore us, O God of hosts; Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved!
8 You have brought a vine out of Egypt; You have cast out the nations, and planted it.
9 You prepared room for it, And caused it to take deep root, And it filled the land.
10 The hills were covered with its shadow, And the mighty cedars with its boughs.
11 She sent out her boughs to the Sea, And her branches to the River.
12 Why have You broken down her hedges, So that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit?
13 The boar out of the woods uproots it, And the wild beast of the field devours it.
14 Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts; Look down from heaven and see, And visit this vine
15 And the vineyard which Your right hand has planted, And the branch that You made strong for Yourself.
There is a game I like to play on my iPad, Homescapes, where there are games within games on it. The game has you match there objects in a row or more to score, but another part of the game is that you get stars each time you beat a level and the stars let you complete tasks to help the main character renovate his parent’s house. The house and garden, and other parts have fallen apart. I get frustrated when I play the game because the work is never done. You fix something and it falls apart again, or somebody comes up and says, “oh you forgot to add this to it” over and over, the work is never done. I get frustrated a the idea because I get frustrated at the same concept in life. I would like things to be simple, not easy, but simple, I would like to know who the bad guys are upfront, if they are hard to beat so be it as long as the path is clear. If I know the cost of something and I can’t afford it, that is ok with me as long as all the terms were given upfront. I like simple, and I am doing the work on myself to understand that life is not simple. There is dementia, there is depression, there are broken relationships infidelity, suicidal ideation, financial troubles, physical health troubles, there are pandemics, economic collapses, systemic racism, class warfare, poverty, hunger, and wars, just to name a few, things are not simple and it is hard to deal with. There are times where we celebrate and there are times when we lament.
Psalm 80 is a communal lament, used in ancient Israel when a national calamity had occurred. Scholars are split on when exactly this could have been written because Israel was attacked often. Psalm 80 could have been written possibly around 605, 597, 586, 582 b.c. when Nebuchadnezzar invaded or 722 BCE when Israel fell. Israel as a nation had some issues, issues with kings so they split, issues with other countries so they were attacked, often. Kings coming and going, wars coming and going, the people suffering. Not unlike today.
The scriptures before the passage I read before the sermon the people of God call God the Shepherd of Israel, but like people do when times are tough they complain, they complain because they are in trouble and feel like God has not been a good shepherd to them. One of the questions I am always asked as a pastor has to do with theodicy, if there is a God, why do so many bad things happen? Some people say that God caused the suffering, others say that God didn’t cause the suffering but allows it to happen. Either way you think, at some point in your life there will be some bad things to deal with, and some of it might rock you to your core, and change your life perspective on some things even your view of God. Some people might just try to press on and act like nothing is wrong while their world is falling apart but bad times are bound to come what matters is how you operate in those bad times.
Sigmund Freud, although a critic of religion pointed out that people as youth have a need for security, and can imagine their father as an all powerful person, when they find out that their father is vulnerable, they put that all powerful image on God, sometimes to their detriment. With keen insight, Freud recognized this tendency among the religious. He said that people attempt to secure “happiness and protection against suffering … through a delusional remolding of reality.”
Not only did critics of religion have this kind of thinking but so did some of our champions. C. S. Lewis - He said, “When you love someone you don’t want them to suffer. I feel like that. Why doesn’t God?”
The people of God in the text called the nation of Israel a vine and the promised land a vineyard, there is a lot of vine and vineyard imagery in the lectionary passages today. The vine and vineyard is an image all over the Bible when talking about God and God’s people. But this vineyard is being torn up. The walls put around the vineyard are broken down, any and everyone can get in and steal the fruit. There is a wild boar tearing the vineyard, a viscous powerful and an unclean animal. The irony of an animal that God says is unclean is tearing up God’s creation. The people don’t know what to do, their country is under attack and they don’t have faith in the leadership being able to handle the crisis. The people of God need help.
But the people of God get out of complaining and understand that God has gotten them out of trouble before and the same God that got them out of trouble before can get them out of trouble again. If we can cry out to God in the midst of our troubles God will hear us, be with us, and help us out of the situation. It is hard to have faith when everything around you is falling apart but I stopped by to tell you. It is no secret what God can do, what he has done for others he will do the same for you. The Gardner is coming to take care of the vineyard, it just takes a little time. Vine tending requires patience. Nothing grows quickly in God’s realm. The clearing out will have to happen, some things need to go away and some need to go away forcefully. Rather, God’s clearing comes from the heart of God’s love for God’s people and the world. A good gardener does not rejoice in clearing out weeds but sees it as a necessary act to prepare a place to plant a productive vine.
There are other texts with with a vineyard being destroyed like in Isaiah 5, but the difference between Isaiah 5 and Psalm 80 is that the prophet in Isaiah tells the people to turn around, Psalm 80 asks God to turn towards us. The text says that we need God to shine His face on us. A vine needs sunlight to live, and we need God’s light to live. That light, that favor from God, that shining light in the darkness that helps us to see our way through, it is always darkest before dawn we just have to be willing to wait. And be willing to cry out even when it is so dark we can’t see our hand in front of our face. Just because we can’t see God doesn’t mean that God isn’t there.
We have to be willing to cry out in times of suffering. The psalm expresses the pain of the calamity and anger at God for allowing it to happen; at the same time it includes a repetitive refrain containing the people’s cry to God for help. That is part of our problem we don’t want to cry out, don’t want to get help, want to pretend that everything is ok and we don’t need anyone. As long as we keep our suffering a secret the enemy wins. We are all in our own personal vineyards, with our own personal walls being torn down, with our own personal boars tearing things up. The vineyard may have been destroyed by the wild boar, but the vineyard can be restored. There is help coming from the best gardener in the business. C. S. Lewis said “When you love someone you don’t want them to suffer. I feel like that. Why doesn’t God?” But C.S. Lewis also said that while he no longer had answers, he continued to have faith.
The restoration and salvation that they are talking about is not just for eternal life, not just for the future the restoration and salvation is now. The vines planted by the gardener’s right hand, access to favor. There is vine imagery all over the Bible, and I am reminded that we need God in times of trouble. We need to be able to hold on to the true vine in the vineyard.
John 15:5 (New King James Version)
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
In the vineyard God can provide us with protection, in the vineyard God will give us a foundation to hold on to, in the vineyard we can see God’s face. We have to hold on to God and if we can’t hold on, we have to be able to cry out, if we cry out to God in our times of trouble we will be restored.
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
My Op-Ed piece for Galveston Daily News
I wrote a piece for the Galveston Daily News on the Black Lives Matter Movement.
Here is a link to the article, the text is printed here.
https://www.galvnews.com/opinion/guest_columns/article_2348a0f8-6226-5445-bdb4-f64a39a8138e.html
Black Lives Matter is more than a slogan
Monday, September 21, 2020
Sunday, September 20, 2020
I AIN'T NEVER SCARED - September 20, 2020
Philippians 1:21-30
21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. 24 Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. 25 And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, 26 that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.
Striving and Suffering for Christ
27 Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. 29 For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, 30 having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me.
For the time that is ours to share together I would like to talk a little bit about “I ain’t never scared” that is a line form a rap song I like. When I remember the song with that same name I am fresh out of college and this song is out instant pump up music, gets you going. I thought about this song when I was preparing this sermon.
Paul’s letter to the Philippians a church in Philippi, written around 50 CE located in eastern Macedonia or what we call northern Greece right now. A small town by our standards today with an estimated population of 10,000 at the time. The city was founded by immigrants, known for its gold mines but by the time this letter is written those mines would have been mined out. By the time the letter is written as well the Romans would have taken over the place and would be holding the important government positions. Acts 16 tells us that Paul started a church there around 49-50 CE
The Philippians church treated Paul well in making sure that the pastor was taken care of while he traveled. They sent him funds and someone to travel with him by the name of Epaphroditus who got sick and almost died. When Epaphroditus went back to Philippi, he came with this letter from the Apostle Paul.
Paul was put in jail while in Philippi, because he casted out a demon in a woman that was helping her tell fortunes and make money for some local businesses around there. Paul casted out the demon, the businessmen lost their cash cow so they had Paul and Silas beaten and thrown in jail. Jail seems to be a common theme for those who oppose the status quo in pursuit of the greater good. Paul wrote this letter we are reading from prison, which is not anything new. Martin Luther King wrote his famous letter from a Birmingham Jail, while you guessed it, in Jail. Nelson Mandela was arrested as well and wrote while in jail. It is not unusual when people in power abuse a situation to try to detract people from upsetting the apple cart by putting them in jail.
Paul is in jail possibly going to be executed, the church is having some turmoil, and the city that the church is in has been gentrified, taken over. This group of people out here following some man named Jesus have started to change the city and the people in power don’t like that. This should be expected sometimes though John 16:33 says "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Living this life in Christ will not be easy but that does not mean we need to lay down and just take it, greater is he who is you than he who is in the world. We have to keep putting one foot in front of the other and do the work that Christ has called us to do. Even though things are rough we have Jesus Christ on our side. This passage of scripture is often quoted at funerals to make people feel better, to live is Christ, but to die is gain, and Paul does say that, but when you read on he says that he would rather stay here, in the flesh to do the work of the Lord. We can’t use what is supposed to happen with eternal life to not be good Christians and do work in our natural lives. Salvation is not just about the sweet by and by, we as believers need to work on making heaven here on earth as well. The gospel should be stamped on our lives lived out in single minded loyalty. That means that our devotion to Christ should be over our devotion to anything else, including the government. Salvation is a gift, not a goal, there is work to do. Just getting saved and going to church and doing nothing else is like trying to stand in a garage and call yourself a car. Just because you are in the building doesn’t mean you are actually doing the job. It is work to be done out here:
Isaiah 1:17 New King James Version (NKJV)
17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow.
James 1:27 New King James Version (NKJV)
27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
Paul doesn’t know if he will live or die, Paul doesn’t know if the Philippians will be faithful to the gospel, but he does know that Christ will be glorified. Wayne Hardnett Jr. better known as Bone Crusher released a chart topping song in 2003 “Never Scared” featuring Killer Mike and T. I. to paraphrase the hook he said that he was outside of the club and someone thinks that he’s a punk. Bone crusher has to go to the trunk of his car for some assistance in the matter, because Bone Crusher had something with some power in the trunk of his car that could help in the situation he had no reason to be scared. Well Paul didn’t have a car with a trunk to go to but he had something inside of him that gave him courage. The gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul’s courage comes from prayers and the help of the Holy Spirit. With prayer and with the help of the same holy spirit, we can keep on doing the the work of the Lord we don’t have to be scared, and even if we are scared we don’t have to freeze.
Sunday, September 13, 2020
CAN YOU FOLLOW THE CLOUD? - September 13, 2020
Exodus 14:19-31
19 And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them. 20 So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud and darkness to the one, and it gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that night.
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. 22 So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 23 And the Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.
24 Now it came to pass, in the morning watch, that the Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and He troubled the army of the Egyptians. 25 And He took off their chariot wheels, so that they drove them with difficulty; and the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”
26 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen.” 27 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth, while the Egyptians were fleeing into it. So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. 28 Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. Not so much as one of them remained. 29 But the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
30 So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt; so the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His servant Moses.
The Book of Exodus comes from the Latin and Greek words that meant literally to come out. Just as side note, when I say Greek while referring to the Old Testament it is not always a mistake. The Jewish people of Old Testament spoke Hebrew however the books of the Old Testament were translated into Greek before we got the Bible we have in English. That Greek translation of the Old Testament is called the Septuagint or LXX in print. Sometimes in the New Testament scriptures where the author is referencing an OT passage and it doesn’t quite match up word for word, that is why. Pastor why would someone translate that OT into Greek if the people spoke Hebrew. The answer to that question is a question, why do so many people speak English here? Stuff got translated into Greek because Greek was the dominant language at the time. So the Book of Exodus title came from Latin and Greek words that meant the way out, but the Hebrew people called this book something different. The Hebrew name for the Book of Exodus translates into names. Names because in this book the people of God solidify the name of their nation, Israel. In Exodus we learn about the name of their leader Moses, and we learn some of the names of God as God shows up to the people.
God had been talking to Moses at first then started showing himself to the people, while they were still in bondage but the 10 plagues came and Pharaoh finally let the people go, and held on to his word for now. During the plagues Pharaoh kept saying he would free the people but as soon as Pharaoh got some relief he went back to oppressing the people of God. Now Pharaoh has said that the Hebrews can go, and kept his promise long enough for them to pack up and leave. Exodus 13 tells us that a cloud guided them by day and a pillar of fire guided them by night. God moved the cloud, and when the cloud moved, the people moved. They didn’t stay in one place, they moved when God told them to move. I don’t know if some church folk could operate in that mindset these days, the age of we have never done it that way before, the age of keep it the same, the age of I don’t understand why we need to that. When God moved the cloud, the people moved with it. Sometimes the environment changes and uncertainty is scary, but sometimes we have to be comfortable, being uncomfortable. I would imagine that some people who left Egypt, did not have it that bad, or as bad as others, and even if they had it bad, it was safe because it was predictable. God is trying to move us to another place, but are we willing to follow to the cloud?
Are you also willing to follow the cloud when the path is not certain? The route to the promised land was not taken through a straight route, matter of fact the end of chapter 13 says that the cloud did not take them through a particular route because that was Palestine country, and God did not want them having to fight a war, and being trying to start a new life. So they were led by the Red Sea, and just about that time Pharaoh changed his mind and started chasing them again. When Pharaoh came, he came with all of his resources and the people of God started to complain to Moses. Saying, they didn’t have enough graves in Egypt? You brought us out to the desert to die? Mind you Pharaoh is the one trying to hurt them, Moses is the one trying to save them do they speak ill of Pharaoh, no they do not, they clown Moses. Not only do they clown Moses, they speak good about Egypt, saying they never wanted to leave in the first place. I wouldn’t believe this to be true if I hadn’t been working in churches as long as I have watched how some church folk treat one another and how they treat their pastors. I wouldn’t believe this situation was possible if there weren’t churches that would rather close their doors than change their music or invite people from the community into their building for more than community service programs. I wouldn’t believe this passage was true if I didn’t neighborhood after neighborhood change and the church in the neighbor hood look nothing like the neighborhood it sits in. That passage I’m talking about is the start of Exodus 14 if you want to read it later. They speak well of someone who doesn’t have their best interest in mind and long for the one that persecuted them. Sometimes change is scary, sometimes change is hard, are you still willing to follow the cloud? Pharaoh had plenty of resources, and used those resources to come ofter the people go God, and when the going got tough, they turned on one another.
Pharaoh was looking to put them back into slavery, another strange part of the text, but not that strange when I look at our American justice system. The 13th amendment of the United States Constitution, section 1 reads Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Pharaoh was trying to re-enslave these people, because there was a countrywide benefit, and there is one in our own country. Slavery in the US was ended by the civil war but for profit prison has become a major industry and has taken its place. I believe someone should pay their debt to society but why should a corporation be able to sue the state they have a for profit prison in if the prison is not full? Why should I as a 7th grader in Northview Middle School in Indianapolis Indiana have to have a counselor put me in special program because she is scared I am going to end up in prison? When I was in middle school, they had come up with a calculation that if a child was in 7th grade, in a single parent home, and not doing well in Math and Science, they were going to end up in prison. People knew that because that was how these for profit prisons made their money, calculating how full they were going to keep their prisons. If the prison is not full, they sue, then the legal system makes harsher penalties, in some states now, an after school fight between kids is a felony Pharaoh is trying to put you back in slavery.
People get put in jail, making items, doing construction, performing trades, for a company only to get out of jail and not be hired by the same company they were building things for in the prison. Pharaoh is trying to put you back into slavery. People go to jail, serve their time, then get out and are told, you need to find a job or else we will put you back in jail, only to apply for jobs and not get them why? Because they have a record, Pharaoh is trying to put you back into slavery. So I perk up when I hear a politician use phrases like “law and order” or a “war on xyx” because those terms mean that people that look like me are trying to be stuffed back into the jail system to never get out while people get rich off of their work. Pharaoh is trying to put you back into slavery, you need to keep following the cloud.
All of this happens, and the cloud and the angel have now moved to the back of the caravan, to protect the people from Pharaoh and his army. Moses stretched out his hand toward the Red Sea and the sea split allowing the people to walk on dry land. Walk where they have never walked before, in a way they have never walked before. We are in unfamiliar territory now, a divided nation over politics, a pandemic that has made things even more complicated, we have had to learn new vocabulary, operate different. Everything has changed, church has changed, shopping has changed, eating out has changed. Even if you never stopped, I guarantee the store has. You don’t want to wear a mask? Talk through this Plexiglas, you don’t want to social distance, cool carry out only Ma’am and Sir. Life is different. But through all the changes, just like the cloud and the Angel and the pillar stayed with the people of God and was even their rear guard. God will have our backs too. We will walk on dry land in places where there wasn’t any we will be protected and Pharaoh will loose. The text says their wheels were clogged, a better translation is that their wheels were removed. God removed the system and support that allowed them to chase after the people of God trying to put them back in slavery.
They feared the Lord, they learned that the Lord was who he said he was. God told Moses in the burning bush I AM THAT I AM, or I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE, God is here to provide protection, we will see it to the end. Pharaoh’s army drowned in the Red Sea, a play on words some scholars say it was really the Reed Sea, or a Sea of Reeds, but it is also a play on words because it also means in the translations “the sea of the end” the end of pharaoh. The victory was so decisive that even the enemy had to acknowledge the Lord God Almighty. The best thing was that the people of God didn’t do anything to earn the protection and the presence of God, God did it because he loved them. God loves us. God is with us in times of uncertainty, God is with us when the enemy is chasing us, God is with us when he takes the enemies resources away.
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