Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)
@#$%
Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)
@#$%
"I am enchanted by the Sermon on the Mount. Being
merciful...
is the only good idea we have received so far...
I asked an Episcopalian priest the other day what I should
say to you about Palm Sunday itself...She told me to say
it was a brilliant satire on pomp and circumstance...
This has no doubt been a silly sermon.
I am sure you do not mind.
People don't come to church for preachments, of course,
but to daydream about God.
I thank you for your sweetly faked attention."
Kurt Vonnegut
(Excerpts from his Palm Sunday sermon at NYC's
St. Clement's Episcopalian Church in 1980)
@#$%
@#$%
Preface 1.
I hope Kathie
posts this on www.koppdisclosure.com
by Tuesday and Hans posts it on www.churchandworld.com
pretty soon after that.
While I'm a
homiletics professor and undershepherd
who knows those last two paragraphs above by Vonnegut are the predominant
reality on Sunday mornings, I know lots of pulpiteers really try to say
something worth something when the assigned hour rolls around.
Vocational
aspiration.
Anyway, I also
know folks lift liberally from others without footnotes.
It's called
plagiarism...if you're caught.
Ask Joe Biden.
Ask almost any
preacher or politician or talk show host or...
I'm reminded of
an ecclesiastical superior who called many years ago and said he had just
read something that sounded an "awful" lot like me.
He read it to me.
I said,
"Yeah, I wrote that."
He said,
"___, your former associate at ___, copied it word for word and included
it in his resume that came across my desk because he is looking at a
church in our presbytery. What do you want me to do about it?"
I said, "Say
that I'm flattered; but considering no one listens to what I say, reads what I
write, or buys books that I've written..."
@#$%
Preface 2.
You probably
didn't read the KD on anonymity.
Obviously, the
anonymous person who left an article for me this past Sunday about "The
Biblical Alternative to Easter" didn't either.
It was put on my
desk between services.
I forgot to lock
the door.
Well, it's your
typical thing written by somebody who thinks people like me don't think about
the traditions that have built up around Christmas and Easter and Pentecost
and...that are only coincidental to the historical Jesus and Biblical
revelation.
I guess the
anonymous person who left it for me doesn't think I think about that kinda
stuff.
She/he assumes
I'm as ignorant as everybody else.
Could be.
Probably.
I've just been
scratching the surface of my reborn relationship with Jesus since October 2011.
Depending upon
the grace of God, truth is I do my best.
It's never enough
for...but I do my best.
I sleep well.
Remember, I'm a
Psalm 62 kinda guy.
@#$%
So here are a few
notes on Palm Sunday for pulpiteers who have no problems lifting liberally
without footnotes; and people prone to leaving anonymous notes to enlighten
their...
@#$%
Expectations and
reality don't always match up.
That was the
problem on that first Palm Sunday.
Come to think of
it, not much has changed.
There's the real
Jesus and the imagined or reimagined
one.
@#$%
Truth is that
first Palm Sunday was a ticker tape travesty.
People were
hootin' and hollerin' their hosannas for all the wrong reasons.
What they wanted who He was/is didn't match
up.
@#$%
With thanks to
Robert McAfee Brown who wrote about the major misunderstandings in The Bible Speaks to You back
in 1955, a first century Gallup Poll may have looked like this:
"FIRST
MAN (very matter of
factly): 'Me? I'm looking for a descendent of David, to come
and rule the way King David did. Those were the days! We had land,
food, prestige, and a great king. Someday God will send another David who
will rule over us. Then we'll have peace and justice, and the enemy will
be destroyed. I only hope he comes soon.'
SECOND MAN (with a snarl): 'I don't
know just how we'll recognize the Messiah, but I can tell you this. He'll
be a great warrior. He'll push those blasted Romans back into the sea,
and we'll have our own land once again, without a bunch of foreigners ruling
us, taking all our money in taxes and keeping us poor. I'll join up with
his army first thing, and we'll hatch a revolution that will smash the Romans
to bits.'
THIRD MAN (rather wild-eyed): 'No,
it won't be as easy as that. We're in too deep for any mere man to
deliver us. Our only hope lies in a heavenly creature, sent down
from the clouds of heaven, with legions of angels. The sort of thing the
Book of Daniel talks about. He'll smite the oppressive Romans and deliver
us from them, and then set up his heavenly kingdom right here in
Palestine. That's the only thing that can save us.'"
Opinions are
like...
Everybody's got
one...at least.
Sometimes, even
in churches that should know better, truth and opinions are often confused.
@#$%
Expectation was
the Messiah would shed the blood of the bad guys.
Truth was Jesus
shed His blood as the price of securing our eternal life and confident living
between now and then.
@#$%
Two thousand
years later, too many folks in churches that should know better are blinded to
the truth by bunnies, bonnets, eggs, and jeweled-studded-shiny-silver crosses.
@#$%
Maybe that's why
so many folks in churches that should know better give less than their best to
the Master after He...
@#$%
Long ago, I heard
an old guy say, "If you really want to tell the truth about Jesus in a way
that they'll get, take the Easter Bunny and Santa and nail 'em to a cross in
the sanctuary on Friday and tell 'em to see if anything happens to 'em in
three days."
Never done that.
Never will.
Depending upon
the grace of God, I do my best...and remember those last two paragraphs above
by Vonnegut.
@#$%
@#$%
@#$%
Blessings and Love!
@#$%
No comments:
Post a Comment