{"id":6414,"date":"2017-10-03T07:41:58","date_gmt":"2017-10-03T12:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/?p=6414"},"modified":"2017-09-26T13:41:59","modified_gmt":"2017-09-26T18:41:59","slug":"october-10-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/october-10-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"October 8, 2017&#8211;Taking a Knee or Making a Stand?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Scott Mims, Virginia Beach, VA<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Warm-up Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What are some of the most important symbols or images of the Christian faith to you and what do they communicate? (For example, what meanings does the cross convey?)<\/li>\n<li>Think about your worship service, what symbolic actions, gestures, or postures do you notice? What do they \u201csay?\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Can you think of any other important symbols at work in our daily lives? What do they communicate \u2013 what \u201cstories\u201d do they tell? Do they draw people together or push them apart?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Taking a Knee or Making a Stand?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some stood.\u00a0 Some knelt.\u00a0 Some remained in the locker rooms or stood together in the tunnel, as an unprecedented collective action unfolded prior to the kickoff of all 14 NFL games on Sunday, September 24.\u00a0 During the pregame ceremonies, in which the American flag is displayed as the national anthem is sung, players, coaches, staff, and<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/10\/iStock-540983048.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-6422 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/10\/iStock-540983048-300x171.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"171\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/10\/iStock-540983048-300x171.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/10\/iStock-540983048-768x439.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/10\/iStock-540983048-1024x585.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/10\/iStock-540983048-250x143.jpg 250w, https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/10\/iStock-540983048-612x350.jpg 612w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>even some team owners locked arms with each other on the sidelines in response to comments made earlier in the weekend by President Donald Trump. The President had called for team owners to \u201cfire or suspend\u201d players who kneel during the national anthem.\u00a0 As the acts of solidarity among NFL teams played out throughout Sunday\u2019s events, President Trump continued to weigh in against those who knelt via Twitter, encouraging fans to boycott games if the protests continued.\u00a0 The national conversation that was sparked by these events is ongoing.<\/p>\n<p>At the heart of the issue is the meaning and power of important symbols, and of the postures one assumes regarding those symbols. Do you stand or take a knee?\u00a0 Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid of the San Francisco 49ers originally decided to kneel during the anthem as a protest to what they understand to be issues of systemic racial injustice.\u00a0 You can read a recent opinion piece by Eric Reid outlining their reasons and intentions here: <a href=\"https:\/\/nyti.ms\/2yoJqPU\">https:\/\/nyti.ms\/2yoJqPU<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>On the other side of the debate are those who believe that the players\u2019 refusal to stand during the national anthem shows great disrespect for the flag, and, therefore, for America, itself.\u00a0 This is the President\u2019s stated objection, also tying the symbol of the flag to the service of those in our military, and to their sacrifices on our nation\u2019s behalf.\u00a0 For President Trump, the issue is not about race.\u00a0 (You can read one of many articles outlining the President\u2019s position here: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics\/washington\/la-na-essential-washington-updates-trump-on-his-role-in-kneeling-protest-1506289872-htmlstory.html\">http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics\/washington\/la-na-essential-washington-updates-trump-on-his-role-in-kneeling-protest-1506289872-htmlstory.html<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>So, what is this moment in our national conversation really about?\u00a0 Is it about confronting injustice or disrespect for the flag?\u00a0 Is it about standing with those who have given of themselves to create a nation characterized by values such as freedom, justice, and equality?\u00a0 Or is it about taking a knee in critique of how far we have yet to go in the struggle to make those values a reality in the lives of many people of color?\u00a0 How can our interpretation of certain postures be so different? And finally, who gets to decide what the real issues are?\u00a0 Perhaps it is the symbols that are in play, and the power they have, that make it hard for us to know.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Discussion Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Flags are potent national symbols, and can impact us at deep, emotional levels. Have you ever experienced a time when the sight or use of the American flag stirred you emotionally?<\/li>\n<li>How would you answer the questions in the final paragraph above?<\/li>\n<li>What issues have threatened to destroy our unity as a nation in the past? What issues divide people today?\u00a0 How are these issues the same?\u00a0 How are they different?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bible.oremus.org\/?ql=373441119\">Isaiah 5:1-7<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bible.oremus.org\/?ql=373441149\">Philippians 3:4b-14<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bible.oremus.org\/?ql=373441176\">Matthew 21:33-46<\/a><\/p>\n<p>(Text links are to <a href=\"http:\/\/bible.oremus.org\/\">Oremus Bible Browser<\/a>. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.elca.org\/Our-Work\/Congregations-and-Synods\/Worship\/Lectionary\/YearB\">Lectionary Readings<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic <a href=\"http:\/\/www.agnusday.org\/\">Agnus Day.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Gospel Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In our gospel lesson for today, Jesus is also dealing in some very powerful symbols.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 \u201cParable of the Wicked Tenants\u201d follows his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event we celebrate on Palm\/Passion Sunday as the beginning of Holy Week.\u00a0 The<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>donkey and the route that Jesus takes in this procession are not accidental.\u00a0 Jesus makes use of potent national symbols to make a statement about himself, as the gospel writer makes clear in Matthew 21:1-11.\u00a0 Jesus then attacks the powers that be through \u201ccleansing the Temple,\u201d itself a central symbol for the Jewish people. Among other things, Jesus\u2019 actions lead to the setting of this story, a series of confrontations with the Jewish religious leaders and authorities. Last week\u2019s gospel reading (Matt. 22:23-32) presented the first part of the conversation we rejoin today.\u00a0 In this conversation, the Jewish leaders challenge Jesus\u2019 legitimacy and authority to do the things he is doing.\u00a0 He, in turn, calls into question not only their legitimacy as leaders of the true Israel, but also their loyalties and motives concerning God and God\u2019s purposes and desires for the people.<\/p>\n<p>One of the well-known symbols that Jesus uses in these confrontations is that of a vineyard, long an image for Israel and Israel\u2019s special relationship as God\u2019s people.\u00a0 The prophet Isaiah\u2019s \u201cSong of the Unfruitful Vineyard\u201d in today\u2019s first lesson (Isaiah 5:1-7) is but one example of this symbol\u2019s use in Scripture, and is well worth reading over.\u00a0 The point of Isaiah\u2019s message is Israel\u2019s unfaithfulness.\u00a0 What more could God have done?\u00a0 God prepared in the very best ways, planting and cultivating a people through whom a harvest of faithfulness, justice and righteousness was expected.\u00a0 What God received was something else altogether.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus\u2019 parable follows a very similar plot.\u00a0 Here a landowner prepares a vineyard and leases the vineyard to tenant farmers, expecting to receive his due \u2013 a share of the harvest.\u00a0 They in turn are not faithful to their responsibilities, but instead treat the landowner\u2019s representatives (and therefore the landowner, himself) with great contempt and violence.\u00a0 Now given that Jesus\u2019 opponents were also experts in the Scriptures, it is easy to imagine that they made the connections right off the bat.\u00a0 The landowner is God, of course, and the tenants are the leadership of Israel.\u00a0 The long-string of servants which the tenants mistreat are the prophets who were beaten, stoned, even killed for declaring the word of the Lord and pointing Israel back to her true purpose and vocation.\u00a0 But who then is the landowner\u2019s son in the story?\u00a0 That is the question.<\/p>\n<p>Lest we think the answer to this question is obvious \u2013 Jesus, of course &#8211; remember that the whole issue behind these confrontations and the increasing animosity towards Jesus centers around his true identity and by what authority and power he is doing the things he is doing.\u00a0 In answer, Jesus points them to two places in the Scriptures, Psalm 118:22-23 (Matt. 21:42) and Daniel 2:44-45 (Matt. 21:44).\u00a0 In the first, Jesus makes use of a play on words in the Hebrew language between the word for \u201cson,\u201d <em>ben<\/em>, and the word for \u201cstone,\u201d <em>eben<\/em>.\u00a0 Though they are rejecting Jesus and his message, and indeed will ultimately reject him through the cross, God has something else in mind and will vindicate Jesus in the end.\u00a0 The second passage from Daniel serves to underscore Jesus\u2019 point.\u00a0 Here again the image of a stone is used, but this time from an important passage in terms of the hope of a time \u2013 a messianic age \u2013 in which God would defeat all the opposing kingdoms and restore Israel.\u00a0 God is doing that, Jesus claims, but not in the way that many, including his opponents, were expecting.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, the chief priests and the Pharisees who have come to confront Jesus get the point.\u00a0 They are the tenants in the story and Jesus is the son.\u00a0 Enraged by such a challenge to their legitimacy and authority, they want to arrest Jesus \u2013 and will eventually \u2013 but for now they can only stand by helpless because of the crowds around them.<\/p>\n<p>It is easy, of course, to read this passage from the perspective of being on the right side of things.\u00a0 After all, we know who Jesus is.\u00a0 We believe in him, \u201cunlike those stubborn, hard-hearted people who put him on the cross.\u201d\u00a0 Sadly, the history of the church has been to do just that, to read such passages and find in them a reason to hate and persecute our Jewish brothers and sisters as \u201cChrist killers.\u201d\u00a0 Yet if we are to listen carefully to our own experiences \u2013 to conversations such as the ones we are having now around taking a knee or making a stand \u2013 then perhaps we can come to a deeper understanding of what is happening in this passage, especially in light of its\u00a0 use of powerful symbols of faith and national identity.<\/p>\n<p>One final thought concerning the ending of this parable: if Jesus is indeed the Messiah (and I believe that he is), and if we are \u201cjoint heirs\u201d with him of God\u2019s kingdom as Paul says (Romans 8:15-17), then are we not also accountable to God for producing the \u201cfruits\u201d God expects to see?\u00a0 Perhaps then another issue this passage calls us to think about is this, if we, as followers of Jesus, have been given the kingdom as Matthew declares (Matt. 21:43), then what sorts of \u201cfruit\u201d is God looking for from us?\u00a0 What sort of \u201ckingdom\u201d is God calling <em>us<\/em> to be?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Discussion Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When we pray in the Lord\u2019s Prayer, \u201cYour kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven\u2026\u201d what do you think we are asking? What does God\u2019s kingdom look like to you? What pictures or images come to mind?<\/li>\n<li>What is the \u201charvest\u201d that you think God wants\/expects to see from God\u2019s \u201ckingdom people?\u201d Perhaps make a list together.\u00a0 Some passages you might investigate for ideas include: Isaiah 58:1-14; Micah 6:6-8; the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7).\u00a0 What other verses, stories, or parables come to mind?<\/li>\n<li>If you talked above about the issues that divide people today, what do you think would be a Christian response(s) to some of the things you discussed? Or if there are other issues, anxieties, or needs particular to your group or community, talk about how you might respond in ways which bring God\u2019s love and light to bear.\u00a0 What is one small step\u2026one small action that you could take today to make a difference?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Activity Suggestion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Take a tour your worship space together. What symbols do you notice? If your space has stained glass windows depicting biblical people or stories, for instance, why do you think those themes were chosen?\u00a0 Does the shape of your worship space or the way that the altar is arranged communicate something?\u00a0 For example, many older sanctuaries are built in the shape of a cross, and altars are often placed in the round.\u00a0 What are the messages?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Closing Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gracious and loving God, in the waters of baptism you name us and claim us and make us your very own.\u00a0 Thank you for the gift of faith, and for your relentless love that will not let us go, no matter what.\u00a0 Empower us by your Spirit to be the kingdom-people you call us to be, and lead us to be living signs of your grace in the lives of those around us.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name we pray.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scott Mims, Virginia Beach, VA \u00a0 Warm-up Questions What are some of the most important symbols or images of the Christian faith to you and what do they communicate? (For example, what meanings does the cross convey?) Think about your worship service, what symbolic actions, gestures, or postures do you notice? What do they \u201csay?\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1400],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>October 8, 2017-Taking a Knee or Making a Stand? - Faith Lens<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/october-10-2017\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"October 8, 2017-Taking a Knee or Making a Stand? - Faith Lens\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Scott Mims, Virginia Beach, VA \u00a0 Warm-up Questions What are some of the most important symbols or images of the Christian faith to you and what do they communicate? (For example, what meanings does the cross convey?) Think about your worship service, what symbolic actions, gestures, or postures do you notice? What do they \u201csay?\u201d [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/october-10-2017\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith Lens\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-10-03T12:41:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/10\/iStock-540983048-300x171.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"faithlens\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"faithlens\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/faithlens\\\/october-10-2017\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/faithlens\\\/october-10-2017\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"faithlens\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/faithlens\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b8300066980f72581b618e79dbe972e7\"},\"headline\":\"October 8, 2017&#8211;Taking a Knee or Making a Stand?\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-03T12:41:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/faithlens\\\/october-10-2017\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1938,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/faithlens\\\/october-10-2017\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/15\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/iStock-540983048-300x171.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Post\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/faithlens\\\/october-10-2017\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/faithlens\\\/october-10-2017\\\/\",\"name\":\"October 8, 2017-Taking a Knee or Making a Stand? 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(For example, what meanings does the cross convey?) Think about your worship service, what symbolic actions, gestures, or postures do you notice? 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