Sermon for October 1st, 2023 - Revision history

Iraneal at 02:39, 1 October 2023

2023-10-01T02:39:13Z

Iraneal at 23:09, 30 September 2023

2023-09-30T23:09:12Z

Iraneal at 22:41, 30 September 2023

2023-09-30T22:41:00Z

Iraneal at 22:03, 30 September 2023

2023-09-30T22:03:11Z

Iraneal at 21:42, 30 September 2023

2023-09-30T21:42:46Z

Iraneal at 21:07, 30 September 2023

2023-09-30T21:07:34Z

Iraneal at 20:35, 30 September 2023

2023-09-30T20:35:45Z

Iraneal at 18:51, 30 September 2023

2023-09-30T18:51:35Z

Iraneal at 17:10, 30 September 2023

2023-09-30T17:10:53Z

Iraneal: Created page with "==Luke 10:25-28== 25Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ 26He said to him, ‘What is written in th..."

2023-09-30T14:58:17Z

Created page with "==Luke 10:25-28== 25Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ 26He said to him, ‘What is written in th..."

New page

==Luke 10:25-28==
25Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ 26He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ 27He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.’ 28And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’

==Deuteronomy 5:15-20==
15Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day. 16Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 17You shall not murder. 18Neither shall you commit adultery. 19Neither shall you steal. 20Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.

==Ten Laws, One Love: False Witness==

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:39, 1 October 2023
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	==Luke 10:25-28==	+	==Luke 10:25-28 (OT p.71)==
	25Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ 26He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ 27He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.’ 28And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’		25Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ 26He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ 27He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.’ 28And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:09, 30 September 2023
Line 50:		Line 50:
	Technically speaking, those stories were “lies”—fiction by definition is untrue. It’s not intended to deceive anyone, but the best fiction does make us want to believe just a little bit. It makes us imagine a world that is not real…but maybe could be? And I believe that the VERY best fiction—like Tolkien’s Middle Earth—skillfully uses “un-truths” to point us to deeper, authentic truths about our world, ourselves, and the God who—with his own words—spoke us into existence, like an author filling up page after page with his beloved creations.		Technically speaking, those stories were “lies”—fiction by definition is untrue. It’s not intended to deceive anyone, but the best fiction does make us want to believe just a little bit. It makes us imagine a world that is not real…but maybe could be? And I believe that the VERY best fiction—like Tolkien’s Middle Earth—skillfully uses “un-truths” to point us to deeper, authentic truths about our world, ourselves, and the God who—with his own words—spoke us into existence, like an author filling up page after page with his beloved creations.

−	My other favorite liar, of course, is Jesus. He did the very same thing as Tolkien, only we call those untrue stories “parables.” It was Jesus’ favorite way to teach people—because he understood that sometimes telling the truth can be painful, hurtful, and no one wants to hear the truth when their hearts are hardened. But if you tell a story	+	My other favorite liar, of course, is Jesus. He did the very same thing as Tolkien, only we call those untrue stories “parables.” It was Jesus’ favorite way to teach people—because he understood that sometimes telling the truth can be painful, hurtful, and no one wants to hear the truth when their hearts are hardened. But if you tell a story—if you wrap up your truth in the cloth of fiction—people will sit at your feet for hours to listen. We love stories. We love to be lied to.
		+
		+	Of course, a lie that helps us, that inspires us, that testifies to a better world, that stands witness to all that we can and should become…is that really a “false witness?” I don’t think so. A false witness, then, is any perception, belief, or story we tell that diminishes us as human beings, that turns us away from our God, away from our neighbor, and away from those we are called to love.
		+
		+	Don’t tell those kinds of stories, church—not to yourself or anyone else.
		+
		+	May your story—may your witness—be true and not false, in the best and broadest sense of those words.
		+
		+	May it be a help and a blessing to your neighbors, pointing them (and you) back to the Author of Life, the Author of Truth, the Author of Love.

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:41, 30 September 2023
Line 41:		Line 41:

	But if the answer is “mostly my neighbor” you MIGHT be in the clear. When my daughter was little, and presented me with a stick-figure drawing of our family that she was clearly very proud of… I said, “that looks JUST like me, Abby!” And that made her happy, and she kept drawing.		But if the answer is “mostly my neighbor” you MIGHT be in the clear. When my daughter was little, and presented me with a stick-figure drawing of our family that she was clearly very proud of… I said, “that looks JUST like me, Abby!” And that made her happy, and she kept drawing.
		+
		+	You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
		+
		+	I’ve spend a lot of time today talking about the “against your neighbor” part, because that’s the part I think we neglect the most. But I want to conclude today by talking just a little more about the idea of “false witness”—what we think of all too simplistically as “lies.” I want to conclude today talking about my two favorite liars.
		+
		+	The first one was born in England in the year 1892. When he was a young man serving in the dismal trenches of World War I, he wrote letters home to his wife, and in those letters, sometimes he would lie: He would make up fantastical stories to entertain her, cheer her up and make her laugh. Of course, none of the stories were true. Later on, when his children were born, he made up more stories to entertain them—stories about Father Christmas, stories about talking dogs, about goblins, dwarves, wizards… and hobbits. His name, of course, was J.R.R. Tolkien—and when I was a little boy, I would crawl into my own father’s lap and he would read those same stories to me.
		+
		+	Technically speaking, those stories were “lies”—fiction by definition is untrue. It’s not intended to deceive anyone, but the best fiction does make us want to believe just a little bit. It makes us imagine a world that is not real…but maybe could be? And I believe that the VERY best fiction—like Tolkien’s Middle Earth—skillfully uses “un-truths” to point us to deeper, authentic truths about our world, ourselves, and the God who—with his own words—spoke us into existence, like an author filling up page after page with his beloved creations.
		+
		+	My other favorite liar, of course, is Jesus. He did the very same thing as Tolkien, only we call those untrue stories “parables.” It was Jesus’ favorite way to teach people—because he understood that sometimes telling the truth can be painful, hurtful, and no one wants to hear the truth when their hearts are hardened. But if you tell a story

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:03, 30 September 2023
Line 35:		Line 35:

	We all know people who use the truth like a weapon, right? “I just tell it like it is, and if you don’t like it, it’s because you don’t like the truth. That’s your problem, not mine!” To those who think that brutal honesty is always best, you’re still throwing the ninth commandment out the window. You’re still throwing your neighbor under the bus, with your words—true or otherwise.		We all know people who use the truth like a weapon, right? “I just tell it like it is, and if you don’t like it, it’s because you don’t like the truth. That’s your problem, not mine!” To those who think that brutal honesty is always best, you’re still throwing the ninth commandment out the window. You’re still throwing your neighbor under the bus, with your words—true or otherwise.
		+
		+	What about “little white lies,” Pastor Neal? “I sometimes fib just a little, but it doesn’t hurt anyone. That’s okay, right?”
		+
		+	The threshold established by the ninth commandment is simply “don’t harm your neighbor,” but I’m not sure that gets you entirely off the hook with the rest of the Bible, or with God for that matter, just because you tell a lie that doesn’t hurt anyone. I think a better rule of thumb would be, “who, primarily, do my words help?” If the answer is “mostly me” and your words are untrue, I’d say it’s probably still a bad idea. It’s a selfish white lie at best.
		+
		+	But if the answer is “mostly my neighbor” you MIGHT be in the clear. When my daughter was little, and presented me with a stick-figure drawing of our family that she was clearly very proud of… I said, “that looks JUST like me, Abby!” And that made her happy, and she kept drawing.

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 ==Ten Laws, One Love: False Witness==
-One day, a woodcutter was cutting a branch of a tree above a river, and his axe fell into the river. When he cried out, the Lord appeared and asked, "Why are you crying?" The woodcutter replied that his axe had fallen into water, and he needed the axe to make his living. The Lord went down into the water and reappeared with a golden axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked.
+One day, a woodcutter was cutting a branch off a tree above a river, and his axe fell into the river. When he cried out, the Lord appeared and asked, "Why are you crying?" The woodcutter replied that his axe had fallen into water, and he needed the axe to make his living. The Lord went down into the water and reappeared with a golden axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked.
 The woodcutter replied, "No." The Lord again went down and came up with a silver axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked. Again, the woodcutter replied, "No." The Lord went down again and came up with a rusted old iron axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked. The woodcutter replied, "Yes." The Lord was pleased with the man's honesty and gave him all three axes to keep, and the woodcutter went home happy.
@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 Today we’re talking about the ninth commandment, which is often rendered in the popular imagination as “you shall not lie.”  Of course, that’s not what the commandment actually says, and today I hope to make the case that it’s not anywhere close to what it was originally supposed to mean.  Most English versions of the Bible translate Deuteronomy 5:20 as “You shall not give false witness (or testimony) against your neighbor.”  That’s actually a pretty decent translation of the Hebrew.  The words “witness” and “testimony” in both English as well as Hebrew are LEGAL terms, referring to the things you say when questioned in court, or when making a formal accusation (i.e. a lawsuit) against someone else.
-False witness, or false testimony, is a type of perjury, and perjury (in the ancient world as well as today) IS in fact lying while under oath—so we can see how this commandment often gets boiled down to an overly-simplistic “Don’t lie. Ever. Under any circumstances.”    To be fair, there ARE plenty of places in the Bible where God condemns the act of lying—quite literally.  In the Book of Acts, a married couple, Ananias and Saphira lie about how much money they have given to the church, and God immediately strikes them dead.  We’ll talk more about that story next month in our annual pledge drive!
+False witness, or false testimony, is a type of perjury, and perjury (in the ancient world as well as today) IS in fact lying while under oath—so we can see how this commandment often gets boiled down to an overly-simplistic “Don’t lie. Ever. Under any circumstances.”    Now, to be fair, there ARE plenty of places in the Bible where God DOES condemn the act of lying—quite literally.  In the Book of Acts, a married couple, Ananias and Saphira lie about how much money they have given to the church, and God immediately strikes them dead.  We’ll talk more about that story next month during our annual pledge drive!
 But there are ALSO plenty of places in the Bible where God condones, or even BLESSES acts of lying and deceitfulness.  Just in case you don’t believe me…
@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 In other words, they lied.  They lied to save the lives of the Hebrew children.  And how did God respond?  Verse 20-21:  “So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong.  And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.”
-There are many other examples throughout the Bible,, but you get the point.
+There are many other examples, but you get the point.  Lying, in the Bible, can sometimes be a BAD thing, and sometimes it can be a GOOD thing.  So how do we know which is which?  This is where the ninth commandment comes back into the picture.  Listen again to the whole thing:

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:07, 30 September 2023
Line 14:		Line 14:
	Today we’re talking about the ninth commandment, which is often rendered in the popular imagination as “you shall not lie.” Of course, that’s not what the commandment actually says, and today I hope to make the case that it’s not anywhere close to what it was originally supposed to mean. Most English versions of the Bible translate Deuteronomy 5:20 as “You shall not give false witness (or testimony) against your neighbor.” That’s actually a pretty decent translation of the Hebrew. The words “witness” and “testimony” in both English as well as Hebrew are LEGAL terms, referring to the things you say when questioned in court, or when making a formal accusation (i.e. a lawsuit) against someone else.		Today we’re talking about the ninth commandment, which is often rendered in the popular imagination as “you shall not lie.” Of course, that’s not what the commandment actually says, and today I hope to make the case that it’s not anywhere close to what it was originally supposed to mean. Most English versions of the Bible translate Deuteronomy 5:20 as “You shall not give false witness (or testimony) against your neighbor.” That’s actually a pretty decent translation of the Hebrew. The words “witness” and “testimony” in both English as well as Hebrew are LEGAL terms, referring to the things you say when questioned in court, or when making a formal accusation (i.e. a lawsuit) against someone else.

−	False witness, or false testimony, is a type of perjury, and perjury (in the ancient world as well as today) IS in fact lying while under oath—so we can see how this commandment often gets boiled down to an overly-simplistic “Don’t lie. Ever. Under any circumstances.” To be fair, there ARE plenty of places in the Bible where God condemns the act of ~~lying—it’s just that~~ the ~~ninth commandment isn’t one~~ of them. ~~And~~ there are ALSO plenty of places in the Bible where God condones, or even BLESSES ~~the act~~ of lying. Just in case you don’t believe me…	+	False witness, or false testimony, is a type of perjury, and perjury (in the ancient world as well as today) IS in fact lying while under oath—so we can see how this commandment often gets boiled down to an overly-simplistic “Don’t lie. Ever. Under any circumstances.” To be fair, there ARE plenty of places in the Bible where God condemns the act of lying—quite literally. In the Book of Acts, a married couple, Ananias and Saphira lie about how much money they have given to the church, and God immediately strikes them dead. We’ll talk more about that story next month in our annual pledge drive!
		+
		+	But there are ALSO plenty of places in the Bible where God condones, or even BLESSES acts of lying and deceitfulness. Just in case you don’t believe me…
		+
		+	In the book of Genesis, Jacob (the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham…that Jacob) dresses up as his brother Esau in order to intentionally trick their half-blind, dying father into giving him his brother’s inheritance. He lies to his father three times, and when his deceitfulness is finally discovered, instead of being punished, Jacob is blessed and rewarded by God, who promises to make him (and not his brother) the father of the nation of Israel.
		+
		+	In Exodus, the scriptures celebrate two midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, who are commanded by the Pharoah to kill all the male babies born to the Hebrew women. Exodus 1:17-19: “But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, ‘Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?’ The midwives said to Pharaoh, ‘The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.’”
		+
		+	In other words, they lied. They lied to save the lives of the Hebrew children. And how did God respond? Verse 20-21: “So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.”
		+
		+	There are many other examples throughout the Bible,, but you get the point.

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:35, 30 September 2023
Line 11:		Line 11:
	Some time later the woodcutter was walking with his wife along the riverbank, and his wife fell into the river. When he cried out, the Lord again appeared and asked him, "Why are you crying? "The woodcutter replied, "Oh Lord, my wife has fallen into the water!" The Lord went down into the water and came up with Jennifer Lopez. "Is this your wife?" the Lord asked.		Some time later the woodcutter was walking with his wife along the riverbank, and his wife fell into the river. When he cried out, the Lord again appeared and asked him, "Why are you crying? "The woodcutter replied, "Oh Lord, my wife has fallen into the water!" The Lord went down into the water and came up with Jennifer Lopez. "Is this your wife?" the Lord asked.
	"Yes," cried the woodcutter. The Lord was furious. "You lied! That is an untruth!" The woodcutter replied, "Oh, forgive me, my Lord. It is a misunderstanding. You see, if I had said 'no' to Jennifer Lopez, you would have come up with Scarlett Johansson. Then if I also said 'no' to her, you would have come up with my wife. Had I then said 'yes,' you would have given me all three. Lord, I am a poor man, and am not able to take care of three wives, so THAT'S why I said yes to Jennifer Lopez."		"Yes," cried the woodcutter. The Lord was furious. "You lied! That is an untruth!" The woodcutter replied, "Oh, forgive me, my Lord. It is a misunderstanding. You see, if I had said 'no' to Jennifer Lopez, you would have come up with Scarlett Johansson. Then if I also said 'no' to her, you would have come up with my wife. Had I then said 'yes,' you would have given me all three. Lord, I am a poor man, and am not able to take care of three wives, so THAT'S why I said yes to Jennifer Lopez."
		+
		+	Today we’re talking about the ninth commandment, which is often rendered in the popular imagination as “you shall not lie.” Of course, that’s not what the commandment actually says, and today I hope to make the case that it’s not anywhere close to what it was originally supposed to mean. Most English versions of the Bible translate Deuteronomy 5:20 as “You shall not give false witness (or testimony) against your neighbor.” That’s actually a pretty decent translation of the Hebrew. The words “witness” and “testimony” in both English as well as Hebrew are LEGAL terms, referring to the things you say when questioned in court, or when making a formal accusation (i.e. a lawsuit) against someone else.
		+
		+	False witness, or false testimony, is a type of perjury, and perjury (in the ancient world as well as today) IS in fact lying while under oath—so we can see how this commandment often gets boiled down to an overly-simplistic “Don’t lie. Ever. Under any circumstances.” To be fair, there ARE plenty of places in the Bible where God condemns the act of lying—it’s just that the ninth commandment isn’t one of them. And there are ALSO plenty of places in the Bible where God condones, or even BLESSES the act of lying. Just in case you don’t believe me…

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 ==Ten Laws, One Love: False Witness==
-One day, a woodcutter was cutting a branch of a tree above a river, and his axe fell into the river. When he cried out, the Lord appeared and asked, "Why are you crying?" The woodcutter replied that his axe has fallen into water, and he needed the axe to make his living. The Lord went down into the water and reappeared with a golden axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked.
+One day, a woodcutter was cutting a branch of a tree above a river, and his axe fell into the river. When he cried out, the Lord appeared and asked, "Why are you crying?" The woodcutter replied that his axe had fallen into water, and he needed the axe to make his living. The Lord went down into the water and reappeared with a golden axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked.
-The woodcutter replied, "No." The Lord again went down and came up with a silver axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked. Again, the woodcutter replied, "No." The Lord went down again and came up with an iron axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked. The woodcutter replied, "Yes." The Lord was pleased with the man's honesty and gave him all three axes to keep, and the woodcutter went home happy.
+The woodcutter replied, "No." The Lord again went down and came up with a silver axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked. Again, the woodcutter replied, "No." The Lord went down again and came up with a rusted old iron axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked. The woodcutter replied, "Yes." The Lord was pleased with the man's honesty and gave him all three axes to keep, and the woodcutter went home happy.
-Some time later the woodcutter was walking with his wife along the riverbank, and his wife fell into the river. When he cried out, the Lord again appeared and asked him, "Why are you crying? "The woodcutter replied, "Oh Lord, my wife has fallen into the water!" The Lord went down into the water and came up with Scarlett Johansson. "Is this your wife?" the Lord asked.
+Some time later the woodcutter was walking with his wife along the riverbank, and his wife fell into the river. When he cried out, the Lord again appeared and asked him, "Why are you crying? "The woodcutter replied, "Oh Lord, my wife has fallen into the water!" The Lord went down into the water and came up with Jennifer Lopez. "Is this your wife?" the Lord asked.
-"Yes," cried the woodcutter. The Lord was furious. "You lied! That is an untruth!" The woodcutter replied, "Oh, forgive me, my Lord. It is a misunderstanding. You see, if I had said 'no' to Scarlett Johansson, You would have come up with Jennifer Lawrence. Then if I also said 'no' to her, you would have come up with my wife. Had I then said 'yes,' you would have given me all three. Lord, I am a poor man, and am not able to take care of three wives, so THAT'S why I said yes to Scarlett Johansson."
+"Yes," cried the woodcutter. The Lord was furious. "You lied! That is an untruth!" The woodcutter replied, "Oh, forgive me, my Lord. It is a misunderstanding. You see, if I had said 'no' to Jennifer Lopez, you would have come up with Scarlett Johansson. Then if I also said 'no' to her, you would have come up with my wife. Had I then said 'yes,' you would have given me all three. Lord, I am a poor man, and am not able to take care of three wives, so THAT'S why I said yes to Jennifer Lopez."

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:10, 30 September 2023
Line 6:		Line 6:

	==Ten Laws, One Love: False Witness==		==Ten Laws, One Love: False Witness==
		+	One day, a woodcutter was cutting a branch of a tree above a river, and his axe fell into the river. When he cried out, the Lord appeared and asked, "Why are you crying?" The woodcutter replied that his axe has fallen into water, and he needed the axe to make his living. The Lord went down into the water and reappeared with a golden axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked.
		+	The woodcutter replied, "No." The Lord again went down and came up with a silver axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked. Again, the woodcutter replied, "No." The Lord went down again and came up with an iron axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked. The woodcutter replied, "Yes." The Lord was pleased with the man's honesty and gave him all three axes to keep, and the woodcutter went home happy.
		+
		+	Some time later the woodcutter was walking with his wife along the riverbank, and his wife fell into the river. When he cried out, the Lord again appeared and asked him, "Why are you crying? "The woodcutter replied, "Oh Lord, my wife has fallen into the water!" The Lord went down into the water and came up with Scarlett Johansson. "Is this your wife?" the Lord asked.
		+	"Yes," cried the woodcutter. The Lord was furious. "You lied! That is an untruth!" The woodcutter replied, "Oh, forgive me, my Lord. It is a misunderstanding. You see, if I had said 'no' to Scarlett Johansson, You would have come up with Jennifer Lawrence. Then if I also said 'no' to her, you would have come up with my wife. Had I then said 'yes,' you would have given me all three. Lord, I am a poor man, and am not able to take care of three wives, so THAT'S why I said yes to Scarlett Johansson."