Teer Hardy's Blog, page 6
August 25, 2021
In Remembrance – Rev. Thomas McKenzie
Friend of the podcast, Rev. Thomas McKenzie, died tragically Monday morning with his daughter in an automobile accident.
“It is with deep sadness that I write to inform you that this morning, Thomas and his 22-year-old daughter Ella died in an accident on Interstate 40 west of Nashville,” the Rev. Kenny Benge, associate pastor of Church of the Redeemer in Nashville, told parishioners in an email message.
Thomas was on the first day of his sabbatical and was heading to Santa Fe, New Mexico where his daughter, Ella, was a student at St. John’s College. During his sabbatical, Thomas had planned on walking the Camino de Santiago.
Thomas was on Episode 209 of Crackers & Grape Juice.
Please keep Laura and Sophie McKenzie, and the Redeemer Nashville congregation in your prayers as they navigate this agonizing time, joining in prayer:
Most merciful God, whose wisdom is beyond our understanding: deal graciously with those who mourn, especially Laura and Sophie. Surround them with your love, that they not be overwhelmed by their loss, but have confidence in your goodness, and strength to meet the days to come, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
August 13, 2021
Episode 318 : Ryan Burge - The Nones, Myths about the Trump Voter, and the Shrinking Silver of Progressive Christianity
This episode has something for everyone. Ryan Burge, the Rainman of religious statistics joins the podcast to talk about the nones, COVID-19 vaccines and masks, myths about the Trump voter, the shrinking sliver of Progressive Christianity, and a whole list of things you probably wouldn't want to discuss in mixed company.
Ryan Burge is the author of The Nones: Who They Are, Where They Came From, and Where They're Going. He's an American Baptist pastor, a Professor of Political Science at Eastern Illinois University, and rules Twitter with his graphs.
This is thermometer scores put in rank order among mainline, evangelicals, and Catholics.
— Ryan Burge 📊 (@ryanburge) August 6, 2021
It's clear that evangelicals are the outliers here. Much warmer towards the NRA, ICE, Capitalists.
Cooler towards LGBT, the UN, Planned Parenthood. pic.twitter.com/LhyTkAPBe0
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July 30, 2021
Everywhere Present: Christianity in a One-Storey Universe
Father Stephen is a priest of the Orthodox Church in America, Pastor Emeritus of St. Anne Orthodox Church in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He is also the author of Everywhere Present and the Glory to God podcast series.
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July 22, 2021
Grumpy Old Men
Crackers & Grape Juice is preparing for a series of conversations with the godfather of the podcast Will Willimon and his BFF Tony Robinson. Will and Tony have been guests on the pod.
To help us gear up (and to keep Statler and Waldorf on track) we want to hear from you. What questions or topics would you want to hear Will and Tony tackle. Nothing is off-limits (unless it is, then it will be).
Name * First Name Last Name Email * Subject * Message * Thank you!July 20, 2021
You Can't Control It
Spending most of my ministry inside the Beltway I have learned the best way to be alone in a coffee shop, not bothered by the over-eager person at the table next to you, is to put my Bible on the table next to my laptop or notebook. 99% of the time it works every time. Nothing acts like kryptonite in North Arlington than the combination of a clergy collar, a Bible – preferably opened to Revelation – and overpriced drip coffee.
Two Fridays ago, I was sitting at a table in Frederick, MD, my hometown, reading a book. I had my typical “out in the field” work setup that usually garners me great success in Arlington minus the clergy collar. A man and his girlfriend asked if they could join me. “Oh, sure, I’m just reading a book," I said all the while thinking this will not take too long. I flashed the cover of the book their way, The Ninefold Path of Jesus by Mark Scandrette. BAM, kryptonite! I was thinking they would say, “we’ll let you be.” After I had deployed what always worked in Arlington, 99% success rate remember, they sat down.
We exchanged pleasantries, sat in awkward silence for a while, and once I outed myself as a pastor (it was hard at that point to go with my typical architect or lawyer pseudo gig) Phil began to tell me about his brother. Phil described his brother as being the wild child of the family. Phil used the phrase “out of control” more than once and stated that his brother needed to get his life together and settle down. “Don’t we all,” I replied forgetting everything I had learned in the past year of Clinical Pastoral Education.
“Teer,” Phil said, “will you pray for my brother? You’re a pastor, you can do that right? Even if you don’t know him?”
“Well, I do know a little about him. Of course, I’ll pray for him. If you don’t mind me asking, what is your brother’s name?”
“His name is Jesus (Hey-Seus).”
David was finally able to rest. His people were settled in Jerusalem, the city that would bear his name. Once again, the Ark was in the possession of God’s people, the recipients of the covenant God made on Mount Saini. And David, he had constructed a home of cedar for himself.
Everyone and everything was where it belonged.
Their enemies were at bay.
David's kingdom had been established. His rule was legitimized.
Then, he had an idea.
“Look at this,” David said. “Here I am, comfortable in a luxurious house of cedar, and the Chest of God sits in a plain tent.”[1] It did not make sense to David that God would be in a tent while he, the king, resided comfortably in the posh-kingly digs of Jerusalem. Nathan, forgetting everything he was taught on the first day of prophet-school – not prayerfully conferring with God – OK’d the king’s building project. David was going to build a home for the Lord. In the ancient near-East the practice of building homes, temples, was a tool to legitimize a ruler’s rule as well as ensure favor with the gods or god of the earthly rulers choosing.
David’s status and place as king, but not yet his legacy, was sealed by defeating the Philistines and recovering the Ark. David’s building project was a further attempt to solidify his name, his rule, and his legacy. If David can move the Lord’s residence from the mobile Ark to a permanent temple no one would be able to question him, his rule, or his legacy. A temple would relocate the presence of the Lord, symbolized by the Ark to a permeant structure within David’s namesake city.
The Lord enters the scene, speaking to Nathan in a dream, “Thus says the Lord…[2] "Hey, Nathan since you didn't check with me on this one let me tell you and that king, I installed you as king and you didn’t think to check with how I might feel about this house and temple business you’ve cooked up.”[3] David and perhaps Nathan too had forgotten that up to that moment the Lord had been with David and Israel. “Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more.”[4]
The Lord did not require or desire a home. The Lord would not be contained, domesticated, or moved away from God’s people. The Lord, though, did not back away from David. Instead of David building a house for the Lord, the Lord would build a house for David. The Lord would build a dynasty. The name and legacy of David would live on. “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”[5]
“Your brother’s name is Jesus (Hey-Seus)?” I asked. “As in Jesus?”
“Yes,” Phil responded.
“Please pray that he will settle down, get his life together, and you know, do what he’s supposed to do.”
“With a name like that, I don’t know how much praying will domesticate this guy,” I thought to myself.
“Of course, I’ll pray for your brother.”
David was able to control God just as much as I can prevent the movement of God with a well-placed Bible on a table. No matter how hard David tried, no matter how hard we try we are unable to domesticate, to control, to keep at bay the movement and presence of God. This section of 2 Samuel is titled “God’s Covenant with David” with God being the center of the story and not the actions of David no matter how well-intended or pious David’s actions were.
Introduced in this oracle to Nathan was the unconditional grace of God to Israel, the bedrock of hope, securing the hope of David and his people even when they turned away from God. God would raise up a house out of David’s name. David’s son will raise a temple, a house for the Lord, and ultimately the messianic hopes of all creation would bear David's name. Jesus would be born into David's line, bearing his name, establishing the house of God as the cornerstone, built upon the witness of the prophets and the apostles.
This is the kingdom, the Kingdom of God, we saw inaugurated in Bethlehem.
It was the kingdom, the Kingdom of God, that could not be broken by the pains of the cross and the separation of death.
And it is the kingdom, the Kingdom of God, Christ promises will be fully realized, by all of creation. All of creation repenting, turning back towards God and away from the security promised to us by power and lifestyle.
God’s Kingdom cannot be contained, manipulated or used to legitimize anything other than the reign of God in Jesus Christ.
I was reminded of this, again, on Monday morning. Seated in the corner at Starbucks on Lee Highway, my NRSV Bible was placed conspicuously on the corner of the table when one of the saints of Mount Olivet found me. I was not called out by title, no “Hey Pastor Teer!” atop the sound of coffee grinders and people demanding the speak to the manager. Rather a reminder that the church, along with all of creation is joined together, inseparable, and a growing temple, house of the Lord. Christ is in you. Christ is in us, in word and sacrament. So much so that the Lord cannot be controlled and is always with us.
[1] 2 Samuel 7:2, The Message
[2] 2 Samuel 7:5, NRSV
[3] 2 Samuel 7:5, Teer Hardy's translation
[4] 2 Samuel 7:8-10, NRSV
[5] 2 Samuel 7:12-13, NRSV
July 12, 2021
Settling Down
It was a dramatic scene – God’s people moving with God to Jerusalem, a life of traveling with God that they knew before defeat at the hands of the Philistines. And now, after King David and his Ark recovering army defeated the Philistines, they would find a home in Jerusalem. A home with the Ark. A home with God.
It is a dramatic scene today, God’s people returning to a life they knew a world of community and interaction before the siege by COVD-19. Not exactly the life they knew – we knew – but a changed world. The constant throughout both stories is the presence of God, the hope of God.
With the Ark installed on a cart King David and the thirty thousand people began their procession, taking the newly reclaimed Ark toward Jerusalem. The life of Israel up to this moment was held inside the four-feet-long, two-feet-high, and two-and-a-half-feet-wide box. The Ark contained the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments received by Moses from God on Mount Sinai after Israel had been freed from their bondage in Egypt. The Ark symbolized God’s protection over God’s people. Inside the Ark is where God dwelled.
As Israel moved so did the Ark. It was carried on two wooden staves – poles – by Levites, members of Israel's priestly class. The Ark had accompanied Israel into battle, meaning that as Israel traveled and fought God was with them. Mighty King David recovered the Ark after it had been lost in battle with the Philistines and was now moving the Ark into Jerusalem.
This procession must have been a remarkable sight – thirty-thousand people along with all that would be needed to support and sustain them moving together, and at the head of the procession was the Ark (not being carried by the Levites on wooden staves) and King David. There was music and was David dancing. This was a moment of celebration for Israel, and for King David a moment that would legitimize and strengthen his rule and kingdom.
The way in which Israel's religious life was ordered was about to change. The nation was about to go from a confederacy of tribes to one whose religious identity went from being on the move to being centrally located in the center of the nation's power.
Over the past month we have experienced change in the way we orient ourselves and move about our own community. Just three-months into 2020 significant change, without much warning charged into our lives (minus the dancing) and changed the way we lived as a community. Our entire world was changed. In the church we centered our shared life on gathering week after week in sanctuaries, church social halls, school cafeterias, bars, and wherever else space can be found to proclaim the lordship of Jesus Christ over all creation. Regardless of the church you attended before March of 2020, each week the proclamation was the same. But then, with a different kind of fanfare then that of King David, change was forced upon us. Change intended to do no harm to one another and those within our broader communities. And now, we find our world changing again.
Ask any child and they will tell you change is not easy. Adults can use words like adaptability to highlight strengths but when you get down to it our kids know better than we do. Change is not easy. Many of us find comfort knowing that the trivial things - and at times not so trivial things - in our lives are constant, not changing because if they did, when they do, finding our footing becomes increasingly difficult the longer we have been doing what it was that was changed.
Change can cause us to take our eye off the main thing, the main thing that our communities and families gather for and proclaim week after week. Change in the church raises our anxiety as many of us see the church to be a constant - an unchanging body. The main thing remains the main thing - Jesus Christ crucified, dead, and raised reconciling all of creation with our Creator – even while the world is changing.
As the Ark made its way toward Jerusalem and then into the city change was occurring, all the while King David led the procession with dancing. This change caused the procession to lose sight of the main thing - that God dwelled among the people in the Ark. The Ark was not transported as required by the Law. The Ark, rather than being carried by Levite priests, was placed on a cart. It was pulled. And what happened next, was left out of our scripture reading. Not by the reader, verses 6-11 were omitted by the Revised Common Lectionary. Verses 6-7, “When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen shook it. The anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God struck him there because he reached out his hand to the ark; and he died there beside the ark of God.” As the Ark on a cart was being pulled by oxen and not carried on wooden staves, moved along the uneven road Uzzah was struck dead for acting too casually with the Ark, with the dwelling place of the Lord. We do not know why this change in transporting of the Ark was made – maybe in the rush to get the Ark to Jerusalem they forgot or figured it did not matter. The Revised Common Lectionary left out what we need the most to understand change while being a community of people living as witness to our risen Lord.
As the world resumes more and more in-person and indoor activities, and as changes we were forced to make 16 months ago either become permanent or relics of the past the church as a choice to make - what will we keep with us and what will we allow to be left behind. How might we enter the new space we find ourselves in with singing and dancing, and at the same time not become too causal with that which the church has been doing since Mary and Mary found the tomb to be empty?
Israel's story in 1 and 2 Samuel is one of change. The cycle of the story in 1 and 2 Samuel from Israel's defeat and loss of the Ark to the Philistines defeat and Israel's reclaiming of the Ark does not bring to reader, it did not bring Israel back to the original starting point. The story may have pushed Israel into a new physical location with a new King legitimized buy by the move but God, who had been with them - delivering them from captivity, bringing them all the way to the City of David - that God was steady, unwavering, and faithful.
Change was inevitable for the people of God then and is inevitable for the people of God today. We may change how we gather, where we gather, and then change it all again, but what we give witness to and proclaim does not change - Christ resurrected and reigning. We may dance and sing, we may play the organ, riff on a guitar, or bang on a cowbell and God remains God. God remains with us by the love of God our Creator, the grace of Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Back to Uzzah for a second. I know that it sounds like Uzzah was trying to help and he was. There are many thoughts on why he was struck down – he was too close to God’s holiness, or it was an issue of purity, meaning he was not ritually clean for the procession to Jerusalem, he was not ritually prepared to come before the presence of God.
For us, we believe that God’s power and presence were nurtured in the ark of Mary’s womb, God in Jesus Christ who suffered for us rather than striking us down. As we move closer to exiting this pandemic the power of Jesus Christ is with us in our songs, prayers, and yes, even in our dancing – of celebration and even lament. With us, in the same way, Christ was with the saints before us and will be with the saints that are yet to come.
June 29, 2021
How to Revive Evangelism
In a post-Christian, post-modern, post-truth society where Jesus' followers aren't often well regarded, modern evangelism approaches are eroding and increasingly ineffective. Christians often talk more than we listen, confront when we should converse, and demand that people believe before they belong. We need a compelling way to share our faith that combines the timeless practices of Jesus with timely perspectives about our post-everything era.
Author and Executive Director of Alpha US Craig Springer believes that reaching non-Christians is possible, but only if we are willing to shift our perspectives, abandon ineffective methodologies, and consider the unique cultural moment in which we are living. In How to Revive Evangelism, he shares the often-overlooked evangelistic approaches of Jesus himself and demonstrates how returning to these fundamentals is key to reviving evangelism in the 21st century. Incorporating groundbreaking and often startling data, Springer offers Christians seven shifts in how to share their faith with friends and family members, neighbors, and coworkers which create greater potential for life change.
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June 16, 2021
Keeping The Main Thing The Main Thing
This week (and last) I am the guest (expert?) on Strangely Warmed. A few of the questions explored: How many stories can you fit in one story? What does true trust look like? What was at stake for Paul and the spreading of the Gospel?
1 Samuel 17.32-49, Psalm 9.9-20, 2 Corinthians 6.1-13, Mark 4.35-41
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June 10, 2021
The Wedding
The ubiquity of scripture’s contrast between commands and promises, how those who want a Christianity without the Cross are stuck with inconvenient scriptures, and a picture of grace as Jesus serving the best wine for a drunk world too far gone to notice or appreciate it. The gang at Hermeneutics continues our new series through the Gospel of John by taking a look at Jesus’s first “sign,” turning water into wine.
John 2:1-12
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June 8, 2021
We Know How The Story Ends
This week (and next) I am the guest (expert?) on Strangely Warmed. A few of the questions explored: Should we have enthusiasm for the future? Why is God obsessed with impossible possibilities? Are Christians too confident?
1 Samuel 15.34-16.13, Psalm 20, 2 Corinthians 5.6-17, Mark 4.26-34
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