Ramblings

"Childlike but not Childish" - 9/19/2021

Sermon presented at Nagoya All Saints International Church. http://nagoyaallsaintsinternationalchurch.com/ Based on Mark 9: 30-37

In 2014, the US cable channel Lifetime, sponsored a contest called Child Genius that offered a prize of a $100,000 (nearly eleven million yen) toward a university scholarship for that child.

The series followed twenty gifted kids from around the United States as they prepared for the competition. Over the course of the series, the children were given sixteen tests on subjects like math and geography. At the conclusion of the contest, the winner was 13-year-old Vanya Shivashankar. Now seven years later, Ms. Shivashankar is a college student at Yale on track to become a cardiac surgeon.

The German word for these young geniuses is wunderkind, or kids who are natural wonders. Wunderkind would have been a curious designation in Jesus' day, for except for a very, very few children of the elite, most children were not people until they reached the age of thirteen and went through the rite of passage to adulthood. Although children were appreciated, and we know for example from other stories in the New Testament that children were loved. Just think of the story of the Syrophoenician woman earlier in Mark who comes to Jesus because her young daughter is ill. (Mark 7:25) Nonetheless, having survived their early years in an ancient culture with a high rate of childhood mortality, there would not have been child prodigy awards, much less college scholarships.

Of course, we could argue that Jesus himself was a child prodigy, given Luke's description of the 12-year-old Jesus dazzling the teachers in the temple (Luke 2:41-52). Maybe that is another reason, why Jesus was so fond of children, seeing in them the capacity for remarkable things, despite their humble status.

What interests us today, however, are not children’s IQ’s, but, rather, other aspects of their lives that Jesus valued. It is Jesus' adult disciples, on the other hand, who are acting like a bunch of frustrated children.

Let us review. In today's Gospel, Jesus and the disciples are on the way back to Galilee from the mountain where Jesus was transfigured (vv. 2-13).  If you remember Jesus had taken only Peter, James, and John up that mountain.    On the way down they encountered the other disciples who had waited for them.  It seems that during that absence the remaining disciples had been approached by a man whose son had an evil spirit (vv. 14-29).  These disciples had tried to heal the boy and had failed.  Jesus of course cast out the evil spirit.

Today immediately follows that narrative arc and all begins as they are approaching Capernaum on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee --- the hometown of some of the disciples and where it seems Jesus had set up office. Ironically, after the episode when the disciples had been unable to cast out the evil from boy, while they are walking the disciples were arguing about which one of them was the greatest! To which Jesus asks, "What were you arguing about on the way?” But, like children caught doing something naughty, they kept silent (vv. 33-34). The disciples may have either recognized that they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar, or wanted to keep it a secret, either way, this conversation among the disciples becomes a teaching moment.

Although we may find the discussion out of order, remember that this assortment of men and women, had little chance of ever reaching any rank at all. This was a society and world, where nearly everyone focused on survival: everyday meals, a roof over one’s head and adding to their meagre holdings. Besides stark economic inequality, social rank was very stratified, and it was hard to move from a lower rank to a higher one. Therefore, we can assume that the disciples saw their association with Jesus as a potential elevator, whereby their own social status shoots to a higher floor, as it were. If he was truly the Messiah, Israel's king, then those who were closest to him would most certainly rank high in his kingdom and even score a prime seat near the throne in Jerusalem.

"Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all," Jesus suggests. Obviously, Jesus knew what was discussed. They were arguing about upward mobility, and yet Jesus reminds them that following him is completely an act of downward mobility. The wunderkinds in Jesus' kingdom are not the ones with the highest academic scores, but the ones who willingly take the place of the lowest. Now that must have come as quite a shock because most of the disciples were close to the lowest class. I can just imagine the disciples saying to themselves, “Jesus, we are already pretty low…. what could be lower?

To illustrate his point Jesus adds a visual aid. Jesus places a child among them. He gathers the child in his arms as if to reveal that this child, one we can just imagine who ran around Capernaum getting underfoot, was the most important person in the world at that moment. An educated assumption would be that this child was no kewpie, with clean clothes, recently bathed with fresh shampooed hair. More than likely, the child lived in poverty at the lowest rung of the social ladder.

Yet, the poverty child is the prodigy child. The child exemplifies the discipleship values of Jesus. "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me," says Jesus, "and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me" (v. 37).

So, what can today’s episode teach us other than our affluence makes this whole discipleship process that much more difficult. Here are some ideas that may resonate as I reflect on my own experience. When Jesus suggests a childlike stance to welcoming, he was not simply suggesting sponsoring a child in another country. It went much deeper.

My first observation should be clear but needs to be repeated.  Jesus is indicating the values of a child without being childlike. Jesus was to my knowledge, never childish in his behavior, yet welcomed all. Later in chapter 11, the Gospel of Mark retells the story of Jesus cleansing the temple, a temple whose focus was no longer on God alone, but corrupt. Jesus’ response was not a tantrum. Meaning, we are to be childlike toward the world, but not childish! For example, children are dependent on the provision of others yet can throw a tantrum when their desires are not fulfilled to their expectations. Adults recognize the tantrum as childish behavior.

As disciples we acknowledge that we are dependent on God’s provision, recognizing that we have received gifts to provide for ourselves and others. Yet we can be childish wishing God would comply with all our personal wishes. Not that we cannot pray for change, but I have experienced adult tantrums directed at God. Likewise, as adults we may exhibit childish behavior toward others when we have a sense of entitlement expecting comfort for example and wishing others would comply with our personal wishes.  As disciples with a posture of welcome, how are we childish in our behavior instead of childlike in welcoming?

A second observation is childlike welcome and validation. We all need validation, for someone to tell us that we are doing well. We all need people who recognize our worth and see value in us. Children need it as well as adults. Although we cannot go back 21 centuries, I would suspect that children then are like children now, more accepting of others and expressing it to the other. Children accept others, their thoughts and feelings with less hesitation and respond in kind. The older we get, the more we move toward validation by merit. Worth is more a measurement of intelligence, physical ability, and physical attractiveness.  Contrast that with our own value before God; it comes by grace through faith. God deeply values us without merit. So, the question is what would it mean for us as disciples --- as part of our childlike welcoming --- to express validation toward those without any obvious attributes?  Can we be child-like in freely recognizing others worth and see value in that person, regardless of any virtue out of thankfulness for the validation God has given us?

Finally, a great deal has been written about children and humility but it’s worth repeating. A famous reminder for me regarding humility comes in the Old Testament book of Jonah. At the conclusion of the book, if you remember, when Jonah finally does God’s bidding, Jonah is upset with the outcome.  In response God grows a tree where Jonah goes to sit in the shade.  Then God kills the tree and Jonah is angry.  To which, God reminds Jonah that Jonah is not God.

There are other places where scripture teaches us the importance of humility. As humility relates to children however, the value of humility goes hand in hand with vulnerability. As modeled in children --- because they have no other choice --- humility comes from a posture of weakness. As adults however, we segment those childlike values into unique distinct attributes.  Whereas a child will be vulnerable, humble, and weak all in one stroke. As adults we may strive for vulnerability --- without perish the thought --- being perceived as weak or humble.  Jesus may be reminding us of this combined quality of children. Can we not only express humility in our welcome but vulnerability and weakness, or do we always need to be in control?

In summary, Jesus offers a reminder that, as God's children, we are a special kind of genius; Jesus reminds us that as Children of God we are wunderkind, paradoxically, where becoming more childlike leads to greater maturity. We are each valued, forgiven and loved. For that reason, humility, vulnerability, and weakness are of value as disciples because they are the cracks for God’s light to shine. Let us grow not in our childish behavior but as God’s childlike people, in welcome toward ourselves and toward others, so that all may grow in God’s love. Amen.

"Leaning into Discomfort" - September 12, 2021

Sermon preached at Yokohama Union Church on Mark 8 27-38. https://yokohamaunionchurch.org/

Let’s do a quick survey.  In your opinion … do Japanese like to do surveys, yes?  Or no? 

One could argue that Japanese love surveys because no matter how quirky or offbeat the topic, we are bound to find that someone has conducted an アンケート調査 (ankēto chōsa, questionnaire survey). It seems everyone takes a survey: government agencies, NHK and other mass media, market research companies, life insurance, think tanks, universities the list goes on.  If not a survey than asking for an opinion.  Across the media TV media world, announcers with camera in toe, are stopping people on the corner to ask “What do you think about…”  Perhaps the most familiar survey, however, which is frequently cited in the media, is the public opinion surveys conducted by the Prime Minister’s Cabinet Office. 

Therefore, when Jesus took his disciples to Caesarea Philippi, it should seem familiar to us.  Jesus seems to be conducting a survey.  But in this case, it is a survey not so much designed to gather information or measure the effectiveness of his ministry.  Instead of gathering data, Jesus is beginning a conversation on redefining discipleship, and what he was looking for in his disciples and, by extension, from us.

But let us back up before we get too far into the gospel.  For there is an important background subject we need to discuss first --- location.  The location of today’s event is important.

Today, we are told immediately that Jesus and his disciples were in the region of Caesarea Philippi.  Caesarea Philippi is an area located in a northern present-day border area between Israel/Palestine and Lebanon.  Caesarea Philippi was a city first created by colonizing Greeks at the southwestern base of Mt. Harmon near a flowing spring that fed the River Jordan.  Now centuries later, other than some tourist shops it is no longer occupied.  The spring is more a trickle than a stream, and all that remains other than some Roman ruins, is what initially brought the Greeks to this area, a large cave next to the spring that was set aside to honor the Greek god of the wild, Pan.

Nonetheless its history is rich particularly at the time of Jesus.  For over the centuries from its Greek roots through the Roman occupation, additional temples for various religions were added particularly one for the Roman Emperor.  In other words, Jesus was asking his seeming survey questions in a region where all around him and the disciples were different religions being practiced in a largely Gentile area.  So, why here and not in Jerusalem or Galilee?  Why in this place?

The location is an important introduction into his theme: Discipleship begins at the end of our comfort zones, where we are less than certain, less than sure and less than comfortable.  We all crave comfort and calm.  Where we can feel cozy and secure is important to life, yet these attributes to comfort can be barriers. Why?  Is staying in our comfort zones always for the best? Especially if God says we need to change!  But getting out of one’s comfort zone to enable this change is not easy.  Try one morning do something that is out of ordinary, a change to routine.  One person once told me that they decided to brush their teeth standing on one leg, just to get out of her habits.  It lasted about a day, then without realizing she had promptly returned to her morning practice.  Perhaps we are less about routine, more spontaneous.  Regardless we all yearn for a state of stability.

Today, this lesson arrives near mid-point in the Gospel of Mark.  Jesus knew his disciples better than they knew themselves, and Jesus knew that their preferences for the kind of Messiah they were looking for needed not only refining but redefining. Their Messiah fit their comfort zone, a King who would restore the Israel to a mythical age swept free of foreign occupation.  In other words, in a geographical location on the edge of their discomfort, Jesus begins to turn his disciples’ attention from their needs and desires toward the way of the cross.

Let us know continue into the gospel.  We are told that as they were walking in this region, Jesus suddenly gave them the first survey question: “What’s the word on the street about me? Who do people say that I am?” (v. 27).

As they traveled with Jesus through the villages of Judea and Galilee, the disciples had been collecting data --- not intentionally --- but hearing the buzz, feeling the pulse of the crowd. From the disciple’s response the crowds had a variety of opinions and just enough data to begin forming a profile of this healer and teacher from Galilee.

One significant data point dominated their survey: The crowd believed Jesus was a prophet in the mold of John the Baptist, Elijah or one of the others who dominated Israel’s history. To the crowd, Jesus was a kind of a throwback to an earlier age and like John the Baptist and Elijah, he was in the model of a forerunner to the real Messiah to come.

But what the disciples did not say overtly was this view of Jesus by the crowds was seen through their own skewed lens of personal bias toward what a Messiah might really look like. It’s no coincidence that in the story immediately preceding this one, Jesus heals a blind man who at first sees people but not with the full clarity of vision. Indeed, to him they looked like trees walking around (v. 24). It took a second application of Jesus’ healing hands for the blind man to finally see things clearly and in perspective.  Just imagine we have never seen before and now we can, see?  That would take some adjustment out of what had been before!  The crowd, too, as well as the disciples needed a similar retooling of vision to understand the information about Jesus’ identity.

 Jesus then asked a follow-up survey question of his disciples: “But who do you say that I am?” Peter, an eager guy who today would be the first to participate in every survey, gives his opinion without hesitation: “You are the Messiah” (v. 29). That seems like the right answer. The gospel of Mark has already told us up front that this gospel is “the good news about Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (1:1). “Christ” is the Greek rendering of “Messiah” and so it seems that Peter has grasped the message.

Like the crowd, however Peter’s own comfort gets in the way of understanding what that word, that title, means. Indeed, there is still great potential for misunderstanding until all the data is in, which is why Jesus “sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him” (v. 30).  Jesus himself then begins to fill in the data; information that it will take a journey to Jerusalem and the cross for the disciples to get a sense of this new habit of what following Jesus was going to entail.

Now in the first of three predictions about his death that the Gospel of Mark details, Jesus tells his disciples that he will be rejected, undergo great suffering, and be killed. but then he will rise again after three days (v. 31). The Gospel of Mark reiterates that Jesus said this “quite openly,” giving the information as clearly as possible (v. 32). But this new piece of information doesn’t fit Peter’s messianic vision, taking him far past anything that was comfortable.  This did not fit with Peter’s vision of what God’s messiah was supposed to be.  Understandably at the news, Peter took Jesus aside and began to “rebuke” him (v. 32). 

Furthermore, although I had mentioned the expectation of a King and occupation free country at the time of Jesus there were many other opinions about the Messiah’s role and mission in mass circulation. Messiah wannabes had popped up before Jesus and would continue to do so afterward, each gathering their own group of followers and selling their vision of what God had planned to do through them.  The common thread of all that data around the Messiah where nonetheless skewed by the bias of many people looking for relief from oppression by Rome and years of foreign domination before the current regime. Therefore, when people heard the word “Messiah,” they thought of someone who might be the modern equivalent of a new Emperor, but theirs.

So, although Peter said he was the Messiah, Peter’s view of the messiah job description had not changed. Peter was close to Jesus and saw some potential. After all, one who could feed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish and then walk on water had to have the ability to be the kind of Messiah who would do great things and kick out the Romans. But now Jesus was talking about rejection, suffering and death. How can Jesus be that kind of new Emperor Messiah if he is dead? That kind of data made no sense to Peter.  It was not only out of his comfort zone, but it was also inconceivable.

Jesus understood the bigger picture. Therefore, Jesus rebuked Peter’s rebuke with a stern word: “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things” (v. 33).  In Peter’s rebuke, Jesus recognized the temptation for example, to be the kind of Messiah that would attract strong polling numbers, the kind of world leader Satan himself had tempted Jesus to become earlier after his baptism.  Remember when Satan tempted Jesus in the desert?  What was one of the temptations --- earthly power. (1:12).

Jesus is moving in a different direction. It is challenge for us with 21centuries of comfort. Jesus makes it clear: It’s not about ease; it’s about the cross. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (v. 34). To get behind Jesus is to get under a cross and walk on a road to … rejection, suffering and self-denial.

Let us be blunt.  Following Jesus is not trendy and cool. It is not about strong polling numbers. And if it ever is, we got the wrong Jesus.  It is discipleship that follows Jesus in a life lived on behalf of others. Those are the “divine things” Jesus wants his disciples to focus on, not the “human things” of popularity, prosperity, and power.  To follow Jesus, in other words, is to embrace life at the edge of our comfort zone, in which one’s own preferences are set aside in favor of Christ’s preferences for us.

I could go on about today’s gospel but perhaps it is better to stop here and ask, “What about us?”  Well, in general we avoid discomfort.  It goes against so many things including the TV commercials we see.  Businesses survive to provide us things that match our own sense of comfort. Jesus however calls us to the edge of discomfort. We save our lives by losing them, and real profit only comes through giving our lives over to Jesus, living for his sake and the sake of his kingdom (vv. 35-36).

I wish I was a perfect example of that, but I am not. I love comfort. But, in all honesty it has been when I have been uncomfortable in my faith that I have learned.  Personally, one example was my journey in LGBTQ acceptance.  In leaning into my discomfort, I learned about God’s acceptance and love from the LGBTQ community.  Another example is before this most recent time in Japan, I was part of a team of people who wondered what would it mean to help those living in poverty?  However, all of us on the team had all come to the same conclusion.  Charity, providing a meal or shelter, will help for a day, maybe longer, but to change we needed to get at the root of the problem, the systemic roots that prevent people from living healthy lives.  We imagined what would it be like to work with congregations as they moved beyond charity to advocating for systemic change.  Over eight years we worked with twelve congregations, going to the boundaries of our and their comfort.  We learned a great deal, not only how hard it is, but learning about racism, housing, health, and wages as well as getting out of our comfort zones is transformative. 

Churches are no different than us an individual’s; we are creatures of habit.  It is far easier for those of us who are 21^st-century disciples of Jesus to want to tailor our lives as disciples as churches based on survey’s. We’d like to be popular, trendy and have a lot of people following us.  All of us are tempted, like Peter, to answer Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?” by making him into a Messiah who fits our survey profiles.

Thankfully Jesus recognized that this isn’t a popular way, and that the world sees the cross as strange.  But we cannot avoid the fact that there’s only one real answer to that question of Jesus — Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, and he calls us to follow him to the cross.  And when we get to the cross, to climb up on it and suffer and die with him.  It’s the way of self-denial, self-sacrifice and self-giving.

Discipleship is not about how we answer a survey; it is about getting out of our comfort zones.  Where is your discomfort?  Perhaps it is the Holy Spirit teaching you to be a disciple?  It may be where Christ is calling us to be disciples.  Amen.

"Faithful Sparring" - 9/5/2021

Sermon presented at Yokohama Union Church Link to the congregation based on the gospel, Mark 7: 24-37.

I am going to begin today with a game.  It is called “What is True?”  It goes like this; I will tell you three things about myself, and you must guess which one of these three questions is false, not true.

Ready?  I am fifty-five years old.  True or False?  Second question.  I once worked at a fish factory in Iceland.  True or False?  Third question.  My wife and I have two children?  True or False? 

Are you ready for the correct answers?  Two as I said are true.  I did work in a fish factory in Iceland and yes, my wife and I have two children, two daughters.  The first question was untrue.  I am older than 55.  I will be 60 years old in a month. That game is an ice breaker.  It is a way for people around a table to get to know each other.

But it is not game one can play for long.  Can you guess why?  If we play too many times, we begin to question everything that the person is saying. It is natural to have doubts and to question and wonder but doubts and questions can become unhealthy.  We had can begin to doubt everything.  The opposite is also a problem, we become so sure we do not doubt or question at all. One definition of a cult is to not to question, but to obey everything one is told.

Christians are not a cult.  Although God’s love is constant, a gift we receive by grace through faith, we are reminded today that it is okay to spar, to question everything even --- God.  Furthermore, just like in judo, karate, boxing or kendo, Christian sparring can be healthy; we can become stronger.  Yet, as I mentioned the opposite can be true as well, doubts become so prevalent, we become unmoored, undecisive.  So, what is healthy sparring?

First, sparring --- asking questions, looking for answers --- is part of our Christian tradition.  One place where, over the centuries, a kind of sparring was common was among the rabbis who studied Jewish law. It's not uncommon in literature to see such rabbis from medieval times for example, described as “sparring” with one another over biblical texts. Here is one example, from a contemporary book, but referencing earlier times:  - The first reference is found in a book to help Jewish teachers instruct adult learners about God.  The book mentions that; In the days of the European Middle Ages, two titans of Jewish thought, Rabbi Moses Maimonides ... and Rabbi Moses Nachmanides ... sparred. Their argument: Was the obligation to believe in God one of the 613 commandments of the Torah, or was it the ground on which all the 613 commandments stood?"[1]

In both this example we hear of a common tradition of sparring.  In those cases, two examples, it was with another believer, one Jewish rabbi with another. That is an important clue for us. Sparring is with another person of faith.

Let’s now turn to our gospel.  Let us begin recalling that in several places in the gospels, Jesus' contemporaries address him as "rabbi." It was a term of respect, and it denoted that the person so addressed was considered a teacher and spiritual leader.  When we keep in mind that people called Jesus "rabbi," and that rabbinic sparring was a common practice, it goes a long way in helping us understand what's going on in our gospel reading, one that many people find troubling.

One obvious stumbling block for many of us with this passage is that it seems to portray Jesus as treating the Syrophoenician woman poorly. The lesson tells us up front that Jesus has retreated to Tyre, a non-Jewish area, in present day Lebanon and doesn't want anyone to know where he is. Jesus, in fact, is tired. Jesus needs not only some down time, but more importantly, some alone time with himself and some up time with his heavenly Father.

But, somehow, we are told the word gets out that Jesus, now with a growing reputation as a healer, is in an unidentified house in the village, and a woman whose daughter has "an unclean spirit" --- perhaps epilepsy or a mental illness --- comes to ask for his help. She wants Jesus to cast the demon out of her daughter.

By the ordinary standards of the day, the Jewish Jesus could have ignored her completely. She's a Gentile, and Jews and Gentiles had centuries of bad blood between them. She's a woman in an era when it was considered improper for a woman to approach a man to whom she is not related.  Also remember, Jesus is worn out, wanting only to rest and recharge, and she is intruding.  Given all of that, we're apt to hear Jesus' response to her as "Go away, and don't bother me."

Instead of saying that however, what Jesus did say was "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." His meaning, apparently, is that his immediate mission is to his own Jewish community, and it's not right to take the work that's meant for Jews and throw it to dogs -- the Gentiles.

To us, modern readers, that sounds awful; it sounds -- well -- un-Christlike. It may help a little to know that the word Jesus used that's usually translated into English as "dogs" was a diminutive, more like "puppies." But still, is that any way to behave toward a woman, a mother who's desperate for help for her sick child?

However, it's possible that we're not hearing the exchange the way the woman did.  As I indicated earlier.  It is possible to see this event as one of “sparring." The point for us to notice today is that, if sparring is what's going on, then Jesus' comments to her about the puppies is, in fact, not rude, but an invitation to her to be his sparring partner. And, if that's the case, Jesus is honoring her with this invitation.

Certainly, the woman did not expect such an invitation, perhaps she expected a simply yes, or no.  Seemingly she doesn't hesitate for even a second at this response from Jesus.  Her answer: "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs," she says.  The Bible rarely includes details like body language, so we do not know how Jesus reacted, other than Jesus tells her to go home for her daughter was healed.  There's no indication that this woman had any sense of Jesus' divine identity, yet we hear that her daughter is healed.  This I believe provides us a second clue to our doubts and questions; faithful sparring may come from unexpected people.

That certainly has been my experience. People whose circumstances are different from my own have opened me to new understandings of faith and life, even as it did for Jesus in this case, a strong, gentile woman.

I want to return to the gospel again, but before we do so, I think it may be helpful to remind ourselves of other places in scripture of other faithful sparring events.  There are several biblical precedents for faithful sparring not only among people of faith, or from unexpected people, but in relation to God.  These biblical precedents of people struggling with God may help us to see today’s gospel in that deeper light.

One of course is Hannah.  In 1 Samuel 1, we find Hannah praying and praying and praying, --- for a child.  In a culture where having biological children, particularly males was important as well as a culture that did not understand infertility as we do now, this struggle between Hannah and God may seem strange.  Furthermore, it has an outcome we may find challenging.  She does have a son, but not one she can keep.  The child would be apprenticed from an early age to the temple.  What a struggle, infertility and then when she gives birth, it is a son to whom she places in the Temple.

Then of course we have Abraham. When God told Abraham of the forthcoming destruction of Sodom, Abraham pushed back by asking God if God would spare the city if 50 virtuous people could be found there. Abraham whittled the number down, successively, to 45, 40, 30, 20 and 10 (Genesis 18:20-33).  Ultimately, Sodom was not sparred because the people treated everyone including themselves with total disrespect.  Nonetheless, we see in that story of back and forth between Abraham and God.

We have a literal wrestling with God as well.  There's the account of Jacob who has an encounter that went even beyond sparring in its physicality (Genesis 32:22-32).  The outcome is that Jacob receives a blessing but gets a permanent limp.

There's also the time when God, speaking from the burning bush, called Moses to lead the Hebrew people out of Egypt. Moses spent most of the ensuing conversation arguing that God had called the wrong man. Moses even indicated that he has a speech impediment making it difficult for him to talk in front of people. “Moses said to the Lord, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant.  I am slow of speech and tongue.” (Exodus 4: 10) Moses didn't win that argument, but, in the process, he received the help he needed to succeed (Exodus 3:13-4:17).

I could go on, but as we see --- struggling --- raising doubts and questions with God are not only okay, in each of those example, important change took place in the lives of the people of faith or through their subsequent actions. Hannah gave birth to a son who would help God’s people and she would be remembered to this day. Abraham learned more about God. Jacob received a divine blessing. Moses freed his people.

So, what does this mean for us?  Again, it's a reminder that questioning, pushing back, expressing doubt, showing irreverence, and arguing are not out of bounds. We need not fear that we will offend God. God will have the final word, but we may receive insight, inspiration, understanding, blessing --- or if not those things, at least the comfort that comes from having aired our grievances, even if the answer is not what we had hoped for.

Let us return to our Gospel. Today, we read this story of Jesus and the Gentile woman from Mark's gospel, but Matthew records it as well. The author of Matthew’s gospel adds a detail that Mark does not mention. In Matthew's account, after the woman prods back about the dogs under the table getting the crumbs, Jesus replies, "Woman, great is your faith!" (Matthew 15:28). Sharon Ringe, professor of New Testament at Wesley Theological Seminary, calls the woman's faith an act of ministry to Jesus. She writes: The additional dimension ... present in the story is the woman's ministry.  Her ministry to Jesus by her "faith" -- a faith that is no doctrinal confession of his messianic identity, and no flattery of his apparently miraculous powers, but, rather, an act of trust, of engagement, risking everything. That act has the effect, as the story is told, of enabling Jesus to see the situation in a different way. That new perspective appears to free Jesus to respond, to heal, to become again the channel of God's redeeming presence in that situation.

In sparring with Jesus, this woman was, in fact, serving as steel that sharpened his steel. Ringe goes on to say, "Her wit, her sharp retort, was indeed her gift to Jesus -- a gift that enabled his gift of healing in turn, her ministry that opened up the possibility of his."[2]

Therefore, the final question is for you and me. What are our doubts?  What are our questions?  As we have learned today, we have at least three options with those questions and doubts.  We can raise them with another person of faith.  Second, unexpected people and responses can sharpen our faith.  And lastly, as we have learned today, not only is sparring with God not only okay, it’s also a gift to God.  Raising our doubts and questions can be an avenue for God to work.

Today’s version of sparring tells us that speaking plainly to God about the things that trouble us about God and the will of God is still an act of faith. Why else would we be talking to God at all? Our faith may be thin or weak, smaller than a mustard seed, but, even if unmeasurable, faithful sparring is a route to truth. What's more, our faith, weak or strong, becomes a channel through which God can work.  Second, it may be helpful to have a faithful person to whom we can share our doubts and questions.  Finally, as Jesus experienced, it is helpful to be open to the unexpected person, whose faithful challenge will sharpen our faithful journey.  Cults are dangerous, as is living life constantly in doubt.  Let us live fully into our baptismal lives as disciples of Jesus Christ, trusting and hopeful in a loving God. Amen.

 

[1] The Interpretation of Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity: Studies in Language and Tradition, Craig A. Evans, ed. New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2004, 217.

[2] Ringe, Sharon H. "A Gentile woman's story." Feminist Interpretation of the Bible. Letty M. Russell, ed. Philadelphia: Westminster Press. 1985.

"Black Ships" - 8/22/2021

Sermon presented at Tokyo Lutheran English Worship based on John 6: 56-69.  This is my final Sunday preaching and presiding for their pastor who was on leave.  Link to the congregation.  http://jelctokyo.org/english/

I live about 30 minutes by train from Perry Park.  http://www.oldtokyo.com/matthew-c-perry-memorial-kurihama-c-1949/  Perry Park is in Kurihama, Kanagawa.  It is the location in Tokyo Bay, where U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry set foot with 300 other officers and sailors for about an hour on July 14, 1853.  Commodore Perry famously arrived with two large black armed ships with a letter asking --- demanding --- Japan to allow foreign powers principally the US access to trade. After leaving a letter from President Filmore, Commodore Perry sailed away only to return a year later for a response.  After tense negotiations, ultimately, Japan signed a treaty with the United States opening two ports besides Nagasaki to limited trade.

What Commodore Perry did not know is that in the process he unwittingly sparked a chain of events that would lead to the fall of the Shogun bakufu and Japan's rise as a modern imperial power.  By 1868, the Meji Restoration or revolution had extinguished one era and started a new one.  Of course, the average Japanese man or woman had no say and was not without much bloodshed.

Thinking about that event in Japanese history is a useful exercise in preparation for pondering today’s gospel and in particular the disciple Peter's answer to Jesus' question, “Do you also wish to go away?”[1] Meaning, we can look back at today’s event in John as a historical event, with life changing drama and not really see ourselves or our faith in that story.

But let’s back up.  To review, if you remember we have heard the last five Sundays that Jesus had been talking about his flesh and blood as spiritual food and drink.  Just as challenging as it is for us to understand, for first century Israel it was even more of a provocation.  We have the perspective of hindsight; we can see today’s event through Jesus’s death on the cross and resurrection.  That was not the case for many around Jesus leading many to say, “This teaching is difficult, who cannot accept it” and to walk away.

What they were struggling with was Jesus' explicit offer of himself as the source of bread of life, true and eternal life. For many of those who had thought of themselves as his disciples, this was just too much. Some had attached themselves to Jesus' company thinking that he was a good teacher --- perhaps the best teacher around, but still just a teacher. Some may have been there because Jesus had provided them actual bread or had even healed them.

Now Jesus was saying something utterly preposterous: Believe in him, dine on him, and he will “raise them up on the last day.” It wasn't so much that it puzzled them; it offended.  “But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, ‘Does this offend you?’”[2]  And importantly what do we also hear: “Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.”[3]  In effect, those who left Jesus that day seemingly were classifying Jesus' claim as either wrong or ridiculous.

It seems so many deserted Jesus that day that the author of the Gospel of John notes only twelve were still with him, and apparently, Jesus was either not sure at this point or was providing them an opportunity to reflect on this point in their faith.  Whatever the case, Jesus asks them, “‘Do you also wish to go away?’”[4]  In response we are then told that Simon Peter, speaking for the group, says, “‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’”[5]

So, there we are.  For myself, I find all this amazing for in effect, Simon Peter was saying, “Despite other options, despite the conclusion of all those who have turned away, despite the centuries of synagogue teaching that makes no mention of the Lord’s Supper, despite you being flesh and bone and standing among us, I believe that you, Jesus, are the option and have “the words of eternal life,” and I know that you are “the Holy One of God.”

This is remarkable because with that answer, Simon Peter opens a door in an aspect of this mystery of faith that can be troublesome for many of us. For clearly Simon Peter is aware that Jesus' offer of eternal life has been discounted and rejected by those who just left, that at this point there are other options, and he surely knows there is no proof to the contrary. But he's saying that based on what he and the other 11 have seen of Jesus, they are choosing for the moment to continue in this journey of faith. Simon Peter is like those who through the centuries have acknowledged to themselves, if not to others, that there are many reasons not to believe in Jesus.  But importantly there are reasons to believe. And Simon Peter and the other eleven and perhaps more like the women we hear about later, have concluded they want to continue to follow.

But what makes it more than historical event?  For example, we cannot put ourselves in the geta of those Japanese when Commodore Perry landed in Kurihama.  We live in a different time and context, and in hindsight we know the decisions did not come easily, took years of time, a great deal of energy and the loss of innocent blood.  Yet decisions were made that impacted all of us.  But the other perhaps troubling piece is from the English word “decide.” Decide comes from a Latin word meaning “to cut off.”  It is what makes reviewing today’s lesson, past historical events in general, challenging, because in hearing Simon Peter, for example, it sounds like we are to mimic his choice on faith.

Still, we cannot ignore the fact that biblical story and Simon Peter’s response calls us to think about our relationship with God and Christ, but we can do that without putting it in once-for-all-time terms. While, of course, a lifetime commitment to Christ is desirable, the part of that which matters is where we are in that commitment day by day, moment by moment.  As a Lutheran, a basic teaching is that faith is a gift and as a gift we can explore the many facets, even in increments and as a gift the acknowledgement that we know “only in part.”

Notice Simon Peter’s answer again, “We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”  I just mentioned “faithing,” the day-by-day part of faith, but Peter says something additional when he claims, “to know.” The underlying Greek word, ginosko, is a word which indicates “knowing” in a deep and interior way.  It doesn't mean knowledge in the sense of certainty.  Rather, it is knowing by relationship.  That is why Jesus can hear the disciples grumbling for example, because he knows them, meaning that he has a relationship with them.  Jesus may have heard actual grumbling as well, but because Jesus “knows” them he can couple the verbal noise together with their hearts.

That is why I am a Lutheran Christian because this speaks to my faith journey.  Faith is a gift, but one that comes with my questions and a tacit acknowledgment that I know only in part.  Faith is not a historical event, nor is something, I am to copy or emulate.  Rather, every day, every moment a black ship can arrive at the shore of my life and set off questions, “What does this mean? Do I also wish to go away?’ Faith is a gift, a relationship with Christ day by day, moment by moment, and year after year with the knowledge that I know only in part.  Furthermore, it comes with the assurance that like the disciples who walked away that day, we can always return for who knows if any did not the next come back and follow Jesus again?  Faith is not a historical decision but daily life.  Amen.

 

[1] John 6: 67

[2] Vs. 61

[3] Vs. 66

[4] Vs. 67

[5] Vss. 68-69

"Wisdom and Bread" - 8/15/2021

Sermon presented at the English speaking worship service at Tokyo Lutheran Church.  Based on Proverbs 9: 1-6 and John 6: 51-58.  Recently, the Chinese government has decided to crack down on private “cramming classes” which we know in Japan as gakushu juku or juku for short. These are after school private classes offered to families to help prepare their children for their exams particularly those to get into a university.[1] The Chinese government has decided to issue regulations on these cram schools because if I understand correctly, stories of shoddy teaching, false advertising, and a host of other issues. However, the fear is that it will drive these cramming schools out of business further driving the chasm between the rich who can afford a private tutor and the poor who cannot.

As a parent of two --- now adult daughters --- one of whom is a university student, I empathize and sympathize with the desire of parents to do what they can to assist the prospects of their children.

But after reading that story and thinking about my own life experience I began to wonder, does our desire for that additional assistance end with our children? Don’t we all want a little extra wisdom, knowledge, or support? In our professional lives, would not it be helpful to have someone coaching us. They might remind us of what to say --- or not to say --- at important meetings. And what about in our personal lives, wouldn’t it be nice to have a private tutor to assist us in our relationships with our spouse, our children, and our parents? And does that desire end with knowledge or wisdom, for example, at the gym where I work, people drink protein supplements hoping for that extra muscle. And what about our spiritual lives. Is that desire for an extra boost extend to our spiritual lives? Are not sermons for example desired to assist us in our daily Christian lives? The good news is that today’s lesson first lesson and gospel remind us that God understands and provides more than we realize.

In our first lesson, we hear about God’s wisdom through a personification of a woman who has built a house, prepared a life-giving meal, and invited all to participate. It is a simple passage, yet it contains an image and description that enhances the Gospel.

For simplicity’s sake let us call this woman in Proverbs, Sophie. “The opening verse states that she has built her own house and that this construction involved setting up ‘seven pillars.’”[2] Columns describe a house of substantial size and worth, and the number seven implies a distinctive character to the home. The quality of the meal and the invitation also indicates the rich and open nature of what she has prepared. Sophie has slaughtered multiple animals and set a table with bread and wine indicating that this meal will go beyond the everyday meals of the average Israelite. So not only has Sophie prepared a banquet but she has her servants — she is a woman of wealth, clearly — out in the community extending an invitation to all. It is a rich feast, with numerous place settings, always room for one more, to which all are invited. To accept Sophie’s invitation “is to embrace the life that in God’s wisdom has prepared for us.”[3]

Wisdom therefore means to partake, to participate in this feast and that this participation leads to life. Other part of Proverbs lays out more details about Sophie. For example, unlike others, Sophie is always available, answering whenever we call. When things are going well, and we are comfortably walking the heights of life, she is there. When we find ourselves at a crossroads, she is there. When we are standing at the threshold of something new, Sophie is there to guide and direct us. There is no application process or prerequisites that need to be met to participate. We do not have to know anything, and the cost is free. She is ready to consult for us, no matter who we are, where we come from. She is life-giving.

Now most if not all of you have realized that Sophie’s proper name is Sophia, the Greek word for wisdom. In today’s chapter of Proverbs, the author pictures God’s Wisdom, as if “Sophia” is a human being.

You see it is important to remember --- Sophia --- God’s wisdom when we hear for example, from today’s Gospel of John the following words of Jesus; “Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”  Our immediate response may be to equate these words to the Lord’s Supper, to Holy Communion, and we would be correct --- but limited. Because by doing so, we box the Lord Supper into something smaller as if it were an after-class bonus, we need for that little extra to help us pass. Instead, God’s vision and wisdom is that in, with and through Christ, our whole being is restored into God’s Kingdom.

Why did the author of Proverbs portray God’s wisdom in the character of a woman serving a lift giving meal? Why did Jesus say his body was life giving bread?  They both refer to the fullness of God’s promise of life, a full life, and an everlasting life. Later in the book of James we hear, “If any of you is lacking in wisdom,” James says, “ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.”^[4  James notices Sophia’s job description and that God is the source of wisdom. And just as Jesus offers a holistic salvation—his mission is to save people fully, Jesus described life in the kingdom of God as a great feast on multiple occasions.^[5] “The invitation to eat wisdom’s feast in her house, therefore, can well be understood as an aspect of Jesus’ invitation to follow him and to feast in the kingdom of God.”^[6]

Later after Christ’s death and resurrection, the Apostle Paul declares that Christ is “the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Since Christ thus takes on the Proverbs role of wisdom, it is appropriate — even necessary — for us to see the “bread of life” as a call to fully embrace Christ and a celebration of doing so.

Jesus’ words in John 6:51-58 are meant to bring us into fullness. Jesus offers us the heavenly bread we need for eternal life certainly; as well as the bread we need to overcome the struggles and survive the sufferings we might experience in this world. Jesus does not discriminate; he offers this heavenly bread to all for free. “Whoever eats of this bread will live forever,” Jesus says. This means that human beings are so valuable to God that God sent God’s only son to be born in human likeness for full life salvation. 

Shortly, in the sacrament, our ordinary elements of bread and wine will be transformed by the invocation of Sophia --- God’s Holy Spirit --- over them into sacred symbols and instruments of God’s salvific plan. By linking Wisdom with the name and story of Jesus, this meal becomes the Lord’s Supper, the heavenly banquet not only for eternal life, but for our everyday journey, no cramming, or supplements, needed. “Let us leave our simple ways and walk in the way of insight” in the bread of life.[7]  Amen.

 

[1] China is clamping down on cram schools | The Economist Behind a paywall.

[2] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-20-2/commentary-on-proverbs-91-6-4

[3] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-20-2/commentary-on-proverbs-91-6-4

[4] James 1:5

[5] Luke 13:29; 14:15-24; 22:29-30; Matthew 22:1-14

[6] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-20-2/commentary-on-proverbs-91-6-4

[7] Proverbs 9: 6

"Lotus Christians" - 8-8-2021

Sermon preached at Tokyo Lutheran Church based on Ephesians 4:25-5:20 on Sunday, August 8, 2021.

July and August are the prime time for the blooming of the lotus blossom in many parts of the world.  Perhaps you have already taken time to view the lotus blossoms in the early morning at Shinobazu no Ike at Ueno Koen?[1]

With their almond-shaped petals of dazzling whiteness or pink, the lotus is a flower of beauty and is revered throughout the world.  For example, it is the national flower of India, a sacred flower in Hinduism and it figures prominently in the lore and practice of Buddhism. The Lotus is also the name of a car, a perfume, a spreadsheet application, a corporation. It is the design motif of a striking temple in New Delhi. It is a position in yoga meditation.

Did you know that the lotus also carries Christian meaning?  Besides its reference in the Book of Job (40:20-21) and as the logo for the Church of South India, the lotus is also a well-recognized metaphor for spiritual growth. Here's why.[2] The lotus begins life as seed buried in the mud of a pond. It begins its growth in muddy, pond water, shooting a tuber up to and through the scum until its green, round leaves spread out on the surface. The stem of the flower rises another 25 to 30 centimeters above the water where the blossom with its pure white or pink petals open, provides a stark, but beautiful contrast to the environment in which it thrives.  Not hard to see the spiritual link.

But have you ever wondered how the lotus blossom is able to keep its petals so colorful when its environment is so challenging?  Wilhelm Barthlott of the University of Bonn began an extensive study of the epidermal (skin) surfaces of more than 10,000 plants, including the lotus.  He found an apparent contradiction: Smooth leaf surfaces were usually the dirtiest, and rough leaf surfaces tended to be cleaner. We may associate smoothness with beauty, roughness with - well, not so beautiful, but come to find out in nature that is not always true.  The cleanest - and roughest - of all the plants in Barthlott's research was the lotus petal.  From our perspective we would say the petal has the texture of velvet. Yet, when placed under an electron microscope what is revealed is a textured, pointy surface resembling the surface of a board with a forest of nails protruding from underneath.[3]

Oversimplified, this is how the petal of the lotus stays perpetually clean even in the dirtiest of environments.  Imagine a small piece of paper floating down upon such a nail board. It might rest on the tip of the nails, but it won't adhere or stick, and should a ball of water roll down the surface of the nails it would sweep the paper away.

The image of the lotus came to my mind as I reflected on this portion of the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians for this week and next. In the verses immediately preceding today's text through next week, Paul alludes to the muddy nature of the cultural water in which we live.  We because of sin, do not have an ability to be morally self-cleaning. We can Paul says live “in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding.” They live in “ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”[4]

Of course, the Apostle Paul has a remedy. It involves the adoption of a radical new structure in Christ where we can “clothe” themselves, “put away [their] former way of life, your old self, … and [are instead] renewed in the spirit of [their] minds, [clothed] with the new self, created according to the likeness of God.”[5] The apostle makes it clear that the purpose of the Christ like function is to continue this process of reconciliation, this restoration through Christ into the full image God intended at creation.

The Apostle Paul's proposal includes some of Paul’s cultural biases.  Nonetheless he has some thoughtful ways for the Holy Spirit to roughen the texture of our lives so that the mud can roll off, is unable to adhere and thereby bring us into full flower. Paul offers some ideas. Think of it as cross nails, spiritual points whereby we are cleansed daily in the baptismal promise.  I will not go through all of those suggested by Paul (in no particular order) but here are a few that are in important for me.

Paul suggests we are to strive for honesty. We are to stop lying and tell the truth (v. 25). Paul links this to our new spiritual nature as members of the same body. We would no more lie to one another than we would slap ourselves in the face. A lie hurts both the one lied to and the one who lies.  A lie in other words ultimately comes back on us.

Paul also recommends that we are to be angry at injustice. It's permissible to express anger within limits. Jesus himself astonished people with his anger, reminding us not to let the dirt of injustice stay on our petals.  Yet, the anger Paul recommends is a posture of civility. “Do not let the sun go down on your anger," the apostle says (v. 26). The word “anger” that Paul uses appears only here in the New Testament. It is better translated “provocation” and reinforces the justifiable anger one may have on occasion. Righteous anger is provoked, yet even righteous anger has a season and is to be turned over to God. Such a practice is a reminder that we are merely instruments in these battles and need not be personally antagonistic or hateful.  A good reminder for us so close to the anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and our work for a nuclear weapons’ free world.

Interestingly and one that has been at times abused against those in poverty or homelessness is that Paul suggests we are to be gainfully employed. “Idle hands are the Devil's workshop” as the saying goes.  Meaning that every person, whatever one’s talent or ability has a place.  What that means is that we should all strive for everyone to have a place for their talents and if a person does not have an outlet for their abilities, it creates a vacuum for evil.  As a lotus has a place and purpose so does all of God’s creation.  These words are not a disparagement to those who cannot find employment rather it challenges all of us to help each other find a place for their abilities.

Finally, again Paul repeats that we are to regard love as the ultimate virtue governing our behavior (5.2).  We will hear that again next week.  Love is the hyper-reality in which the lotus blossoms. Love is the baptismal dew on the petal. The love of Christ is that grace which washes away the residue of all that which should not adhere to our reconciled nature to God.

Let me borrow one final image from our sisters and brothers of other faiths that include the lotus, in that when we assume the lotus position, we begin to bear the likeness of God. It is of course, not a physical stance but an image that we are to be imitators of God.

Lotus Christians live with deep roots in the world, but like the lotus blossom itself, we strive for the light --- “sun” ---  and in doing so, reflect God’s beauty, glory and grace granted through Christ into the world.  Amen.

 

[1] Shinobazu no Ike Wikipedia Link

[2] Church of South India - Wikipedia

[3]Hans Christian von Baeyer, "The Lotus effect," The Sciences, January/February 2000, 12-15  The Lotus Effect - BAEYER - 2000 - The Sciences - Wiley Online Library

[4] Ephesians 4:17-19

[5] 4:22-24

"Stomach" - 8/1/2021

Sermon presented to English Worship at Tokyo Lutheran Church based on John 6: 24-35. 

Some people argue that the stomach is like a second brain because it can so often drive our decision-making.  But Dr. Diego Bohórquez, an assistant professor of medicine at the Duke School of Medicine, argues that our stomachs, are not secondary.  Our stomach comes first.

“Very simple organisms do not have a brain,” Dr.  Bohórquez points out. “But they have a gut.”[1] Over the course of the history of the world, creatures have had to eat to live. In fact, organisms were eating for millions of years before they were even breathing. First, organisms ate, then they breathed, then they began to think.

“We eat three times a day,” Dr. Bohórquez says to Duke Magazine. “This is modulating who we are.” Put junk in your mouth, and you are going to look bad and feel worse. Eat good food, and you are taking a step toward health and fitness. Not that this is new information for any of us.  Perhaps you have heard, “You are what you eat.”  Dr. Bohórquez suggests not only is that true, but he would add. “At the core of who we are,” he says, “we are stomachs.”  In other words, we are driven by our appetites.

Today, Jesus seemingly agrees. “Do not work for the food that perishes,” he warns the crowd, “but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (v. 27).

A well-known story for many of the people at the time of Jesus is that of the manna in the wilderness, which God had given their ancestors as bread from heaven in their journey from Egypt to a new home. But Jesus says to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven” (vv. 31-32). That sounds good, doesn’t it? Bread from heaven. True bread.  It may even make your mouth water.

The people are still confused, however, so Jesus continues, “For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Such bread doesn’t just taste delicious, but it gives life to the world. The people say to him, with excitement, “Sir, give us this bread always” (vv. 33-34).  Yes, they want this bread.

How about us? I do not know about you, not only do I love rice cooked to perfection, but I also love the various breads available from cultures around the world. A slice of sourdough or a handmade tortilla. Seed-crusted simit or a buttery biscuit.  All are a food that can be used to feed an army or nourish a hungry child.  I know that bread is good, I know it in my stomach, to my core.

But Jesus is not talking about something made of wheat, rye, or corn or even rice for that matter. “I am the bread of life,” he tells them. “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry” (v. 35). Jesus is presenting himself as the most basic, durable, and nutritious form of food available to us.  We may be at the mercy of our appetites, but Jesus is the one to feed us.

“I am food,” Jesus seems to be saying not for our brain, but for something even more basic. “Take me into yourself and you will never be hungry or thirsty or hopeless or powerless. I am the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to anyone in the world — including you.”

Does that resonate?  When we gather at the altar to receive the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation, we remember that Jesus broke bread with his disciples and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:24). He asks us to continue to break bread and eat it together, believing that it is the body of Christ and the bread of life. In that gift, we are nourished as disciples when we receive this food, strengthened, and equipped to be Christ’s people in the world.

When Jesus says, “I am the bread of life,” he is saying to us, “I am food” not only for a moment at an altar but for all time. Jesus is saying, “I am the food that brings forgiveness and new life, the food that brings health in body, mind and spirit.” Jesus truly is “the food that endures for eternal life” (John 6: 27), the true bread from heaven which “gives life to the world” (vv. 32-33).

Thankfully all we need to do is receive this amazing bread, is thanksgiving.  It can’t be purchased or earned, just received.

But at the same time, Jesus also wants us to know that we can be that basic element for others. For example, when we eat the bread that is the body of Christ, we are nourished as a community that is the body of Christ. The bread that Christ offers us is not designed primarily to feed us as individuals. Instead, it is meant to sustain a community. “Because there is one bread,” said the apostle Paul to the Corinthians, “we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:17).

How is this possible?  First, in eating together we are people of trust. When the crowd approached Jesus in Capernaum, they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom [God] has sent” (John 6:28-29).  Our trust in God may be small in the face of the power of appetites, but like a small portion of yeast will have an impact, so our trust in God has an impact.

As a fed body, we can be adaptable. Bread can be found in many cultures around the world, ranging from the tortilla of Mexico to the malawach of Yemen. The nourishment of bread can be obtained almost anywhere, but it comes in a wide variety of forms.  For example, when I first came to Japan I lived in Nagasaki.  There I first heard about the “hidden Christians,” those who lived out the Christian faith during the Edo bakafu.  One of the fascinating lessons I learned was how they would incorporate snapshots of Christian imagery like Mary the mother of Jesus, into everyday objects like pottery, to honor their faith yet hide it visibly.  It was an adaptation that helped them survive in difficult circumstances.

We as a body are durable and nutritious, like a hardtack biscuit taken on those ships that traveled across oceans. As the bread of life, we can have the stomach to walk into challenging situations, on the far side of our familiar places and comfortable routines and provide real nourishment.  It can be in Bible study where we learn together, as well as worship in joined voices but also when feed the homeless and advocate for justice.

All these are ingredients incorporated into the body of Christ, so that we can nourish a hungry world where unhealthy appetites can ruin.

When Jesus says, “I am the bread of life,” he enters the core of our being and by doing so not only are we nourished, but we also become incorporated, folded into the body of Christ, --- a trusting, adaptable, food --- to hungry stomachs all over the world. Amen.

 

[1] Huler, Scott. “A Lot to Digest.” Duke Magazine, Winter 2018. https://issuu.com/dukemagazine/docs

"In the World but not of the World" - 5/16/2021

When you pray for another, what do you pray for?  For me, the context of that person is important, their story and concerns for example. Is it for health? Healing? Reconciliation?  Safe Travels? Today Jesus is praying for us and his prayer may not be what we consider the best prayer for our context or is it?

Before we review the Gospel, I would suggest we look at it through the prism of a pivotal 20th century book: H. Richard Niebuhr Christ, and Culture, Amazon Book Link published seventy years ago in 1951.  Written within the living memory of World War II, the birth of the nuclear age in the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, genocide and the holocaust, Niebuhr traced five different faithful responses as they relate to the world or “culture.”  Niebuhr suggested each has strengths and weaknesses. 

Let me give a simplistic overview of the book.  One faithful response of Christians is resistance to the world --- Christ against culture. The best way for Christians to live their lives faithfully is to be separate from the world --- a clear alternative, think the Amish for example.  The second response is for Christians to point to the agreements between Christ and world --- Christ of culture.  Think of it as the faithful golden rule: Treat others as you want to be treated. The third major response Niebuhr noted was a combination that incorporates insights from those first two views, what Niebuhr calls Christ above culture.  Within the third framework are three variations: a synthetic type that sees Christ as the fulfillment of the world.  Although the world may not be there yet, it is evolving toward a point where Christ and the world are one.  Another variation is one where we have an ongoing tension between Christ and world.  Think of this faithful response as defined by symptom, constant friction and Christians being at that point.  The final variation noted by Niebuhr is Christians as Jesus as the converter of culture and society.  Bring all to Christ and the world will be redeemed.

Although Niebuhr highlighted what ostensibly seems all as largely political his framework can fit all manner of situations in our faithful response to our lives in this world.  For example, consider our health.  How much should we engage with science, technology, and healing?  There are some Christians who would consider anything outside of prayer to be less than faithful, whereas some would consider prayer to be one among many faithful responses to healing.  And others who would not consider prayer with the assumption that God permeates all science and the healing arts.  I am not debating the faithfulness or lack their off in each response, rather Niebuhr gave us a framework to what he termed “Christ and Culture.”

Within that in mind, I ask you now to turn to our Gospel; The Gospel of John has Jesus praying.  And what is Jesus praying for, simply put Jesus is praying for his followers, for his disciples --- for us.  But what he prays for is not health or wealth, or an easy road, or even an increase or discovery of faith in this section.

Jesus begins this portion reminding us the listeners that we the disciples belong to God but were given to Jesus. Therefore, as Jesus prepares to die on the cross, the believers, the ones who “know,” merit the focus of his attention.  Interestingly the disciples’ faithfulness emboldens Jesus to “ask on their behalf” --- to pray to God with their needs, specifically in mind.  And what does Jesus specifically have in mind?

Basically, we have two specific requests: the first pertains to strength and comfort as Jesus prepares to leave to return to God.  The second refers to the relationship between these disciples and this world as Christ’s disciples, living “in the know” of the message of Jesus Christ.

 In the first request is the good news of the mystery of the Trinity, that Jesus is reminding us that Jesus shares completely in God's divine sovereignty --- all that is subject to God is also subject to Jesus --- “all mine is yours, and yours are mine.”  Until this time the unity that defines that relationship between God and Jesus has only been perceived through one perspective --- Jesus was still physically “in the world.” But now this is about to change -- for Jesus' prayer reveals, “I am coming to you.” The disciples, however, will remain “in the world.”  The disciples are not coming along.

This takes us to the second request. The world, it seems, is both the place where Jesus' wants his disciples to be, where they belong and although bountiful, beautiful, and marvelous is one that Jesus acknowledges can be a scary, threatening place.  Like a worried parent, Jesus specifically asks for God's special protective arm for these disciples from the world's threats.  Yet even though there will be evil, Jesus knows the disciple's place remains with this world --- he does not ask God to whisk his followers out of the evil. Neither does Jesus pretend that all will be smooth. Instead, Jesus asks God’s protective care for these disciples -- especially from the powers of “the evil one,” because he knows how destructive evil will be particularly on the unity of his followers. Thus, as Jesus prepares to depart from his disciples, he leaves them with a prayer God to strengthen their joy in that we are God’s and the protective power of God's name.

Then in the final verses of this portion of the prayer Jesus highlights that his disciples be sanctified or dedicated to God's service “in the truth” of the word, even as was he himself. The disciples are to share in Jesus' identity as “holy” or sanctified so that they may fully serve God. Notice that, like Jesus' declarations that he is will no longer be physically present in this world, his statement here comes before that reality happens.

So, after having had a brief review what do you think?  “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.”  The second portion seems obvious, “protect them” but the first “not that you take them out of the world?”  Why not?  Well, for the simple reason that we are still about God’s redeeming work through Jesus Christ.

There is something else in the prayer that some of you may have noticed, we have no imperatives in this prayer. What shall we do? What daily practices, behaviors or focused meditations will help us? How may we reliably attain to this faithfulness in this world?  In other words, how will we be sanctified faithful world disciples?  Is it immediate, progressive or something altogether different?

Thankfully, Jesus does not disguise an exhortation to the disciples as a supplication to God.  Instead, what has been passed down to us, through a thicket of Greek transitive verbs and English prepositions, is an intimate and earnest appeal from Jesus to God on behalf of those overhearing him.  This prayer ends up as one of those passages that does not give us something to do or to believe.  Instead, Jesus prays that the disciples and by faith all of us, would belong to God as we belong to Jesus, and that we would be preserved and protected from the evil one.  For example, try as we might, we cannot convert these words of Jesus into an article of faith or a concrete task to accomplish and say it is complete. 

This is both Good News and a challenge and why I think it is helpful to use as a basis the framework from Niebuhr --- “Christ and Culture.”  His proposed framework provides a continuum in which we can hang our hat as they say at the unforeseeable opportunities to participate and not participate in this world.  One unfortunate response to the framework is to see each of the 5 as distinct.  But they are not.  We as Christians live out each as we proceed through faithful living.  One moment we are to be the friction point, clearly against the injustice of this world and in the next pointing to all the good in creation and people.

In other words, however we are compelled to faithfully respond at any given life event is an opportunity to be faithfully to be in but not of this world, knowing and loving God in, with and through Jesus Christ.  The other aspect of this good news is that no matter how we faithfully engage or model our life in Christ in this world, but not be in this world, we are unified in Christ’s prayer.  But just as Jesus acknowledged there is great danger, for the greatest threat from this world would seem to be its ability to breed divisiveness. Jesus clearly asks God to enable these followers to "be one" (v.11), but not that we model one faithful response whether it be “Christ against culture” or “Christ and culture,” rather as we engage in faithful living each response will be its own transformation, its own mystical experience, and its own sanctification.

Just as I wish Jesus were clear as to what our response is to be to being in this world, Jesus is just as clear by saying we are unified in being disciples of joy protected in God’s name.  It may appear unusual that Jesus does not now name the gift of the Holy Spirit as the protecting, unifying presence to act on behalf of the disciples once he is gone. However, here in a direct prayer with God, Jesus perhaps demonstrates his closeness with the divine by directly petitioning for God’s name, not the Counselor's presence, as the protective power over his disciples.

Hearts filled with joy in God’s name will, it appears, is what unifies each one of us.  And, while Jesus expects joyfulness, he also acknowledges the harsh realities that will confront those he leaves behind and a reminder that what Jesus expects is a faithful response no matter what that response is to that reality.  Is there one model of faithful response to this world, no there are many Christians and cultures.  Jesus prays for us to be joyfully faithful responsive unified in God’s name.  Amen.

"Kotatsu Discipleship" - 4-18-2021

Sermon preached in a zoom worship for Nagoya All Saints International Congregation Link on April 18, 2021, based on the Luke 24: 36b-48

During my first time in Japan in the late 1980’s, one of the things I learned to love was my kotatsu.  For the unseasoned “Nipponophile” a kotatsu is a low, wooden table frame covered by a futon or heavy blanket upon which a tabletop sits.  Underneath the table is an electric heat source, but in the past was a charcoal brazier.  After a day at Nagasaki Lutheran and my English classes around the city, I would grade papers, prepare for a new lesson, read, or watch NHK bilingual news, or episodes of the “Little House on the Prairie,” with my legs stretched out warmed by the heat.  My kotatsu was a place of Bible study and conversation with friends. There are even a few times, I would suddenly wake up realizing that I had fallen asleep.  I had a small western style kitchen table with chairs but under the kotatsu was where I would usually be found.  My kotatsu provided comfort especially on those cold evenings or mornings. 

I remembered that experience because I can just imagine today’s episode of the appearance of the resurrected Christ happening with the disciples beginning under a kotatsu a place of comfort as they shivered in grief and fear.

But let me back up.  The Easter story in Luke begins on Easter morning.  A group of women discover the empty tomb, and report to the apostles that two angels have told them that Jesus has risen. But the women are not believed — at least not initially. Peter however runs to the tomb, looks in and then goes home, amazed at what has happened (Luke 24:1-12).  So that’s Easter morning, followed by Easter afternoon. Another story, two disciples --- one named Cleopas --- make the seven-mile trip from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and along the way they encounter a mysterious stranger, who interprets the scriptures for them. When he joins them for dinner, he breaks bread with them at a table, and their eyes are opened, and they recognize him — it is Jesus!  Then he vanishes from their sight (vv. 13-31).  Which brings us to Easter evening.

These two disciples race back to Jerusalem and find the disciples and their companions in a room.  They were grieving and still in shock from all that had happened that week leading to Jesus’s death and in fear of being arrested themselves.  Into this room, Jesus appears, and scares them half to death --- they think they are seeing a ghost (v. 37).  Jesus can discern their inner confusion, and, literally from the Biblical Greek, “the dialog they were having within themselves.”  It is not doubting for that will come soon enough, but, for now, Jesus senses their inner turmoil, the internal deliberations and confusion borne of wonder, fear, and amazement.  The resurrected Christ says, “Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And then to prove that he is no ghost, he asks them for some food. They give him a piece of broiled fish, and he eats it in their presence (vv. 38-43).

Jesus tells them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you — that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”  Then sitting around a table, although not mentioned must have been the case for he opens their minds to understand the scriptures and says to them --- the Messiah has suffered and risen from the dead --- and now “repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (vv. 44-47).  Jesus gives those gathered a panoramic view—the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms—all in one sitting. Jesus points out that he—and with him death and resurrection, repentance, and forgiveness—can be found throughout scripture.  I suspect this did not take a few minutes rather that is why the image of them all seated around a large kotatsu came to mind.

The apostles are probably wondering who is supposed to do this work of proclaiming repentance and forgiveness, so Jesus leans across the tabletop and makes it clear. “You are witnesses of these things,” he says. “And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so, stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (vv. 48-49).

Then notice this, in Luke he leads them away from the table where it is warm and safe, where they could remain.  Instead, the resurrected Christ hikes them out to Bethany, gives them a blessing … and is carried up into heaven. Easter ends with the ascension, according to Luke. At this, the apostles return to Jerusalem, worshiping Jesus, and they bless God continually in the temple (vv. 50-53).

Note what has happened here through all of Easter in the gospel of Luke. The mission of the apostles begins not with a visit to a tomb that is empty, but at tables with food — bread, wine, broiled fish — certainly, but conversation and the disciples leaving from those places out into the world.

Call it Kotatsu Discipleship.  I think this is important for us to digest because we sometimes underestimate the significance of what happens around tables.  Certainly, there are the disciples who first recognized Jesus when “he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them” (v. 30) in Emmaus.  Similarly, this would be like the table where we gather in worship, but what struck me today was that Jesus gave the apostles their marching orders at another table as part of an after-dinner conversation.  The disciples were seeking Easter comfort. What they received was comfort along with the Spirit to go.  In other words, never underestimate the power of table talk.

Sharing the good news is a legacy that Jesus wants his followers to be a part of --- a legacy retold around tabletops from which is proclaimed a message of repentance and forgiveness. He wants the disciples to maintain the cycle of gratitude and generosity found in his presence --- gratitude that death has been conquered by the resurrection, and generosity toward those who need to hear this good news.

“You are my witnesses of these things.”  They are being sent out in the power of the Spirit to take the good news of the resurrection to all the nations of the world.  It all begins right here.  Around the table.

Notice as well that the disciples embark on their mission, they are clearly not “self-made” --- instead, they are Jesus-shaped at the table. They maintain a cycle of gratitude and generosity built on repentance and forgiveness and carry forward the legacy of the Messiah.  Luke tells us that they are “continually in the temple blessing God” — that is one form of gratitude (v. 53). Acts reports that the disciples share their possessions, and there’s “not a needy person among them” — that is a form of generosity (4:34). Acts also tells us that Peter proclaims that everyone who believes in Jesus “receives forgiveness of sins through his name” — that is the legacy of the risen Christ (10:43).

It all begins with the relationships we have here in worship --- around the Eucharistic Table --- as well as the relationships we have out in the world and around kotatsu tables when we gather with others.  Celebrating Easter around tabletops means that Jesus could show up, that resurrection could happen, at any table, at every table. We have no way of knowing when, where and how the risen Christ will bring new life. But that is not our concern.  Rather than being confined to one day, or to 50, Jesus’ Easter feast continues as one meal leads to another, as tables get larger and larger, and closer and closer together.  The story of Easter morning --- the empty tomb --- will always be at the heart of the Christian faith, because it proclaims that God has conquered death through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  But equally important is the tale of Easter evening, kotatsu discipleship, when a movement was born at a table top out of fear, in a desire to find comfort, through the power of the spirit of the Risen Christ became a people full of gratitude and generosity to be shared.  Amen.

 

"Journey of Hope" - Easter Sunday April 4, 2021

Sermon preached at the Chapel of Hope, Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan and at All Saints International Congregation, Nagoya, Japan for Easter Sunday based on the Mark 16: 1-8

She checks her social media around 10 times a day. Twitter and Facebook are her main sites, but she also looks at Google for news. Since the start of the pandemic, her habit has increased significantly. “I’m a doom-scroller,” she admits to the Healthline website. Yes, this 26-year-old speech therapist confesses that she has a problem. Doom-scrolling is the act of endlessly scrolling down news apps, Twitter, and social media, reading all the news. “The pandemic has exacerbated these habits in many ways,” says a New York psychologist, “including the fact that there is no shortage of doomsday news.” [1]

If doom-scrolling is part of your daily routine, you are not alone. Did you know that in an average day, a person now scrolls through 22.7 meters (74.5 feet) on their smartphones?  Twitter use has jumped 24 percent since the start of the pandemic last year, and Facebook is up 27 percent.

The problem with this scrolling habit is that it can lead to higher stress. We think that keeping up with the latest will lessen our anxiety, but it increases it. Doom-scrolling is an “unsatisfying addiction,” says one clinical psychologist. Instead of making us feel safer, it raises our level of fear, anxiety, and stress.

So, does this sound familiar? Wanting to stay informed, we end up being sucked into doom and gloom, maybe even spiraling into despair.  We are not the first to experience this phenomenon just consider the three women who visited the tomb on Easter morning.

Mark tells us that when the Sabbath was over, “Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint [Jesus]. And early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb” (16:1-2).

What were they feeling, however?  Their Rabbi had been killed in a humiliating death by asphyxiation on a cross. From there his body had been transported and then laid in a cave-like tomb, and a large stone had been rolled against the door. As they were walking along, Mark tells us that they had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” (v. 3).  There was the anxiety about how they would remove the stone for the ritual observance of burial, certainly however we also know they were feeling a combination of grief over the death of Jesus, as well as stress about the future, what his death by a combination of religious and political conspiracy meant for their community and own personal lives. 

But when they arrived, “they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back” (v. 4).  Now I am going to do a play on words, but I think it is helpful: their doom-scrolling was met by an act of stone-rolling. Finally, some good news!  Or is it?

Not only was the stone rolled back and the tomb empty they were further startled for as “they entered the tomb,” but “they” also “saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed” (v. 5). The man said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised” (v. 6). Their doom-scrolling had them focusing them on bad news, their current situation and all that had led up to this day, but the words of the young man gave them reason to hope.

But then the man ordered them to go “tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you” (v. 7). The young man changed their focus from doom and gloom to a new possibility and direction. He promised them that Jesus was going ahead of them, and that they would see him in Galilee.

No wonder that the women fled the tomb, filled with a mix of terror and amazement and no wonder Mark adds these words.  The women were unable to follow through with the command, “they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” (v. 8).

What was true for them can also be true for us.  I do not know your personal habits regarding social media specifically and internet use including email in general.  However, I sense all of us know that we can for example turn off Twitter, no longer review posts on Facebook, we can avoid our email, TV and radio but escaping doom and gloom is not that straightforward.  Experts say that the solution to doom-scrolling is to break out of the “vicious cycle of negativity.”

That for me is a glimmer of the complex Easter message for the women and for us for although we appreciate those positive messages, hope is hard to come by. Certainly, we have the hope through the good news of Easter in that God has acted in our lives to break the cycle of our broken patterns of sinfulness.  Sin can be full of intention. We know exactly what we are doing when we capitulate to temptation and embrace the distortion as if it is acceptable.  Yet, sin is so inescapably a part of being human that it is even baked into the very fabric of who we are.

But the message of hope is complex.  The women did not go to the tomb looking for hope. They were searching for a place to grieve. They wanted to be left alone in despair. “Our brains are crazy,” writes Tyler Tervooren in HuffPost. “Every day they lie to us about how terrible things are or how bad they’re going to be, but when we finally ignore the fear [we] realize everything’s pretty much okay, the world will keep turning, and we’re going to survive.”

Yes, the world will keep turning, but Easter is more than a straightforward message to stop doom-scrolling.  It also includes the terrifying prospect that God called these women to return to the same world that crucified Jesus with a dangerous gift: hope in the power of God, the unending reservoir of forgiveness and an abundance of love. We are invited in this message of hope not only to see that the stone has been rolled back, to believe that Jesus has been raised, but as well as focus on the future where our risen Lord is ahead of us and waiting for us.

The women were so afraid of the real stone that they never dreamed that God would take action to roll it away. The other disciples were so afraid they could not even venture out of the room.  Their brains were processing how terrible things were by adding to how bad things were going to be.  But then God replaced their doom-scrolling with stone-rolling into a journey of hope with the empty tomb as the first step.  Dr. Esau McCaulley, assistant professor of New Testament put it this way in a recent article in the New York Times: “As we leave the tombs of quarantine, a return to normal would be a disaster unless we recognize that we are going back to a world desperately in need of healing.”[2]

Fifty-three years ago, today, on April 4^th, 1968, the non-violent activist for justice, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.  Out of that deep despair, British pastor Brian Wren wrote a new hymn for that Easter Sunday which was 10 days after the assassination. “Christ Is Alive!” was written by Wren to acknowledge this terrible loss while also proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus.  “Christ is alive!” he wrote. “Let Christians sing. The cross stands empty to the sky. Let streets and homes with praises ring. Love, drowned in death, shall never die.” Yes, a terrible crime had been committed. An awful injustice had been done. But now the cross was empty, and love would never die.

The hymn makes clear that the resurrection is not stuck in history, but a reality for every time. The risen Christ, says Brian Wren, is “saving, healing, here and now, and touching every place and time.” Jesus encounters human suffering whenever it is experienced. In the face of today’s racism and violence, Jesus “suffers still, yet loves the more.” The hymn then ends with the good news of “justice, love and praise.”[3]

Jesus is not dead in the tomb. Instead, this journey of hope means that Christ is found ahead of us with those who act with justice, love, and praise. So certainly, let us look up instead of down at our screens and open our eyes, and see that Jesus is alive and well.  Doom-scrolling traps us in a vicious cycle of negativity that fuels our anxiety, but the first step of Easter is the empty tomb.  This is what Jesus was doing by moving ahead of his disciples to Galilee, and what he is doing by going ahead of us today.  The stone has been rolled away and our Lord is calling us forward.  Christ is Risen, He is risen indeed.  Alleluia!  Amen.

 

[1] Curley, Christopher. “‘Doomscrolling’ During COVID-19: What It Does to You and How You Can Avoid It.” Healthline, July 26, 2020, www.healthline.com.

[2] Opinion | The Unsettling Power of Easter - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

[3] Hawn, C. Michael. “History of Hymns: Pastor writes Easter hymn for a time of great turmoil.” Discipleship Ministries: The United Methodist Church, May 21, 2013, www.umcdiscipleship.org.

 

"Through the Lens of Hebrews" - 3/21/2021

Sermon shared via Zoom on March 21, 2020 with Nagoya All Saints International Congregation in Nagoya, Japan.  Based on the lectionary for that Sunday particularly Hebrews 5: 5-10 and John 12: 20-33. 

The book of Hebrews in the New Testament makes few appearances in our weekly lectionary cycle.  And the portions from the Old Testament describing the priesthood and its rituals are even less visible. A faithful worshiper can go a long time without forming any idea of who Melchizedek is and what it means to be a priest according to his order.

It could be because the biblical names we usually associate with Jesus in the Gospels are from not the priestly but the prophetic tradition like Elijah, Moses.  And many of us are more steeped in the prophetic literature --- Isaiah, Jeremiah for example --- of the Old Testament than its ritual material.  Still, we have an important image here in Hebrews.  And one the I want to begin with because it helps us frame the Gospel.

Jesus Christ as a high priest as described by the author of Hebrew prompts us to remember what the priestly function does in relating God to the people. The interchange between humans and God is not merely about faith and ethical behavior in response to instruction and grace. There is also a whole sacrificial and intercessory system which Christians over the ages have variously claimed is abolished, superseded, or recapitulated and transformed by Jesus Christ. 

Without trying to resolve that whole thicket of questions and views, it is worth looking at the sacrificial language of today’s Hebrew's passage before we get into the lavish intercessory prayer in John’s Gospel. “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears,” says Hebrews. His priestly service however was not the one practiced in the Temple, and it was not merely serving as a sacrificial victim, just a slaughtered lamb. But Hebrews images his role as one of mediation between God and humans --- not just revealing God nor establishing a new standard of conduct or a different worldview --- but interceding with God on our behalf. 

Even if this priestly image and its theological implications can be hard to discern for most of us, that role lives on in the simple fact of our prayers that conclude with “through Christ our Lord.”  The reason we conclude our prayers is because Jesus Christ is our intercessory with God.  The suggestion is that our own petitions pass through him.

Starting from Hebrews and that snippet of background helps us understand today’s Gospel because if we reach the 12th chapter of John’s Gospel without a firm idea of who Jesus is or how he is supposed to have effected salvation, today provides one.

I realize that we are not hearing the whole chapter of John’ Gospel so let us review.  First, Mary at Bethany anoints Jesus, in an act that prefigures his burial but also echoes priestly and royal consecrations --- because they used oil. As does the next portion of the chapter, where Jesus enters Jerusalem to the acclamation of a great crowd laying down palm branches and calling him “King of Israel.”  We will hear more about that next week on Palm Sunday.

Which brings us to today’s portion.  The world shows up at the start of this week’s reading, symbolized in the two Greeks who ask to see him. In response, Jesus, in that moment, makes another dramatic, demanding announcement: the time for his glorification --- by means of his violent public death --- is at hand.

As Jesus narrates his coming death, phrases ring like echoes of other parts of the New Testament. When Jesus says that only grain that dies and falls into the earth can bring forth fruit, we hear the Apostle Paul’s analogy of the dying seed and the body (1 Cor. 15:35–44).  Jesus acknowledges that his soul is troubled but pointedly declines to pray for deliverance, in contrast to the agony depicted in the synoptic Gospels at the Garden of Gethsemane.  Instead of agony we have a voice that comes from heaven, recalling those Gospels’ accounts of Jesus’ baptism and transfiguration.

Then instead of “take this cup from me imagery,” Jesus declares, “Now is the judgment of this world, now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

As an anticipation of Jesus’ crucifixion, it is fair to say that this passage goes further --- making claims both stronger and more paradoxical --- than anything in the other Gospels. This moment of trial will be summed up not as betrayal or suffering but as being “lifted up,” in which Jesus will “draw all people” to himself.

John’s distinctive vocabulary is displayed here. The verb we translate as “lifted up” appears twice before in the Gospel --- when Jesus says the Son of Man will be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent (3:14) and when he says he will be revealed when he is lifted up (8:28). Elsewhere this word is used in an unequivocal sense of being exalted. Only in John does this exaltation include the cross, creating one combined image of crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.

Taken together, these words create a majestic but challenging picture of what Jesus is accomplishing. In being lifted up on the cross, Jesus will exert a magnetic pull on “all people.” Commentators have discussed for centuries over the implications. When the Father, or Jesus, draws someone, is this an invitation that we may decline, or an enabling of belief that may exist in all people?

What does “all people” mean?  Is it an invitation rather than actual change?  That seems odd as well because Jesus does not say: “When I am lifted up, I will give all people the chance to come to me.” Furthermore, John’s dramatic retelling is genuinely cosmic, with humanity merely in the foreground. And the magnetism Jesus exerts in this Gospel is more than charisma or persuasion. It rearranges and reveals the world.

Having wrestled for years with these passages, I still struggle to make sense of them.  For me I am thankful that we have examples. At his birth, he attracted shepherds to a Bethlehem hillside, and wise men from afar. In the temple when he was 12 years old, the wise and the learned gathered round to hear him. As an adult, Jesus called to his side, fishermen who left their nets and tax collectors who abandoned their account books. Even the wise Pharisee, Nicodemus, came to him by night, to learn how to be “born from above.”  Jesus called to his side women of every description --- everyone from the practical, no-nonsense Martha to her dreamy sister, Mary. Even the Roman governor, Pilate, felt the pull of his magnetism as he interrogated him. 

Second, as I mentioned it is helpful to see this in context with the Book of Hebrews that gives us an image of Jesus we may not have considered, as High Priest who draws us together.

For illustration, in 2016 I had the privilege of visiting the Vatican in Rome.  Early one Sunday with two others, we went and stood in line with hundreds of others from around the world.  The gates were opened and by the order of when we arrived, we sat or stood in places around a massive square.  In the square, barricades provided not only our locations, but a road for the “pope mobile,” a small car with a bulletproof enclosure with a chair for the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church to sit.  Then at the appropriate time, out in this small car came Pope Francis I with a retinue of guards and assistants.  As they drove by, they came past where I was sitting, as we all waved and clapped.  Some tried to handle him children to bless, or pieces of clothing to touch. 

Although as remarkable of an experience as that was, Jesus as High Priest in John is painting a unique image, because when Jesus is drawing all people to himself as High Priest, it is not in a heavenly courtyard (although that may come later), rather it is in the descending figure of the falling grain. It is an image of dying to the world, to security, even to the power.  I have placed a lot of seeds in the ground, and I have nurtured the sprouts as they become plants and bear fruit. I have watched seeds bring forth life --- not ceasing to have vital functions but pushing off the old to allow the new to emerge and mature.

Today, Jesus affirms that he is a High Priest, one that dies so that we can live.  The mercy of God, the salvation of my life, is God’s vulnerability.  What is being lifted is not robed in majesty where we can visit once a year, and admire, but in humility through death on a cross which in a mysterious way can bring all people into a wholly, new relationship with God.  Jesus is a mediator but one that is not tied to time and space.  Thankfully, the lectionary editors felt it was helpful, as I do, to interpret today’s gospel through the book of Hebrews as we prepare for Holy Week and the momentous event of Jesus on the cross.  Amen.

 

"Where does our Lenten Journey begin?" - 2/21/2021

A version of a sermon I presented to All Saints Internation congregation in Nagoya, Japan.

As disciples of Jesus Christ our faith is not an escape from but an entry point into --- the joy and resurrection of Easter.  But to get to Easter we are to go through the cross and tomb.  It is a journey of trust, truth, and transparency.

Before we begin let us back up.  On Ash Wednesday this past week (February 17) a journey began called Lent that we take with God for 40 days before Easter.  The word “lent” is derived from the old English word “to lengthen,” as in the lengthening of days to Spring.  Lent began on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Thursday as the count does not include Sundays --- those are days of rest and reflection.  But the most interesting part for me is the number 40. 

Forty is not arbitrary.  In the Bible, there are several important Biblical events that are measured in the number 40; 40 years in the journey from Egypt to the promised land for one.  And of course, as we hear today, Jesus goes out into the wilderness for 40 days, where he wrestles with evil, which challenges his identity and faith.  The author of Mark says he is “tempted by Satan,” evil personified.  Forty days of being tested and tempted in the wilderness. At the end of those 40 days, Jesus emerges, but it does not get any easier. The greatest challenges are still to come. 

In other words, these 40 days in wilderness are just the beginning.  So, what can these 40 days tell us as we ourselves journey to the cross? 

Let us move on to the lesson.  Scholars debate how much Jesus knows at this early point in the story. I do not know if Jesus understands exactly how it will all unfold, all the details.  I think he knows something.  Something has begun that will test his will and resolve and faithfulness. As the passage opens, and the Gospel of Mark is so consistent this way --- no mincing of words --- we find Jesus being baptized in the Jordan River by his cousin, John. A voice from heaven breaks through the sounds of the rushing water and cutting through the hubbub of a crowd, the Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove. “You are my son, the Beloved,” says the voice; “with you I am well pleased” (v. 11).

This event affirms once again that God is the one who gives Jesus his identity, marking him as someone special, someone who has God’s favor. In a very real sense, Jesus begins his ministry equipped and protected with nothing less than the full love of a divine parent.  Jesus goes forth into the wilderness with a bond --- a trust --- knowing in a powerful way that he is loved.  This is the first key learning for me.  We are loved and that is where every day begins.

The Gospel of Mark does not expound much on the temptations that Jesus faced out in the wilderness, but the gospels of Matthew and Luke do.

Now reminded that he is fitted with God’s love, the first temptation is like a bullying kid in a school playground, coming fast and furious in the first couple of days.  Satan dares Jesus to do something risky. Using Scripture as the basis for his response, Jesus does not take the leap: Satan says, “Satisfy your hunger and turn these stones to bread.” Jesus in response points to self-denial, recognizing that everything comes from God and that God provides.  This is for me the second key learning; a reminder that in these 40 days not everything is about us.  As important as we may be, the universe does not revolve around us, certainly God does not.  Everything comes from God and God provides.

In the next temptation I have always imagined it happening later after Jesus had some time to get hungrier, thirstier, and more alone.  Conceivably this second temptation came when Jesus is debating if he did the right thing.  In this temptation personified evil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple. “Jump off,” says the bully, “and land unharmed. If you are so great, God will protect you.” Jesus responds with common sense, knowing that people who have real power do not need to show it off or use it to suit their own ends.  This is the third key learning for me, reason is not antithetical to our Christian journey these 40 days. 

Then there comes the third temptation, again another large one.  Perhaps after the hunger in Jesus had grown to the point of desperation when out of the haze and keenness of his hunger in this journey he hears — “All the kingdoms of the world can be yours,” says Satan, “if you’ll only worship me.” To which Jesus responds with humility --- the most difficult of the temptations for us at this point --- and says that God is the only one worth serving.  An important lesson like the first temptation but important coming right after Ash Wednesday when we are reminded that we are dust and to dust we shall return.

What does all this mean for all of us?  And why put this gospel at the near beginning of our own Lenten journey?  Maybe you do not need a reminder.  As for me it is good that we have this gospel near the beginning, for as we go out into a world fraught with so many temptations and potential pitfalls, our first line of defense begins with our own baptism; to know that God loves us.  That we are “beloved” because of God’s grace. The knowledge and experience, forged through the day-to-day relationship we walk in with God, are better predictors of heart, mind, and soul protection than any memory verses.  As we know that God cares for us, we can move out smartly to take on the bumps and jumps the day throws at us.  The other learnings come next --- humility, that not everything is about us, and that reason is important are helpful, but they all begin with that foundation piece, I am loved.

I could end there but then we would be avoiding this harsh truth, remember Jesus is driven by the Spirit into a wilderness; a physical place where few people go.  But this “wilderness” is more than physical --- if that was not enough --- it is spiritually as well, and this is even more tricky.  I mean if I cannot handle missing a meal, there is always a convenience store I can stop at.  Spiritual wildernesses on the other hand are those places where few of us ever want to go and many convenient exits to help us avoid it. Who wants to go where we wrestle with ourselves, and our spirit, and our relationship with God?   This is the transparency in our Lenten journey.

What good is that spiritual wrestling?  We cannot put it on a résumé.  We cannot earn any money from it; I suppose we could write a bestseller.  Spiritual wrestling with evil does not really make our lives easier; it may even make it harder.  So why do it?

Because in transparency, let us admit it, we have often been in the wilderness, maybe not the Mongolian desert, but wilderness, nonetheless.  The reality of our lives is that we spend a lot of time doing the best we can. We spend a lot of time facing temptation and wrestling with God, a lot of time with various demons if you will.

And in all transparency, this faith thing is hard.  Thus, we have today’s gospel to recenter our journeys. In Lent we can spend wilderness days not alone but with one who has been there before, reminded daily that we are not alone. That is good news.

Whatever that spiritual and physical wilderness may include, God looks at us with nothing but compassion and love. After all, God watched God’s own child go through challenging times. There is more good news, too. Because sometimes our spiritual wilderness can do more than challenge us. They can change us for it going through the desolate places, the painful places, we can also find joy.  Sometimes we cannot avoid hitting rock bottom before we can find the solid ground of our being.  Lent is a season for discoveries like that.

Lent is a physical countdown certainly, but it is intended for greater depth of introspection. For 40 days we are asked to go into a wilderness places and to prepare ourselves for the journey to the cross.  What will we do to quicken our pulse, remind us of our hunger?  Whatever it may be in these lengthening days we are to wrestle with the hard stuff. To face temptation and to choose to follow Christ anyway.

None of us should be surprised that we would rather jump to the end --- “Easter” --- because many like celebrations; not everyone likes setting up for it. But those of us who choose to make this 40-day wilderness journey of trust, truth and transparency may discover something meaningful along the way like the fact that Christ is there, too.  Amen.

 

"To Ephiphanize" - 1-17-2021

Sermon preached online to Nagoya All Saints International Church based on the readings for the Second Sunday after Epiphany (RCL).

When you went to school did you have science fairs?  I certainly did.  Science fairs are where students or teams of students will research a science topic, fashion an experiment, present their results and project to their fellow students, judges and the public.  Recently, I found myself remembering my first science fair. It was in sixth grade, and my experiment was on the topic of "Reflections." It was a simple experiment using water and milk, a clear glass bottle, water, a mirror, dirt, a bell, a flashlight, and few other miscellaneous items and of course poster board.  Anyway, for my work, I got a blue ribbon not the top grand prize but better than a second place red or third place white ribbon.

What I mostly remember about the whole event however was not the science it was the reaction of the person at the table next to me, a seventh grader, who got a red ribbon, and I knew why! When the judges came by to ask us about our projects, I was able to answer their questions and show how my experiment worked, my thesis and results, whereas when they came to her --- I was listening as I was right next to her --- she could barely describe her topic, much less answer the questions.

Later that night, when we showed our projects to the community, with my blue and her red, she kept looking over at me with a frown … "but yours looks so bad." This was true! Mine looked like it had been haphazardly slapped together whereas her presentation was gorgeous; a lot of time had been spent on her presentation!

Years later I still remember that event in my life. That experience taught me a valuable lesson.  The judges were less concerned about the packaging and more interested in what we learned and if we were able to express it.

As you know we are in the next chapter after Christmas --- the season of Epiphany --- when we explore what does this incarnation, this God in a baby --- this manifestation of truth, hope and light that comes into our world in Jesus Christ --- what does it mean?  Now comes the time to ask: We had the packaging of Christmas, the lights and tree but what have we learned?  “Come and see what?”

Think of it this way, if we had a Theology Fair with four students ---Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John --- assigned to do a project all with the same topic, Jesus Christ.  They had all prepared and worked hard and were lined up before us and we happened to be standing listening in, as they described Jesus Christ to the judges --- what would we hear?

First is Mark; scholars believe the oldest of the gospels. Mark includes nothing about the birth of Jesus. Mark's focus is straightforward and to the point, it is his three-year ministry, but the most important point is the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.  Mark’s poster board has only one picture – a cross.  Mark does not know or does not care to tell us of Jesus' origins, for example so he says nothing at all.

Then we come to Matthew's table. Matthew is more measured and begins by explaining the lineage of Jesus from Abraham, through David, to Joseph. For Matthew, the important point is that Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament to usher in the Kingdom of God. That point is repeated through his whole presentation.  Jesus is referred to early on as the Messiah and named "For He will save His people from their sins." If Matthew had a poster board it would have charts. 

For Luke's table, he altogether paints a different picture again and focuses more on the identity of Jesus as evidence of God at work, more historical in nature. Jesus is described in terms of great, holy, and full of wisdom and grace, healing people and constantly being called the Son of God and that this kingdom of God has special meaning for the poor.  Luke’s poster board would be a collage of images and protest artwork.

And then we come to John. The last but the most gifted of the four gospel tables in John's way with words. John has the largest vocabulary, the most soaring and elaborate of poetic strokes, as he reflects on the meaning of the birth of Christ. His is not explanation, or even chronological so does not begin with an angel visiting a virgin. Instead, we begin with the Word that is incarnate in Jesus and this presentation of Jesus cannot be explained with spoken word.  

In comparison to the other three presentations, John's would be to do away with poster board altogether. "In the beginning was the Word," John says. And by "the beginning," he means the beginning of time before time even existed. When God looked out on nothingness, before anything was created, the Word was with God.

It would be great to have a Theology Fair in our church, with a panel of judges to judge the tables of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, with enthusiastic children and proud, supportive parents. It would be great to have hundreds of people attending with NHK filming each response from each of the four presentations.

That of course that is exactly the issue that I learned back in sixth grade; in this case each of the gospels knows well the subject, Jesus Christ. The whole point is that they are so passionate that they want us to understand as well on a subject where they are all correct.   Their interest is not on which version is most beautiful, for we are not judging a presentation on how it looks.  They all have have a “come and see” presentation.

Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John are not interested in prizes, instead, they want to share what they learned about God and if there are lonely hearts, hungry bellies, broken souls, if there is injustice, then the light and the warmth of the gospel needs to be repeated.  The authors of these gospels are not interested in self-promotion or presentation rather if we honor our faith by serving God as they learned and experienced through Jesus Christ, before we serve ourselves, then the nations will see God's justice, and the whole world will glimpse God's glory; we will shine with the radiance of Christ's glory, that Christ may be known and worshiped to the ends of the earth --- and our flesh will transmit God's light.

I think back to that young woman next me at the science fair whose visual presentation could have won a blue ribbon, yet who struggled to articulate her presentation in the most basic of terms.  We may feel the same as Christians, like we must clean up and present our best face rather than focus on the subject matter.  But then that would suggest that faith is all knowledge based as well, and that is not true.

How do we break out of this conundrum?  One key point is that scholars have noted that none of the Gospel writers wrote in a vacuum the community behind the authors were key. Each was writing too and responding to their various contexts each of whom had uniquely diverse questions, concerns, society pressures, joys, and sorrows.

For example, for the community around John rather than asking the question "how is Jesus like God?" their question was, "how is God like Jesus?" John answered by saying that Jesus imitated God so clearly that it can be shown that God is love and has loved all humanity without distinction or disparity and reconciles us without any vengeance or retaliation for our separation from God.

Christmas is over, the presentations are done.  Now we have the season of Epiphany, when as a family of God we come together to support each other as we present Christ to the world.  We are the ones asked to make presentations on what we have learned to all those we meet.  Will be more concerned on how fancy is our visual display? Or are we ready to pursue justice, to bring all to God's table for a taste of forgiveness?  What would we put on our poster board about God through Jesus Christ, or do we have something altogether different? What is our “come and see;” how do we “epiphanize” or share the light of Christ with others.  Amen.

"Let it be" - 12/20/2020

Sermon based on Luke 1: 26-38; also see Luke 1: 5-24 for the 4th Sunday of Advent.  Shared via Zoom with Nagoya All Saints International Congregation

In a celebrated video commencement speech to graduating High School seniors in the United Sates posted online on May 15, 2020 the talk show host, actress, businesswoman and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey said: "I know you may not feel like it, but you are, indeed, the chosen class for such a time as this.”  Winfrey continued, "You're also a united class, the pandemic class, that has the entire world striving to graduate with you.[1]  Even though there may not be pomp because of our circumstances, never has a graduating class been called to step into the future with more purpose, vision, passion, and energy and hope."

"It's really OK to not have all the answers," Winfrey added. "The answers will come for sure if you can accept not knowing long enough to get still and stay still long enough for new thoughts to take root in your more quiet, deeper, truer self. The noise of the world drowns out the sound of you. You need to get still to listen.”

Fast forward to December, and here we are those chosen by happenstance and evolutionary biology as the pandemic people. I do not know about you, but I reach this point on one hand grateful for so much, as well as sad, tinged with grief and tired.  I cannot wait for this year to be over but also left wondering “what next?  Or in other words, I am ready for some return to “normalcy” with trepidation.

It is with 2020 and the hoped for “new normal” in 2021 in mind, that I read the gospel, the news to a young virgin Mary, that she was going to have a baby --- but not just any baby; "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David."

What a graduation for this poor, young woman.  Pregnant and not just a baby, --- but THE baby! We could spend time just on that theme --- the promise of a messiah. However, I was once again struck by Mary's reaction to this drama in her life and reminded that to understand it more fully, it is helpful to follow Luke’s narrative arc.  You see, the author of Luke wrote Mary's response right after elderly Zechariah's reaction to the news that he and his similarly aged wife, Elizabeth would have a child later to be known as John the Baptist.

Even though the promises made to Mary were much greater --- and therefore should have been harder to believe --- Mary's response is seen in the light of Zechariah's, which is why they are back-to-back in Luke.

When the angel finished his announcement, Mary replied with, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" Zechariah's response on the other hand was different, Zechariah begins with, "How will I know that this is so?” but then adds: “For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years." There is a subtle but important difference at work here. Zechariah wanted proof, whereas Mary wanted understanding.

Subtlety you may have also noticed that Luke does not spend much time with the response from Elizabeth to this extraordinary news.  Instead, Zechariah's response reveals fundamental calculations: age, when was the last time they had been physically intimate, etc.  The focus is on Zechariah and good, logical reasons for concluding that it was near impossible --- like Mary’s in that sense --- to understand the mechanics of it all. That means Zechariah's question really is, "Why should we believe something as preposterous as that?"

If we then compare Zechariah to Mary, we are left with this question: which is harder to believe, that an older couple, well past childbearing years, should have a child or that a virgin would conceive and give birth to a son?  Without bringing in other possibilities, Mary was not a virgin, Elizabeth was having an extra marital affair, and we take both miracles at face value, which bring us back to their response: Mary sought understanding, and Zechariah wanted proof.

Think of this way, after Zechariah asked his question, he was told by the angel that he will now remain … silent, unable to talk until the birth of his son. Whereas the angel responded to Mary's with words of assurance to which Mary responded: "Here am I, a servant --- slave --- of the Lord.  Let it be with me according to your word."

This is at the heart of Luke's purpose in sharing these two stories back-to-back.  In both miracle birth's that of Jesus and John --- both can only be met with a response beyond the miracles themselves.  We humans can do nothing to bring about what is going to happen, rather the focus is on our response.  Luke paints a picture: We can demand proof and experience silence or be surprised by the miracle but then willing to "let it be to me."

This subtle distinction, this awareness of course has been noticed by many, just remember the lyrics of the song from the Beatles. "When I find myself in times of trouble / Mother Mary comes to me / speaking words of wisdom, let it be."  Constructively “Letting things be” is, you might say, the wisdom of Christmas and something for us to consider near the end of one year and the beginning of a new one. 

I do not know about you but for me that is something to ponder and incredibly challenging; it runs counter to my white, on the downward slope of middle aged, male, North American point of view.  Now, I want to be clear. The response of Mary does mean accepting everything that comes our way… not at all!  Because that is flip and does not recognize the complexity of this narrative.  Just imagine, although this is her first child, Mary must have known and would soon begin to experience, the daily changes; the swollen and sore breasts, tiredness, frequent desire to urinate, and nausea.  “Let it be” is not simple acquiescence.

Rather, may we be open to this mysterious gift of grace from God as we move into 2021.  How can we be less like Zechariah and more like Mary with a --- "let it be" faith --- open to change, being change, while living in trust of God’s promises in this world, at this time?  As Christmas approaches the first mysteries of God's miracles will once again be a challenge.  That alone was a challenge to Zechariah; it was to Mary. But it is a question that does not end with one overwhelming event for it continues through the season, into every day as we navigate into 2021 as Christians.

Into each step of each day into our lives, God is calling us ---in part ---to live into this new normal in this mystery of Christmas or in the words of Ms. Winfrey, that it is “really OK to not have all the answers.”  And that the answers that we do have from God “will come for sure if we can accept not knowing long enough to get still and stay still long enough for new thoughts to take root in our more quiet, deeper, truer self.”

God pulled Zechariah, Elizabeth, and Mary into a new “normal.”  God is calling us away from lives that may in many respects may feel pulled, tossed, and turned, --- and perhaps as jaded, and long lived, as Zechariahs’ --- to live in one that is filled with the daily surprise of love, joy, hope and peace with the possibilities of “let it be” with me.  In a way, the coinciding of a new year, with Christmas is a historical fluke, nonetheless what better way to enter the world each year from the cradle where the gift of Christmas is for all us into "Let it be with me according to your word" dear God, today and every day.  Amen.

 

[1] https://www.insider.com/oprah-class-2020-commencement-speech-video-watch-2020-5

"Puzzle Parables" - 11/15/2020

Shared with Nagoya All Saints International Congregation based on the Matthew 25: 14-30

I wonder about that hole in the ground, the one dug by the third servant in Jesus’ parable of the talents. Does he dig the hole by his own choice, or on account of the choices of others? Think about that with me.  Is the servant a victim of circumstance, or was it his own “lack of talent” that led to his decisions or does he have some culpability in his choice he makes when he buries the talent?  And, then there is the question, once the hole has been dug, is there any way out?

Jesus’ parables are like that. They invite listeners --- even require us --- to puzzle over their potential meanings.  Some parables seem simpler for example, “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”[1]  Other parables sound like confusing riddles, or even bad jokes, and some challenge us to think more deeply about life and the systems that we are part of. 

Let us take a moment to review today’s parable: this parable of the talents. In Jesus’ day, one talent represented wages for approximately 15 years: enough money to fund the winnings of a large lottery jackpot. The story begins simply enough: “It is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.”

While the man is gone, the first two servants put his money to work, doubling its initial value. The third servant guards the man’s fortune by burying it in the ground. When the man returns, the first two servants receive a handsome reward for their investment savvy. So far, so good, at least from the view of those of us who benefit from market economics: where one is rewarded for education, talent, ingenuity even luck. No joke here or riddle.

But then the parable takes a threatening turn. When the man learns that the third servant has hidden his money, he calls him out. “You wicked and lazy servant!” He confiscates the money and passes it along to the richest of the three servants. Adding insult to injury, he calls for the third servant to be cast into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The punch line of the parable seems to be that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Is this a simple parable, a good riddle or a bad joke or something else entirely?

Now to be honest, the parable of the talents has long encouraged the church’s fruitful stewardship of whatever gifts God has given. By this interpretation, the servant who buries his gift is like a tree that does not bear good fruit.  Those who increase their gifts are like a faithful servant who is at work when the Lord comes.  Admittedly I have even done a few sermons with that in mind. 

But again, Jesus speaks in parables so that his followers will be required to ponder more deeply.  For example, I have often found that I am far to quick to avoid the parts that do not fit with my first “go to” interpretation.  We should not view the fruitful stewardship of gifts as the only interpretation that is worthwhile.

Because viewed from a different perspective, the parable exposes the challenges of faithfulness in a world dominated by power and wealth where one is rewarded for education, talent, and ingenuity, --- unless you are not.  Return to the parable with me for we learn later that the man is rich, which should not have been a surprise because of the astronomical figures expressed in talents involved.  But we also learn --- at least from one perspective --- this rich man has achieved his wealth at the expense of others; “I knew that you were a harsh man reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you did not scatter seed.”[2]  With that lens in mind, we now discover in the parable that the first two servants multiply the rich man’s dishonesty. Whereas the third servant refuses to participate in this system, and for this refusal he is abandoned and condemned to a place of suffering.

So, in a roundabout way, the parable offers a clear-eyed analysis of the real world, one where we may find ourselves, perhaps not in much control of our circumstances, or comfortable in participating in something we find troubling.  Or we may feel like the best way in this world is to dutifully play it safe not challenging ourselves with what we have. Or we may have been given something to which we do not want or care for.  Look again at the precise accusation of the rich man who distributed the talents.  The rich man calls the slave “wicked” and “lazy.”  The laziness charge certainly sticks because whatever the method the rich man became wealthy, he certainly was trusting and generous in his servants and honest in his evaluation of what constitutes success.

Where is the good news for us in any of this?  Remember again the parables are Jesus way to teach us, so Jesus may be adding further depth to some earlier words about the cost of discipleship: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. . . . For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?”[3]

How do we see that in this parable?

If that were not enough to ponder, there is something else, as you may know from you own Bible study, context is important.  In Matthew, Jesus tells this parable a couple of days before his arrest and crucifixion, events that will testify to many things, but one is the world’s fondness for punishing those who speak truth to power. And like the third servant in the story, Jesus will be condemned to suffering. Abandoned by most of his friends, he will cry out to God, “Why have you forsaken me?” Then he will be buried in a rock-hewn tomb, just as the talent is buried deep in the ground.

This is not the end of the story, however, even if it marks the ending of today’s parable. As Matthew’s Gospel makes clear, a hole in the ground --- even a tomb --- cannot contain Jesus. Jesus is the Messiah, raised from the dead. Or as another parable suggests, the “kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field,” and the day will come when the Messiah will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.

There is so much to make of this parable, so in that spirit, I began with a question for you and will end with a new one. I began by asking, does this third servant dig the hole by his own choice, or on account of the choices of others?

Thankfully, Jesus broke free from the tomb to reconcile us to God, to free us.  A freedom that calls us to be wise as foxes and an innocent as doves.  On one hand to live in the grace freely and fully into the grace have received, as well as to not be afraid to fully empty ourselves as disciples of Jesus Christ including speaking truth to power.  

Yet, unlike the two servants, the risks God would have us take are for the sake of others who have found themselves in holes of their or others making, for those who need to hear the promise of reconciliation.  Risking ourselves, not just our money or our status --- that is a genuine risk of discipleship.  Other people are the focus of our risk-taking.  Relationships are the riskiest business around. A freedom to risk love and service, to risk rejection and ridicule, to risk despair for the promise of fulfillment --- those are the truly profound risks that God wants us all to take, a challenge to which none of us does alone.   We have a loving Savior who wants to see us do well, to succeed with whatever he has given us to do.  So the question is this, if God risked everything in the person of Jesus Christ for the sake of our salvation, doesn't it seem likely that this same God might expect more than self-seeking, self-motivated, safety- conscious behavior from those who have been so wondrously graced?  Amen.

 

[1] Matthew 13:33

[2] Vs. 24

[3] Matt. 16:24–26

"The Gift of Appreciation" - 10/18/2020

Sermon shared during Zoom worship for Nagoya All Saints International Church, Nagoya, Japan based on 1 Thessalonians 1-10.

When I began to learn Japanese, it seemed I heard “thank you” all the time.  Perhaps because I was learning, or maybe because it was one of the first words I began to use on a regular basis.  Regardless it seemed like I heard a variation of thank you everywhere from the formal “arigatou gozaimasu” to the more formal “doumo arigatou gozaimasu” to the informal “thanks” or either “arigatou” or “doumo.”

But there are some unique to Japanese for example there could be a situation, like someone holding open the door to an elevator, where I would hear “Sumimasen, arigatou gozaimasu” which translated into English sounded and still sounds a little strange, “I’m sorry, thank you.”  And then there are some that are quite unique to Japanese as one can say, “osore irimasu” and “osewa ni narimashita” depending on the situation.

As I continued to live and learn more Japanese, I also found myself wondering are the words of appreciation I seemed to be hearing, everywhere were they because they were thankful or … just being polite?  Were the expressions proforma said … just to be said. Can “thank you” become so repetitive or common that it loses its meaning?  Overtime as my interactions in Japanese increased, or maybe because it was from my own maturity, or it could have been the novelty of living in Japan wore off, or a combination of all the above, I came to realize that just like in English words of appreciation do not always reflect a person’s feelings.

I remembered that experience, words of appreciation and their intention, when I considered the Apostle Paul's letters as we have them in the New Testament.  In the letter-writing standards of Paul's day, it was common, even expected, to include an expression of thanksgiving in the opening section of letters.  Paul did it in all his epistles to the churches, except for the one to the Galatians.  In that single case, it is possible that he was so distressed about the problems in the Galatian church that he could not think of any basis for thanksgiving. But that single exception also suggests that when Paul did include a thanksgiving in a letter, he did not do it as a matter of courtesy or routine, but only when he believed it was warranted.

Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, our second lesson, is an example the other way --- he is sincerely appreciative. In this letter, he not only included a thanksgiving for the Thessalonian church members at the beginning, he also thanks God again for them halfway through the second chapter and again in the third chapter, which is a lot, considering that there are only five chapters in the whole letter![1]

Why was Paul so appreciative?  For one Paul had an interest in the church at Thessalonica, for he and Silas had planted it there on Paul's second missionary journey. In fact, in the letter, Apostle Paul compared his feelings for the Thessalonians to the compassion parents have for their children.[2] And Paul had reason to be proud of the Thessalonians. Paul and Silas had barely gotten the church off the ground before they had been run out of town by a mob.[3]  Yet in those hostile surroundings, those with whom they had spent time continued growing.

Paul had much to thank God for on their behalf. Their persistence amid that hostile environment may be what Paul had in mind when he wrote in his thanksgiving, “And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia” (1:6-7).

As I continued to review the lesson, I realized there is more to Paul’s appreciation today that we can possibly learn from.  First, notice that Paul's expressions of thanks are addressed not directly to the Thessalonians, to the people themselves, but to God on their behalf. Writing not only for himself, but also for Silas and Timothy, Paul says, “We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Of course, the Thessalonians would have heard that as a thank you to them as well, yet it is to God that Paul is expressing thanksgiving.

Note that Paul is not saying he is thankful that the Thessalonians are nice people or give a nice donation; he's much more specific about his reasons for thanking God: He's thankful for their “work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope.”  If this sounds familiar it is because we know from 1 Corinthians 13, that Paul considers these the trifecta of discipleship, so we should not be surprised that he also refers to them here.

However, when Paul includes faith, love and hope in his thanksgiving for the Thessalonian Christians, he does not talk about them as virtues in isolation, but Paul gets specific: He's thankful for their work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope.  In other words, their faith is grounded in the salvation presented by Jesus, it is translated into their conduct, how they act toward one another, the way in which they face the challenges of life, and their attitude about how things will come out in the end. Based on Paul’s view, Christianity is not a static belief for these Thessalonians, but a dynamic force that permeates all they say and do.

There is second point for us from Paul’s sincere words of appreciation that we can learn from.  Letting someone know you are thankful for something they have done or some attitude they exemplify has another effect as well: It encourages the person to continue in that way. That is what Paul has in mind as he lavishes praise on the Thessalonians; he wants them to keep on living this trifecta --- faith, hope, and love --- wholeheartedly.

But this encouragement is a two-way street for Paul himself is also a better person for his efforts to thank the Thessalonians. In expressing praise to God for them, he is recognizing the ways in which God is blessing his own faith, hope, and love. 

There is a third component for us to understand in Paul’s words of appreciation that can help us.  Back in the 1930s, the Jewish philosopher/theologian, Martin Buber, wrote a book in which he postulated that our human interactions are of two kinds.[4] Simply put, the first is called the “I-it” relationship. This is when we have no vital concern for other people; we are detached from them. We stop at a restaurant for lunch and a server takes our order. We do not know her.  We do not know about her marriage or her concerns about her children or her sore feet. She is primarily a person who provides a service. Our relationship to her is essentially the same as to a robot who could deliver food to your table. This is a subject-to-object, “I-it” relationship.

The other way in which we relate to others, says Buber, is the “I-thou” relationship. This is when the other person ceases to be a “something” to us and becomes a “someone.” I-thou is where we view others not in terms of what they can do for us, but in terms of who we are as ourselves and who they are to us.  Paul in his appreciation reminds us to see the other person as thou and not as it, and that changes both the other person and us.

We can give a token like a coin in gratitude.  That is a subject to object, an “I-it” relationship as Jesus reminds us today in the Gospel.^[5]  Or we can live in relationship thankful to God who gives all.

In summary, Paul's practice in his letters and particularly today of thanking God for those among whom he worked was not just a habit, a common salutation in all but one of his letters, but a relationship. It encouraged the people in the churches and assisted Paul in his own life of faith.  It affirmed their signs of faith, hope and love and their mutual foundation in God through Jesus Christ. More important in my view, it affirmed the sacredness of that person. 

Through Christ authentic appreciation is an important lesson for us.  We can help each other in faith and strengthen its vitality by first thanking God for the faith, hope, and love of our fellow worshipers and second, by thanking them directly as well. Furthermore, this life in appreciation is not limited but can be lived out beyond walls.  In doing so we can build upon on our relationships with our family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances by thanking them not out of habit or custom, not in terms of what they can do for us, or out of expectation for what we have done for them, but in terms of who we are ourselves; loved, forgiven and in relationship with God through, with, and in Jesus Christ --- sacred.

In doing so, we build upon ALL our relationships and become more faithful, hopeful, and loving as well as catch a grateful glimpse of God through Jesus Christ.  Thank you.  Amen.

 

[1] 1:2-5, 2:13-16, 3:9-10

[2] see 2:7, 11

[3] Acts 17:5-9

[4] https://www.britannica.com/topic/I-Thou

[5] Matthew 22: 15-22

"Thanksgiving in Suffering" - 9/20/20

A synthesized Sermon shared at Odawara Lutheran Church, Odawara, Kanagawa, Japan and Nagoya All Saints International Congregation, from two different but similar sermons I preached.  Based on Philippians 1:21-30

Is the Apostle Paul writing from the clarity that ending can bring? According to The Atlantic, a US magazine, a study was done of more than 3,000 professional soccer games.[1]   It revealed that 23 percent of goals came in the final 15 minutes of the 90-minute match. The end of the game has a focusing effect, motivating players to summon their strength for a final push.  Another study looked at hospice workers and other end-of-life professionals. For these people, exposure to death causes them to “live in the present, cultivate a spiritual life and reflect deeply on the continuity of life.” Endings are important.

In his letter to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul offers a perspective on the end of life. “For to me,” he says, “living is Christ and dying is gain” (1:21). He knows that his ongoing life on earth means “fruitful labor” for the Philippians and for him, but at the same time he admits of his “desire is to depart and be with Christ” (vv. 22-24).

Are those words, are they written close to his death, a prisoner on death row, using remarkably positive language to describe his situation? “I want you to know,” he writes earlier in this chapter, “that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for Christ” (vv. 12-13).  It seems that at least part of him wants his life on earth to end, so that he can be with Christ and share his resurrection life.  Are these words written with the clarity that impeding death may bring or is there a deeper theological meaning that Paul is trying to teach?

As you may or may not know, there is some lively Biblical scholarship regarding Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi, this letter to the Philippians. Scholars consider Philippians without a doubt to be an authentic work of the apostle Paul; that does not mean, however, that all the debate about the circumstances of its writing have ceased. The reason I bring it to your attention is that there is an ongoing debate over our portion today.

Tradition has it that the letter was written close to his death.  However recent scholarship around the literary integrity of the book, challenges the traditional location and date of its composition.  A close reading of the book suggests that Philippians is not one letter but two.  In that view, chapters 3 and 4 were sent first, followed by chapters 1 and 2, then compiled into one later.  That would mean given the usual chronology of Paul’s life and ministry, that would place these letters of Philippians sometime around 54-55 AD rather than about a decade later during his imprisonment in Rome and subsequent death.

I will not get into all the details about this scholarship, whether Philippians is a single letter or a composite of two letter, other than to direct you to the most obvious question. There is a sudden shift in tone found in 3:1, where Paul goes from “finally” encouraging the Philippians to “rejoice in the Lord” to telling them how it was not “irksome” to keep writing to them about the same things. The first two chapters had been filled with thanksgiving, and much of the next two chapters detail problems of divisions within the church.

I suspect we will never know, if it was one letter or two, but how does that scholarly debate impact us?  Let me return to my original question; should we interpret Paul through the clarity that impending death can bring?  Or were those words written a decade earlier without his impending death in mind?  And if it is the second, what did Paul have in mind?

I am wondering then if the second question is true that Paul’s words should be seen through something else found in the first two chapters --- through the sufferings. “Paul’s own afflictions,” writes Professor Morna Hooker, are not described in a negative way.  Instead, they “are seen as an opportunity for the gospel: People talk about his case; therefore, they learn about the Christian faith, and other Christians are encouraged to make a similar stand.”[2]

Remember, Saul later Paul of Tarsus went from holding the cloaks of those stoning St. Stephens, to blindness on the road and then new sight.  He experienced the cold shoulder of the first disciples who only knew Paul as a persecutor of the early church.  Paul experienced shipwrecks and imprisonment and hostile communities plus all the things we could summarize if we had his daily diary, the cold nights and inclement weather on the road. Professor Hooker continues, “The amazing fact that oppression leads to growth reflects the paradox that lies at the heart of the gospel — namely, that God’s power is revealed through the weakness of the cross and that victory comes through apparent defeat.”[3]

Paul wants us to live in a manner worthy of the gospel, aware of the defeat it can bring, reflective of the grace and love of Jesus Christ.  By doing so, for Paul we become stronger and more focused, standing firm in one spirit, and striving side by side with one mind. Such strength and unity do not often happen in good times. In fact, it usually happens in challenging times. Live your life “in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ,” Paul writes, “so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel” (v. 27).

Paul reminds the Philippians that God “has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well — since you are having the same struggle that you saw I had” (vv. 29-30). For most of us, the privilege of believing in Christ is easy to accept, and we are happy to receive the gift of forgiveness and new life. But “suffering for him as well”? That is a bit tougher to swallow.

For Paul, however, believing and suffering go together. Perhaps not surprisingly, we tend to be prejudiced, narrow regarding suffering without realizing it placing it solely in either thinking “no one knows the trouble I have seen” or thankful suffering has passed us by.   Yet, just think of the vast definitions of suffering illustrated in the Bible.

1. Creation suffers (Genesis 1-3)
2. Suffering can be mysterious. (Job)
3. Grief can cause suffering. (The death of Lazarus)
4. Suffering can come from being a victim. (Exodus)
5. We can experience empathic suffering, as we walk with others who suffer. (Old Testament prophets)

Those are just a few.  There is no one kind of suffering, one better than another.  There is no one form of suffering that is truer to the meaning of suffering.  Rather, while it is true that Christ died for us, the Apostle Paul is reminding us in today’s passage --- and perhaps to himself --- that it is also true that Christians die into this fullness of Christ. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” Paul asks the Romans (6:3). “We suffer with him,” he says, “so that we may also be glorified with him” (8:17).

Did Paul write these words in his cell as he waited death?  Or a decade earlier?  Regardless Paul is describing the challenge for us all as we live out our faith as the hands and feet of Jesus in the world.  The apostle Paul while happy to serve the Christ in this life, understood that with faith comes the clearness that suffering can bring.  An understanding that we will depart and be with Christ which provides strength and clarity --- and comfort --- throughout this life.  At the same time, we live in, with and through not only the joys of life in Christ in thanksgiving but within the variety of “sufferings” that this life can bring.  Amen.

 

[1] Healy, Ben. “The Science of Getting Over It.” The Atlantic, November 2019, www.theatlantic.com.

[2] Hooker, Morna D. “The Letter to the Philippians.” The New Interpreter’s Bible (Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2000), 492.

[3] Ibid.

A Ministry of Reconciliation - 8/16/2020

Sermon shared online with All Saints Nagoya International Church, Link on Sunday, August 16, 2020 based on the assigned Gospel for the day, Matthew 15: 10-28.

Today Jesus talks toilets.

In today’s lesson from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus makes an astonishing analogy between a toilet and a wicked heart and then gives us a real-life example.

First, Jesus starts with the toilet: “Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?" (v. 17). This is the first part of the metaphor. The word that can be translated as “sewer” is the biblical Greek word aphedron. It refers to a place where human waste is dumped, that is, a privy or a toilet.

But the astonishing part about this is not that Jesus is talking toilets here, that should not surprise us because Jesus was both fully human and fully divine. What is amazing is Jesus is suggesting that the human heart --- the inner consciousness and sentient part of our nature --- can also be like a toilet. It is from this cesspool --- as he describes the parable to the disciples --- from where “evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander” can be defecated, if you will, through the mouth.

The implication is clear, just like our hearts can be a place where love is found, our hearts can pollute everything around us. “These,” he says to his startled audience and the prim Pharisees, “are what defile a person,” not the outward fact that the hands have been washed or not washed (vv. 18-20).

For Jesus, hypocrisy stinks and we need more than air fresheners or incense for our homes and lives to cover it up. Jesus is teaching in this recorded text and elsewhere in the gospels that our words and actions are a product of who we are, of what is inside of us, in our hearts. That's what he means when Jesus says in his “Sermon on the Mount” that a person who thinks like an adulterer is an adulterer even though there's been no actual liaison and that the person who hates another person is a murderer, even though a literal murder has not been committed (Matthew 5:21-30).

So how do we get rid of the stink of hypocrisy? We need more than air freshener. We need more than a cosmetic approach. A toilet with warm seats and lids that goes up and down with the touch of a button and supplies a princess cover sound is still--a toilet.

The good news is that God through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has reconciled us to God and has installed a new system, something so radical and effective that the results are authentic, pure, sweet-smelling, wholesome and of benefit to everyone.

As Paul puts it in today’s letters to the Romans, “are we rejected?” sewage to be swept out of God’s creation. Absolutely not! By grace, through faith, we are loved, forgiven, and baptized into God’s family, called to a life that calls us to a new heart, or a new nature. We are new creations in Christ, as the apostle Paul makes clear: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Because this is true, because we are reconciled to God, we have been given the “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18).

What is this ministry of reconciliation? This does not mean that we become burdened like community workers of old who go from home to home picking up that day’s sewage to spread on the fields. Rather, activated by faith, we speak and act as though we have met the living Christ. We walk in faith, walk in the Spirit, and recognize that we have been given a new life, a new heart, a new nature. Living as though we are in the family of God is an intentional choice of faith. We choose God. We say yes, every moment of our days to God. And the more we do this, the stronger we become.

We can--- based on Colossians 3 for just one example,

+ Live authentic lives.

+ Chose not to lie to one another.

+ Bear each other's burdens

+ Practice love and forgive one another.

+ Live gratefully, in peace, before God and one another.

That being said it does not mean that we do not struggle with all that may pour sewage back into our lives by our actions, those around us or by life circumstances some of which we have no control. The recent image in my mind is the pictures I saw from the flooding in Kumamoto and all the mud in people’s homes. Many were living their lives and then suddenly a flood had overwhelmed them and their neighbors. We can metaphorically feel the same way.  As if to underscore what Jesus has just said, the Gospel of Matthew at once supplies an illustration of hypocrisy and this ministry of reconciliation.

Jesus is in modern-day Lebanon and there meets a woman. Matthew names this person as a “Canaanite” woman -- emphasizing her heritage as among the earliest inhabitants of this region. “Canaanite” is cultural code for a long-hardened pagan and a longtime enemy of the Jewish monotheistic faith and commitment.

From the perspective of Jesus and the disciples the encounter with a Canaanite is daring, but with a Canaanite woman, it is doubly defiling. The strict codes of decency in Near Eastern culture sternly frowned on unrelated women and men socializing. The brazen, loud yet faithful approach of this lone woman to Jesus and his disciples makes her character especially questionable.

So, not only is this stranger an unescorted Canaanite woman (is she a single parent?) but she has a daughter who is owned by a demon. In an age in which it was a commonly held conviction that all diseases and afflictions resulted from past life choices, this woman's character rating slips even further. What has she done in her life to have earned such a curse on her and her daughter?

Yet, this faithful woman challenges the old mindset, the tables are turned and Jesus shows his disciples what it means to live as someone in touch with a heart that is higher than the laws, traditions, and conventions of human society --- this ministry of reconciliation.  Jesus, at first models the expected behavior and culture of that time, that no self-respecting and self-righteous man would have had anything to do with this woman, but then Jesus lives out this changed heart leading to a ministry of reconciliation. Out of this woman’s faithful response pointing out the hypocrisy, Jesus gives us a living example, that with a new “system” in place, a new nature, a new perspective, old barriers can be overcome and we are now open for daily opportunities to reconcile and live out the good news.  In turn to be gracious and generous, to be kind and compassionate.

Interestingly, that kind of a life is one that is like --- to God --- a sweet-smelling sacrifice of praise! “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing" (2 Corinthians 2:15). As we live like Christ, and “walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us” we are “as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 2:15).

May we be a sweet-smelling family of God. May those who live around us see us not as people with one face, whose actions betray us to be nothing more than sewage, but as people who can live out this ministry of reconciliation as fragrant examples of God’s love.  Furthermore, may our faith be like the woman’s, demanding a clean heart, not be satisfied with hypocrisy and open to the faith of others as we grow in faith.  Amen.

Prayer: This is a portion from a Prayer called “For Deliverance from False Desires and Fears.”[1]

“And, dear Jesus, grant me the grace to desire that others might be more loved than I, that others might be more esteemed than I, that in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I decrease, that others may be chosen and I may be set aside, that others may be preferred to me in everything, that others may become holier than I, provided that I, too, become as holy as I can.  Amen.”

 

[1] Shane Claiborne & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Common Prayer: Pocket Edition, Zondervan, 2012 p. 73.

"Good to be Wheat" - July 19, 2020

Shared with Nagoya All Saints International Church Link based on the Gospel Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43

I remember early in my ministry, after a pastor’s meeting, a friend of mine came up to me and said that they had not seen my name on the list for a Young Pastor’s Group.  I said that I did not know anything about it and asked for more information.  Well come to find out that the invitation had been sent out to all those who were 30 years and under.  I was over 30.

After mutual chuckles when we realized what happed, I thanked her for thinking I was younger than 30!  Yet, after that experience, I left that meeting wondering about our general perceptions of others.  How do others perceive us?  But more than just age, how do we see ourselves and is it accurately reflected in the broader world?  And how about the people we meet, how do we see them?  Is everything as Doi Takeo suggested in Anatomy of Self, Link hone and tatemae --- our feelings and public display.  And how is that all lived out as Christians?  I would hope that the world would see me as a caring, compassionate, thoughtful Christian, but do they?  Of course, it takes interactions and relationship building that ultimately gives us the tools to understand each other more fully.

Over the years that event early in my pastoral career has reappeared in other ways as I have led my life as pastor, husband, and father.  Sometimes in less than humorous ways.  Either I have erroneously perceived a person or situation inaccurately or the other way around.  Meaning, not only may we not be perceived accurately but we may not accurately see others. 

That event from my past and those experiences since came to mind as I spent time thinking about today’s lesson from Matthew.  What is central to the parable of the wheat and the weeds is the preciousness of the wheat.  Meaning do we perceive ourselves as that precious wheat?  Or are we more like weeds?  And how about others?  Can we truly even judge or for that matter even fight against evil sprouting in and around us?  And if not, is this all to be left for the sweet by and by or a Dante style purgatory.

First let us review today’s lesson.  It begins with Jesus saying that the kingdom of heaven was like a person who sowed wheat seed in a field, but “while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat.”  The enemy sowed zizania in Biblical Greek --- otherwise known as tares, darnel, or cockle.  It is a weed that, especially in its early stages, looks like wheat, but at maturity, the weight of the grain of the wheat bends the heads down.  Since there is not much of anything in the heads of darnel, the plant continues to stand straight.  Darnel is, thusly, a plant of “air heads.”  It looks good, in other words, but there is nothing there and what is there is inedible.

Jesus adds in the parable that the slaves of the landowner, after identifying that a problem existed in the fields and make the issue known are the first to consider acting against the weeds after being told how they came about.  “Then do you want us to go and gather them” ask the slaves.  Do you want us to respond to this initiative from the hostile enemy?  Are we to fight back?

Interesting that it is the slaves who are volunteering for more work, perhaps it could be because they do not want to get blamed.  Either way, in the parable the response of the landowner is: Do nothing!  “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.”  In your zeal to root out the enemy, you are quite likely to tear up the whole field.  It will be “at harvest time,” when the landowner will instruct the reapers to gather the weeds first place in bundles to be burned.  The word translated as “time” in the parable is Kairos, which means “opportune time” not chronological time. 

Notice again that the parable says, “Let both grow….”  The word “let” in our translation is apheta in biblical Greek.  It may also be translated as “allow” besides “let” but another common translation of aphete is “forgive.”  “Forgive both grow…” which I think adds a different nuance.  The parable concludes that the weeds will be dealt with ultimately through fire.  The fire may not be the most pleasant of Biblical images, but it is certainly a dramatic one. 

We are then told that Jesus left the crowds and went “into the house,” which, incidentally, may have been his own residence in Capernaum.  In the house, the disciples want an explanation for this “parable of the weeds,” which shows, right there, that they did not get it.  You may also notice if you were following along in the Bible that the other parables are ignored by the disciples in this series.  Insightful for us that the disciples in Matthew’s version considered this one the most challenging!   And how does Jesus explain the parable.  Well, crucially the enemy is now, finally, identified as diabolos -- the devil.  And “The reapers” are identified as “angels” and the fire is now a furnace where there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” all eschatological references. 

So, what do you think?  Well for me it is helpful to put this parable in context for in Matthew the parable of the sower precedes this one.[1]  And what happens in that parable?  There is a sower, who sows everywhere, and some of the seed takes root in good soil, whereas in other places it is eaten or takes root within thorns.  At a another landing the seeds grows quickly but then wither in the heat.

However, in this parable, we have the Kingdom of Heaven with Christ as the sower sowing “wheat.”  This wheat seed are the children of the kingdom, Jesus says.[2]   In this parable, Christ refuses to lose any wheat, with the assumption that where it is planted is good.  Moreover, nothing is said on how it grows other than it will.

Another aspect of this parable and Jesus’ explanation to notice is that the wheat not getting destroyed with the weeds suggests a familiar theme, the same one that informs other parables like the one about the lost sheep or the lost coin --- and I would suggest even the gathering up of those 12 baskets of leftover fragments after the feeding of the 5,000.  In God's economy nothing is counted as expendable, whether lost sheep, lost pennies, wheat growing among weeds, or leftover fragments after a miracle.  We had just heard earlier in Matthew that we are not to fear for “you are of more value than many sparrows.”[3]  Furthermore, in this parable there is also an echo of a question posed by the two disciples James and John as recorded in Luke when Jesus is not received well.[4]  “Do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” similar to today’s slaves at the presence of the weeds.  Jesus' reply to the Sons of Thunder is also pertinent: “He rebuked them.”

For God, apparently, all is precious in God’s economy.  Since God loves goodness more than God hates evil, and is not willing to lose the good … what about evil?  This parable does not excuse it or our Christian responsibilities, rather in this parable Jesus reminds us that in God’s “time of harvest,” there will be a reckoning.  Evil will be checked, but by God's work and not ours.  Not that excuses us from the present evils but the inspiration to do act is not in today’s parable.

Again, the implication of this parable is that God is a different kind of farmer than we can ever imagine.  God is like a teacher who care less about who cheats as who learns.  She bides her time with a classful of known smug stinkers just so one struggling underachiever can pass his test.  And it is not up to the stinkers in the class, or the fellow teachers or the administration, to decide.

In summary all these observations have comprehensive implications not only for us but for others.  We can grow impatient with God when our prayers to uproot some personal weeds seem to go unanswered.  God will not uproot the wheat of our survival to get at the weed of our fury.  And perhaps the weed itself is merely another strain of wheat that we do not recognize.  We are not always particularly good at identifying wheat from weed.  For example, up until their crucifixion, the two thieves who died beside Jesus probably appeared as no more than two bad peas in the same bad pod.  Time told another story.

Jesus knows evil will be dealt with ultimately through the purifying furnace.  Again, this purifying furnace is not the most pleasant of Biblical images, but we all have our “weed side” --- that part of us which may look good but does not produce fruit.  This part will be refined away, leaving only that which is built on Christ.  In God's time of harvest, this will be seen and experienced as a good thing.  After all, the one who sends the purifying refinement --- is really the one who loves us so much and is the same one who hesitant to risk one single grain of wheat at the mere appearance of evil.

Notice again that the “wheat” is never threatened in the parable, not while growing or at harvest.  No matter how many weeds are planted in the field, in fact, it was the very produce of the “wheat” that illuminated the failure of the weeds in the first place.

All this I find hopeful and perhaps even joyful in these times of pandemic.  Again, and again, amid this thorny and rocky and good world, God is not only sowing a life-giving Word but building a harvest, including the found lost sheep, discovered lost coin, or returned prodigal child.  Meaning that however we perceive others and others perceive us, we have a God who came incarnate in Jesus Christ to bring good news to the poor, and comfort to those who mourn. To heal the brokenhearted.  To open prison.  Turning upside down what we may consider weeds in the first place.

I was reminded of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s, the German pastor and theologian who was martyred in 1945, on his comment regarding the two trees in The Garden: the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  And how the original human sin was choosing knowledge of good and evil over the tree of life.  Bonhoeffer indicted that at that moment we could choose to know God and have life, or we could choose to try and be like God to raise up good and exterminate evil.[5]  It seems we prefer to be like God over over life.

All in all, this parable is a good reminder to ground ourselves as wheat in God’s good soil and that is how we are to perceive ourselves and other people around us.  That it is important to bear that in mind when we grow impatient with God's role.  How long must this creation groan in its labor?  Often in these moods our attention is fixed more intently on the stubborn persistence of evil than on the slow emergence of a harvest of wheat and God’s role.  Amen.

 

[1] 13: 1-23

[2] 13:38

[3] Matthew 10: 31

[4] Luke 9: 54

[5] For more thought on this see:  https://sojo.net/articles/tree-life-politics-abundance

"When Images collide with Jesus" - June 21, 2020

This sermon was presented via the Zoom video conference platform to Nagoya All Saints International Church.  It is based on the Gospel lesson for that Sunday, Matthew 10: 24-39

A facilitator at a congregational workshop began her presentation by showing two images of a Jesus figure from contemporary US Christian artists.  The first was a painting by Stephen Sawyer, titled “Undefeated.”  See Here  This painting depicts a Jesus figure as a boxer standing inside a boxing ring.  In the corner, we find the word savior” printed on the protective padding of the corner post and hanging from the ropes are the boxing gloves with the word “mercy” written upon them.[1]

After a few minutes for the image to sink in, the speaker then followed with another image --- this one by Nathan Greene, titled “The Good Shepherd.” See Here  This image shows a Jesus figure holding a black lamb in a pastoral scene.

The speaker then asked the attendees, when looking at these images side by side, “What is your image of Jesus?”  The presupposition is and one I think is true, we all have images of Jesus.  While we may not always be clear as to what those images may be, we also may not realize how much these images may say about ourselves, how we grew up, our backgrounds, and our faith journey.  For example, whatever our image of Jesus maybe, we have no real physical description of him so whatever image we do have, has come via a cocktail of scripture, artist renderings and our own imaginations.

In my years as a pastor I have found that in general we aren’t always aware of our conceptions until something challenges our faith, like found in today’s gospel, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.”[2]  Or the passage before: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”[3]

How do we integrate these words with our images or more importantly with our faith now?  Would it make any difference if we understood that the sword Jesus brings to us is not made of steel, but wood --- the wood of a cross?  Or that our worth before God is not economic or hierarchical?

I invite you to review with me today’s portion of the Gospel of Matthew more fully.

Scholarship suggests that the author of Matthew wrote around 85 CE.  Meaning this is composed in the context of a post-war period.  It follows the devastation of the Roman-Jewish War of 66-70 CE when blood ran in the streets of Jerusalem, the Second Temple was destroyed, and many are refugees.

The gospel of Matthew is a few years removed from the gospel of Mark, an earlier gospel seemingly transcribed from an oral presentation during or just after the devastation.  While Matthew's over-all “mood” practically speaking is not as dark as Mark's, Matthew was writing to an audience who were fragile, vulnerable, and under threat.  If Jesus himself has been accused of being a demon --- “they have called the master of the house Beelzebub” --- then even this charge is likely to be levelled also at Jesus' followers.

Why is it helpful to remind ourselves that the situation was quite serious for this early Christian community?  That the person you may have just shared communion with is being hauled before magistrates, or that one's own life may be in danger?

In verses 26-31, the disciples of Jesus are encouraged not to fear three times in five verses.  This is a message of hope and promise for people who feel under siege.  Despite the difficulties, this movement cannot be stopped, Jesus tells them.  Even if you go to prison, even if you are oppressed, the message will be revealed and “become known,” or as expressed in the biblical Greek “known” in the most intimate way, into one’s very core.

When Jesus says today --- “what I say to you” --- it is recorded in the present tense --- even if “in the dark.”  Now we need to be careful, particularly in this time of “Black Lives Matter,” for the English language is racialized, meaning that dark or black as evil can be construed in contrast to the light or white.  In this instance, “in the dark” indicates a community that must speak in whispers to each other from those who can “kill the body.”  Nevertheless, Jesus is saying, speak in the open --- “tell in the light.”  Yes, they were enduring political and social oppression.  Yes, they were under the boot of the Roman empire.  Nevertheless, do not be afraid to speak openly; what hard truths go unsaid among you?

Then encouragingly Jesus uses an image of sparrows.  Sparrows at the time of Jesus were one of the cheapest edible foods.  Two of them could be bought for one-tenth of a drachma, or one-sixteenth of a denarius.  Yet, “not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.”  Again, the exhortation from Jesus is not to be afraid because Matthew notes --- God cares for the sparrow so God cares for us.

Then the lesson moves to the opposing pole as a warning, and we return to the more challenging parts for many of us.  I will not delve into all the aspects of the verses rather to suggest a couple of things.

Jesus in quoting from Micah 7:6 --- “for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;  your enemies are members of your own household” --- is not advocating violence.  Jesus is a bringer of peace, and his disciples are to be “peacemakers.”[4]  Instead notice the generational pattern of the division.  In each case of comparison, it is the younger generation which is at odds with the older generation.  Jesus is suggesting that faith can sever the ties between a man and his father, and a woman and her mother.

Is Jesus somehow laying the groundwork of lyrics for the rock group the “Who” and the anthem “My Generation?”  The message of Jesus is about being formed by the future.  The kingdom of heaven is coming, a kingdom in which all relationships will be equal, not hierarchical, as they may occur even in a human family.  Jesus is telling the community that traditional power relationships will be upended, including that even within the family.  Jesus will go on to say, in chapter 12, that one's true family is the new community of Jesus. 

Earlier in Chapter 8, Jesus makes a comment to someone who wants to bury his father before he could follow.  Jesus says, “Let the dead bury their own dead.”[5]  Harsh but a reminder that we are to step out from our limited sense of neighbor and live toward this new community.  These are “old wineskins” Jesus says later in chapter 9, and not able to hold the “new wine.”[6]  To love one's family “more than me” is to be in love with a table that excludes rather than a community that is alive.

This leads then into a further warning by Jesus in our gospel, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”  I do not know about you but when I think of a sword, I think of long blade of steel, that has been forged and hammered into one wielded by a samurai directed by Akira Kurosawa.  And yes, throughout the Bible, we discover various references to swords as an instrument of a violent death as, for example, in Numbers: “And you will fall by the sword” (14:43).

And it must be said, following Jesus is not for the faint of heart, either before or after Pentecost.[7]  For example, later in 9:35–11:1, Jesus instructs what it means to follow him and alerts them to the many threats they will face, along with life-and-death choices.

Again, nowhere does Jesus support the use of a sword.  Instead these words to this beleaguered under threat community is that as they live into this new community, teach peace, and heal the outcasts of society, they will likely meet resistance and ridicule.  Doing the right thing produces division, putting us at odds with those who are close to us.  Furthermore, following Christ may even have an internal cost.  Perhaps we could use the sword metaphor further in that living out faith cuts in all different directions.

Jesus does not say “pick up the sword” but rather, “Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”  “Worthy” in biblical Greek means having sufficient weight to balance the scales.  Worth is less about moral judgment --- “I’m not worthy” --- as more in terms of the lyrics of the hymn “tried and found wanting.”  And what is the standard?  The audience like ourselves know where this is going.  Later in Jerusalem, Jesus will set an example of suffering, as a recent US church sign put it “man of color who claims God as Father, crucified by law and order.”  And as the followers are not greater than their master, such a fate may come to any follower. 

So on one hand, Jesus desires to fortify followers feeling the brunt of a hostile community and family and on the other, warns followers who are like those on the road to Emmaus.[8]  Do you remember those two disciples?  They were leaving the past behind, after the stormy days after Jesus had died in Jerusalem --- until they meet a stranger.  Who of us has not had the same feeling or desire?  This is the way of the world.  No matter how much we try, the cycle of suffering will just go on.  Let us leave Jerusalem.  Or perhaps cynicism holds us back especially when the going can get rough.

Jesus response is to both to empower and warn, resurrection does not come without death.  Scars do not come without suffering.  Truth does not come without vulnerability.

Whenever I come to these kinds of verses, I find myself thinking they should include a warning label, “Use as prescribed and keep outreach of children.”  They are a form of medicine, costly, to our images, visions, and faith.  Or as Paul puts in today’s second lesson, our lives in the present are marked and shaped by his crucifixion, just as our lives in the future will be marked and shaped by his resurrection.  Meaning, how will our lives be marked and shaped by the crucifixion this coming week?  How will our lives be marked and shaped by the resurrection this coming week?  Amen.

 

[1] Illustration is from www.HomileticsOnline.com

[2] v. 37

[3] v. 34

[4] Matthew 5:9

[5] 22

[6] 9:17

[7] Acts 5:41-42

[8]  Luke 24

The Expat Apostle Paul - May 17, 2020

Sermon presented to Nagoya All Saints International Congregation on May 17, 2020 based on Acts 17: 22-31 meeting in virtual community.

Are there blessings to being an expat?  An expat is simply the word used to describe someone who lives outside of their native country.  I came across a saying many years ago that I have found to be true: “The shortest way to yourself is living around the world.”  I believe we grow as persons and develop new parts of our identity and character as we experience new and different people and cultures.  The expat life lets us learn things about ourselves we would have never found out otherwise and opens our mind and broadens our perspective like no other experience. 

Of course it is double edged sword in that there are some painful aspects of expat life.  For me, the most tender is not being able to be physically present for my loved ones.  Although technology has made it so much better than many years ago when snail mail was the highlight of my day, and I had a stack of aerograms, I have noticed the pain of separation more acutely particularly with adult children who are now half around the world. 

For these and other reasons, we who are sensitive to the expat life may not realize that those life experiences do make a difference in faith.  As we are reminded in today’s gospel, the Holy Spirit is constantly refining but along with that, our life experiences open us to new perspectives on all aspects of faith.  For example, we can see how an expat life experience relates to one person in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul.

Paul born a Jew and a Roman citizen lived at time of Roman imperial power, yet he lived and worked in one foreign context after another as an expat.  Saul or Paul lived and studied in Jerusalem at the school of Gamaliel, a famous Jewish rabbinic “international boarding school.”  After his conversion, Paul went to Arabia for a length of time and engaged in several missionary journeys including, present day Cyprus, Turkey, Greece and Italy and perhaps even as far as present day Spain.  Paul did not travel with the intent of being a tourist but to share the faith while living and working as a tentmaker.  We tend to think that the people with whom Paul interacted where all the same, but that is not the case.  Although when traveling he would more often than not find a synagogue and fellow Jews, it is not that community alone with whom he interacted.

I lift all this for your consideration because it is with that experience as an expat that I believe drove part of Paul’s encounter in Athens.  In a cosmopolitan city known for its many gods, pursuits, ideas and pleasures, all drawn from the world around the Mediterranean, Paul will point out the religious impulse in people and redirect them to the “unknown God” who supersedes all the others.  Driven by the Holy Spirit and his life experiences, what is remarkable is Paul’s sensitivity to the people with whom he is living and working, a sensitivity that suggests that he takes their spiritual journey seriously.  That sensitivity comes with exposure to a variety of people and cultures.

Today’s first lesson begins when Paul is waiting for his companions Silas and Timothy to join him in Athens, where we are told that he was “deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols.”[1]  The pantheon Paul saw of gods and goddesses was well-known to him and the ancient world, for many of the same gods had been adopted and rebranded by imperial Romans as way to hold their varied and diverse empire together.  So it wasn’t what he saw, but their number and how the culture around him continued to appropriate new idols and gods.

Most of those gods of the past were linked with some aspect of life, be it romance (Aphrodite/Venus), reason (Athena/Minerva), war (Ares/Mars) or even messaging (Hermes/Mercury), but there were numerous others.  In addition to the stone visages of these various gods, philosophers were also present on the streets touting their ideas.  For example, the Epicureans were deists who believed the gods weren’t that involved in human life and, if they were, they wanted people to be happy.  Life for the Epicureans involved the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain.

The connections between our own experience living as expats in Japan and that of Paul and Athens aren’t exact parallels, but there are somethings we can glean from his distress to guide us.  Although Paul acknowledges what his audience’s spiritual and intellectual journey has found, he also believes that what he has found is worth sharing.

Translate that into our time and place.  As we know many in Japan are nominally and culturally Shinto and Buddhist, but like people around the world people have other quasi-religious leanings around a variety of aspects of life beyond those traditional faiths.

One idol I have noticed is busyness.  It is attractive because it does double duty, allowing us to feel like we are on the path of life while distracting us from other, less pleasant realities, like fear, doubt, uncertainty and death.  What is unique in this culture is how that busyness has been associated to the careful, planning and consensus-oriented decision-making process.  In this cult you are depending on how busy you are.

The other idol I have noticed is food.  Food can express the symbolic values of a people as it clearly does in this nation (i.e. rice).  Yet, when I see the camera focused on a TV personality eating something new, the hope is for a reaction to be near religious ecstasy.  What we are taking to work as our obento has become invested with the deeper meaning of life.  In this cult, you are what you eat!

Returning to our story in Acts, what is helpful for us to see is that Paul’s preaching about Jesus and the resurrection caused some of his listeners some level of discomfort, mostly because the truth he was proclaiming seemed to be about something “foreign.”[2]  The good news about Jesus will always seem foreign.  It did then, and it does now!

Like Socrates before him who was accused of a similar kind of religious disruption, Paul was led to the Areopagus --- the “hill of Mars” --- near the Acropolis where the Athenian court was located.  “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?” they asked.  “It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.”[3]  In response, Paul was about to tell them the truth that emerged out of a very old story.

Paul’s address to the Athenians is both courageous and courteous.  As I mentioned before Paul begins by acknowledging their religiosity.  “I see how extremely religious you are in every way,” says Paul.[4]  Paul doesn’t see the Athenians as far from God but as on the way to God; then he acknowledges his own faith journey and shares what his own search has found.  Paul respects his audience’s intelligence, convinces them that they themselves are within God’s story, and trusts that his vocation is simply to tell the truth as honestly and earnestly as he can, knowing that those who have ears to hear will hear.

That is helpful reminder for us that when people have a religious impulse, no matter where it’s directed, we are to acknowledge that they are moving in the right direction.  They’re seeking something and, like Paul, we can point out the real object of their search.  Paul directed the Athenians to the statue they had erected to “an unknown god” and then proceeded to fill in the blank.[5]

In other words, Paul doesn’t begin by saying, “You idolaters! You’ve got it all wrong!”  He begins with meeting people where they were, like a seasoned expat with a new job in a new city, while encouraging them to keep looking.  “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you,” Paul continues.[6]  He proceeds to talk about the one God, the Creator God, and the Lord of heaven and earth, who doesn’t dwell in temples or stones.[7]  This God is not served by human hands like the gods in the temples --- and the gods in our kitchens or offices --- who require constant maintenance.  God is the One who “give to all mortals’ life and breathe in all things.”[8]  This is the God who created humanity and the nations and God did it “so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him — though he is indeed not far from each one of us.”[9]

Paul even quotes from a local poet in order to show his listeners the truth about the God they don’t yet know.[10]  “For we too are his offspring” and since God is a living God, God is not the kind of god that can be characterized by materials crafted by human hands, no matter how artistic.[11]  This God, Paul says, sees all the intellectual capital of culture as “ignorance.”  Ignorance not from stupidity however; rather it is an unawareness that God has been working from the beginning --- a plan that doesn’t culminate in humans creating gods but in God becoming human.  “And of this he has given assurance to all,” Paul says, “by raising him from the dead.”[12]

What Paul does here is increasingly narrow the focus from creation to global humanity to Jesus.  Paul speaks about essential aspects of belief in Christ without embellishing through rose-tinted glasses, or as you may have noticed particular cultural lenses and without using scare tactics.

Rather, when we encounter the story of what God of creation has done for all humanity in Jesus Christ, it puts our gods into perspective.  We recognize how they fail us and how they are really a mask for covering our fear.  So, it’s little wonder that the listeners remained with Paul until Paul’s mention of resurrection which then prompted some to scoff and others to want to hear more.[13]  Then as today, it is the trust in the resurrection that is a stumbling block for many.

Being blessed as an expat, coming from different perspectives on life gave Paul the language of humility, respect and awareness for the people he met.  We are all blessed to live at this place, in this nation, at this time in history.  And this nation like any other has a pantheon of idols, old and news, with a people like us ready to hear a powerful story that can ring true to their human experience.  As expats, or with a global perspective, walking in the guidance of the Holy Spirit we are uniquely placed to speak with knowledge, humility and respect.  Paul felt compelled to tell his story as honestly and earnestly he could, with sensitivity similar to our own, knowing that those who have ears to hear will hear.  It is a blessing to be an expat.  Amen.

 

[1] v. 16

[2] v. 18

[3] vv. 19-20

[4] v. 23

[5] v. 23

[6] v. 23 

[7] v. 24 

[8] v. 25

[9] vv. 26-27

[10] Epimenides

[11] v. 28-29

[12] vv. 30-31

[13] v. 32

"Thomas the Truther" - April 19, 2020

On this Second Sunday of Easter I had the opportunity to preach and preside with the virtual community of All Saints in Nagoya, Japan.  I am very grateful to have been part of this worshiping community in Christ.  Below is the more or less what I preached based on the Gospel from John, 20: 19-31.  For more information on All Saints please follow this link: Link

There are some who believe that the US moon landings were staged; staged to look real in some undisclosed military hanger.   In a failed homemade rocket, there was the recent death in February of “Mad” Mike Hughes attempting to prove --- that the earth is flat.[1]  And today, as we gather virtually under the umbrella of global pandemic, “conspiracy” theories is not just an American phenomenon.  We have stories being shared of COVID19 starting in some secret military laboratory. 

Unfortunately, the 21^st century has seen a rise in conspiratorial thinking for with the good of the internet we have a downside: an unfiltered clearinghouse that breeds those seeking the “truth;” “truthers” who find “co-truthers” to explain and support each other in this pursuit.

As you can probably tell I do not have a high opinion --- not of the curiosity or healthy skepticism --- but of “truthers” who don’t trust governments, science, academics or anything else except for none other than what they deem to be true.  However, today’s gospel not only speaks to this present moment not only in the most famous death in history, the death of Jesus Christ, and the conspiracy theories around his death that have abounded for centuries, but we also see someone who is really trying to get at the truth.  This figure is no lonely outsider on the internet wearing a tin foil hat, but one of Jesus’ own disciples: Thomas, a “truther” someone we in fact mirror.

First let me back up.  The death and resurrection of Jesus from the beginning has long been the target of conspiracy theorists.  The general tendency of these quests is based on a view that the disciples acted in concert to claim that Jesus was alive when he really wasn’t; that he died and the disciples “helped” him become “alive” again.  Of course, why these disciples would do these seems to be a more elusive question not pursued.  Others have speculated that Jesus didn’t actually die but just fell unconscious or “swooned” on the cross and eventually staggered out of the tomb.  For whatever reason they did not trust the fact that --- namely the Romans ---were pretty good at the industrial application of the death penalty, the cross as an effective form of death, and the author of John furthermore tells us that Jesus was speared in the side (19:31-37).  That would have been quite a “swoon,” and Jesus must have been in really great shape to survive all that besides the flogging under Pontus Pilate!  And others have speculated that the disciples had a mass hallucination out of grief, or that they actually saw a ghost.

Well despite 2,000 years of theories, thankfully the testimony of the death and resurrection of Jesus is resilient.  Indeed, it seems as though the gospel of John itself embeds an answer to the “truthers” in the text, and one of the places we see this most clearly is in this account in the Gospel of John today.

 Let’s review our gospel.  After the death of Jesus, at least ten disciples and perhaps others including women --- yet without Judas who was dead and Thomas who was gone --- are hiding behind locked doors in the evening of the same day of the resurrection.  Although they had heard from the women --- in John from Mary Magdalene --- that she had “seen the Lord” all remained in confusion, doubt and fear.[2]

Suddenly Jesus appeared among them with the greeting, “Peace be with you” (v. 19) along with showing them the evidence of the wounds in his hands and side.  It’s a strange combination: Jesus is risen in a physical body and yet can also appear through locked doors.  It’s clear that this is a different kind of body, neither ghost nor flesh as we know it, but a body nonetheless.  What was the reaction after their shock?  We are told that the disciples “rejoiced” after seeing the evidence.[3]  Mary’s testimony had been vindicated.

Later, when the others recount to Thomas what they had witnessed, “We have seen the Lord” --- by the way you may have noticed that they are the same words used by Mary Magdalene --- he is skeptical.[4]  Thomas is not taking their story for gospel truth just yet.  “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”[5]  After all, they had the benefit of seeing scars.  Why shouldn’t he?

Thomas may have thought his fellow disciples were engaging in their own collective conspiracy theory.   We can summarize that Thomas was a thinker, a questioner.  For example, in John 14:5, Thomas pressed Jesus on his statement about where he was going.  It wasn’t that Thomas was afraid --- after all, in chapter 11 Thomas was the one prepared to go with Jesus to a dangerous place, even if it meant his own death.[6]  Rather it seems Thomas wasn’t going to buy into any kind of story, false information or wild speculation.

The church has often called Thomas the “doubter” following Jesus telling him “do not doubt but believe.”  I don’t like that label, because by labeling Thomas as the “doubter” supreme, it suggests reason and intelligence is somehow contrary to faith or that he was inordinately unusual.  Thomas simply wants the truth, not that much different than the other disciples or shall we admit it all of us who faithfully walk in Christ on this journey of faith.  Thomas doesn’t reject the idea of resurrection outright; he simply wants more --- the same evidence the other disciples had received, that Mary Magdalene had received.  In other words, Thomas wants to experience the risen Christ for himself.

And then, suddenly, Thomas has the opportunity.  The pattern repeats: an evening, a locked door, an appearance by Jesus.  Jesus somehow knows that Thomas had expressed some skepticism and offers the evidence that Thomas was looking for. “Put your finger here and see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it in my side.[7]

We like Thomas immediately notice, Jesus’ resurrected body retained its scars.  Not old scars.  Not faded scars signaling a long-ago accident on a playground, but freshly healed wounds still raw enough to allow an invitation for a truth seeking disciple.  Although the Biblical Greek in the gospel of John is not clear as to whether Thomas actually touched Jesus, if Thomas did, I can just imagine Jesus wincing at that pain.  The openness of wounds not only signaled real death and resurrection, the scars revealed real engagement, real presence.  The presence of the wounds spoke to the very question that troubled Thomas and for which he hungered for the most.  Christ is standing before him, before us unequivocally:  “I am here.  I am here with you.  I don’t float a few sanitized feet above reality; even after death, I dwell in the hot, searing heart of life.”

Let’s look again at the doubt.  Notice that Thomas’ qualms are about the reports of the resurrection.  Thomas has suspicions about the veracity of what he was hearing from the other disciples about the risen Jesus.  That helps us to understand what Jesus says to Thomas, “Do not doubt but believe,” he’s really saying, “Thomas, it’s me, in the flesh.  I am here.  I am present.  Believe in the testimony of the disciples and the women.”

Perhaps another piece of this event that we need to be reminded about is that what Jesus says to Thomas was being applied equally to all of the disciples.[8]  When Jesus said, “Have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe,” these words are for all time and place.  In that time and place, all had the same predisposition, the same inclination.   All believed that Jesus was alive only because they saw Jesus in the flesh.  Like Thomas, the other disciples before him, both men and women, did not believe Jesus’ resurrection either; Thomas didn’t believe the report of the disciples, the disciples did not believe the report of the women.  They were all across the spectrum of doubt, “truthers,” and their reservations were only suspended when they saw Jesus alive with their own eyes.

So when I realize how the disciples are no different than Thomas or Mary before them it opens a window for me.  I will gladly admit I would rather have a resurrected Jesus visibly standing right here in this time of fear, confusion and doubt.  It would make this whole thing of belief so much easier.  And in actuality even if this time wasn’t challenging, don’t all of us have a bit of Thomas, willing to push back on what, at times, seems challenging particularly when in faith the going gets tough?

An additional piece for us to ponder I believe is, if we consider the evidence of when the gospel of John was written --- roughly 90-100 CE --- the audience was not that far different than our own contexts, those earliest small communities of faithful who had never met Jesus.  They were like us relying on the testimony of others.  In a sense, the gospel of John more than the other gospels is speaking as testimony to future generations who have not seen Jesus who hunger about the truth of the gospel.  The author of the gospel of John of all the gospels is strengthening us and asking us to believe, but not just on the basis of the evidence itself.  The author wants us to believe in the ongoing, unseen presence of Jesus Christ.  Perhaps that is why of the four gospels the author of John has such a strong focus on the Holy Spirit, the baptismal waters and Holy Communion.

Certainly, the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus is quite compelling from a historical perspective.  It’s not that the Gospel of John is suggesting that the evidence is unimportant rather in these recorded words of Jesus the author is laying the groundwork for futures Kierkegaard’s and our leaps of faith.

It is a good time for me to be reminded that I may sanctimoniously point out how I don’t wear a tinfoil hat and how assured I am that the earth is a sphere, a blue marble in a vast universe, I am in fact a “truther” who seeks the precense of Christ, in how the impossible had become possible and despite all kinds of fear, confusion and doubt, I listen to those who believed and wouldn’t shut up about it.  Thankfully I have the eyewitness testimony of the gospels against all that is arrayed against it.  I have as the author of John puts it later in the text: “these things are written so that you might come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name” (v. 31).  I have the witness of subsequent generations of believers.  I have this virtual community, along with hundreds of thousands around the world, who all attest to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

And finally, when I recognize that I am a truther, perhaps grudgingly, thankfully, I walk in faith in today’s story where Jesus is at the apex of his resurrection victory displaying his recently healed wounds without shame or apology.  In those scars I am reminded of all that God has done, all that God has made possible and all that God will make possible through the resurrection.

Thankfully, Jesus himself recognizes this journey for as he calls blessed, it is so we are blessed when we live out this scarred testimony, blessed to live as the presence of Christ to other “truthers” with the testimony that Christ is risen.  Christ is risen indeed “truthers.”  Walk in faith.  Amen.

 

[1] https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a31077307/mad-mike-hughes-death-flat-earth-rocket-crash/

[2] vs. 18

[3] v. 20

[4] v. 25

[5] v. 25

[6] John 11:16

[7] v. 27

[8] v. 29

"A Trinity of Images" - April 12, 2020

Christ is Risen!  Alleluia!

For Easter, I was invited to preach at a congregation that I served when we lived in Nagoya, Japan back in 2006-2010.  Because of COVID-19 and in consideration of the health and well-being of all, our worship was in virtual community using Zoom.  Below is the sermon I presented, again different than when spoken but similar nonetheless.  Blessings to all and have a blessed Easter.

p.s.- Thank you to All Saints International Church serving the greater Nagoya community for the invitation.  For more information please check out their website: All Saints International Church

Psychologists call them flashbulb memories.  A “flashbulb memory” is akin to our minds being in a dark room, illuminated for only an instant when a camera flashbulb goes off before we live in the dark again.  The question is what did we see and what do we remember from that moment of illumination?   That flashbulb image may tell quite a story.  It may include a point in time, it may include some context, and it may include images and feelings.

The prototype case used by psychologists to illustrate is the news that US President John Kennedy had been shot.  For those of that age, like my mother, she can remember where she was when she heard, what she was doing, who told her, how she felt about it.  And like many flashbulb memories, when she recounts that event it includes the prominent images from that moment, which for her was pushing a shopping cart and me being in the cart.

Flashbulb memories are all part of our lives.  I am too young to remember the shooting of President Kennedy, but I do remember September 11^th, 2001 where I was and when I heard about the plane flying into the first of the twin towers in New York City.  I have specific feelings and images etched into my mind.  In my case I had just finished a funeral service.  I had just settled into my car getting ready to leave, when I turned on the radio and heard the news.  In my case, the prominent images are the cemetery and car radio.^[1]

These flashbulb memories and the corresponding narrative with images included, causes me wonder what will it be for us living through the Covid 19 pandemic of 2020.  I suspect for some the event will include what many of us who live in Japan consider part of our natural wardrobes the “face mask.”  For others, it may be stacked urns or coffins with the cremains or remains of those who died; it may be the tired faces of medical staff.  It may be virtual worship, a church as a screen with boxes.

Now, just think of flashbulb memories in the context of those first witnesses on that first Easter; the scenes captured and retold in our gospels and the images that correspond with the narrative.  Have you ever noticed all include the same three images: the cross, the tomb and the stone, that is, the stone that was rolled away to reveal an empty tomb.

Easter cannot be Easter without the cross, the tomb and the stone.  So although each gospel has its own nuance of how Jesus died, his subsequent burial, and resurrection, they all share that same set of three images.  Remove one, and the value and significance of the others disappears like smoke in the wind.  Not only are these images important for the memory and the narrative story of Easter; the cross, the tomb and the stone are integral gifts to strengthen us today.

Tradition has it that the True Cross was discovered by Saint Helena a few years following her son’s remarkable victory over Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in A.D. 312.[2]   Since then, pieces of the purported True Cross have multiplied like Jesus’ five loaves and two fishes, and fragments of the True Cross now reside in reliquaries around the world, including a church in Texas.  Whether those slivers are part of the true cross on which Jesus was crucified is beside the point.  Rather the cross image has been re-created in a cornucopia of icons, oil paintings and tattoo’s and are so universal that the cross appears from earrings to wall hangings.  But this is cultural stuff.  

Instead what we are remember is that it is safe to say that if had Jesus not died on a cross, there would not be cross tattoos or cross jewelry, for prior to Jesus’ death, the cross was just a means of execution --- nothing more.  What transformed the cross from an execution’s tool to a stunning declaration as an image of unconditional love, ultimate sacrifice, and victory over human brokenness, death and the evil ---is the flashbulb image from the first witnesses on that first Friday.

Meaning that the reason that the cross is such a powerful image is that in the words from his pastoral exhortation, Pastores Gregis, Pope John Paul II --- the cross is the tree of life!  The cross is the seed that falls to the ground and dies, later to come to life.[3]  For without the Easter tomb, the cross itself fades to nothing more than a story in which a dissident, prophet, teacher, or rabbi was killed.  Why can we not retell the event without the cross and subsequent tomb?

Because the tomb is where we place those who have died and Jesus was dead.  Jesus didn’t faint or swoon or lay comatose.  Jesus did not have an out-of-body experience and come back to write a book about heaven being real that stayed on the Bestseller List for 113 consecutive weeks, the profits of which guaranteed a sunny financial future for him and his mom and extended family for generations to come.

Rather, the tomb is imprinted into the narrative for those first witnesses because Jesus truly died on the cross.  And dead people in Jesus’ times were put in tombs.  And that is where they stayed until they faded into dust.  If Jesus wasn’t dead and in a tomb, then the cross alone was just pieces of wood, no more than a gurney is a bed in a hospital in Milan or New York.

Furthermore, similar to the transfiguration mountaintop event earlier in Jesus ministry, the tomb is also the place where the dead Jesus underwent a transformation.  For when we encounter the resurrected Christ, we discover a Jesus not just alive, not just with a body, but with a glorified, otherworldly form.  Barbara Lundblad, Professor of Preaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, puts it this way: “Jesus is not resuscitated from clinical death.  In John’s gospel, Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from death.  Lazarus did come walking out of the tomb, and Jesus asked his friends to unbind him.  Lazarus was resuscitated; he came back to life as he had known it before.  He wasn’t more alive than he had been before, and he would someday die.  But the earliest witnesses bear testimony to Jesus who was transformed --- who was alive in a new way beyond the limits of time and space.”  The tomb is the place where something amazing happened that prefigures our own transformation at the great day of resurrection at the end of time, or as the Apostle Paul puts it: “For this perishable body must put on imperishability and this mortal body must put on immortality.”[4]

This leads to the third of this trinity of images --- the stone that sealed everything, this chunk of stone hewn and shaped to fit snug against the opening of the tomb.

The stone becomes part of this trinity because the stone is witness to the fact that nothing can contain the Son of God or resist the unfathomable power of God.  After Jesus had been placed in the tomb and the stone as customary was placed there, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate and requested support to make sure the body was not stolen: “Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.’ So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.”[5]  Now the guards posted at the tomb had one job to do.  No one, but no one, moves the stone.  The tomb is sealed.  Keep it that way.  And yet, come Easter morning, in some powerful way, the stone was rolled away. 

On that first Easter the tombstone becomes a touchstone.  What is a touchstone?  From ancient times, assayers --- those who tested the value of precious metals like silver or gold --- would use touchstones to determine the purity and value of the nuggets miners brought to them for inspection.

Since precious metals are comparatively soft when a piece with silver or gold is scraped across a much harder touchstone, it leaves a mark behind.  Expert assayers could tell from that mark the nature of the mineral, but also make an informed guess as to what degree of purity it was.[6]

The stone rolled away from the entrance of Jesus’ tomb functioned for those first witnesses as a sort of touchstone.  Like the cross and the tomb, in and of itself, the stone is unremarkable.  A cast aside stone whose only value was for what it was supposed to keep out, now reveals the greatest of all treasures, signifies the power of God and reveals Easter in all its glory.

This trinity of images caught in a flashbulb memory continues to reverberate 21 centuries later.  The editors of Christian Century this week described it this way in a piece on why it is so challenging to move to virtual worship: “Christianity is, at its heart, an incarnational faith.”  For example, they write: “worship embodies the belief that God’s grace comes through physical contact: water trickling down a forehead, bread dissolving on a tongue, wine tickling the back of a throat, one person’s hand squeezing another’s.”^[7] Virtual worship is a challenge but if there is anything that the last couple of months in this pandemic have taught us is it’s easy to be united in fear of what tomorrow will bring.  So, when we are gripped by fear when we hear someone say “not to be afraid,” we are likely to feel more inadequate and fearful than we all already are.

But that’s why today’s images of the cross, tomb and stone are important to reconsider because when we are told not to be afraid in scripture, those words also come with the assurance that we are cared for.  The words come with the promise that even through suffering, we will emerge as conquers.   The Cross, Tomb and Stone are incarnational images of that promise.  We who follow in the steps of those first witnesses have the cross, tomb and stone as stepping stones through these very dark moments as profound images of God’s love and power.

If we were selfish we wouldn’t care about the world around us and we for example, would gather physically in worship.  Instead we have these incarnational tools of cross, tomb and stone to help us navigate in faith.  A global pandemic is laying bare what the church has long confessed: that all people are deeply and inextricably connected to one another, like branches on a vine. 

Thankfully, these flashbulb images from those first disciples are ours and are ours not only for those moments of joy but as well when our vision may become nearsighted, or only accustomed to the dark.  The angel in Matthew’s Gospel account foreshadows this incarnational dynamism when the angel said: “Go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’” [8]  The cross, tomb and stone are those steps from “he has been raised from the dead” to “he is ahead of us.”  The cross, tomb and stone is what carried those first witnesses on that journey.  It is what carries us.  Death and brokenness has been conquered and a cross, a tomb and a stone are witnesses to Christ risen.  Amen.

 

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/001002777790018X

[2] “Shrine of the True Cross.” Truecrosschurch.org.

[3] http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_20031016_pastores-gregis.html

[4] 1 Corinthians 15:53

[5] Matthew 27:61-66

[6] “Touchstone (assaying tool).” Wikipedia.org.

[7] https://www.christiancentury.org/article/editors/staying-connected-during-covid-19-pandemic

[8] Matthew 28:7

Pig Bones - 10/13/2019

Last Sermon presented to Hope Lutheran and the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection based on the Gospel: Luke 17: 11-19

Pig bones. You wouldn’t think that bones from sometime around the 10th century BC would be such a big deal, but they were --- at least for this Jewish woman from Pennsylvania. First let me back up. In 2005, I was able to take a sabbatical from the congregation that I was serving. During my sabbatical I volunteered for 7 weeks at an archaeological excavation in Israel called Tel Zeitah about 31 miles southwest of Jerusalem.
The layer we were excavating was roughly in 10 century BC, the time of the biblical King Solomon for example, a time when Israel was near its height and then began to experience significant changes. The city was more than likely Libnah a village mentioned in 2 Kings and Joshua.
Anyway, back to the pig bones. One of the other things we kept excavating mixed in with all the dirt and dust and pottery shards were bones, not human but animal, but sheep and … pigs. So why were pig bones a big deal especially for this Jewish woman from Pennsylvania? Well, according to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, the Pentateuch “the law,” the Old Testament, particularly Leviticus 11: 3-8, 27 and Deuteronomy 14: 4-8, pig bones would not and should not have been in the village because from this woman’s perspective, ancient Jews did not eat pork.
So how do you suspect she coped with the information? At first she questioned, “No you must be mistaken, this was in Israel, the existence of pigs was not possible.” The archaeologist assured her that in fact they were pig bones. As the days continued and we continued to find more bones she would continue to question. Finally, the archaeologists pointed out to her that the existence of these bones affirmed the archaeological record seen in the shards of pottery that this area was on the border between Israel to the east and Philistia and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. The pottery was both a mix of Philistine and Israelite style, not in distinct layers but all mixed together. We were at what once had been a border region.
That didn’t help! It did not fit with her reading of the Hebrew Bible. It did not fit with her image of her faith. For her it was supposed to be clear. This was on the Jewish side of ancient Israel.
In this week’s Gospel, Jesus is on his way to meet his fate on the cross in Jerusalem. Luke says he is “between Samaria and Galilee.” There’s a problem here, because there isn’t anything between Samaria and Galilee. It’s just a fancy way of saying that Jesus is at the border.
Now, we in South Texas have the benefit of being aware of the depth of what that might mean. In some ways yes, we are at the border, and in some ways no. The actual border is miles away yet, we have been and continue to be impacted by being close to the border.
Hours away we can cross a bridge and be in another country. For those who have done it, driving across a border is an interesting feeling. One moment you are here and the next there. You don’t get the same feeling when you are flying. When you cross at a land crossing, it’s like going through the looking glass into another reality --- something that is familiar and yet different. But what about places like San Antonio where it may be more gradual, are we or are we not “on the border?” And what does that mean for us, the people and culture?
That is important to think about because being where Jesus is, on the border, is vital for us to get a glimpse into something in this story found only in Luke, the healing of ten men.
Ten men approach and ask Jesus to have mercy on them. We are told that they have some type of skin condition. The original Hebrew word is tzaraath, which refers to any number of skin conditions --- everything from acne to psoriasis to Hansen’s disease. Whether it was leprosy or not, their skin condition made them “unclean” and they had to live by themselves. Interesting then that we are at the border, where the ten men if not more have seemingly developed a community.
The lepers call Jesus “Master.” Which is interesting because the only other people who call Jesus “Master” in Luke's gospel are the disciples themselves, putting these lepers, in Luke's reporting, in interesting company.
We are then told by the author of Luke that in response to their plight, Jesus from a distance sends them “to the priests.” Why the priests? Well, the priests could certify whether or not a person was healed, and, if so, that person could then be re-integrated into common everyday life. Luke by the way, does not tell us which priests they were to go to. Samaritan ones, or Jewish ones? Regardless, as they are going, they are “cleansed” --- katharizo, purified, cleansed. This is where we get our English word “catharsis.”
We are then told that one of them, seeing that he had been healed, returned to Jesus praising God with a loud voice, and fell down upon his face at his feet, giving thanks to him. Luke portrays his actions upon return as effusive, not just handing over a thank you. Also notice that that Luke links praise of God with worship of Jesus.
But the punchline, of course, is after noting where are the others, Jesus said “and he was a Samaritan.” On one hand this should not shock us because where are they? On the border, so for example, if we were down in Laredo and someone was Mexican, well no big deal! But what is also interesting is that Jesus calls the Samaritan the foreigner! Now wait a minute Jesus! Aren’t you the one who came to the border not the other way around! So, how are you calling “foreigner!”
Second, not only is the author of the Luke noting Jesus that we are to be shocked by the whom, and by the fact that it was only this one out 10, but we are also to be shocked by the “how.” Not only does Jesus note that the others did not come back to give thanks, and it’s a foreigner, Jesus says “your faith has saved you.” Now, there are four times in Luke's gospel where Jesus says this; the woman who anointed his feet, the woman with the twelve-year hemorrhage, today’s Samaritan healed leper, and the blind man who calls Jesus “Son of David.”
Wow! So, what can any of this mean for us who live on the border. It is I think important to note that this event is similar to the parable of the “good Samaritan” in Luke 10. In that one it was an illustration whereas today it is a live event, but it is intended for the same audience, those who are secure, who live with boundaries. And, as Jesus did in the parable, the one Jesus lifts up as a positive example is not the person that was expected. As he always seems to do whenever Jesus gets the chance, Jesus subverts all stereotypes.
So, let us explore that a little more. What stereotypes might we have. Let’s look at the faith, when Jesus says “your faith has saved you?” we have to wonder what faith is it? He was a Samaritan, was it a uniquely Samaritan faith? Samaritan’s were similar but distinct from their neighbors the Judeans. The Samaritan’s used the same first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah, yet although I will not get into it here, they did not worship like Jews. Therefore, for any Judean around Jesus to hear him say “your faith has saved you” would have been a shock.
But perhaps it is important to remember there was a reason Jesus was popular. He was beloved by the people. Maybe Jesus was helping set a path for reconciliation between what was once one people these Samaritans and Jews that over the centuries had grown increasingly apart. And at the time of Jesus, they were both poor and both were oppressed by corrupt religions and a brutal government. Was Jesus reminding them and us, that faith is for example not ethnic, tribal or racial.
Or is it all together something together different. Is Jesus acknowledging a conversion? In the time from leaving Jesus to his return something sprung. Was Jesus affirming and confirming something that had happened in this man? Remember as this leper was going to the priest this Samaritan has seen what happened, it was all over his body for heaven’s sake … and it has made a difference to him. If so, it is a faith that comes with no lessons on becoming a Jew, no overt change in lifestyle. Nothing.
Whatever Jesus mean by your faith has healed you, this man sees what has happened in a different way. This leper recognizes in this Jewish man, his reign and his power whereas for the other 9 it didn’t connect. Interesting isn’t it. That in this land between --- where borders are shall we say fuzzy --- where Jew and Samaritan are together but not together --- we find a healing which does not recognize borders. And again what about the other nine, in fact, they just disappear. Ten were cleansed, able to again enter ordinary life, but only one decided he didn’t want to fade back into the boundaries. Instead he comes back and links himself with Jesus. In a sense with Jesus he recognizes that there are no borders toward wholeness.
Finally, I think back to that woman who could not accept that the land of her ancestors from a time period in Israeli history, either ate pork or lived with people who did. For her, faith had to do with boundaries, what can and what one shouldn’t do, who is or isn’t. In her mind, faith is an identity it means either you have papers or you don’t. But we who live on the border know that it is far more complicated than that because that’s what border regions are like. Border regions are a place of insiders and outsiders, clean and unclean, documented and undocumented. Even the language and the accent will reveal where you can have “Spanglish.”
But that is the mission of Jesus Christ, to bring reconciliation on the cross between God and creation. To break down the borders that we establish and bring us to reconciliation with God by grace through faith.
We live in a very divided nation and world that is working hard to have clear distinct lines between people. At the outset of this story, ten men are stuck. They live in a border land. By the end of the story, all ten are made well. But one has something more. He has seen Jesus, recognized his blessing and rejoiced in it, and changed his course of action and behavior. And because he sees what has happened, the leper is not just healed, but is made whole, restored, drawn back into relationship with God and humanity. The Samaritan saw that we all live at the border and Jesus is the one who helps us cross to wholeness.
What about us when we discover things are not as clear or distinct in our lives and world. Why are their pig bones when there shouldn’t be any? Why does my body have a cancer? Why are there lies in a relationship? On and on with the things we assume should not be there.
Jesus is the “balm of Gilead” because we all live on the border, putting lines down in the sand. It is there where Jesus brings healing and wholeness to our lives. Let us turn and give thanks. Amen.

"So how much faith do we really need?" - 10/6/2019

Sermon presented at a combined worship service for Hope Lutheran and the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection.

We’ve got the power. In fact, each of us is a little power plant! And I am not talking about hormonal changes as we age when we run hot or cold! Rather, did you know that every time we take a step, we generate six to eight watts of energy? But then --- poof! --- it dissipates into the air. If only we could capture it.
Back in 2006, an architectural and engineering firm in Britain teamed up to look at ways to capture this energy and turn it into electricity. For example, it is estimated that 34,000 people move through Victoria Station in London per hour, either walking away or toward their trains. That’s a lot of steps. “If we could harness that energy,” said the architectural firm’s director, “we can actually generate a very useful power source.” According to Fast Company, these firms investigated the possibility of installing sensors that would be implanted in the structure of the train station. The devices could capture the rumblings of all this activity, turn them into electricity, to be put back into the running of the station.
Although that project never took off, in the last 15 years there has been increasing interest and research in what is called “energy harvesting” or “ambient power.” There’s power in small steps.
In today’s passage from Luke, the apostles say to Jesus, “Increase our faith!” Who of us might not ask that same thing! What is interesting of course is Jesus’s answer. He neither buys or sells. What I mean of course is that the disciples think their faith is too miniscule, so they ask Jesus to enlarge it.
But it seems that Jesus isn’t selling faith or buying into their economy of desire. Instead, Jesus understood the significance of small steps, so he says to them, imagine “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you” (Luke 17:5-6). In other words, Jesus doesn’t buy into their complaint that they need more faith in order to live a faithful life of discipleship, nor is Jesus buying that their faith is not already sufficient. Nor is Jesus selling the notion that he is the one who can wave a wand and simply give them more pixie dust faith. Nor does Jesus lay out a faith exercise plan that can be provided for a donation for $29.99 that includes a bonus prayer table mat. Jesus instead encourages them to imagine the strength of the faith they already possess! Just imagine what faith the size of a mustard seed can do.
Have you ever seen a mustard seed? It’s hard to see --- each one is about one-twentieth of an inch. That’s very, very small. Which means, at the very least, what Jesus is doing here is to underscore the notion that faith doesn’t have to be huge to have an impact. Just imagine, it doesn’t have to make the news to make a difference. Moreover, Jesus is not interested in knowing faith’s size, if he or we could even measure it. Although Jesus notes in some places the lack of faith among these disciples, he never lays out exactly how much one needs either.
Instead in today’s gospel to the disciples Jesus is encouraging and reminding them that not everything needs to super-sized. Rather imagine living within the seed-size. We also see that in the second half of the gospel. Jesus again strikes at the idea of our economy of desire. We don't get rewarded for good behavior --- not even spiritual good behavior. We don't get paid back for being swell boys and girls with faith points like little Pac-men and Pac-women getting faith points as we maneuver through life. Our virtue does not obligate God for we are but servants.
You apostles Jesus says, are just doing your job -- no more, no less --- and even if you screw that up, which we undoubtedly will, I'll keep on accepting you and accepting you and accepting you --- totally and completely, every single day--just as I accept all the “little ones,” and all creation.
Which takes me back to the ambient energy that we all have. Jesus believes that there is power in seed-sized faith and asks us to imagine what that means.
What would this mean? Well let’s explore one example --- that of peace. We live in a world being bloodied by violence every day, and it’s easy for us to be overwhelmed by the challenge of working for peace; wars in Syria or Afghanistan, bloodshed in the Palestinian territories, gun violence in our schools, homes and churches.
The hostilities in the world can make us want to run for cover, but we know that such a response is ultimately unfaithful --- peacemaking is discipleship: Jesus himself had a special word of blessing for peacemakers and in fact called them “children of God” (Matthew 5:9).
Today’s gospel reminds us that with seed sized faith our key forward is small yet profound. As I reflected on that, I was reminded of a striking image of Christian peace making that took place the days and weeks after a school shooting, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. For those who may have forgotten over 13 years ago, on October 2, 2006 at the West Nickel Mines School, an Amish one-room schoolhouse in the Old Order Amish community of Nickel Mines, a gunman by the name of Charles Carl Roberts IV took hostages and shot eight out of ten girls --- aged 6–13 --- killing five, before dying by suicide in the schoolhouse.
Out of that tragedy, what the world saw there was a group of Amish men and women who took a stand for peace after the slaughter. For example, one impressive small step from the Amish response to the murders was the way that these peace-loving Christians reached out with support to the gunman’s widow and children.
After the shooting while the world focused on the bloodshed, the motive, his access to guns and his mental state, we came to find out that the Amish neighbors besides gathering around the families of those killed, also comforted the Roberts family hours after the shooting not only as a sign of forgiveness, but as a faithful commitment to peace vs revenge. One Amish man held Roberts' sobbing father in his arms, reportedly for as long as an hour, to comfort him. Then for weeks after, various Amish community members visited and comforted Roberts' widow, parents, and parents-in-law. About 30 members of the Amish community attended Roberts' funeral, and Marie Roberts, the widow of the killer, was one of the few outsiders invited to the funeral of one of the victims. The Amish community even set up a charitable fund for the family of the shooter.
That peacemaking did not end as our attention went away. On the 10th anniversary of the shootings, the mother of the Charles Roberts reported that she was still having monthly visits from the Amish community to see how she was doing. These habits of reconciliation are small steps that can have a huge impact.
Now, even though that was over 13 years ago, Greg Jones, dean of Duke Divinity School recently said in reflection of the response of the Amish community, “Such exemplary acts of witness stir the imaginations of the larger world. We need our imagination to be set on fire by stories that show that what we think is impossible or unrealistic is indeed possible --- if we have the courage to cultivate habits of peace.”
Today’s gospel sets our mind on fire, move a tree to the sea! Beat all the implements of violence into implements for gardening! Imagine that!
On September 4th, Cardinal Richard Etchegaray died at the age of 96. Over his career he took small steps toward peace. In the 1970’s he made many trips on behalf of the Vatican to Eastern Europe seeking the release of human rights activists. In the 1980’s he became the first cardinal to visit China and visited again in 1993. In 1985, he led a Vatican team invited by Ayatollah Khomeini to visit prisoners of war held in Iran. He visited Baghdad, Iraq later that year and helped to arrange an exchange of prisoners of war between those two nations while they were at war. He also in that decade worked on improving the relations with the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. For instance, he was a key organizer behind the first World Day of Prayer for Peace that brought together more than 160 religious leaders in Assisi, Italy on 27 October 1986. It was the broadest representation of international religious leaders ever assembled.
He made several trips in the 90’s to Cuba like he had to China to ease the tensions between Church and state in those officially atheist countries, where practicing Christians and Jews have been objects of government repression since the Cuban and Chinese revolution.
Jesus paints an imagine of “faith the size of a mustard seed” can uproot a 60-foot tree and toss it into the sea. Small steps can have an enormous effect. Certainly, not all of us are Cardinal Etecherary where it seems much more an of a “super-sized” faith effort, not a seed-sized effort. That kind of peacemaking can seem beyond what 99.99999 percent of us can be a part of.
But imagine 34,000 people walking through Victoria Station, London generating energy without giving it much thought. That is a picture of the church. We, as the body of Christ, who number in the millions who can and do make a difference by simply the way we walk faithfully in our daily lives. Imagine how much more faith we could have, or how much we feel we deserve or need from God BUT we would be missing the whole point. Instead, reflect what would the world be like without the centuries of Christian voice and presence? Certainly Christians in the past and present are the incubators of violence, but we can also say without any reserve that we would be in far worse shape than we are now without the faithful witness of Christians through the centuries.
As followers of Christ --- peace is a part of our job description as are the ministries of comfort, service, encouragement, prayer, healing, lifting the fallen, advocating for the oppressed, weeping with those who weep, listening to those in despair, the peaceful settling of disputes, overcoming of differences, and re-establishment of relationships --- all of these and more comprise our mission as obedient servants of Jesus Christ.
In a world so bloodied by conflict, the Amish response after the massacre at Nickel Creek is one model and perhaps not ours. And yes, none of these actions is going to transform the world overnight, but what do you imagine? We are shapers through God’s grace of the intangible stuff of imagination lived out in faith. Moving a Mulberry tree is nothing! Whatever it is … living as disciples in response to God’s faithful imagination for us is part of that growing rumble of enormous power generated by mustard seeds acts of faith and obedience.
It’s simply inconceivable to say that millions of Christians walking through Victoria Station, as it were, are not going to generate a ton of world-changing energy. Those early Christians, though only a few number, were described as people who turned the world upside down. Jesus was right, with a seed-sized faith; we have, we can and do turn the world upside down, “for we have done only what we ought to have done!” Imagine what we will do this week! Amen.

God's Celebration - 9/15/2019

Sermon presented at Hope Lutheran and the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection based on Luke 15: 1-10.

This morning more than likely you parked in one of the more than 105 million estimated parking spaces in the United States. But which one? That’s not a hard question here because as I have noticed in my year here most of you follow the same practice. You park in the same spot and you sit in the same pew. So much for change! But what about at HEB or Walmart? Do you ever walk out the door and have to pause to remember where you are parked?
Now just imagine Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The parking areas there include more than 46,000 parking slots, and you guessed it every day, a good number of guests cannot remember in which one they left their car. Visitors arrive at the theme park revved up to have a good time, and they aren’t paying attention. What’s more, they may be piloting a rental whose color and make they haven’t noticed, but even if they have, it’s identical to several hundred other SUV’s nearby.
Disney does what it can to help absent-minded visitors observe where they park. For those who may have been there, each parking section has a Disney character name --- Chip & Dale, Pluto, Goofy, Dopey, etc. --- clearly identified with prominently posted pictures. As arriving guests board the trams that carry them into the park, the tram drivers tell the visitors what lot they are in and urge them to take note. Still, as you probably suspect so many people fail to remember that Disney employs a small army whose sole job is to reassure these baffled folks and reunite them with their autos. They are known as the parking cast!
The way I understand it is that the parking cast uses an array of tools, including perseverance, technology and clues elicited from the guests. For starters, Disney keeps track via cameras of when each lot fills. That way, if visitors can remember approximately when they arrived, the cast can narrow the search to specific lots based on the time frame they arrived. Disney workers also ask what visitors remember seeing in route to the parking lot. If all else fails, Disney employees can drive the lost individuals around in company vehicles, while the guests lean out the window, pushing the panic button on their key chains, hoping the car will sound off!
Through one means or another, the Disney parking cast usually manages to re-link guests with their vehicles, finding the lost and enabling park visitors to go on their way. And so the guests do, probably feeling that no matter which lot their car was actually discovered in, they had parked in Dopey.
I suspect if Disney had a Bible passage for these cast members these two little parables in today’s gospel from Luke would be good candidates --- with their stories of losing and finding. We may have other examples from our personal life stories of losing and finding. Yet as much as these parables may fit losing our car in a parking lot of 46,000, there are some images that don’t fit.
For example, Jesus indicated both the shepherd and the homemaker are so thrilled at finding the lost that they need help to celebrate both call neighbors to gather for a party. The words joy and rejoice occur five times in today’s lesson.
But do you suppose that’s how the parking cast members at Disney react? For them, helping baffled visitors is all in a day’s work. I doubt they throw a party every time they succeed. And as I suspect for those chagrined guests, they don’t want everyone to know that once they were lost and now are found. Finding their transport, no doubt brings a wave of relief and maybe even reprieve, but probably not much joy. How many of us would want everyone at HEB or Walmart to know that we forgot were our car was located? And then expect the manager to call out on the speaker, we are having a party because someone found their car?
How often have we felt a party was warranted when we found our keys, glasses, purse, wallet, homework or all those others things we may forget as we walk out the door? Therefore, when Jesus asks, “Which one of you would not have a party?” a lot of us would confess that we would not.
Furthermore, a I thought about it even more I realized that this gospel is truly a struggle for us. I wonder can we truly see or hear it through the noise of 21 centuries along with living in an affluent American culture.
For one thing, it’s difficult to identify with shepherds. For example, we may get attached to our pets. It’s not unreasonable to assume that the shepherd actually cared about the individual animals in his flock, an image immortalized in countless images of pale faced, Jesus figure in a white robe holding a lamb. But having spent time on the family dairy farm during the summers while growing up, pets are not the same thing as farm animals. We may get close to them even give them a name but ultimately then end up on our or someone else’s dinner plate. With that in mind return to the shepherd’s searching for the missing sheep. It may include more than sentimentality. The lost sheep is a pay check, a meal and clothing and is the shepherd the owner? If not, I suspect the owner would not appreciate lost sheep. Add that to the point I raised early, would we throw a party? We may give a reward but a party?
There is something else in this gospel that many of us 21st Americans truly struggle to understand. It takes us a great deal of effort to identify with people who have only a few things. We are told that this woman hunts high and low for her mint condition silver dollar. She lights a lamp --- this indicates a simple dwelling, incidentally, one without windows --- and she sweeps the whole house. When she finds the coin, she ‘calls together’ her friends and neighbors and asks that they “rejoice” with her. Family is not mentioned.
Think about it. Honestly, we have dozens of pens, and if we misplace one, it’s no big deal. We just pick up another one. Even for gadgets where we don’t have extras, it is often easier to simply go buy another than to spend time searching for the wayward one. But that was not so at the time of Jesus. The vast number of people owned far, far fewer things. Certainly the lost silver coin in the parable was the equivalent of a full day’s pay but although saddened and perhaps a struggle, would we have the same reaction if we found it?
But the largest challenge for us in these two parable is that it’s not easy to identify these characters with God, but that’s whom these two parables are really about. After each of them, Jesus gives the moral of the story, stating that the repentance of a lone sinner is the occasion for great joy in heaven. Think about it. Really, who of us can say, after all the members of the human race God has created, God experiences such exhilaration over the conversion of a single individual. Of sure if it is our family member, someone we may have been praying for deeply, but what about a person in a far off country, who doesn’t speak our language or come from our background.
I think all these challenges confirms that perhaps what we may be missing is an important piece of ultimately good news for us. Walter J. Freeman, a professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, writes about what scientists who study the brain have concluded about joy. He acknowledges that both electrical and chemical stimulation of the brain have significant impact on moods. That includes the effect of such naturally occurring chemicals as dopamine, endorphins, serotonin and oxytocin. But in each case, says Freeman, the result is not happiness.
Freeman explains, some pioneering neuroscientists have figured out that our brains do not store information from the environment as if they were recording devices. Rather the experiences we have in life trigger neural activity in the brain that results in a “construct.” The stimulus from the experience drains away, but the construct remains. And since all of us have different experiences, we all have different constructs, creating a situation where none of us can fully feel what another person is feeling. Freeman short hands this as “lonely brains.”
That is where what we know as joy comes in. Although we cannot be fully of one mind with others, like first century Shepherds, like someone with nothing who finds their treasure, or for that matter the conversion of someone far away, any time we can overcome the barriers between our self and another through cooperation and shared activities that result in trust, friendship, community or partnership --- it is then we feel joy.
These parables are not about the need for repentance, particularly not the way repentance is typically preached by those TV evangelists. Neither the lost sheep nor the lost coin ever “repents.” They don't do anything at all. They are simply lost, and they are simply found. Nor are today’s parables primarily about our sins, our need to be “righteous,” our need to “repent,” or our feeble efforts to reform ourselves.
These parables are all about God and God's relentless search for the lost and the “joy in heaven” when the lost are found and brought home.
Just look again at context of the parables. The Pharisees would never have objected to Jesus encouraging other people to repent. That's exactly what they themselves thought: all those “sinners” need to straighten up and fly right. That was exactly the Pharisee program.
So, if Jesus’s teaching today was an encouragement for people to repent, the Pharisees would have applauded. Jesus would have been a Pharisee hero. They would have called him a Defender of Traditional Family Values, and not a “glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.”
Instead, Jesus teaches us deeply about God as the seeker of the lost. What this means is as much as we think we might know, we do not know nor will ever know the mind of God.
We need to be reminded like Isaiah 43:21 --- “the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise” --- and Revelation 4:11b --- “for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” --- as well as the image of God as a jilted lover in Hosea, we have a God who experiences joy, and there are parties in heaven! Jesus confirms that with these two parables.
Yes, we may have joy because we have pets, so we may feel some of the loss that a Shepherd may feel, and the joy when found, but we are not the Shepherd. We may have something so precious like the homemaker; and the joy when found but we are not homemaker. We may know how amazing God’s love and forgiveness is so when someone half around the world discovers God’s grace through Jesus Christ we share in that joy for the grace we have secured, but we are not that person.
Jesus let us know with these parables that God goes about the business of seeking purposefully; God is about God’s work which for God is about Joy! A joy in heaven that is celebrated when a community like this one is brought together not because we are related, not because we lose things, not because we need to find anything, but because God is celebrating. Amen.

Salt - 9-8-2019

Sermon presented at Hope Lutheran and the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection based on Luke 14: 25-35. 

Do you have salt on your table? Much has changed for when I was growing up when someone said “Pass the salt,” I was table salt. Nowadays, we are more serious about salt. Serious because for some of us doctors are telling us to move from a dump to a dash of salt on our food to stem an epidemic of high blood pressure among the French fry faithful. Although the average human needs somewhere between about two-thirds of a pound and 16 pounds of salt a year to stay healthy --- on the lower end of that scale if we are less active and more if we are very active and live in a hot climate. Salt deficiency can cause lightheadedness, headaches, weakness, nausea and, if the deprivation lasts long enough, even death. Too much salt, the American problem however, can have the same effect.
But that has not been the only change, I don’t know if any of you have shopped for salt recently, but not only do we have the generic, store carton or Morton basic version aka table salt with two choices iodine or not, we also have the options of fleur de sel. We have the option of sea or rock. We can even color coordinate with gray and pink, or red, black or blue salt as well as Himalayan salt block to just name a few options.
Of course all these option vary in price. Say I pay $15 for Celtic sea salt vs. about 98 cents for the cardboard canister what am I getting? Well with the Celtic sea salt I add more texture, flavor, and health benefit than the iodized and highly refined version. The downside is that it also takes a little more maintenance of Celtic sea salt. If I leave and don’t use it moist air can cause it to clump together. The benefit however can outweigh the cost and hassle. Because of the chunkier nature of natural sea salt, which is hand-raked and bleached in the sun vs. mined like the kind in the supermarket, the theory less salt means more taste. Maybe.
Of course this resurgent interest in salt is not new. Point is that salt in one form or another has been part of our daily lives not only by necessity for thousands of years. In fact, the quest for and consumption of salt is actually more like a human obsession. In his book from a couple of years ago, Salt: A World History, Mark Kurlansky tracks the history of salt as a mineral often more valuable to humans than gold. From the ancient Chinese, who may have gathered salt as early as 6000 B.C. to biblical times and beyond, salt has been a staple and obsession for every human culture.
In the first-century world of Jesus, for example, salt was so valuable that it was even used like cash currency. The Roman soldiers who stood at the cross or marched with Jesus along the via de la Rosa were often paid in salt, and the Latin word for salt (sal) became the basis for the word “salary” and eventually morphed into the word “soldier.”
And of course the Bible is not without its references. The early Israelites used salt in worship. The preserving power of salt was well-known; thus the ancient Israelites covered their sacrifices in salt as a sign mentioned in Leviticus and Number of the eternal nature and preservation of the covenant between God and God’s people: a “covenant of salt.” Should I take a little salt and spread it over our offering this morning? Ezekiel mentions the rubbing of salt on newborn infants, perhaps to both dry the skin and protect the child from evil. Maybe as part of today’s baptism should we rub McKenzie in a little salt? On the flip side of the shaker, as it were, salt is referenced in some places as a sign of judgment and destruction. In Judges 9:45 Abimelech destroyed the city of Shechem and then “sowed it with salt.”
It’s no wonder, then, that Jesus wraps up this very important section of teaching on the cost of discipleship by using salt to seal what he means and emphasize the kind of valuable effort that is required of anyone who would follow him. Jesus turned to the crowds, the vast numbers of people clamoring after him, and lays down a lesson in hard currency. Following me, he says in effect, is more valuable than your family --- and to the first-century Jew there was virtually nothing more valuable than family (v. 26) - or even your own life and livelihood. For us 21st century Americans, these often misunderstood words are not an invitation to usefully leave our relatives out --- no matter how justified that may be!
Rather, in the ordering of kingdom of God priorities, Jesus is starting that the way of the cross --- discipleship --- comes before something as valuable as “family-ship.” Think, for example, of all the immigrants who passed through Ellis Island to land on America’s shores, leaving behind families like in our case who would never be seen again. Think of the hardships present-day immigrants face in order to seek a better life.
Jesus wants the crowds to whip out their spiritual calculators and do the math --- to count the cost of being in this discipleship project for the long haul is like someone building a tower --- or a house --- for example. If the builder doesn’t count the cost, he’ll either not be able to finish the project, or he’ll finish it poorly and need a “makeover” crew to come in and do it right! Or, Jesus continues, what sort of leader is it who invades a country without knowing what he’s up against?
Then Luke has Jesus concluding this teaching with this curious slant on salt: “Salt is good,” in vs 34. For us, it’s a common mineral that makes everything taste better, last longer. We have a hint for in Matthew’s version, Jesus calls his disciples “salt of the earth,” common but extremely valuable. The twist in Luke comes with the next qualifier: “But if salt has lost its taste, how can saltiness be restored?” Say what? After all, we know that the salt on our table keeps its flavor no matter what, so how is it possible for sealed, signed and delivered “salty” disciples to lose their flavor and usefulness? In fact, Jesus implies that unsalted disciples are of no use --- not fit for the soil or even for the manure pile, where some types of salt were used in the ancient world to preserve animal droppings for field fertilization. Imagine being valued less than fertilizer --- talk about not being worth your salt! What could a follower of Jesus do that’s so heinous that we don’t even qualify for the dung heap?
Now to understand what Jesus is saying we need a short chemistry lesson. Modern table salt doesn’t ever lose its “saltiness” because impurities are removed and chemicals like anti-caking agents are added. Salt in Jesus’ day was much less reliable. Dr. Robert Shepherd, retired professor of chemistry at Northeastern, explains it this way: “Most, if not all, commercially available salt in biblical times was produced by evaporation of either sea water or brine from salt wells or salt lakes, such as the Dead Sea. All of these sources contain other salts besides sodium chloride, notably calcium salts. When the brine is evaporated, these calcium salts combine with dissolved carbon dioxide and leave behind calcium carbonate, --- chalk. On standing for long periods exposed to moist air, the soluble sodium chloride will absorb water and leach away, leaving mostly chalk.” At the time of Jesus salt that was simply left lying around unused and exposed would eventually lose its taste, leaving behind something that’s great for blackboards and ball fields but useless in our soup. Jesus drives the point home: Disciples are only valuable, worth their salt, if they are used!
Now, I don’t know about you, I’d rather not be taken advantage of, walked on, dumped on, or otherwise be “used” by someone else. But in fact, that’s a big chunk of the overhead cost of being a disciple of Jesus. What we often conveniently forget is that Jesus himself knowingly went to the cross for people who used him for their own purposes --- political, personal or otherwise. But because Jesus was used, everything tastes different --- the bitterness of sin and death turned into the salty-sweet flavor of eternal life.
Salt as we know enhances the flavor of food if it used. There is a difference between food that has salt on it and food that doesn’t have salt on it. Zucchini is more zucchini with salt than it is without salt. Obedience and commitment to Christ enables and empowers us to be more fully human than we would be without that commitment.
To follow Jesus is to be used --- to pick up a cross, to give up claim on our own lives, to be put in situations we’d often rather not get into. To even perhaps leave family behind or said in another way, to take a road that may not include family. It’s a recognition that when we pray, “Lord, use me,” it’s a guarantee that the Lord will and in a way that may cost us everything. But the good news is this: The more we are used, the more valuable we become and the closer we are to realizing the incredible purpose and fullness of life to which we are called. Furthermore, like salt it may not take much to have an impact.
So the question remains: Where is Jesus wanting to use us? Who could use you and me --- our time, our talent, our treasure --- right now? Certainly it is not easy to distinguish between when we are being used by Christ or just being used --- being that door mat none of us want to be. I wish it was easy but I would be lying. When my wife was given the opportunity to accept or decline the promotion in Japan we had in the equation not only her career and mine, but leave daughters, elderly parents, home, relationships. If you have told me 27 years ago when I was near my final year in seminary that I will have spent a percentage of my ministry in Japan, I would have been polite but internally not thought that was my plan for discipleship.
The alternative of course, is that we sit tight, clump together, and individually and collectively go bad --- absorbed and dispersed into a world that seems headed for the manure pile. God has created us, equipped us, molded us, energized us, and purposed us for divine use --- to be his instruments for the kingdom of God. And by the way, it doesn’t have an expiration date and does not include a can’t get out of the chair excuse, or let someone younger pick it up. No this is “a die with our boots on salt at our hips” teaching. We are all “the salt of the earth” --- common but valuable, simple but with more than 14,000 uses. When Jesus calls us to follow him, as it has you, as it calls McKenzie as it calls me, God expects as much diversity as there is salt, for this world is diverse, ready for our enhancements. Amen.

"Cosmetic Surgery is not necessary" - 9/1/2019

Sermon based on Luke 14: 1, 7-14

On a typical morning, many of us rise from our beds and shuffle into the bathroom. It’s our first stop of the day. We can shower, comb through that hair, slap on deodorant and put on appropriate clothing and maybe some makeup.
That is, of course, until we grab our phone and open a social media app like Facebook or Snapchat. There we may notice all the smiling, perfectly airbrushed faces that confront us every day.
What to do! For many people the thought of posting a selfie --- a picture of yourself on social media --- is a challenge because let’s face it, whatever we post will not match the pictures online or even our friend’s smiling pics from Aruba. Not to worry --- there’s an app for that! With a photo filter like Facetune or the editing features of Snapchat, we can do a little tweaking. Erase that mole, nip and tuck that spare tire, get a little creative around the eyes and voila! We have just put our best selfie self out into the world. All is well the … until the bathroom mirror again, the disconnect between our real self and your virtual self begins to sink in.
In the age of the edited selfie, medical professionals have identified one new phenomenon called “body dysmorphic disorder,” or Snapchat disorder, to put it easier language. As The Journal of the American Medical Association describes it: “The pervasiveness of these filtered images can take a toll on one’s self-esteem, make one feel inadequate for not looking a certain way in the real world, and may even act as a trigger for body dysmorphic disorder (BDD).”
For example, while waiting for my father for routine lab work I waited out the hallway in this medical complex. Across from the lab, there was the offices for a plastic surgeon. On display he had information for Botox and other procedures. What caught my eye however was a bold line, “Selfies of how you want to look welcome!” According to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the number of patients seeking this kind of selfie-altering surgery increased by 18 percent this past year.
It is of course not a secret that we live in an American culture where being real is often a challenge, where we are either to poor, to infirm, to old, to short, to large, too dark from an artificial norm. Altering our bodies to fit a vision of perfection or its opposite ---- how much we can use our bodies as artistic canvas --- can be damaging, but what happens when we do the same thing to our souls? I wonder if it’s possible to have a conflict between the real and virtual selves we present to the world from the ways in which we think and behave. We might sculpt our personalities and social poses to appeal to others and make us seem like more than we really, truly are. Rather than being humble and realistic about our flaws and our human needs, our natural selves, we may see others and ourselves as inferior to the inflated, airbrushed or edited self. For example, do we ever impose unrealistic demands on our family, children, friends, acquaintances, church? Do we ever see other people as competition or “threats?” Do we ever exhibit double-standards in the way we behave/interact with other people? Do we ever judge others starting from a places other than they are an image of God?
Jesus, however, is able to cut through the veneers of this world --- the physical, emotional and social bubbles we live in --- and hold up a mirror to expose the true self. Jesus of course, did it not from a position of superiority --- even though he was God in the flesh --- but from the position of one who, despite his fully human and fully divine nature, was humble and always projected his authentic self.
Just look at this episode in our gospel, according to Luke, at the meal the Pharisees were “watching [Jesus] closely” (v. 1). Jesus was such a contrast to the other religious and political leaders of his day, who were all about “keeping up appearances.” While it was expected in that culture, day and age, that a virtuous host would invite a prominent teacher to dinner, it was clear that the host’s motives here were suspect. Whoever this host was, we know that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem and the cross meaning there would be plenty of prominent people by this time who want to trip him up and find a way to get rid of him. Everything Jesus said would be analyzed and scrutinized, but time and again his words were consistent with his actions.
Luke informs us that at this meal at the invitation of an unknown host, there was a man afflicted perhaps with dropsy --- a condition that causes the body to swell from excess fluids. Whatever the cause of the condition, clearly, this man’s selfie needed to be enhanced with some apps and filters! Every day, any reflection or self-review, reminded him of who he really was. But we also find out that it wasn’t any day of the week. Since it was the Jewish Sabbath, our Saturday, Jesus asked the elite around the table, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” (v. 3). Interestingly, the Pharisees were silent. Not waiting in silence, Jesus healed the man, sent him on his way, and then asked another question about pulling a child or an ox out of a well on the Sabbath (vv. 4-5). Again, the Pharisees couldn’t or didn’t want to answer.
Why were the Pharisees silent? I think their silence is instructive, a sign perhaps of our own silence when we are confronted by reflective truth. The Pharisees, like many people in Jesus’ day, were about keeping up appearances, jostling for position in the eyes of God and the eyes of their fellow Jews. They were eager to put on a face, showing how well they were keeping the law and maintaining their sense of purity. If they had had an Instagram account, you can be certain they would have been constantly posing and posting carefully staged and gauzy shots of themselves engaging in acts of piety.
Seeing Jesus heal a man with an obvious problem that would make him unclean, and on the Sabbath no less, would offend their self-righteous sensibilities even though, as Pharisees, they may have technically agreed and rejoiced in the healing. If keeping up appearances is important however, one must avoid potential embarrassment and the awkward moment. Better not post a picture of being bested by a homeless rabbi from Nazareth!
To emphasize that point, Jesus took the opportunity as recorded by Luke to comment of something Jesus was also well aware, a lot of jockeying for position at the tables as different peoples vied for the places of honor (v. 7). At this visible sign of 1st century airbrushed, edited selfie culture, Jesus told a parable about a wedding banquet which, on the surface, seems to be a kind of Emily Post-style instruction on seating but, in reality, is much more.
Jesus talking about a “wedding banquet” indicates a larger teaching moment here. We need to remember that in different places in the Scriptures, the wedding banquet sometimes serves as a symbol for the coming kingdom of God. Jesus seemed to be warning his fellow dinner guests that their striving for a place of honor at God’s table was a projection of their airbrushed image of themselves and the Kingdom of God.
In that world and our own, some are at the table and others are left off or seated in categories (vv. 8-9). Instead, in the Kingdom the person who is real, genuine and honest with himself or herself will let the host set the agenda for who sits where (v. 10). It’s the host, in this case God, who determines our status, for it is God who sees the real person behind the altered public veneer. “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted” (v. 11).
The second parable the author of Luke records Jesus saying is directed at the host and, if we connect the two parables, Jesus seems to be defining who the “distinguished” guests are and who from the perspective of the Kingdom of God have prominent places at the table. “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors,” says Jesus (v. 12).
Rather than the kind of social contract we expect to execute in our selfie world --- comparing the number of likes --- on someone else’s enhanced, air brushed portrait or news about themselves, Jesus urges the host, as he urges us, to elevate those who cannot reciprocate. In other words, to take a group shot of a table full not of the famous, rich or celebrity but of those to whom the world would be shocked to see at the table. In these parables, we learn that while we may not be in dire economic or physical circumstances, we too may not be poor, crippled, lame, or aged out but all of us are blinded by self-interest and self-indulgence, pretending to be something we are not. When we turn from editing our own selves, to reimaging the table where we sit we begin to get a good sense that God gives “likes” to those who are honest and genuine about themselves and in their relationships to others. “You will be blessed” in inviting them, says Jesus, “because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (v. 14).
Many people suffering from Snapchat dysmorphia focus on presentation to the detriment of their own bodies and souls. Jesus reminds us that the most impressive people in God’s kingdom are those who turn the focus away from self to others, whose purpose is a soul and a life that follows the way of the cross. In today’s lesson, Jesus is pointing out that the way to the cross is not filled by presenting or posing but caring only about turning the spotlight on the image of God in others.
The author, Philip Yancey tells of a couple who had planned a lavish wedding reception to be held after their wedding. They bride took the responsibility for booking a banquet room at an elegant hotel, and made the required down payment of half the reception’s cost. Unfortunately to make a long story short the prospective groom had a change of heart and they parted company for good.
One of the bride’s next stops was the office of the Events Manager of the Hotel. The manager said she was sorry, but most of the deposit was non-refundable. The former bride-to-be had only two options, she explained: she could either forfeit the rest of her down payment or go ahead with the event.
As Yancey tells it, “It seemed crazy, but the more the former bride thought about it, the more she liked the idea of going ahead. You see, ten years before, this same person had been living in a homeless shelter. Now, after she had got back on her feet, found a steady job and set aside a nest egg, in this moment of deep disappointment she reconnected with the person she was and is.”
“And so it was that in June of 1990 that in a downtown Boston hotel she hosted a party such as it had never seen before. The hostess changed the menu to boneless chicken — ‘in honor of the groom,’ — and sent invitations to rescue missions and homeless shelters. That warm summer night, people who were used to handouts, or empty carbs out of a paper bags were served by waiters in tuxedos. Bag ladies, vagrants and addicts took one night off from the sidewalks outside and instead sipped champagne, ate chocolate wedding cake and danced to big-band melodies late into the night.”
What makes for “beautiful” in the kingdom of God is honesty, service and love for others. No surgery, no Photoshop, no app, no posing required but it does necessitate a refocus on what is reflected when we turn the lens of the Kingdom of God through the cross on ourselves and the world around us. Amen.

"In for the long run" - 8/18/2019

Sermon preached at Hope Lutheran and the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection on August 18, 2019 based on the Hebrews 11: 29 -12:2.

Picture Mount Everest.

 

Earth’s highest mountain rises 29,029 feet above sea level. The first known to conquer Mount Everest, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay did so in 1953. Now it attracts many climbers every year — some of whom die in their attempts to reach the summit.
But what about “the Mount Everest of ultramarathons”? That’s a little harder to picture, although the race was run earlier this summer. Called the “Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race,” it is the longest certified footrace in the world.
Held in Queens, New York, the event challenges athletes to run 3,100 miles in 52 days. To meet the goal of 3,100 miles, they must run an average of 59.6 miles per day. Throughout this long and rigorous race, they try to set personal records and gain spiritual insights.
I wonder if the Apostle Paul would agree? After all, St. Paul asks the Corinthians, “Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it.” And to Timothy the author says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” St. Paul doesn’t mention Adam and Eve specifically in his letters with running but he certainly has them in mind. After all, Adam and Eve were the first in the human race, from St. Paul’s perspective, to run in faith back to Eden.
Although written by a different author, running language is found in the letter to the Hebrews as well. Chapter 12 begins with the words, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”
Have you ever wondered therefore --- that it seems from the earliest days of the Church --- why faith has been linked to running? “Run in such a way that you may win it.” Why would Paul link running and faith? The author of Hebrews and Timothy? Finish the race and keep the faith. “Run with perseverance the race that is set before [you].”
That image of faithful running still resonates today. For example, on his 40th birthday, Presbyterian pastor Henry Brinton was challenged by a good friend, a Catholic priest, to run the Marine Corps Marathon. The goal seemed crazy, since Brinton had no experience as a runner, and the prospect of running 26.2 miles was daunting.
But Brinton needed a challenge. The priest had run several marathons, so he gave him some tips and turned him loose. As you can imagine, the first time Brinton hit the road, he ran for three minutes and had to stop, gasping for breath. But after walking for seven minutes, he was able to run for another three, and then he walked another seven and ran three. Over several weeks, his running increased and his walking decreased until he could run for an hour. And then he ran two hours. “If you can run two hours, you can run four hours,” the priest said. “If you can run four hours, you can do a marathon.”
The priest was right. Six months after beginning his training, Brinton finished the Marine Corps Marathon. He felt as if he’d been through boot camp, but his wobbly elation at the finish line made the pain worthwhile.
Now years later, Briton says, “Marathon training has become a meditation for me, an opportunity to think, dream, pray and solve problems. Besides enjoying the fabled endorphin rush, I’ve been amazed by the clarity of mind I experience. I’ve come to appreciate how exercise cuts through the clutter of life and gives me the gift of simplicity for a few hours each week. In a career dominated by phone calls, emails, meetings, and sermon preparation, it’s calming to spend time focused only on the path ahead.”
The theme of running resonates because running really is a prayer and a teacher. “Run and become” seems to be what Paul, and the author of Hebrews has in mind.
Of course, not all of us are runners. And those who do not run might be more comfortable with a dash from their car to the HEB in the heat than a 3,100-mile ultramarathon. But whether we run or walk, faithful perseverance is important no matter at what age, or physical or activity level, by acknowledging and running the race laid out in the letter to the Hebrews; by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the “pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”
Our baptized life by grace through faith is a race --- long and rigorous. The Mount Everest of spirituality. Affirming that, I think is helpful for us as we think through what are the challenges? Why can faithful life be so difficult? And finally, how can we run better? Obviously, we could go in many directions in those question, but these came to mind from further reading of Hebrews, our second lesson.
First, the challenge. “By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land,” says the writer of Hebrews in the 11th chapter, “but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace.”
In other words, in the face of each of these enormous challenges, the people of God in their lifelong journey, from generation to generation had faith. The reason that passage is important for us to remember is that that community did not overcome obstacles with their intelligence or technology or physical strength, or political change or will, but with their faith. They trusted God to work for good in their lives, in every time and place and situation, generation after generation.
Faith is trust, pure and simple. It is a willingness to lean on God and believe that God will lead us through the good along with the difficult moments of life so that we will be able to join the apostle Paul in saying, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).
The primary challenge of faithful life no matter our age, life experience, background, education, or nationality; no matter our color, sexuality, gender, or wealth, the primary challenge of faithful life is quite simply, faith. Running as an image therefore, resonates because to run, one must either run or not, walk or not, move or not. Faith does not persevere when standing still.
But why is faith so difficult, why would we rather head for the lazy boy instead of the journey? According to Hebrews, our faith journey is difficult because it does not lead immediately to an easy or comfortable life. Blessings do not correlate to faith; a give a little, I get a little, I give more, I get more. Hebrews reminds us that over the generations, people of faith “suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented … They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.”
Faithful life would be much easier if our faith freed us from all pain and suffering. But it does not. “We all experience sadness,” said Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, “we all come at times to despair, and we all lose hope that the suffering in our lives and in our world will never end.” But sadness and suffering are never the end. Tutu had faith that suffering could be transformed, and he said that “God is an expert at dealing with chaos, with brokenness, with all the worst that we can imagine. God created order out of disorder, cosmos out of chaos, and God can do so always, can do so now.”
Faith journey is difficult because it involves pain --- even more suffering than the anguish of an ultramarathon. The pain may be physical certainly, but it may be personal pain or the pain one feels for another. But just like blessings do not correlate to faith; nor does pain or suffering to one’s faith. For example, more faith leads to more suffering. Not at all.
Rather, God brings order out of disorder, in our personal lives and in our communal lives as well. God leads us toward the finish line which is “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem … a kingdom that cannot be shaken.” That is another reason that running is a good metaphor for faith. Just like I may be proud to have walked a mile, others may need to run ten to have the same elation. The same for pain, I may have pain at a mile where as others may need to run 10 before pain sets in.
So perhaps a more helpful question is how can I run my faith journey better? The writer of Hebrews says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”
According to Hebrews, one way we can more effectively run in faith, is to learn from our role models and coaches in the great “cloud of witnesses,” men and women who have preceded us and run the race of faith through enormous challenges and difficulties. Now we need to not just count the famous, rather, we can learn from those whose faith does not match our vision. For example, is there a person of faith who may not resemble your own journey but yet from whom you have learned? There are many varieties of ways of training to run, some may work for us others may not. That is why Hebrews lifts up a plurality of witnesses, not just one. I was recently reminded of this after watching segments of the Tour of France bicycle race. Some segments of the race are in mountains and other segments are in open plains. Some riders did better than others in various circumstances. So, to carry that image into our faith lives, if we are going through mountains, who else struggled in faithful life through the mountains as a model.
We can go a lot farther when we “run with perseverance the race that is set before us,” not giving up when we feel pain, suffering or sadness or when no blessing appears. And we run the very best when we look to Jesus, “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” Look at his model of faith. Jesus endured the agony and the shame of the cross --- the Mount Everest of pain --- and he did it for many reasons including to help us “not grow weary or lose heart.”
These observations of running and becoming are a good reminder for us, for God is always working for good in our lives, in every time and place and situation. God is an expert at dealing with chaos and brokenness. Jesus is running ahead of us, showing us how to persevere so that we can cross the finish line into the city of the living God. Yes, running is a prayer and a teacher. It is an image that has resonated over the centuries, found in Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. Amen.

"Little Flock" - 8/11/2019

Sermon based on the Gospel text from Luke 12: 32-39.  Preached at Hope Lutheran and the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection.

This question, is not about the President of the United States; Twitter — love it, hate it or just don’t care much?
For the many who do not know, Twitter is an international, micro-blogging platform where users can post and interact with messages known as “tweets.” Tweets were originally restricted to 140 characters but in the fall of 2017, this limit was doubled to 280 for all languages except Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
Registered users to twitter can post, like, and retweet tweets, but unregistered users can only read them. Suffice it to say, this sound-bite approach to “a penny for your thoughts” was and is a polarizing presence in our culture.
Twitter --- politics aside --- either can be loved, hated or just another thing to be ignored, regardless there are many who are finding new ways to apply the platform. For example: Twitterature. Two University of Chicago students over the last couple of years have turned the classics from their English lessons into a book of Twitter summaries. As if the little yellow cliff notes didn’t castrate the classics enough, this new “genre” of “writing” reduces classic literature into 280 character tweets.
As you probably suspect, things like metaphor, parallelism and thought development all yield to e-grunt. The book editor at Penguin calls it “huge books made ridiculously small; great stories told in silly voices.” Hamlet. Of Mice and Men. Huckleberry Finn. Dante’s Inferno. And almost 80 other great works have been so converted in to 280 Twitterature. And as you can imagine, the authors’ summaries use text-speak such as OMG! and LOL, and ALL CAPS TO EMPHASIZE A POINT!!!!
If you are wondering where I am going with this there is a connection. Today’s gospel is a short course on eschatology; the arrival of God’ full kingdom. Although longer than 280 characters, Jesus provides a short preview of death, God’s reign, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind. Now to prime the pump, before engaging in the words of Jesus let us take a short pop quiz:
1. In what year did William Miller predict “the second coming of Jesus Christ?”
A. 2012
B. 1844
C. I’m bored — why are we talking about dead people?
Who was William Miller? He was a convert to Christianity who felt that the Bible could be deciphered so that we could predict when Christ will come again. Up to that time, generally speaking, the Church took the view that the time was more or less unpredictable.
2. Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins is:
A. My other Bible
B. Sitting at Goodwill next to The Prayer of Jabez
C. A hit country song
The Left Behind series is a fictional account with roots in William Miller but focuses on one key fictional account that there is rapture before Christ’s coming. Rapture is a concept partly based on Revelation 20 along with a view that things are broken down into thousands. Perhaps you have heard of premillennial, a millennial, postmillennial. Those descriptions are of course not hipsters and their phones but a description of people who are involved in this thousand year, rapture, second coming thinking.
Last question.
3. Eschatology should be:
A. A major at all universities
B. A topic in the National Enquirer
C. Does the quiz count as the sermon, or is there more coming?
Well, again regardless of how you answered any of those questions. I would suggest that all of us have something to learn from Jesus in what I call “practical” eschatology. Today is a short lesson on God’s full reign.
First the context. Earlier in this chapter, the author of Luke places Jesus in the presence both of his disciples and the large crowds (12:1). Jesus appears to be speaking primarily to the disciples, though within earshot of a large number of people. Even though teaching the disciples, “someone in the crowd” in verse 13, for example, is able to interrupt with a question.
Right before today’s lesson, Jesus follows the parable of the rich fool with appeals to live without anxiety. Worrying about food or clothing is unnecessary in light of God's love and grace. “The nations” in verse 30 worry about such things --- that is to say, people who think and act in light of the world’s assumptions will find themselves riven with uncertainty and anxiety. Whereas followers of God will not be so inclined toward fear.
Jesus follows with our first learning found in the phrase: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (v. 32). Jesus is transitioning from the parable and his appeals, warning about the world’s assumptions into how we understand God’s kingdom and its full revelation. It is transitional because Jesus understands that this God centered worldview brings its own anxiety. If we don't focus on the basics food and home, how will we survive? We don't know any other way!
In light of the anxiety caused by such a radical re-orientation toward God --- away from the worlds view scarcity, and toward God’s abundance; away from anxiety and toward reassurance of God's care --- Jesus encourages his listeners not to worry: “Do not be afraid, little flock.” Jesus reminds us that the biblical approach is we are to choose trust in God’s often unseen ways, even when it isn’t easy or comfortable including in the coming of God’s reign.
Jesus’ words are full of care and assurance: “your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” God wanted to do something good for the “little flock” and so freely gave them the kingdom --- the reign of God --- in which tables are open, status is upended, and all people are treated with respect. In God's kingdom --- on earth as it is in heaven --- there is no scarcity, not of food, nor of human dignity.
Now please note that Jesus also reminds us that God has already given this kingdom. It is not something that kicks into effect after we die or in a cataclysmic event, but something that is present right now. It has already been “freely given” in Christ. Like a benevolent parent, God gives us grace and love that his cherished one’s need --- including the perspective that our life is truly fragile. We can die, we will die, and the Kingdom of God will fully avail itself on any day, regardless we have signs of the kingdom now.
This leads to our second short course on eschatology; “[W]here your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (v. 34). Part of living out the eschatology --- knowing that the kingdom has come and will be fully revealed --- means having an eternal perspective. If we are very fortunate, we may have a long life and die peacefully in bed. Although statistically speaking dying peacefully in bed will not happen to many of us, God wants our years lived in the world with our hearts hell-bent --- so to speak --- on life eternal and why Christ came.
Practically speaking, that means having a very loose hold on stuff --- not our stuff having a firm hold on us. Jesus talks specifically about one topic: giving alms --- charity given directly to the poor and needy. Regardless of what that charity is, charity is one outward expression of an inward reality: Christ-followers who see stuff like money as a temporary means to an eternal end.
This leads to our third learning; “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit” (v. 35). Jesus gave a parable that tells of servants --- in other words us --- waiting for their master --- Christ --- to return from a wedding banquet. If this sounds like you have heard it before it is because Biblically speaking “wedding banquet” is a well-used image for the eternal kingdom of God. Because “the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour” (v. 40), the servants are supposed to be prepared for his arrival at all times on the edge of their seats.
Now to remind us, the Lord is not grim-faced in this parable as he “comes and knocks.” “The son of Man” will not come with a fearsome accounting of one's misdeeds. “The son of Man” will not come with pious exhortations to try harder. “The son of Man” will not come to put anyone in their place.
Quite the contrary. Where is the Christ coming from, he's coming from a party, with a spring in the step and a song in the heart. To those who are watching, “he will fasten his belt” --- that is, he too is in a condition of heightened anticipation and readiness for action --- except that, in this case, this action will be to “have them sit down to eat, and he will come to serve and serve them.”!
Talk about status reversal. Before we are servants and now we are being served. Just as serving the weak is the same as serving the Almighty, so the Lord comes to those who have been waiting, draws near to them, and serves them. This is what God's full reign looks like.
Our fourth and final learning about Christ’s coming is that the Lord comes as a “thief.” The thief is secretive, like Jesus. The thief quietly breaks in, like Jesus. Most of all, we don't KNOW when the thief is coming, like Jesus. If we think our house, or our lives, are about to be broken in to, we will post up our defenses ---psychologically to be sure, even physically if we feel enough threat. If we come to faith out of fear, then the roots of our faith is self-protective not rooted in the gift of grace and love. That's why the Lord uses so much misdirection. He comes in ways we do not expect, and a time that is “unexpected.”
How does this short primer on eschatology help us? Practically speaking we do not need to buy another book, or watch another movie, or listen to anyone who tells us what to look for. Christ doesn't bother trying to tear down our puny defenses. Christ doesn’t bother to give us a timeline, Jesus sneaks around them instead. And if we do so anyway, know this whatever we read, or see we are not to be afraid as God’s little flock.
Oddball and out-of-sync with our current arrangements all this may be, but this is the way of God’s fully revealed kingdom. So to reduce this practical eschatology to a Twitter feed, here’s what we have: The kingdom of God has come in Christ; we are not to fear; we are to adopt the perspective of eternity; in the meantime, we are to be ready for action; It will fully come like a thief. That by the way is 186 characters. Pretty much says it all. Amen.

"Brand Jesus" - 8/4/2019

Sermon presented at Hope Lutheran and the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection on August 4, 2019.

Moment of silence for El Paso and Dayton in aftermath of mass shootings.

Prayer: Gracious Lord who loves us so perfectly, help us to better love you and each other. We weep for the gun violence that kills children and so many others, where guns have replaced prayers and where homes now breed frustration. May hearts be changed through your Holy Spirit that justice, mercy, all our resources and, yes, even guns might be used rightly under Heaven, through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord.
Amen.

Walk into your average middle or high school in the US and you’ll encounter some of the most self-conscious people on the planet. Teenagers are a jangle of nerves and emotions. So, on one hand, they can be arrogant, hateful and sometimes both. And on the other hand they are some of the most sensitive of any age group particularly to injustice. They eye roll a lot.
We see this in but one example --- clothing. For countless generations, some young people begin the day believing that every fashion choice is a critical one. After all, everyone else is watching! It’s important to make a statement with what you wear or don’t wear.
But then imagine these same students walking into an art class and noticing that their teacher has worn the same boring outfit day after day, month after month! Like, really? Aren’t art teachers supposed to be all colorful and stuff? Or have they been around tempera paint and hot glue a little too long?
Actually, meet Julia Mooney, an art teacher at William Allen Middle School in Moorestown, New Jersey. At the beginning of the 2018 school year, she decided to put on a simple gray button-down dress and then wore it every school day for 100 days straight. It wasn’t about being weird. For Ms. Mooney, it was about initiating a conversation with her students about the “culture of excess;” a culture of excess that has filled American closets to overflowing with cheap clothing that isn’t ethically sourced or manufactured and that, most of the time, eventually winds up in a landfill or dumped in poorer communities undercutting local businesses.
The typical American --- not just teenagers --- now buy 60 percent more items of clothing than we did 15 years ago --- and keep them half as long. Ms. Mooney thinks this is a major problem on a lot of levels. “There’s no rule anywhere that says we have to wear a different thing every day,” says Ms. Mooney. “Why do we ask this of each other? Why do we require that we each wear something different every day and buy more clothes and feed into this fashion culture?”
Instead, Ms. Mooney advocates for what she calls “sustainable fashion”: wearing clothing that’s made in an eco-friendly way along; buying fewer, but better-made pieces of clothing; wearing the same clothes more often; and making sure they’re recycled when they are replaced or no longer needed.
What was the reaction from the staff and students? Some students began their own experiment of wearing the same clothes on consecutive days. Some of the other staff got into the act as well. And, yes, in answer to the obvious question, Ms. Mooney does wash her dress frequently! It’s not about hygiene — it’s about wearing something of quality for the long haul while making a difference in the world.
Ms. Mooney is not alone in her thinking. Look at our gospel and in particular our 2nd lesson. In Colossians 3, the author makes a similar statement about the sustainable fashion that marks the “outfits” of Christians. For the author this fashion isn’t so much about what disciples of Jesus put on their bodies but about how they clothe their “minds” (v. 2). Because Christians have been “raised with Christ,” we should “seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (v. 1). It’s about a mindset that seeks to sustain our lives that are “hidden with Christ in God” until Christ is revealed (v. 3). For the author, the only label that matters is the one put on us by the risen Christ!
We live in a culture where people seem to change their minds as much as they change their clothing. If you are what you wear, then the author of Colossians says in this part of the letter that we are --- “fast, cheap and easy” --- when it comes to our spiritual clothing as well as our lives. If we are going to live sustainably, with integrity, then we have to be willing to first do a purge of whatever we have been hiding not only what may lie in our literal closets but in the shadows of our lives. “Put to death, therefore, whatever is in you that is earthly…” says Paul (v. 5). Earthly of course does not mean to throw away our expired cans in the pantry or rotting produce in our refrigerators, rather get rid of all that we have been keeping that doesn’t fit anymore: “the ways you also once followed” when you were living life apart from Christ (v. 7). Dump things like “anger, wrath, malice, slander and abusive language from your mouth” (v. 8). These are the things that the rest of the world puts on and displays regularly as a way of comparing themselves to one another.
Instead we are to have a new mindset, one that is sustainable, that begins with stripping off “the old self with its practices” (v. 9) and replacing our spiritual wardrobe with a new one — a “new self” that is “being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator” (v. 10).
In other words, the wardrobe we’re called to wear is the one we were given from the beginning when God created humans in God’s own image (Genesis 1:26-27). Now we need to be careful because what is meant by this “image of God” has been debated for centuries among Christians and Jews. It is not that we resemble a God who has two legs, eyes and ears, walking around on puffy clouds. Instead, the author of Colossians suggests that since Christ’s character is in the image of the invisible God (1: 15) we are to remember that those first humans started out “naked and unashamed” and it was only after their brokenness that they began comparing themselves to one another and “knew that they were naked” (Genesis 2:25; 3:7).
The author of Colossians reminds us that the character with which we were originally outfitted was the character of God, which bears no shame. Christ, the model of that divine character, enables us to put on our original wardrobe through his defeat of our brokenness and separation from God in his crucifixion and resurrection.
Meaning that unlike a few trend setters and designers in the fashion world who set the agenda, the renewed and sustainable wardrobe of the church in Colossae, says the author, is sustainable, universal and designed to be worn by all kinds of people (v. 11). Whether you’re a gentle soul who prefers to wear tweed or a slave to the newest fashion, what matters is not what we wear on the outside but what we are wearing inside. “Christ is all and in all,” says the author, and as Christ is within, then our spiritual mindset will reflect Christ regardless of whether our outer clothes come from Walmart or Prada.
What does that sustainable spiritual character look like? I think like most of our closets, a sustainable spiritual character needs to have some basic pieces that are the foundation for the everyday. Therefore, it is less about other people and more about ourselves; the base layer. It is not all about “tighty whites.” “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience” (v. 12). Those are foundational, whether male or female, gay or straight, elderly or young.
Notice that the author says that we should clothe ourselves with these things, which means that they are a mindful choice for ourselves. Just as a person stands in front of his or her closet every morning and wonders what to put on, the author suggests that we who have been “raised with Christ” make a daily mindful process to put on Christ’s character; a base layer that translates into our daily life. We are to “bear with one another” and “forgive each other” as the Lord has forgiven us (v. 13).
But over all these things we are to put on love, “which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (v. 14). Love is the base mindset that forms and completes our base ensemble and marks us as belonging to the Jesus brand. It’s the article of our spiritual character that becomes more broken-in and comfortable with extended, everyday use. Furthermore, love never wears out, never goes out of style and is always culturally appropriate and yet non-violent love can challenge things from “Jim Crow laws” to racisms itself. We’ve been given the perfect pattern of love in Jesus, and as we let the “peace of Christ” rule in our hearts, we become “one body” that can influence the world as part of Jesus’ brand as well (v. 15). Our mutual sharing, our admonishing one another in wisdom, our worship and our every word and deed are commercials that point to Christ (v. 16).
In our Gospel Jesus tells a parable of a man who, for all his self-centered strategizing, doesn't run his own life after all. The decision to build bigger barns is entirely reasonable, even smart. Yet, God calls him a “fool.” His foolishness is not in his attempt to “be merry,” to be wealthy. No, the man is a fool because, in pursuit of profits in the market, he has acted in disregard for his neighbors. To which God says out loud what all of us refuse to acknowledge: “Hey, you can't take it with you.”
In discerning whether one should place their interest in their own self, or the needs of their neighbors, it might be prudent to consider God's opinion on the matter. Ms. Mooney understood that what we present to the world from our inner selves can spark a conversation. She caught the attention of some students and staff by doing so.
When we make the daily choice to put on the character of Christ even before we put on our clothes, it is a statement that the neighbor can’t help but notice. “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (v. 17). Brand Jesus is not only sustainable forever, we don’t need larger closets or barns to house it, and our neighbors notice! Those young people who ponder their mornings in front of the mirror in a way do have it right, who wouldn’t like to be known by what they wear? Amen.

"Ignition - Prayer!" - 7/28/2019

Sermon presented at Hope Lutheran and the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection based on Luke 11.

In the movie Sister Act when the main character Sister Mary Clarence arrives at the convent at their first dinner, Sister Mary Patrick invites the new sister to prayer. Sister Mary Clarence played by Whoopi Goldberg responds: “That is very thoughtful of you, Mary Patrick. But I really ... Oh. Yeah. Yeah. I can ... I can do that. Uh. Sure. Oh. Fudge. Uh. Bless us. O Lord for these Thy gifts which we're about to receive. And. Yea. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of no food, I will fear no hunger. We want you to give us this day our daily bread ... and to the republic for which it stands, and by the power invested in me, I pronounce us ready to eat. Amen.”
I always get a charge out of that particular scene, because although the Whoopi character we later find out went to Roman Catholic schools, she never gained comfort in praying out-loud. I find that same response when I have been in situations with folk who are asked to pray out loud. Although, they may have been part of a church since birth, when asked, they are caught like deer in the headlights. Now before we get all “holier than thou,” I wonder what if we were to take the challenge, should we on Sundays start drawing names from a hat and invite those picked to lead this community in prayers?
This other point may be easier to swallow. “Children are now half as likely to know the text of the Lord's Prayer than they were 40 years ago.” That's the lead of an article in the British Newspaper The Telegraph, published in March 2012. It was reporting the findings of a survey of 1,000 children ages 6-12 and 1,000 adults who were in that age group 40 years ago. It found that 92 percent of the adults said they knew the Lord's Prayer at that age, while only 55 percent of today's children knew it. While the survey about the Lord's Prayer was conducted in Britain, I suspect that a similar poll in this country would yield similar results, for secularization is a feature of our society as well.
Again before we get all high and mighty and go into another litany about who is at fault --- always the fault of others --- never ourselves --- many of us may have memorized the Lord’s Prayer but end our prayer life at that point, in our fabricated check list of what Christians are supposed to do.
So, let’s review, if nothing else, what is the purpose of the Lord's Prayer, as a basic framework and vocabulary whereby a person can have a sense of addressing God as a jumping off point into a deeper life of prayer. And just as the learned lyrics of a hymn or the memorized lines of a Bible verse can help us when in dark valleys, so can the remembered words of a prayer. At the very least, the Lord’s Prayer is a good way to reach out in the darkness toward the source of light.
First some background, the gospel for today includes Luke's version of the Lord's Prayer, along with a parable and commentary from Jesus about persistence in prayer. Luke's version of the prayer is shorter than the one from Matthew 6, containing only five petitions instead of the seven in Matthew. But the included five are all key: the first two --- “hallowed be your name” and “your kingdom come” --- are spiritual linkages, and the other three --- for daily bread, for forgiveness of sins and being spared the “time of trial” --- ask for help with daily life. And of course, neither Matthew’s version or Luke’s version include “thine is the kingdom and the power….,” because that is the doxology which I will not get into today.
Another difference between the two renderings is that in Matthew, Jesus gives the Lord's Prayer as a model in the course of a larger discourse about praying in general, whereas in Luke, it is in direct response to a request from a disciple, who says, “Lord, teach us to pray .... as John taught his disciples.” We don’t have whatever prayer John taught but the larger question is to wonder why the disciple made that request in the first place. After all, all the disciples as far as we can tell were children of the synagogue. They had grown up going to worship and hearing public prayers. So didn't they already know how to pray?
Regardless of the background, apparently the disciple felt whatever they were taught needed some support, or reinterpretation, at least in any way that this person felt in light of what he was discovering about God in Jesus' presence and the spiritual life Jesus modeled. Maybe the prayers heard or memorized didn't translate easily into a life experience with Jesus? Indeed, in Matthew, Jesus referred to “hypocrites” who stood and prayed in the synagogues “so that they may be seen by others.” That doesn't sound like much of a teaching example! In any case, the fact that Jesus responded by giving this prayer as a model suggests that Jesus understood that praying is something with which people need help.
So, let us take the time to review the purpose of the model because it's not just newcomers or people at the edges of the faith who need a reminder. And although praying out loud before others is not something everyone is to do, our personal prayers may be fraught with problems of a wandering mind, sleepiness, itchiness to get on with the demands of the day, the boredom of praying about the same topics over and over, and philosophical questions about praying itself --- such as ‘If God knows what is in my heart, then why do I have to tell God?’”
While we could discuss that question and others, we are probably better with the Lord's Prayer to highlight that Jesus didn't address the philosophical nature of prayer questions. Instead, Jesus said, “When you pray, say ...”, which perhaps we can take to mean that it's more helpful to speak --- even to recite --- a set prayer than not to pray at all because we have unanswered --- and probably unanswerable --- questions about conversing with God. Jesus simply said, "When you pray, say ...” Jesus therefore intended for the prayer to be a springboard for a deeper prayer life therefore it is important to understand several things about the Lord’s Prayer.
First, I know I am being old fashioned when I suggest this because I am using an image that is based on my life experience, cars before power steering and brakes and automatic transmissions. I even remember when cars had a “choke.” And as most of you are too young to know just imagine life before electronic start, think of the Lord’s Prayer as a “choke” to get a cold engine started; adding fuel to ignite the spiritual chambers. In other words, we are to recite the Lord's Prayer to “warm our spirit” so that we can more easily enter into other praying and meditation. The Lord’s Prayer is not meant as end all, be all, of all prayers, it is just the beginning.
For example, I remember a person in a former congregation when we were chatting about prayer who mentioned that she prayed daily and I asked innocently, what did she pray? She said “The Lord’s Prayer.” To which I responded “And….????” She looked at me like I was crazy, the Lord’s prayer is the kickoff, or the post-game show to something deeper.
Second, we are to ask questions such as, “With this line, what am I asking God to do?” “What am I offering of myself in making this petition?” “Which petitions are the hardest for me to really mean when I pray them -- and why?” “What else should I pray for as a result?”
Here is a suggestion that does not appeal to me but it may appeal to you. Use the lines of the Lord’s Prayer as the topics of a prayer journal. Keep notes under each petition about how you have responded to, changed, gained new understanding or still need to learn about the subjects of that petition. Martin Luther, our namesake did that and is the basis for a portion of the Small Catechism; we are to pray the Lord’s Prayer while thinking about the meaning of each sentence
Another reminder is that the Lord’s Prayer helps us settle our lives, when our mind rebel against praying our own prayers. I know that seems to contradict what I said earlier, but praying something is better than praying nothing. But we are not to get settled with what just comes out. In other words, we are praying the Lord’s Prayer when our heart is aching so bad that we can't form our own petitions. Along with the understanding that it will become a channel through which God's Spirit can flow.
And perhaps most challenging of all, let us consider using the Lord’s Prayer as a shorthand way to teach others about God and faithful living. Just as we might say to people, “I love you,” let us help others understand what prayer means without having to always explain what it means.
Let me give you an example. Now I know this is a controversial, political issue but hear me out as I am bringing this to illustrate prayer. A while back there was a controversy about the phrase “thoughts and prayers” in response and regarding numerous school shootings. Some criticized people who responded to school shootings with “thoughts and prayers” but then took no action on addressing the fundamental issues that may have led to the shootings in the first place. Obviously there are issues of whether or not to have firearm control, along with what how and should firearms be sold. Couples those issues along with mental health, drugs and alcohol, bullying, poverty, parental neglect to name just a few.
However, for me the criticism over “thoughts and prayers” as one’s only response was a fair one for two reasons. First, it is a criticism of how far people of faith and people of no faith misunderstand prayer and the Lord’s Prayer specifically. And second, that people of faith have been guilty of “thoughts and prayer” as a knee jerk response so that people of no faith think of it as a meaningless excuse.
The task is ours as Lutherans to illustrate that prayer is like saying “I love you” to God and to others. Prayer is our time and effort in response to God’s love. Yet, just like we say “I love you” there are actions that support those words. When my grandmother said “I love you” it came with a whole set of experiences from warm, homemade cinnamon rolls, to a kiss and hug, to a card with money for a birthday.
We are to help our world and nation understand that when we pray the Lord’s prayer and say “forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us” it is not meaningless words but that God forgives us, loves us and … we forgive others, we love others; the words of our prayers are concrete not only in God’s response to us but in our response to the world.
Centuries ago, God told Israel, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” Also known as the first half of the “Shema.” God then told the Israelite adults to not only “keep these words” themselves, but also to “Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise” (Deuteronomy 6:4-7). We can do the same with the Lord's Prayer, a visible, model prayer not only to recite, but as a springboard into a fuller, spiritual life.
Practicing, teaching and modeling the Lord's Prayer may not turn the world around spiritually or be the start of a worldwide religious revival. I don’t believe it is intended rather it points to grace alone, faith alone. But the Lord's Prayer is a spiritual starting point, a way to reach out toward God when we're too numb, too much in pain, too blind, too angry, even too tired to do much else. From young children to the oldest adult will benefit from it and enough reason to recite. Praying something is better than praying nothing. So yes, the only time some may say a prayer out loud is the Lord’s Prayer, at worship with others, but the Lord's Prayer is the ignition as the words become our own in our daily life. Amen.

"Our timely responsibilities" - July 21, 2019

Sermon based on Luke 10: 38-42.  Manuscript basis for sermon preached at Hope Lutheran and the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection.

Some sisters have a unique bond, a special relationship. Some sisters can be the best of friends, encouraging one another when there's trouble, as well as sharing clothes, and supporting each other with phone calls and texts that speak right to the heart during the ups and downs and drama of life.
It's the positive side of sisterhood that Sisters Day aims to celebrate. Seriously, just when you thought you'd caught up with every holiday obligation, it turns out there's another. The first Sunday in August is National Sisters Day which aims to recognize and celebrate the special blessings that a sister brings into one's life. Now, before you begin to think --- yet another manufactured, Hallmark moment --- think again. If you were to take five minutes and hit up Pinterest.com, the “idea” web site that's hugely popular with “do it yourselfers”, and do a quick search on the topic. You'll find all sorts of projects on the subject of sisterhood. Clearly there's something about having and being a sister that needs to be, and is already being, celebrated.
But you will also see another aspect of sisterhood for while some are the best and most intimate of friends, sisters can also be the bitterest of “sis-lings.” Some sisters are not the best of friends but bitter and broken. I am only speculating but I suspect that some sisters can push one another's buttons and compete for attention in a way that can lead to lots of eye rolling, door slamming, tear jerking, and not-so-passive-aggressive comparing and competing.
Take for example Eppie Lederer and Pauline Phillips, two of the world's more famous siblings who had a sisterly conflict. Both now deceased but when both were living, they engaged in a very public battle for the title of “America's favorite advice columnist.” Hard to know for some but before Google search, people would turn to newspapers and advice columns like Eppie and Pauline --- or “Ann Landers” and “Dear Abby” as they were known for advice. Yet just think of it two sisters both giving advice, estranged “sis-lings.”
But perhaps the most well-known example of the unique relationship of adoration and irritation shared between sisters is found in today’s chapter 10 of Luke's gospel. Although we are working with just a little information it seems that Mary and Martha when Jesus began teaching, speaking the word, as our text suggests, they responded differently. While they obviously either by life circumstance or choice shared a home together --- their differences welled up in a moment of deep frustration, a moment where their seemingly contrasting character and personalities took center stage. And while this moment so beautifully captured by Luke, may be just one of many for them, it is an important one for us. Sure, it highlights a relational dynamic we can all relate to. But more importantly, Luke redeems and utilizes their moment of sis-ling to bring to life a simple truth about following Jesus that each one of us, sister or not, need to pay attention to.
Let’s take a moment to review because the context is critical in grasping the learning for us. Just before we hear of Martha welcoming Jesus and possibly more into her and Mary's home, we're told the parable of the … Good Samaritan, where Jesus vividly and scandalously illustrates a Kingdom spirituality; what it means to live in harmony with the values of the kingdom of God where all people are neighbors. It was Jesus' way of bringing to life, in story form, one half of the “great commandment,” what it looks like to love one's neighbor as one's self.
But the lesson is not over. In this moment of sis-ling action and reaction, we see two very different responses to the first half of that all-important commandment. Mary and Martha are not just two very different sisters. They are sisters with two very different takes on what it means to love the Lord your God with all you've got.
While the text doesn't tell us that Martha is the older sister, I tend to think so. Thinking about the details, overflowing with a sense of authority, Martha has all the characteristics and then some of a Type A, first-born sibling. Not only does she proactively invite the would-be Messiah into her home, reconsider the “they” of verse 38. How many of “they” were there? Does this still include the 70/72 who went out on mission and returned? If so, then Martha has a legitimate gripe. Even whipping up some “pita bead and humus” would be challenge if you have 70+ people who suddenly show up for dinner but Martha dives head first into serving. For me that is an “older sister” type: she has the idea for a grand party but then can't even relax enough to enjoy it. “Martha,” Luke tells us, “was distracted with much serving.”
Such attention to the details is not in and of itself a bad thing. In fact, it can be a very, very helpful thing. Psychologist Dr. Kevin Leman, author of The Birth Order Book: Why You Are the Way You Are, asserts that this older child bent on life is what accounts for the fact that so many astronauts, presidents and leaders in general are firstborns. They tend to strive to meet expectations. Whatever Martha’s birth order, this was certainly the case. Jesus had come to dinner, and she would not be caught flat-footed, rude or with a hair out of place.
Martha's view of the world was very clear. Perhaps we can relate. For her, that which was expected trumped what was immediate. And responsibility was what was expected. Those of us who are wired --- be it through birth order or otherwise --- meeting obligations --- can't stand when someone else doesn't seem to live with the same sense of responsibility. Thus, Martha is not entirely off-base by suggesting that she doesn't have enough help in serving. In fact, she seems to assume that Jesus would agree her. “Tell her then to help me,” Martha says, in the imperative.
Jesus acknowledges her concern --- “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things.” Yet, “there is need of only one thing.” Stick with pita and humus! Don’t focus on putting out such a large spread. We also need to state the obvious as well. In the context of that time -- and perhaps ours --- one might simply have assumed that of course Mary should be helping. Serving meals is women’s work, after all.
Jesus won't go there. In Mary’s revolutionary action of ditching her expected gender role of “helping in the kitchen” as well as responding differently than Martha, Jesus --- the Lord! --- backs her up. Luke within scant details seems to suggest that Mary's approach is an important contrast to the Martha’s of the world. While Martha was driven by a sense of duty and the gender roles of that day, Mary responded differently. For Mary, that which was immediate trumped that which was expected. Mary for whatever reason responded more to the moment --- at least on this day --- and the value of pressing “Pause” on the expectations of her sister, others and the culture. Mary yielded to what was unfolding in front of her. Yes, this would frustrate her sister, and not fit gender roles, but some things, to Mary, like the Samaritan in the parable were worth changing course for. This was one of them. We almost get the sense as well that Mary was not even aware that she was shirking responsibility. For example, Mary must have overhead Martha saying what she did to Jesus, yet we get no response that Mary even heard.
But that is just the veneer of this lesson, for what does this mean for us 21st century Americans? The challenge in today’s gospel is that Mary's approach to this moment proved to be marching more in line with the priorities of the kingdom of God. Yes, both sisters were simply trying to love their Lord. One tried to love him with all her activity, her busyness and her attention to culturally expected details. The other loved him by dropping what was expected and dealing with, dwelling with, and focusing on the immediate presence of God. Compare that to the Pharisee in the parable who failed to love his neighbor simply by hustling on to life busyness. Martha is in a way is doing the same, inviting Jesus and perhaps more into her home only to stay overwhelmed in her responsibilities.
In the kingdom of God, what matters most is ---- well, God --- which mean what matters most is not our plans and perfectionism, not the approval of others or the expectations of our culture, not even what we consider responsible or not. When God shows up, in his Word preached and his body and blood given to us from the Altar, as well as in the unexpected opportunity to serve him by loving the least of these and the hurting, we drop what we're doing and we attend to the Kingdom. Is that what Jesus is suggesting what it means to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength? Is this why, as Jesus himself said, Mary has “chosen the better part.”
Sister or not, sibling or not, personality types or not, we are, each day, each one of us given a similar set of circumstances. And although I would love to blame our faith responses to our nature --- or on our siblings --- as followers of Jesus Christ we have all, like Martha, invited him into our homes. In doing so, whether in our homes or in our journeys we must be ready and willing to engage in the immediate opportunities, to participate in the presence and activity of God even if it means ditching for a moment what's expected, our visions and demanded by our other concerns.
For me, it seems unfair and almost wrong to pick sides in this sis-ling drama. Martha would have, undoubtedly, a moment of faithful response in her own right. Are not these the same sisters introduced as the well-known persons living in Bethany mentioned in John 11? On this day it was --- Mary --- who was able to discern it was time to seize the day.
That had to burn Martha, it would have burned me. But whatever happened after this conversation, we can safely assume somehow everyone got fed. Maybe it was just pita and humus rather than what Martha had planned. We also have to wonder, did Martha stop at these words of Jesus or did she go back into the kitchen in a huff? Maybe they were the kind of sisters who could talk about it later? Whatever happened, Luke reminds us that whether in our homes or in our journeys, we have choice moments to live like Martha and Mary, the Pharisee or the Samaritan, to live the values of the Kingdom. Some of those choices go to the core of who we are and our relationships. Amen.

Who is a stranger? - 7/14/2019

We may know our next-door neighbors. But how about the people two doors down? Or three? Or four? For example, we live a condo with three other units of similar size in one building. We know them all and have called upon each other when needed and have a post-Christmas annual event together. We recently attended the funeral of one of our neighbors, wondering who will move in once the family has emptied the condo.
But we do not know many others in the 300 other units. We may leave through one of the three gated entrances and wave at the stranger. I have served on the Home Association board and served as President, but I have yet to know many others besides those who live in our building. We try to attend the monthly gatherings and occasional community events, but we do not know many well.
This was recently brought to my attention in an exercise we did under the guidance of our speaker at our annual Synod assembly. The exercise is in your bulletin and on the screen.

The grid is not for tic-tac-toe when you’re bored rather the grids have two questions that were asked of us at the synod assembly. The first question is can you name those that surround you? The second question is can you name those around the church? In the exercise we were to put ourselves at the center of the tic tac toe grid and put the names of the people around us. Not a description but a name. If you can’t put a name, then leave it blank. So, how many can fill in all the blanks?
Now let us go to the second question, what about those around the church. How many can fill in all the blanks?  The speaker at our synod assembly pointed out that may be a reason our congregations may be so disjointed from our communities… we don’t know who they are and they don’t know us. In other words, we may be a neighborhood church but not neighborly.
This loss of neighborliness can be for many reasons. People die like our neighbor Chuck, or move on. We may have known the people before, but now not so much. It is also due, no doubt, to the fact that we seem to be busier today than yesterday. But no matter how we slice it, many observers of the American culture have noticed that just about all forms of organized social life --- including the church --- are experiencing the decline of what sociologists call “social capital.”
Social capital is another way of saying “community.” On one hand, we live in the most connected, plugged in, wired culture in the history of the world, yet on the other hand we may feel isolated, lost, unloved and unvalued. Mack McCarter, a pastor and community activist in Shreveport, Louisiana, puts it another way. He believes that our collective estrangement has had corrosive and crippling effects. We've become a “cut flower civilization,” he says. “It looks pretty for a while, but it has no root.” The bloom fades over time.
Don’t feel bad or blame the Republican or the Democrat next to you, rather this has been a problem for ages --- our human condition --- for this is precisely the concern on the heart of the apostle Paul in today's text as well as our Gospel. Let’s just concentrate on our letter to the Colossians. True, Paul’s enthusiastic about what is happening in the newly formed church at Colossae. Its members are vital and active: “Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God.”
Yet, the Apostle Paul is reminding them that without the attention, even a congregation like the one at Colossae could become little more than a “cut flower church” no longer rooted. That's why he provides in this text a list of the essential nutrients to help blooming believers remain as healthy, deeply rooted Christians. “For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding…” In other words, the apostle Paul knows that it what is present now will not remain --- “for this reason” --- unless it is replanted daily.
How does the writer of the letter do this? Interestingly enough by recapping for them of the importance of person and place. We are holy and we are family. This is implied by the language of brothers and sisters “to the saints and faithful brothers and sisters.” This is our essential identity: in relation to God, we are holy; in relation to others, we are family. We all need to be reminded of that. Every day --- as our namesake the reforming Roman Catholic priest and monk Martin Luther wrote in his Small Catechism: “In the morning, as soon as you get out of bed, you are to make the sign of the holy cross and say: 'God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit watch over me. Amen.’” For Luther, baptism “signifies that the old creature in us … is to be drowned and die through daily … repentance, and … that daily a new person is to come forth and arise up to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” If you were to have a printed copy in front of you, Luther cited Romans 6:4, and added his own accent on the word daily. We are not reborn once in baptism, it is a daily exercise and event.
As for place, we are in Christ, and in this case Paul reminded those Christians in Colossae we have got one foot in heaven and the other on earth. But Paul also suggests to them that that have one foot in the church and the other in the world. In other words, Paul is prompting this community that they function best when the bloom is in the air and the roots are in the soil. Take the flower out of the soil, and it soon dies. Take a plant that is all roots and no stem and bloom, and you've got a plant that's, well --- not good for much.
Paul in this first chapter of Colossians suggests that this community is able to thrive both in Christ and in the world because of the power of faith and love --- transforming, connecting, enabling love. That's more than social capital or community, it is being disciples.
Mack McCarter the person I cited earlier has been trying a method. In 1991, he founded Community Renewal in Shreveport, Louisiana to work on the disintegration of personal relationships that was undermining the quality of daily life in that community where he lives. Its mission: to strengthen neighborhoods from the grass roots up by getting people to make friends. McCarter did not assume that neighbors will naturally get to know neighbors. Instead he suggested we have been to be shown the way. To get started, McCarter visited a section of the city that was experiencing a rash of shootings with the premise that if he could make friends that may encourage others to get to know their neighbors.
Not many doors opened at first. But McCarter kept knocking. After a year people were actually sitting out on their front porches waiting for him to show up. They talked, telling the stories of their lives. As it turned out, the neighbors had more in common than they had realized. All wanted better lives for their children, including improved schools and more daycare and recreation facilities. It began when people began to know their neighbors.
This community has been working on moving from being a cut flower community into one that puts down roots and develops relationships in the neighborhood. From this first effort grew a network of what the organization calls “haven houses” in the city – homes whose inhabitants are trained to nurture caring relationships among their neighbors. There are now a few such houses in Shreveport along with similar style ventures in 10 other cities as well as an international version in Cameroon.
Obviously they are still at it. It is not a magic bullet. People move on, die, life. Also many things are competing for our time and attention. Each day is a pie, cut into slices for work, getting to work, planning, preparing and cleaning up meals, nurturing and caring for children, maintaining our dwellings, enriching our relationships with spouses along with many, many other responsibilities and activities. Finding time is a challenge.
Yet, as those simple neighbor grids remind all of us, our participation in getting to know our neighbors, building relationships, these very things breathe life into our homes and into our congregations. Our speaker at the Synod assembly illustrated that point by telling us of a congregation that went around their neighborhood and asked a simple question. “What do you know about First Lutheran?” Not a single neighbor could tell them anything, or even knew their congregation existed even though the steeple of their congregation could be seen by every one of those neighbors. We may have the same impression, don’t those who drive by ______  know we are here. I suspect probably not.
We don't know if the Colossians spent less time walking to work than we spend driving, or spent money on their house church as we do at ours, or worked longer hours. In all likelihood, their daily lives were more physically and emotionally demanding than ours, yet the apostle Paul tells us that the church at Colossae had a vitality that he wanted to wrap his arms around and take to other congregations.
Perhaps we need to come to a place where the rewards of creating social bonds among us are worth the same effort. Think about it: do we get more enjoyment from watching whose winning on Jeopardy or from talking about daily joys and concerns with a friend or neighbor?
Now let me be clear, I am not trying to put another thing on our “to do list” which I am sure is long for all of us. Nonetheless, it is clear, we can't alter the complex dynamics that undermine social capital, undermine community in our society, in our world and in our own church if we don’t know our neighbors. Paul’s advice is to remember that we have a foot in heaven and on earth, in the church and in our neighborhoods.
As you may have noticed in our Gospel. It was the enemy, the Samaritan who places himself at personal risk both physically and financially. It was the Samaritan who went over to the man in distress. It was the Samaritan who paid for the injured man’s care. The lawyer had asked, “Who is my neighbor?” The question assumes a dialogue on who, exactly, is “near” and who isn't. At what point can we say that “neighbor” stops and “stranger” begins? Who, exactly, am I obligated to love?
Jesus ignores that question. Instead, he tells a story of an enemy --- an enemy who, through his merciful actions, is a neighbor. If a Samaritan may become neighbor to a Jewish man, and the lawyer is enjoined to be like the Samaritan, then anyone may be neighbor, like the person right next to us.  Instead the question could be Who is a stranger?  No one as everyone is a neighbor.
Avoiding the “cut flower” syndrome and building social capital in our lives doesn't have to be exhausting, but it does require more effort than exercising our thumbs on the remote control, or making a donation after the most recent flood. Paul names a neighbor Epaphras in the church and community whose has made the church in Colossae known. May we be so named in our communities, let us start small, let us begin with the person right next to us. Amen.

"Peace of Mind" - 6/16/2019

Sermon preached at Hope Lutheran and the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection based on Romans 5.

I understand about indecision.
I don’t care if I get behind.
People livin’ in competition;
All I want is to have my peace of mind.
If you’re a classic rock fan, you’ll instantly recognize that is the chorus from the band Boston’s 1976 hit “Peace of Mind.” While some of us may recognize the lyrics we may not know the story behind them. Founder and lead guitarist Tom Scholz, was a grad from MIT, working as a senior engineer for a famous company in the 70’s called “Polaroid.” As he plugged away at his day job, Scholz noticed that a lot of people around him were “climbing to the top of the company ladder.” Scholz wanted more than a corporate life. He wanted “peace of mind,” and for those who know that song, it soars with hope, urging listeners to “take a look ahead” to something better.
Here we are more than 40 years later, and as many of us know there are plenty of people who still resonate with Scholz’s lyrics. That struggle then is the same today, peace of mind. In a world where conflict and hopelessness seem to be epidemic, where people are “livin’ in competition” for attention, success and even just the basics of life, real peace seems pretty elusive.
What does real peace of mind look like? The well-known actor from the 1950’s and 1960’s Robert Mitchum had a thought. Famously, Mitchum had a difficult and challenging upbringing that included everything from growing up in tough New York neighborhood, to being a hobo riding the rails, to spending time on a Georgia chain gang and even doing a stint in the boxing ring before becoming a Hollywood star.
From those experiences Mitchum later defined peace of mind as, “becoming the person I always wanted to be.” In other words, no matter the circumstance, Mitchum recognized that peace of mind is the result of one’s internal orientation. It’s not dependent on what one accomplishes or accumulates. It isn’t that just a little more mindfulness or meditation is the answer, it’s far deeper.
As Christians a diagnosis for this puzzle lies in the fact is that we know intuitively that we are not the people we want to be and, more importantly, we tend to fall short of being the people that God created us to be. It is of course called “sin.” Sin is that theological term used to describe the human brokenness that distorts for example our self-concept as people made in the image of God. This sin additionally causes us either to focus on our past mistakes, to worry exceedingly about the future, or our present condition. Furthermore, crucially, biblically speaking, this peace of mind doesn’t come from being solely centered internally, rather it comes from standing 100% externally on the promises of God. God can actually do something about removing the internal barriers to real peace.
We see that in today’s second lesson. The apostle Paul’s life makes Robert Mitchum’s upbringing look tame, for while Paul was climbing the religious career ladder in his former life, he understood that real peace of mind begins with an intimate knowledge of God more than just oneself. We see that in his letter to the small Roman Christian community. In this famous section 5 of Romans, Paul reveals an intricate understanding of the human condition and lays out a suggested path to peace; peace that is the result of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.
First, Paul talks about peace with God as the foundation for peace in general. We know this because of the preposition “with” being the operative word. Who knew prepositions could be so important. You will notice that in verses 1 and 2 he writes, “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand.” When we put our faith, allegiance and trust in Jesus and in what God has done through him, we have peace with God. God’s grace has been extended to us in Jesus, who died for our human condition.
This is of course what is called in Christian circles as justification. The essential meaning of justification is, as the old adage suggests, that we exist now “just as though we had not sinned.” This is possible because of the life, death and resurrection of Christ has been imputed or ascribed to us. God sees us as righteous through the rainbow prism of Jesus Christ.
To understand this, imagine if you will that we have committed a crime. We are not innocent, but so far the authorities have not caught on to us. To remain free, we need to move around a lot. As a fugitive, as exciting as that may be, think about it. We live as liars. We have to create false identities. We have to use aliases. We constantly have to be looking over our shoulder.
But then, magically, it all goes away. Perhaps the evidence room is destroyed in a fire. Perhaps a President has pardoned us. Whatever the case, the charges cannot be brought against us. We don’t need to run anymore. We don’t need to worry about getting caught. How good would that feel?
This is what Paul’s saying. The law is satisfied. The All-Points Bulletin with our face on the FBI most wanted has been withdrawn. It is as if we have been given a fresh start. In the same way, we are now in a state of peace with God, and God is no longer demanding justice. Justice has been rendered. It’s not that there wasn’t a cost, just that the cost was paid by Jesus on the cross. And so, God has no argument with us. We have peace with God, and God has peace with us. That’s why we shout, if we were the shouting kind, rather than Lutherans, “Thank you, God!”
According to Paul, without that foundational peace with God, it’s virtually impossible for us to have any other kind of peace. If we were to look at the primary reason our world is not at peace, Paul would argue that this is the root --- all of creation is not at peace with God.
But if we have peace with God, Paul says that we are then able to build upon the peace of God --- the preposition “of” being the operative word. In verse 3, after Paul says we have peace with God, he goes on to say that “we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
Peace with God leads to the peace of God, and that is a peace that produces other kinds of peace. For example, we have freedom from anxiety and panic because God is present with us in the Holy Spirit. It’s not a peace that is dependent on life circumstances but based on peace with God. It’s not that the struggles of life suddenly disappear, not at all. Rather we have this peace of God especially when we are in the midst of trying times. Paul is reminding this small church in Rome, that peace with God makes us resilient people, and interestingly enough makes us stand out to an anxious world.
This leads to a third concept of peace laid out by Paul; people with peace with God are attractive to others because they want to have that kind of peace for themselves. Many people have endured horrific circumstances in their lives and yet have a deep peace about them --- people who have experienced loss, grave illness or unfair treatment, and yet still have peace of mind. For Paul this comes from peace with God.
People who are at peace with God, now have the peace of God. Paul suggests these people can endure suffering with grace and, as a result, have strength of character and hope for the future. It’s not about simply pretending --- “fake it ‘til you make it.” Instead it is about an inner peace refined by the Spirit’s presence from which to build. As Paul puts it in Philippians: “The peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (4:7). The peace of God is the fertile ground in which peace of mind can really grow when it is cultivated by the Spirit.
What is also interesting for us is that this peace of God is not the end goal. We Americans to forget this because we are so intensely individualistic. Peace with God is on its way to all of creation. When Jesus sent out his disciples to spread the good news, he told them to greet everyone with “Peace to this house” (Luke 10:5). It is why we have the passing of the peace in worship.
Peace with God was not just something for us to have as an inner feeling, but something to be extended to others. Later in Romans, Paul puts it this way: “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (12:18). When we have peace with God, it extends into peacemakers for God. We extend God’s peace to others. This is the essence of what Paul means when he includes “peace” among the fruit of the Spirit --- it’s the peace we share that really matters (Galatians 5:22).
What does this kind of peacemaker extension look like? We get a clue about what living “peaceably with others” looks like toward the end of Paul’s letter to the Romans. How do people of peace act peaceably through God according to Paul? Listen to these and see what you think:
Peacemakers of God show genuine love to others (v. 9). People who live peaceably hate evil and hold fast to what is good, serving one another in mutual affection and showing honor to one another. They are enthusiastic, serving the Lord with the fire of the Spirit (v. 10). People of peace are not a “frozen chosen” but are genuinely excited about serving and doing the peace work of the Lord. Paul suggests that they have hope --- no matter the circumstance --- being patient in suffering and fervent in prayer (v. 12). Likewise, they contribute to the needs of the saints and show hospitality to strangers (v. 13). They are able to bless their persecutors instead of cursing them (v. 14). Peacemakers are empathetic, rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep (v. 15). In other words, a genuine hope for the well-being of another.
For Paul peacemakers live as part of a community where they see everyone as equals and are humble about their own abilities (v. 16). And they don’t seek revenge when wronged. Instead, peacemakers care for their enemies and let God handle the rest (vv. 19-21). Instead of overcoming evil with revenge and retaliation, the peace of God conquers evil with good to the point that their enemies are embarrassed.
To summarize, for Paul peace of mind comes from Peace with God. This leads to the Peace of God lived out as Peacemakers. May God strengthen us in this journey of Peace with, of and through God --- Amen.

"Spiritual Conversations" - 6/9/2019

One day, a priest from the local Roman Catholic Church and a pastor from the local Baptist church were standing by the side of the road holding up a sign that read, “The End Is Near! Turn yourself around before it’s too late!” They planned to hold up the sign to each passing car, until the first driver sped by and yelled, “Leave us alone you religious nuts!” From around the curve they heard screeching tires and a big splash. “Do you think,” said one to the other, “we should change the sign to just say, ‘Bridge Out’?”
Today is the birthday of the church, when on that first Pentecost, we are told that the church began to speak in a variety of languages; enabled to voice the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Over the past fifty days since Jesus’ resurrection the disciples had lived in fear, with occasional appearances from the risen Christ to strengthen them and help them understand scriptures. Now Jesus had ascended and as they feel that fear return the Holy Spirit came, and sparked them to speak. In today’s Acts reading, our first lesson, we discover that the apostles “were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.” We are also told that the international Jewish community in Jerusalem was bewildered by this, “because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.” Using a variety of languages, the apostles started to talk publicly about “God’s deeds of power.” And Peter, who a little more than 50 days ago, had denied Jesus now felt able to raise his voice and boldly proclaim that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
On Pentecost with the help of the Holy Spirit, the followers of Jesus Christ now talked openly about God’s deeds of power and about the salvation offered by Jesus. On this day, the birthday of the church, it learned how to speak, then, as now, God-talk has the power to change lives.
But it appears that we are losing our voice in this nation, and I am not speaking about some urban myth about Christians being persecuted in this nation. Hardly. Rather, little less than a year ago in The New York Times, the religion writer Jonathan Merritt reported that it’s getting harder and harder to talk about God. And it’s not for what you may think. Merritt pointed out that although more than 70 percent in the United States identify themselves as Christian, and we live in a free nation, yet most do not feel comfortable speaking about faith. It has less to do about feeling one can’t say anything and more to do with fear. Granted we are starting from a deep hole as Christians because if anything is said all it we may repeat stuff that’s not in even in the Bible. For example, nowhere in the Bible does it say “The Lord works in mysterious ways;” nowhere does it say “moderation in all things;” or “This too will pass.” Or we may repeat scripture out of context like “Charity begins at home” or “God helps those who help themselves” neither is what the Bible really says.
Merritt’s main point however is that according to a recent Barna survey, more than three-quarters of Americans do not often have spiritual or religious conversations at all. Six in 10 say that they have spiritual conversations only on very rare occasions and only a mere 7 percent of Americans say that they talk about spiritual matters on a regular basis. To put it bluntly, we can’t blame those many silent nominal Christians who we rarely see in worship rather, Merritt points out that it is practicing Christians who attend worship weekly who don’t do much better than the general population.
So why do we struggle so badly with God talk? Jonathan Merritt says that today, “work often takes precedence over worship, social lives are prioritized over spiritual disciplines and most people save their Sunday-best clothing for Monday through Friday.” Certainly, God talk can be tricky — no doubt about it, but on this Pentecost let us take just a moment to remember that we are to speak of our faith and we need to find ways to communicate it.
Thankfully, the apostle Paul gives us some guidance in his letter to the Romans, which he wrote to those small churches in the capital of the Roman Empire. He knew in that day and age in that context spiritual conversations could create tensions and arguments. Paul was well aware that Christians in Rome could come across as weird and peculiar. So the language he uses is very carefully chosen.
Like Paul, we need to be careful with the language we use in conversations about faith. J.R. Briggs, author and pastor outside Philadelphia says that if you ask someone with no church experience what it means to “feel called,” they might think you’re “referring to the phone vibrating in their pocket.” Although Briggs has been a pastor for more than 15 years, he still doesn’t know exactly what people mean when they say goodbye with the words, “Be blessed.” He is also aware that phrases from Scripture can be confusing --- being healed “by the blood of the Lamb” and giving your “tithes and offerings” are religious jargon that can be mystifying to people outside the church.
Return to the jargon of by the blood…it’s fine to talk about being washed “in the blood of the Lamb” with someone who knows that you can’t quote Revelation with knowing Leviticus, that the blood and Lamb has deep historical and theological meaning. So no wonder telling someone that their sins have been washed away by the blood of Jesus to a neighbor who’s just moved in next door, maybe not a good idea. Two people with MBAs might discuss the difference between a Roth and regular IRA, but when they’re explaining to a friend what they do, they’re likely just to say that they are accountants or financial planners.
Fortunately, Paul does not make such mistakes in his God talk to the Romans. Not only is he careful with the language he uses, but he also talks about values, not dogma, faith not rules.
What can we say about God directly in 21st century US? Paul assists us by referring to family. God is like a parent who’s adopted us to be his children. This means at least three things for Paul: We are chosen; We can talk to God; We are heirs. What does this mean? Basically, Paul is telling those early Christians, we can’t pick our brothers and sisters, or how God sparked them to join this community, but what we can say is what God has done is by adoption.
Let’s look a little more deeply at each of these and perhaps learn some new vocabulary as we are inspired to share our faith:
We are chosen. According to the Roman legal concept of adoption during the time when Paul wrote, an adopted child has a whole new identity, status and set of relationships. One’s biology does not matter. Rather an adopted child is chosen to become part of a new family. “Because the Spirit makes us God’s adopted children,” writes professor of biblical studies Richard Carlson, “we are empowered to address God in intimate and direct parental terms: Abba, Father.”
Therefore, let me connect that meaning with someone today who may ask about your conception of God. You can reply: “God is like a parent, like a mom or dad, who’s adopted me --- and go from there. So let’s practice. What is God like? God is like parent! God adopted me into God’s family.” Once again, no mystifying religious jargon: God is in an intimate and direct parent-child relationship.
Second, for that reason, Paul says we can talk to God. No fancy, strange language that one has to learn. Rather because of this close kinship, we can approach God with any concern and do so at any time, just as a child can do with a loving parent. When we come to God in this manner, “it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,” Paul says (vv. 15-16). The Spirit of God makes it possible for us to experience a new identity, a new status and a new set of relationships as members of God’s family.
Furthermore, in a world of so many dysfunctional families, the family of God is always going to be an attractive topic of discussion. And this is key, although we say God is like a parent, in this family, God shows us unconditional love and unlimited grace. Our values come from who we are, adopted children from God, not from what we do. There is truly nothing we can do to make God love us more, and nothing we can do to make God love us any less. Rather, in this family, the Spirit bears witness “with our spirit that we are children of God” (v. 16).
Third, in addition, Paul says we become heirs --- “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (v. 17). This means that we will be “fully conformed to the glorious image of God that now exists in God’s Son, Jesus Christ,” says Carlson. We will find ourselves side-by-side with our joint heir Jesus, the one who is “the firstborn within a large family” (v. 29).
I don’t know about you but being an heir is nice; an inheritance! But being a joint heir with Jesus does not mean instant luxury and ease, an RV with the bumper sticker reminding everyone that we are spending our children’s inheritance. Just the opposite, Jesus emptied himself, so this inheritance is crazy stuff like loving our neighbor. This inheritance is no gold or diamonds in some Swiss vault, rather it is love, mutual affection, honor, passion, hope, perseverance and hospitality.
I know it is challenging, but all of this can be spoken by any of us. Let’s review: Paul talks about values, not rules; Paul talks about God by once again referring to family; God is like a parent who’s adopted us — chosen us — to be his children. This means three things:
—We are chosen; and so are others. Don’t worry about who is! It’s not our problem.
—We can talk to God; and so can others. Don’t worry if there is perceived silence on the other end. It’s not our problem.
—We are heirs; and so are others. Don’t worry about why bad things happen to good people. It’s not our problem.
On this day of Pentecost, the church celebrates God talk. Let us begin to speak of faith, not shy away from what the Holy Spirit has taught us. Let us not speak with religious jargon, but with clear words about what it means to be chosen, children of God, led by the Spirit of God with an inheritance. Each of us has been adopted by our loving God, and out of that love we can serve God right alongside our brother Jesus. So, when we speak of love, honor, hope and hospitality — and, better yet, when we back up our words with our actions — guess what, I think the world will get the message and will know what we know, we are not religious nuts, just loved and forgiven by a loving God. Amen.

"A New Heaven ..." - 5/19/2019

Sermon preached at Hope Lutheran on May 19 based on Revelation 21: 1-6

In 1917, a poem by an anonymous author appeared in the Hobo News. Called “The Hobo’s Last Lament,” it relates the last words of one of those princes of the open road. Imagine the author writes of a fellow hobo solemnly listening in to hear his friend utter these last words:
I’m going to a better land,
Where everything is bright,
Where beef-stews grow on bushes
And you sleep out every night;
And you do not have to work at all,
And never change your socks,
And streams of goodly whisky
Come trickling down the rocks.
Hark, I hear her whistling,
I must catch her on the fly;
I would like one scoop of beer
Once more before I die.
The hobo stopped, his head fell back,
He’d sung his last refrain;
His old pal stole his coat and hat
And caught an East-bound train.
So, what is heaven like? Surely it’s a question that’s occurred to all of us. Is it, as the fictional hobo imagined, a place of perfect idleness, of plentiful beef stew and open-air fountains of whisky and “a better land where they hate the word called work”? Does our view of heaven confirm our views just like that lament of 1917 pandered to the view of transients in the early 20th century?
Or does heaven conform more closely to the vision of John in the book of Revelation? Later in chapter 21 --- just beyond the passage that is today’s 2nd lesson --- the author of book of Revelation, John of Patmos, describes the very dimensions of the place with precision: “The angel who talked to me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width; and he measured the city with his rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal. He also measured its wall, one hundred forty-four cubits by human measurement, which the angel was using. The wall is built of jasper, while the city is pure gold, clear as glass. The foundations of the wall of the city are adorned with every jewel. … And the twelve gates are twelve pearls, each of the gates is a single pearl, and the street of the city is pure gold, transparent as glass” (21:15-19, 21).
What is heaven like? Perhaps you have heard of “the pearly gates”? These verses are the source of that image embellished with Saint Peter’s at his desk, quill pen in hand, leaning low over the Book of Life, guarding a couple of wrought-iron gates.
Actually John of Patmos’ image of the gates of heaven is nothing like that. Each of the 12 gates is a single pearl of immense size. Is there a passageway cut through the middle of each pearl, or does that giant translucent gem somehow swing aside to allow the souls of the blessed to pass? John of Patmos is not clear about the finer details because that of course is not his point. Or perhaps you’ve heard of “streets of gold”? This is where you find that image as well. But this is no earthly gold. The gold of heaven’s streets and boulevards is of such astonishing purity that it’s “transparent as glass.” How can that be? But that of course is not his point. Or is heaven just some undescribed place as this Internet meme about the grumpy cat suggests?
Perhaps surprisingly the vision of Revelation 21 is not about some distant heaven. The golden city with its gates of pearl does not exist in some far-off realm, on a higher spiritual plane. What we often forget is that John of Patmos’ triumphant vision is of heaven come to earth! The city comes “down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (v. 2). It is not a place one goes to be, rather this heavenly city comes to earth.
By the grace of God, the day will finally come when we need not make a spectacular leap to celestial heights. On that great, glorious day, heaven will come to us. That is not often our image is it? But what does that mean? The Danish author Hans Christian Andersen must have read the Book of Revelation because he captures this image of heaven on earth in an odd little fable called, “A Leaf from Heaven.” It goes like this. An angel, carrying a heavenly flower, happens to drop a little piece of the plant, which slowly rides the air-currents down to earth. It takes root in the soil.
It grows up, different from any other plant: a vision of perfect loveliness, but strong enough to resist the snows of winter, drought of summer and the attacks of nearby weeds that have nothing but contempt for this newcomer. One day, a botanist shows up, but is stymied in his attempts to categorize it. “It must be some degenerate species,” he concludes. But not long after, a young girl of deep piety happens by. In Andersen’s words:
“The girl stood still before the wonderful plant, for the green leaves exhaled a sweet and refreshing fragrance, and the flowers glittered and sparkled in the sunshine like colored flames, and the harmony of sweet sounds lingered round them as if each concealed within itself a deep fount of melody, which thousands of years could not exhaust.
“With pious gratitude the girl looked upon this glorious work of God, and bent down over one of the branches, that she might examine the flower and inhale the sweet perfume. Then a light broke in on her mind, and her heart expanded. Gladly would she have plucked a flower, but she could not overcome her reluctance to break one off. She knew it would so soon fade; so she took only a single green leaf, carried it home, and laid it in her Bible, where it remained ever green, fresh and unfading.
“Between the pages of the Bible it still lay when, a few weeks afterwards that Bible was laid under the young girl’s head in her coffin. A holy calm rested on her face, as if the earthly remains bore the impress of the truth that she now stood in the presence of God.” By now the plant has grown to resemble a small tree. And what happens a Farmer comes along, looking for firewood. He cuts it down and burns it. And so, the one heavenly plant on all the earth has been destroyed.
It’s only now that it’s gone, that people begin to appreciate its value. The king in that land is afflicted with depression --- Andersen uses the antique word, “melancholy.” He’s desperately seeking a cure. The king’s wise men know of this odd plant, and suggest he seek it out for its medicinal value. But alas, when he sends his servants looking for it, there is nothing there but a hole in the ground. No one knows of the surviving leaf, buried in the girl’s coffin.
Hans Christian Anderson obviously had read this vision of John of Patmos but for him, even if heaven did come, humanity will know that it stands out, that it’s odd and different, but have no idea what a wonder it will be. For Anderson, if it doesn’t even recognize when a generous plant from heaven falls to earth to grow in common soil, would we recognize heaven on earth?
So what is heaven like and will we recognize it when it comes? You see that is one key for us to understand the Book of Revelation. Certainly it is a book based on John of Patmos’ spiritual vision as well as one based on his life experience as a possible refuge from the destruction of the actual city of Jerusalem. But more importantly this vision in Revelation was originally written for those whom South African theologian Allan Boesak calls “God’s little people” small communities of people who struggled under oppression --- it was not intended for people with access to airplanes, cul-de-sac’s, money or the latest technology. Instead Revelation is a concrete spiritual message to and from the underside, written to comfort beleaguered churches struggled under Roman imperial violence and power.
If we have that understanding of the audience, when John of Patmos talks about “heaven on earth,” it is the stuff of a people’s most persistent spiritual yearnings for the downtrodden. Now in the 21st century, when Americans use that phrase, they call to mind the most perfect earthly reality they can imagine: a vista of dazzling natural splendor. Early in my twenties I had the privilege to live and work in Iceland. Over the course of a summer I hitchhiked around the island and happened to visit “Godthafoss,” one of most famous falls on the island. It was at just the right moment with mist, sun and temperature. It was breathtaking… it was heavenly.
That however is not the main reason for John of Patmos to present a heavenly vision to the poor, oppressed Christians. Because that makes life on earth, by necessity, an impoverished vision, for how could anything earthly compete with heaven’s glories? But Revelation is not a “sweet by and by” to encourage Christians to just bear it until they die. Nor John of Patmos vision a Hans Christian Andersen’s pessimistic view that we wouldn’t recognize if it got here anyway.
Instead, why don’t we catch the image of what John of Patmos was visioning, that when we hear of heaven on earth, we are thinking “I saw the holy city … and name our city of San Antonio…. “I saw the holy city, God’s New San Antonio coming down out of heaven…”
What does heaven look like in our “new” city, envisioned in light of God’s vision of heaven? You see, that is was what John of Patmos was bringing as good news. Not some violent dispensationalist vision to support a political agenda, John of Patmos was bringing hope because the people had already experienced so much violence.
Because when we can imagine that New Jerusalem in our world, and help others envision it too, we see that the Lamb, the risen Jesus Christ is beside us at every moment, standing on our corner, transforming the way we live today and giving hope for tomorrow. By imagining on what perhaps is up in some spiritual orbit, we miss the fact that God’s new age has already dawned in the cross and resurrection. John of Patmos is telling us it is here. The dawn has arrived. By grace, through faith --- God dwells with us. If we can see that vision, then the good news is that when even the barest seed of heaven falls to earth, we know from its presence that the transformation of this earth has already begun. If we can see that vision, then the good news is that all that clouds our vision from grief, to hopelessness to despair, have been wiped away. If we see the lamb on the corner, that we see the first glimpses of the new heaven, the new earth, and the New Jerusalem.
I suppose we can wait until we die, or come up with Hobo laments, memes or cartoons, but then we would miss all the heaven here on earth, the seed planted by Christ himself, that we have to share. Amen.

"In God's Fullness ..." - 5/12/2019

Sermon based on the Acts: 9: 36-43 and the story of Dorcas/Tabitha

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… let’s say 100 years ago, and not so far way, in this nation. One hundred years ago and for centuries before that, most people --- average, regular folk --- did not buy mass market manufactured things at stores because one there weren’t many stores around. There was limited and expensive mail order and no delivery by Amazon and gosh-darn it was also because things themselves were expensive.
Instead, much was made at home. People made the family’s clothes first by hand and later buy and foot powered Singer sewing machine. Clothes were washed with a tub and a scrub board. If the clothes developed a tear, someone had to sew things back together.
They even darned socks. To “darn” does not mean to cuss them out, rather it means to stitch it back together again. If your socks got a hole in them, you didn’t throw them away; one would darn them! Or, if they were too holey, you would made a hook rug out of them.
This went to many things. One didn’t buy bread; one baked bread. One didn’t buy bedspreads and blankets; one made quilts. One didn’t buy much furniture; one made the kitchen table, sideboards and cupboards.
And if your family needed things that the family couldn’t provide, or you didn’t know what to do or how to make it, you didn’t go to the store; you went first to someone called “neighbors.” Maybe you needed eggs; you went to the neighbor with laying hens. Maybe you needed plates and cups; you went to your potter. Yes, sometimes you had to go to the store to buy things like fabric or needles. But as much as possible, people made things themselves.
But after World War I, a transition that had begun less than a 50 years before began to accelerate. Mass production had started certainly with automobiles and before that some machinery like those Singer sewing machines, but increasingly less expensive mass production really took off after the WW II. Average Americans started buying and have not stopped.
Not that people are not interested in handmade items anymore! Not at all! In many cities around the world, one can find stores devoted to the sale of handcrafted items. There is a market for handmade items, especially if they’re creative and of high quality.
That is important to remember because handmade was the norm 2,000 years ago and did you notice that they loved Dorcas’ handmade stuff?
Dorcas made handcrafted items. Yet, among the artisans of her day, she stood out. Scripture makes a point to tell us that her work was of great need, and she worked on behalf of the poor. So, when death took her, as we are told in this story from the early history of the Church, the entire community realized that it had lost a valuable resource.
Our first lesson is a wonderful story from the early church but other than countless church groups who have taken on the name Tabitha or Dorcas, I wonder, what can we learn from this story recorded for us in the book of Acts?
The first clue is as I indicated, the response of the people she served. When Dorcas died, the community threw a fit. “All the widows stood … weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them” (v. 39). They had a hard time accepting that she was gone. So strong was this sentiment that when some disciples heard that Peter was nearby, they sent a message to him saying, “Please come to us without delay” (v. 38).
When someone dies, we understand that --- as much as we may mourn the loss --- the deceased is not going to return. But this community dispatched messengers to the apostle Peter --- who arrived, and ---- well, you know the rest of the story.
But have you ever considered what all this means? The response of the community to Dorcas’ death gives us pause. For example, when we die, some of us will surely have a circle of friends and family and perhaps church members who will miss us and mourn our absence. This is only natural, and is primarily related to our bonds. But what helps us 21 centuries later understand the importance of this event is the question raised by the death of Dorcas, will there be a wider circle in the community adversely affected by our absence because of the impact our lives and our ministry had on the community? In other words, beside our family, friends and church members will people from the community notice? We also need to wonder, other than us, will anyone notice if suddenly the church on 5714 Callaghan Rd had to close?
This story highlights one very important reason for how Christians were known: for the benefit of the larger community and not for just themselves, family or to the larger church. The loss of Dorcas was devastating for those who had come to appreciative and love her in the broader community; a sign of at least one church member in this community of saints and what they had become to the broader community.
This is not the only thing we can assess from this story. The Bible says she was “devoted to good works and acts of charity” (v. 36). The actual expression is “full….” The Greek word pleres or full is often used to describe individuals as “full of” for example, “the Holy Spirit.” In Matthew’s account of the feeding of the 5,000 the disciples collected “twelve baskets full” (14:20) after the crowd dispersed. It is the same word: pleres. Someone who is pleres is “full, abounding in, complete or completely occupied with.”
So, our NRSV’s translation as “devoted” is not a bad, but it doesn’t supply the extraordinary sense in which in her case good works and acts of charity were absolutely Dorcas’ life; she was full. She did not dabble in good works. They were not a hobby. They were not a compartment in an otherwise busy life. It was so intertwined with her faith that her good works were one and the same. It was her totality. One then has to ask, how is our vocations noted? In whatever we are called to be by God is it fully part of our life in faith? In other words, if good works is such a natural part of her life in faith, Dorcas was the example par excellence.
A third learning we may have missed is did you notice, we never hear anything from Dorcas herself? The author of Acts tells her story for her. Her faith and good works are so fully intertwined in her life that when she dies --- perhaps suddenly, that after Peter restores her to life, she sits up, Peter “shows her to be alive” (v. 41), and instead of saying something the author notes that she resumes ---- her work!
On one hand we could chalk it up to the fact that more than likely Acts was written by a man, and in that highly patriarchal society, a woman was healed and what happens she is put to work. As reflective of the patriarchal culture as the Bible can be, I think that little note tells us that for Dorcas is a woman who knows exactly what she’s good at. She loves it so much that when she has a moment it is what she loves that she wants to do --- all in response to her faith.
Did you also notice that she’s the first woman in the New Testament to be called a disciple (v. 36)? We need to be clear that this means that she is like other disciples, she is co-equal. Peter for example, certainly had his gifts but the early church did not recognize that Dorcas was better than or inferior to the other disciples, rather her vocation was to make handcrafted items for the needy which was no better or worse than what others were called to do.
A fourth, reason this event is recorded and is important to for us especially on this day that we remember the importance of women is that the author of Acts is pointing out to future readers how the mandate of Acts 1:8 was being fulfilled. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Here we are by chapter 9, were the gospel had clearly extended from Jerusalem, into Samaria, and now to the coastal regions. The author of Acts wants us to know that the Pentecostal fire was spreading by men and women of faith.
Fifth, take a look at Peter for just a moment. The message he receives is: “Please come without delay.” Why is this important? This is Peter’s first pastoral call. Yes, he and John had an encounter with a crippled beggar, according to Acts 3 and right before this, Peter had healed Aeneas, a man who had been bedridden for years. This however, is his first emergency call! Before this Peter had been responding to people in need he met along the way, this incident however is the first church call to the greater church.
Now I think this wonderful because 21 centuries later we kind of expect that well, a pastor or someone is available at any time. But this incident in Acts is before clergy as we have come to understand it. In this story we get a clear example where there was a coming together of a local community with the larger church. So for example when a local church in Rockport reaches out after a hurricane, and the greater church responds, the roots of that is found in this story of Dorcas where the saints of a local church call out to the larger church.
Finally, consider Dorcas herself again with me, like us, she was a piece of work! Let us not forget, we like her are God’s handiwork. We are handcrafted by God so that we might fulfill our vocations as followers of Jesus Christ.
Meaning that from this early story in the history of the church we get the first practical pieces of how God will have us work. St. Paul’s describes it this way to the church in Corinth for example, “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same LORD. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.”
In the story of Dorcas we have one of the first examples of assessing gifts; how are they being recognized by the large community around us? Are the fullness of our faith and our calls be Dorcas like in response to God’s love and forgiveness through Jesus Christ?
As I close I want us to reflect on the following as I think about this story of an important woman in the early church: 1. Let us remember daily that we are God’s handiwork in the family of God through baptism. 2. In that fullness, let us begin by asking God each morning, “What can I do you for you God in response to your love?” for each one of us is God’s handiwork. Amen.

"The Rumour of Death" - April 21, 2019

Sermon presented at Hope and the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Exactly 50 years ago, a rumor began to fly around the world: “Paul is dead.” The year was 1969, and many people were convinced that a rock star by the name of Paul McCartney of the Beatles had died in 1966 and been replaced by a look-alike.
How did a pre-google, pre-Facebook, pre-twitter, pre-Instagram, pre-YouTube, pre-reddit and the myriad of other ways people spread rumors and conspiracy reach that conclusion --- word of mouth. Just, play a certain song from The White Album backwards? And what about the cover of the Abbey Road vinyl, the four Beatles are crossing the street in what looks like a --- funeral procession. And of course, the Volkswagen in the background has the license plate “28IF.” Obviously, twenty-eight is the age that McCartney would have been, if he had survived. Put all that into the blender of rumor and a vacuum of intelligence and what do you get, Paul McCartney was dead.
Of course, the Beatles’ press office quickly issued statements denying the rumor, saying Paul was still very much alive, but who can trust them, isn’t that all part of the deep state? Was Paul dead? Not according to Paul McCartney, himself. In an interview, McCartney said to the BBC, “If the conclusion you reach is that I’m dead, then you’re wrong, because I’m alive and living in Scotland.” Years later, Paul had some fun with the rumor by recording a live album called Paul Is Live.
Why bring this up on this blessed Easter morning? On Friday of Holy Week, many of the acquaintances of Jesus, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a safe distance from the cross and watched Jesus die. Then, a righteous devout Jew by the name Joseph of Arimathea took the body of Jesus off the cross, wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb. The women saw the tomb, and over the course of a few day prepared spices and ointments to put on the body. Yet, as many of us know it is not that easy because in the shock of their grief, they wondered was Jesus dead, or had it all been a nightmare.
Yes, he was. No doubt about it. Jesus had died on a cross a couple days ago. And when he was placed in a tomb, in front of the women they had seen the stone rolled into place. The ground of the hewn rock cave was over him; he was dead. So, yes, Jesus had not fainted on the cross. Had they not seen that Jesus was so dead that the soldiers who had been ordered to break his legs to hasten a death by suffocation decided not to waste their time and energy on an already dead man. He had not swooned. He was not in a state of suspended animation. Jesus did not have a pulse. No brain wave activity. Nothing.
And let us be honest as they thought about, in the era before medical devices that could prolong death, in a time when family and friends prepared the body for burial, they knew what “dead” looked like. They weren’t fooled. His death was not just a rumor. This was not fake news or a witch hunt. Jesus was quite emphatically dead, wrapped in a linen cloth and laid in a tomb. To seal the deal, a massive stone had been rolled over the entrance to the tomb. Even if there were a strong, alive man inside, that stone was going nowhere.
So just imagine, that first morning, at early dawn, the women walked to the tomb with the spices they had prepared. They were expecting death, not life. But when they arrived to anoint the body, wondering along the way who would be moving the stone, they found the stone had already been rolled away. When they went inside, they were unable to find the body.
Yet, their working hypothesis was still that Jesus was dead and someone had taken his body. The women were like the people around the world who assumed that Paul was dead when he appeared on the album cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely-Hearts Club Band with his back to the camera. Paul’s voice on the radio was not him. It seemed like a logical assumption. But at the empty tomb, two men in dazzling clothes suddenly broke into their confusion. The women were terrified and bowed their heads, while the men said, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen.”
It took more than that for the women were not able to absorb this news immediately. “Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee,” the mysterious men in the tomb said, “that the Son of Man must be handed over, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again?” At this the women began the process of resurrection life and to put together how both death and resurrection were part of the plan. The raising of Jesus from the dead suddenly seemed more logical than the story of Paul McCartney being replaced by an orphan, with the help of MI5 and the CIA.
What to do? The women returned from the tomb and told this to the disciples, as well as to the rest of the followers of Jesus. It is significant, at this point, that Luke takes the time to identify the women by name, no nameless, anonymous sources, rather “it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles.” It is eyewitness testimony, says Luke, made by women who are well-known and trustworthy in the community of Jesus’ followers.
It is of course not a surprise; the women were unable to convince their friends. Their words seemed to the apostles all men of course, to be “an idle tale,” and lent their words no credence whatsoever (v. 11). Only Peter ran to the tomb to see the evidence for himself, and then he went home, “amazed at what had happened” (v. 12), that is, that Jesus’ body was no longer in the tomb.

Why rehash what is in the Gospel? For the simple reason that many still wonder, “Did Jesus really die?” Some people say yes, since the basic fact of a resurrection seems so rationally implausible from an implausible compilation of books, we call the Bible. Either Jesus didn’t die or if he did then there is no resurrection.
That is the crux of the matter, Easter is the affirmation that the rumor of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection is not a rumor. Luke asks us to not ignore the testimony of the women at the empty tomb. Do these eyewitnesses make a compelling case for the resurrection of Jesus? I would suspect not.
So, why else believe in these eyewitnesses? As those first eyewitnesses came to understand, the resurrection is experienced whenever we focus on life instead of death. The two mysterious men asked the women a simple but important question, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
So often we look for death instead of life, as was abundantly clear when the “Paul is dead” rumor swept around the world. For some reason, we are naturally drawn to stories of bloodshed and disaster and death, as is captured in the well-known maxim of news programming, “If it bleeds, it leads.”
Thankfully, one of the signs of resurrection is a focus on life instead of death. The women saw it when they take the message of the empty tomb to the disciples. The children’s television star Fred Rogers saw it. Rogers was a Presbyterian minister, and his Christian faith infused all his lessons. He taught that with children “if it bleeds, it leads” is not helpful. Instead he kept his focus on the living, not on the dead, especially in situations of tragedy and suffering. One insight came from his own childhood when he saw scary things on the news. His mother always said to him, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” “To this day,” he said, “especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers --- so many caring people in this world.” As a believer in the eyewitness story of the resurrection, Rogers focused on life instead of death and saw the helpers? Can we not only the death and burial but the helper resurrection?
We also see resurrection when we remember the full story of the life of Jesus, from ministry in Galilee to crucifixion to resurrection. The two men in dazzling clothes told the story of Jesus by the empty tomb, and the women remembered it and acted on it. Even though some of the story is painful, it holds together, and it gives us a pattern for understanding our own experiences of death and new life, as individuals and as a community. Is that possible? Bart Millard is the lead singer of the contemporary Christian music group Mercy Me and he believes in the women’s story. After his father died, he wrote a song called “I Can Only Imagine,” which explores what life in heaven might be like.
What the song doesn’t reveal, however, is what a jerk Bart’s father was. For years, Arthur Millard beat his boy, sometimes three or four times a week. Bart grew to hate his father, and the two became estranged. At one-point however, Arthur became a Christian, and then he developed terminal cancer.
Bart decided to give his father a second chance at a relationship. “My dad was a monster, and yet I saw God transform him,” said Bart. Their story was painful, and it took a terminal illness to bring some reconciliation. Can we see death and burial and the reconciliation resurrection?
Fred Rogers believed that the resurrection could turn heads from “If it bleeds it leads” to the resurrection helpers all around us. Bart Millard believes that the resurrection can bring some resurrection reconciliation. Paul McCartney is not dead … yet.
Jesus Christ however is dead and buried and risen and alive today; Christ is Risen indeed. Alleluia! Amen.

"Breakthrough"- 4-7-2019

Sermon preached at Hope Lutheran based on the first reading: Isaiah 43: 16-21

Occasionally, human beings experience a breakthrough. We discover or have a personal insight into our lives, the lives of others, our families our world. Other breakthroughs impact more people. Penicillin gave us a way to treat several previously deadly diseases. The steam engine provided a way to power the factories, trains and ships of the Industrial Revolution. And don’t forget the printing press, ranked by The Atlantic magazine as the top innovation since the discovery of the wheel. Our namesake, Martin Luther may not have used the printing press to start the Protestant Reformation. But it sure helped to spread ideas on catholic reform around Europe. Other well-known innovations include electricity, paper, vaccination, the internet, and refrigeration. Whether well-known or not, all were life-changing discoveries or inventions.
On Friday, April 12 of this week, a movie called Breakthrough will be released nationwide.  The plot is not that complicated, and I plan to give most of it away; a14-year-old named John falls through an icy lake on a cold winter morning --- a tragic, life-threatening and literal breakthrough! After being pulled out of the water, John is taken to the hospital and lies lifeless. CPR is performed for 27 minutes without success. Although his life seems to be over, his mother calls on her faith and strength. Miraculously, John’s heart starts to beat again.
In the days that follow, John defies predictions and opinions. Finally, 16 days after falling through the ice and being clinically dead, he walks out of the hospital. The movie is based on a true story, as well as on the book written by the mother, Joyce Smith, called The Impossible: The Miraculous Story of a Mother’s Faith and Her Child’s Resurrection.
As Christians we affirm that not all “breakthroughs” occur in the realm of science and technology. Some are found in the world of faith. I bring this to your attention because in our 1st reading from Isaiah the words are not directed at individual but toward a community, the people of Israel who need a breakthrough. They’ve been exiles, suffering in Babylon, and they ache to return to their homeland. In this time of despair, the prophet Isaiah says that God is the one who “makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick” (vv. 16-17).
The prophet Isaiah is encouraging, reminding the people that God was the architect of the Exodus from Egypt --- the one who made “a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters.” When the Israelites were stuck between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea, God opened a way where there was no way. God separated the waters and overwhelmed the attacking army, giving Israel a breakthrough.
The reason this all interests us of course is that not only because of a movie on April 12, or pastoral assistance to understand this chapter of Isaiah, but the good news is that God continues to make a way where there is no way. God does this finding by helping us find new paths to walk, new stands to take and new ways to serve.
When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, thousands of people died, and 400,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Along with many other church leaders, Gadiel Ríos, a pastor, was in shock. “What would happen with the communities of faith?”
“A few days after the hurricane, local congregations started to meet,” he tells Christianity Today. “A sense of shared community kicked in, and everyone started to look for opportunities to serve.” Volunteers collected donations and headed to the places of greatest need, and then many mainline, evangelical and non-denominational churches like our own Evangelical Lutheran Church poured financial resources and thousands of volunteer hours into the recovery not just toward our own Lutheran churches on the island but to countless others. “A crisis like this brings us back to the core of our calling,” says Ríos.
After the hurricane, God gave a breakthrough --- a new path to walk ---- For Pastor Rios it was the realization that he needed to focus on individuals, offering them a shoulder to cry on, a safe place to vent anger and a reassurance of God’s love. He and his church will press on, he adds as quoted by Christianity Today, “bringing the gospel of Christ with compassion and love to those who live in despair.”
Now although finding new paths to walk whether rebuilding after a destructive hurricane --- as challenging as that may be ---- it is not the only breakthrough God initiates.
In our first lesson, God says through the prophet Isaiah, “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (vv. 18-19). Look forward, says the Lord, not back. God is doing something new, both in us and around us. This leads to a second way God cracks through our human propensity toward brokenness --- God leads us to new stands against the evil in this world.
Some of you may be familiar with Beth Moore who over the years has developed many helpful Bibles studies especially for women. Although I do not always agree with her on her interpretation of the Bible, and some Bible Studies are better than others, a leader in one of large protestant churches in the United States has said to The Atlantic that it would be hard to find a church “where at least some segment of the congregation has not been through at least one Beth Moore study.”
I bring up Ms. Moore not to argue with her theology or biblical scholarship, rather because Ms. Moore had a breakthrough --- a stand has been taken. “The old way is over,” she says. “The stakes are too high.” What is the breakthrough? She is appalled by the sexual misconduct in the world of politics and the church. She knows that many of whom used her studies have suffered abuse, and she herself was sexually abused as a small child.
In a tweet to her nearly 900,000 followers, she said, “Wake up, Sleepers, to what women have dealt with all along in environments of gross entitlement & power.” Although Moore’s strong stand has caused her to lose support in the conservative evangelical community that is her home, she is convinced that God wants her to address this issue. She is adamant that a new stand should be taken and to her conservative churches the men need to treat women exactly as Jesus did: “Always with dignity, always with esteem, never as secondary citizens.”
“I am about to do a new thing,” says God through the prophet Isaiah; “now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” According to Beth Moore, God is challenging her church to turn away from the way’s churches have overlooked sexual misconduct, and to be about respect and healthy behavior.
Now again, that for many of us should seem self-evident. How is that a breakthrough? Well, a third breakthrough that God initiates may hit closer to home. Return with me to Isaiah where God promises to “give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that --- they might declare my praise” (vv. 20-21). Now as strange as that assortment of English words may seem, notice that God gives drink for reasons beyond the quenching of our thirst --- God wants to refresh us so that we can serve.
Now the ways we serve are many from not only using our gifts, time, talent and finances to serve in the community and world. But I wonder in doing so if there is a fundamental aspect about serving that we needed to be reminded of today. When we gather to worship on Sunday, we use a term called “liturgy,” a word which literally means “work of the people.” Yes, work --- not entertainment, show or presentation. Why gather on Sunday for a “work?” It is in worship that we serve God. Worship is not for us … it is for God.
I wonder however, and this is just my out loud wondering; is how this basic but vital “service” to God, coming and participating in worship, can lead to a breakthrough in an American culture were coming to worship, service to God, has come to be all about the inverse, the opposite, more about audience than God, on whether you or I “do or don’t get anything out of it.” Did you ever realize that word “service” comes from the word “to serve?”
The reason you and I are here on a Sunday morning is to give and declare God’s praise. It is not to educate, make us feel better or hear the latest gossip, although all those things do happen. Now as un-earthshattering as that may be to serve God means to worship God, I realize that we need a breakthrough because the way we have been about worship in this nation is a challenge.
For example, I remember a discussion I was having with an infrequent attendee to worship in a former congregation who pointed out that the reason he didn’t come to church was because of the hard pews. If we installed cushions, he said he would be back, however it was what he said next that struck me “If you installed recliners you would have me every Sunday.” We may laugh but are we that different? Is the breakthrough to install recliners?
I bring this up not to criticize that person, or the many more who feel no need to serve God through worship or are critical of whatever current worship tradition trend we are part of, rather because I believe God is about breakthroughs, and worship is one them. But it is a breakthrough that we have yet to see or experience and I do not see any others who have a monopoly on breakthroughs in worship.
Which brings me to the final point from this first lesson, some of the context of the words. You see, when the people finally returned from Babylonian exile, the journey back did not go as they had planned. There was no parting of the red sea. However, it did include changing course and being open to something new. It meant leaving and giving up homes, relationships and the bones of loved ones in cemeteries long gone. The breakthroughs were not easy, did not follow their timetables, and there were many prophets yet to speak on that journey. We have yet to hear from Jeremiah and Nehemiah.
Yet, it was in the words of Isaiah that we are told of Jesus, a root of Jesse, a breakthrough hundreds of years away. God does the finding of new ways to serve, new paths to walk and new stands to take. May we be open to God’s breakthroughs into our lives and world and as they come may God help us be patient, understanding and open to God at work. Amen.

God's Hen House - 3/17/2019

As many know, when we are reading or listening to the Bible some of it seems strange until a life experience opens a new way of viewing what had before been ignored. Something passed over or not understood until a life experience, or a story gives new Biblical insight not noticed before.
Just take that image found in Luke 13:35 today, where Jesus laments over Jerusalem and says, “Look, your house is left to you ...” (NRSV). It wasn’t until I had a conversation with an executive living in and attending the international congregation in Nagoya, Japan where I was pastor and missionary that my eyes were opened. This conversation was around 2009 and we were discussing the housing situation outside of his home in one of the suburbs of a city in the upper Midwest.
Thanks to the home-foreclosure crisis of a year before he had become all too acquainted with literal desolate homes, or as Jesus calls it “See, your house is left to you.” If you remember, neighborhoods in cities and towns across America were decimated because of houses abandoned after their owners were either forced out by mortgage holders or had given up and walked away from them ahead of inevitable foreclosures.
This executive shared how things had gone in his neighborhood: With no one tending the houses in his upper income neighborhood, eaves sag, windows are broken, and yards become overgrown. The houses begin to languish and so do the neighborhood in which they sit. Although this executive had been able to maintain his home, because of the financial problems of his neighbors his home was now included.
As I heard that story I was reminded about today’s lesson because in New Testament Greek and modern English, the word “house” can stand not only for a building but also for a family.
How is that helpful as we read understand today’s gospel? Today’s portion of Luke begins with the Pharisees passing along a threat from Herod, whom Jesus would refer to as a fox. Thus, for one Jesus is referring to the house of Herod because the House of Herod did not resemble so much a mighty tree as a tangled ball. This Herod referenced as the Fox, named Antipas, had other relatives called Herod as well, and their marriages, divorces and remarriages for just one were not only often ill-considered, but were sometimes incestuous.
Yet on the other hand, the House of Herod were greatly admired in the larger Roman Empire. Herod the Great, for instance, had fully funded the 12 BC Olympics. Herod the Great was also admired by the Roman elite because he left behind many great architectural works, including substantial improvements to the Jewish temple --- so impressive that it caused one of Jesus' disciples to marvel: “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!”
Jesus, however, replied, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down” (Mark 13:1-2). Jesus was right of course, and eventually, that desolation would become all too tangible. In A.D. 66, the Jewish population rebelled against Rome and the House of Herod. The empire could not allow that revolt to succeed, and so in A.D. 70, Roman legions under future emperor Titus retook the city and destroyed much of it, including the temple.
But as much as we may like to think that was all Jesus was talking about --- this desolate House of Herod --- Jesus was also referencing all the neighborhoods and brokenness among the common people as well; the failure by many to love God with their whole hearts and love their neighbors as themselves.
With that in mind, it's not much of a stretch to jump 20 centuries and “the house left to you” --- to our lives, neighborhoods and world. An unattended life, at the grassroots -- one littered with missed opportunities, broken relationships, repeated procrastinations, a lack of empathy, unkept promises, false starts, yielded-to temptations, selfish priorities and the like -- can quickly become a forsaken “house” or as the New International Version of this lesson translates this Biblical Greek “See, your house is left desolate.”
And it is easy to find desolate-house-type lives in the news. We need not go far to think of any one of the celebrities, politicians, and religious figures who destroyed their families, lost their positions, ruined their reputations and betrayed those who trusted them because of some act of infidelity or gross selfishness. But let us not limit our thinking to just that, because it's often much smaller acts of inattention on less public screens that render us forlorn.
In a TV cop show from years ago called The Closer, the main character, Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, was an effective police officer with an innate ability to discern who the bad guys were and wrangle admissions of guilt out of them. But she had one habit that drove her family and co-workers nuts: When she was hot on a case, she became so focused that she usually deflected their requests for her attention, even if they only wanted a moment, putting them off until “later.” As the series went along, it became obvious that she was always behind in tending the most important relationships in her life, and in an episode near the end of the series, it caught up with her.
In that episode, Brenda's parents, whom she loved deeply but too often shortchanged with her time, are visiting in her home. Just after Brenda gets a fresh lead on her current case, her mother asks for a moment to tell her something important. Reluctant to look away from her case, Brenda promises to give her some time over breakfast the next morning. Her mother agrees but looks disappointed. The next morning, intending to keep her date with her mother, Brenda goes to the guest bedroom to awaken her, only to find that her mother had died unexpectedly during the night.
The next episode, set a week or so later and after the funeral, has Brenda, still grieving, back at work, where in a reflective moment, she tells a co-worker that she's sorry for not listening to him better. In the concluding scene of that episode, her husband finds her sitting on the bed where her mother died. She says to him, “The last time I saw Mama, she asked me if I had a minute, and I didn't have the time just then. Now, I'm the one who could really use a minute, and Mama has no time at all.”
Lent is that season when we are to hear that it is our houses, need Spring Cleaning, not later but now. It is to our houses that Jesus laments in today’s gospel. Improper or deferred maintenance is always bad for relationships, and that includes our spiritual ones as well. An unattended spiritual house can yield a life where God is supposedly welcome, but where God is ignored by the occupant --- so ignored, that the occupant doesn't even notice when the Lord is no longer there. Just as we can become so accustomed to starving our relationships, breaking our promises, failing to carry through, ignoring our spiritual health and so on that we don't realize how bad things are until the whole thing comes crashing down.
So today is an opportunity for us to review our “houses.” What might it mean for our House to be left to ourselves? For one thing, it means that life is only what we can make of it on a time-based scale, devoid of any hope that extends beyond our lifetime, devoid of any confidence that God will multiply our efforts in this life. For another, it means that we have no ultimate authority to which we answer. Yes, we still have societal standards, but no rock on which to stand.
In a way, we keep our spiritual houses from becoming desolate by tending our relationship with the Lord. We can't keep telling the Lord “later” or “someday” and expect that to keep the relationship strong. In the Closer episode following the death of Brenda's mother, her husband stops by the police station and asks Brenda if she has a minute. She's begun work on a new case and almost reflexively, she responds, stalling him, and she begins to walk away. But then, with the memory of what she missed by doing that to her mother apparently hitting her afresh, she turns back and says, “Sorry. Yes, I do.” After they are alone in her office, she tells him, “Don't ask me. If you need to talk to me, just say, 'Listen,' okay?” It's good for us to be in that kind of relationship with God as well, where he can just say, “Listen,” and we give God our attention. (Pause)
Yet, as I reflected on that conversation with that executive, years ago, I also heard the blame, “If others had taken care of their home, if others had not overleveraged their mortgages, if “they” hadn’t moved in.” It is far easier to blame others or that systems that we are part of from our current political leadership to our education system to minorities, aliens and migrants. Granted when it comes to our actual houses, it's not always possible when our emergency funds were intended for a shorter time, or we just don't have the budget for every repair the house could use. But that thinking permeates our spiritual thinking as well, you see it not only the language of white supremacy but also in language as simple as this “house” would be different if we simply build stone monuments with the 10 commandments or imposed school directed prayer on all.
Thankfully, this is where our literal homes and our spiritual homes diverge because our spiritual houses not up to the occupant alone. God is ready to help us keep the place up. For just as Jesus is lamenting about the desolate houses, Jesus juxtaposes the image of the hen. What is often missed is that as much as we have an image of a fluffy hen with wayward chicks, we miss an additional vital portion of that protection for a hen to save, a hen's heart and other vital organs must be completely exposed when her wings are open to protect her chicks. This is the posture Jesus takes figuratively, for Jesus will eventually take such a posture literally, with arms wide open to gather all people to himself. In Christ, we have what our houses cannot produce on their own: grace, hope, love and forgiveness – gifts of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ lamentation we have not only the challenge to review the status of our “house” but the seeds of comfort, hope and strength as God opens his household to all of us. Amen.

"Universal Shot" - 3/3/2019

Sermon based on Luke 9:28-36 for Transfiguration Sunday at Hope Lutheran Church.

On July 20, 1969, the world became a very different place. Astronaut Neil Armstrong hopped off the ladder of the lunar module Eagle and put the first footprint on the surface of the moon. From that point on, generations of people would point to that event as the pinnacle of human achievement and subsequently wonder why everything is not easier by comparison. If we can put a man on the moon, for example, then why can’t we cure cancer? End world hunger?
In their book The Moonshot Effect: Disrupting Business as Usual, Lisa Goldman and Kate Purmal define a moonshot as an aspirational project that harnesses humanities gifts. It’s a turn away from business as usual, and involves, new processes, audacious innovation and collaborative teamwork.
Think of the massive numbers of people, men and women with slide rules and those first plucky astronauts at NASA who invested their lives in the Apollo 11 mission and its predecessors, and you get the idea. A moonshot goal looks impossible on the surface but determined people with a clear vision can make what seems impossible --- a reality.
In today’s gospel, what is termed Transfiguration Sunday, the disciples of Jesus did not seem all that interested in going to the moon, but that did not stop them from aspiring. If you remember, they had left behind their former occupations to follow a traveling rabbi around Galilee because they were compelled by his vision of the kingdom of God. For first-century Jews, that moonshot vision was not the peaceable kingdom of Isaiah, but the social justice like the message found in the Old Testament prophets like Amos or Joel. Their visions were gritty and political. For many of them, someday their Roman occupiers would be overthrown, God’s anointed king and messiah set on the throne, and God’s presence returned to the temple; Jerusalem as the capital of a reunited kingdom, a beacon to the world. It was a vision of freedom from oppression with peace and security for all.
It seemed like an impossibility given the number of Roman spears that patrolled the roads and streets. But then again, there was this Jesus who seemed to fit the mold of the kind of leader who could make it happen. He had performed amazing miracles, drawn huge crowds, was anti-elite and somewhat popular with the people. Maybe he was the one who could shoot the moon, reverse their fortunes and transform their nation.
As we are often reminded, it didn’t take long for Jesus to profoundly upend and transform that vision. Earlier than this point in our Gospel from Luke, Jesus had asked his disciples who they thought he was, and Peter answered, “The Messiah of God” (v. 20). In response, Jesus, as you remember however, would define the Messiah’s mission in far more graphic terms than Peter and his mates could have imagined. Before being fitted for a crown, Jesus would need to embrace a cross. Jesus would need to empty himself completely into and through death. It was an unimaginable scenario. It was an upside, turn around moonshot.
Now eight days later, the transfiguration the disciples experienced in a new light was twofold; a transformative vision of Jesus and their place in the world.
Let’s review the first aspect of the transfiguration. As I mentioned, eight days after Jesus had asked his disciples who did they think he ways, Jesus pulls his executive team of Peter, James and John aside and takes them up on a mountain for a retreat. The little detail of “eight days” is important because it indicates that it was a new week which, biblically speaking, is a sign that something new is about to happen --- a sign of the new creation (v. 28). For on this unnamed mountain, Jesus gives them a glimpse of his ultimate moonshot if not universe shot idea by revealing his own heavenly glory.
While Jesus was praying, his face and clothes were transformed into a kind of heavenly brilliance (v. 29). It’s an image that recalls a similar account of Moses’ meeting God on Mount Sinai (Exodus 34). Moses’ face became so brilliant that he had to cover it with a veil afterward. But have you ever wondered about this other piece, the presence of Moses and Elijah. How did the disciples know it was Moses and Elijah with Jesus? It wasn’t that they were wearing nametags like one would on a corporate retreat!
Instead, those disciples knew their Scriptures and the tradition. According to Deuteronomy, Moses died and was buried by God before the Israelites entered the Promised Land, but some traditions had said that Moses hadn’t died at all and, like the prophet Elijah, had simply been taken up into heaven (Deuteronomy 34:1-8; 2 Kings 2). Moses and Elijah, many believed, would someday return as forerunners of the Messiah. If Jesus was the real Messiah, as had been discerned, then it made sense that these two glorious figures should appear beside him in his glory, representing the Law and the Prophets.
The key here, however, is not so much the appearance of the two towering figures of the Old Testament, or Jesus all in bright newness, but the conversation. The author of Luke says they were speaking of Jesus’ “departure” which would soon to take place in Jerusalem (v. 31). The Greek word for “departure” is --- “exodus.” It is of course before Bob Marley so this exodus that is being discussed is Jesus’ mission in the larger context of the biblical story.
As you remember, in the days of Moses, the Israelites were set free from slavery in Egypt --- an amazing achievement for which they had prayed some 400 years. Their freedom, that Exodus, was signified and subsequently remembered by the Passover meal and the blood of the sacrificed lamb that saved them from death and pointed the way to new life and a promised land.
Jesus was about to initiate a new exodus, but in this case, this exodus would deliver all of humanity from the enslaving power of our human brokenness and death itself. That deliverance would require a new Passover and a new once-for-all sacrifice as Jesus himself became the Lamb. This was Jesus’ universe shot mission and destiny: the salvation of the universe. All that Moses and Elijah represented, the witness of the Law and the Prophets, had been pointing to this goal.
Therefore, in this revelation of glory, we learn along with the disciples that the Jesus is to empty himself completely, give it all away, and die as any human must. He will not go there because it is easy, but because it is hard --- to borrow a phrase from former President John F. Kennedy. It is a challenge Jesus is willing to accept out of love, one Jesus is unwilling to postpone and one that he will win for all of us. It’s the ultimate “universe shoot,” but one that will be accomplished by the very God who put the moon, the earth and this vast universe there in the first place!
That of course leads to the second aspect of this transfiguration. Let me return to the Apollo mission. For as much as we may like to think about the human achievements of landing on the moon, tang and Velcro, there was another significant episode that happened in a subsequent journey with Apollo 17, the last Apollo mission. It is a picture taken on December 7, 1972 of the earth. The picture is commonly known as the Blue Marble. It is a picture of the earth from the perspective of the astronauts. It shows this spaceship earth traveling through the universe that God has created, fragile, without boundaries. It is the most reproduced image in history.
Those disciples were told that upon his death and resurrection, they were free to share what God intended through Jesus. Those disciples were the first to get to the mountain top, but as much as we may like to focus on “heaven” and let our imaginations run wild, their eyes were turned back down over their shoulders down that mountain, at the blue marble, all creation, and the valleys that do not reflect God’s love and forgiveness. That image taken by Apollo 17 was the first of the whole planet and showed the oneness and fragility of creation.
The disciples still don’t get this universe shot view right away. In the next scene, there is the dilemma about casting out a demon, which they can’t seem to accomplish (vv. 37-43). And in the next they are arguing cabinet positions in the coming administration (vv. 46-48). It will take the death and resurrection of Jesus to bring things into focus and help them realize that God’s project was more audacious than anything humans could ever conceive.
To know that Christ has died, Christ is raised, and Christ will come again reminds us that anything is possible. We are each in our own way, grudging, cantankerous, doubting, individualistic, mean-spirited, yet forgiven and loved. We are followers of the one who has beaten sin and death and given us the freedom not only to imagine God’s kingdom of ultimate peace, redemption and renewal. Equally we are to live out this vision in the present on this little blue marble in the vast universe.
When we look at the world as it currently is and what seems to be an increasingly broken way of life, and its deeply flawed leadership, we remember that this is not the way things will always be. We live and work in the present in light of the future made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus. To that end, Jesus invites us to dream of our own universe shots for the places we live and serve. Often, we have dreams, ideas and goals that are too small --- goals that are better suited for a stat sheet or in our bank accounts.
Jesus, however, invites us to dream of the transformation of the world and the community around us. For example, as this church transition’s into the future, what kinds of universe shots do we have? How fast this congregation can become the next mega-church? How many energetic people with vans full of children with hours and days of volunteer time they want to give? Those are stat sheets.
Instead, can we imagine the living Christ running loose, toward equity and justice and love and forgiveness? It was God who raised a man from the dead and “seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but in the age to come.” (Ephesians 1:20-21). This is the Christ, the Son of the living God, about whom the voice on the mountain declared, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him” (v. 35).
As we follow Jesus, there is no universe landing too imaginative, too daring, too audacious for us to consider. Didn’t Jesus say, “Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you” (Mark 11:23)? The transfiguration was a twofold sign of God's grace and compassion. When times are difficult, as when the disciples move off that mountain toward Jerusalem with Jesus, the memory of their encounter with God, and God's own witness to Jesus, will help them follow on the way. It does the same for us by giving us a vision of not only what will be, but where we are. Amen.

"Faith is not futile" - 2/17/2019

Sermon shared at Hope Lutheran Church based on 1 Corinthians 15:12-20.

“For Sale: baby shoes. Never worn.” Supposedly, that’s one of the shortest stories ever written. It’s an example of something known as “flash fiction.” “For Sale: baby shoes. Never worn” — all of six words in length — has been attributed to Ernest Hemingway, although scholars are doubtful. The legend is that he wrote it in order to win a bet. Whether the six-word story came from the pen of Hemingway or someone else, its helpful today for us to think about.
You see, the thing about flash fiction is that it draws you in. It does so not by what it says, but by what it doesn’t say. Our six-word example is a very compact mystery novel. To whom do the baby shoes belong? Why are they for sale? And how did it happen that they were unused? Was it because of some sort of falling-out between the person who purchased the shoes and the baby’s parents? Or are the parents so desperate for money they must sell them? Or, did something terrible happen to the baby? Instead, we live through our engagement with it.
So, why theme of flash fiction? Well look again at our second reading and Paul’s comments regarding faith and the resurrection: If Christ has not been raised, our faith is futile. These lines draw us in and engenders numerous questions: Didn’t Christ rise from the dead? Who said he didn’t? Who said he did? Why is it futile? What would our life and faith be like had Christ not been raised from the dead? What would remain of the gospel if we stripped away that one foundational proclamation?
Paul’s not denying the resurrection, of course. Anything but. Yet, his statements and “What if’s” provided the small congregation in Corinth an introduction into some implications of our faith. You see this congregation had expected that Christ was going to return soon; in their lifetimes. But as the years went on, no Christ and members of their community were dying. This was a fundament challenge to their faith.
For us centuries later, perhaps we have made theological peace with the topic, ---- or have we? Let us consider just the words to the Apostles Creed and the line: “I believe in …. the resurrection of the body” or “the dead” as an earlier version goes. I kind of like the words used by the Lutheran reformers when they affirmed the phrase used in the church of that day “the resurrection of the flesh.” I don’t know if you have realized it before for in those words, we affirm that flesh itself will be raised from the dead. Or have we thought of it as flash fiction we go along with?
For example, just like the ancient Greeks, some in our contemporary world see our flesh body as merely the “covering” or the “container” for something else. In our contemporary world we let our imaginations run wild with the lack of details. Is our body something to discard when we die so that whatever is inside us can be set free? But the fact is we believe that our redemption includes our physical forms. Fact is in the Apostles Creed we affirm that we believe that redemption will not be complete until the body itself is resurrected from death. Wow!
But again, that may even provoke deeper questions for within those words from the Apostles Creed just imagine, if Christ has abolished death, why does all this flesh come to an end in the first place? How can death then be truly both abolished and yet the “last enemy” of the people of God?
The answer lies in understanding the basic nature of death for us; the essence of death is separation. Death is the unnatural separation from God. That runs parallel to the fact that death is a “natural” part of life. So, which is it? Is death natural or not? It’s both. Death is “natural” just as a seed must die to have growth, yet, there is nothing “natural” about death. In the words “we believe” we are expressing the fact that death is the most natural “unnatural” event in the universe. We are stating the belief that death came into the world because of sin (Romans 5:12). Death exists because our brokenness from God exists. When our brokenness from God has been removed once and for all, death will no longer exist the way it does now. That’s why there will be no death as we know it in heaven (Revelation 21:3).
In other words, death is “unnatural” because sin is “unnatural.” Paul in our second lesson is asking the people of Corinth to imagine a world where our human brokenness from God no longer exists. In faith there is such a world, in faith that world is the “real” world --- God’s kingdom. In faith this world that feels so real is the one actually passing away. So, until then we live in an “unnatural” real world where death as we experience stalks our trail.
Just like in Corinth, centuries later we in in these 8 words of the Apostles Creed are saying that Christ truly destroyed death when he died and rose again. We are affirming that Christ abolished death as a ruling power in the universe. Death itself will one day end, and the true state of creation including our bodies that God intended will be restored. Until that day comes, we live in an odd situation best described by Ecclesiastes 12:7, which says that when we die “the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it.” Most of us have heard the phrase, “Ashes to ashes and dust to dust.” We come from the dirt and we return to the dirt. From a purely human perspective, that is the natural destiny for all creation.
In the creed however we are affirming that there will come a time when all this will be completely turned around, the body that is raised will be a new body --- not just the old one patched up. If a loved one dies of cancer, it won’t do any good to be raised with cancer. Personally, I don’t want a “renovated” body. I want something brand-new that won’t wear out or run down, or has experienced the ravages of time, a body suited for eternity.
This runs counter to additional “fiction; death is not reincarnation. If I come back as a Chihuahua, I’m going to bite someone on the ankle. But as much as I would like that, I won’t come back as someone else or something else. I’ll be raised as Charles Fredrickson with all the destructive marks of sin removed from all parts of my being. The parts of me that annoy other people will be gone forever, thank God. What remains will be Charles Fredrickson, cleansed and purified and refined by the grace of God but we will also be like Jesus because we will see him as he is (I John 3:1-3). We will have new bodies fit for new people who will live in this restored creation.
You get the idea. When Paul is writing to that church in Corinth and states, “If Christ has not been raised, our faith is futile” Paul is helping those early Christians to consider that our only way of understanding the resurrection body is to consider the experience of Jesus. After Jesus rose from the dead, the disciples could still recognize him, and he bore on his body the marks of his suffering. He ate and drank with them, yet he also appeared and disappeared from their midst, suggesting that in his glorified state, Jesus transcended time and space.
The resurrection of the body means that when God saves us, he saves the whole person --- body, soul and spirit. Yet because not all are questions are answered, our imaginations are full of creativity. For example, on one hand, death has been so thoroughly defeated in the life, death and resurrection that the moment of death has become a victory, “blessed are you...” Yet on the other hand, over the centuries, our questions have led our ancestors after medieval battles to search for the cut off limbs of those who had died so that they could be buried whole. For centuries there have been people worried that someone whose body was blown apart or lost at sea would not be resurrected because there was not body any longer. It has led to refusing to be cremated and lots of unnecessary anxieties about airtight caskets and other types of preservation.
That's not what we mean when we talk about the resurrection of the body. We mean what Paul means, which is that we rise to the light of God like a plant rises out of the dirt and into the sun and receive the new body that can interact in the world of air and spirit just as successfully as our bodies here can relate to earth.
The other part of this flash line of the Creed is equally important...we believe in the life everlasting. We may skim through that part or just mouth lines like “forever and ever, Amen,” but the notion of everlasting life is a big one. Even though our natural earthly bodies give out, we affirm that God’s breath in us lives on, no matter what...always...beyond life here, beyond all time. Forever. Eternal life is not just about after death...it begins now and never quits.
But the notion of life everlasting has other implications as well because life on earth and our earthly bodies are a gift to us to help us learn our basic lessons --- to learn to live with and love God, ourselves and each other. To explore and learn from this this grand diversity that makes up God’ creation.
We have life everlasting...beginning now and lasting forever. In today’s Gospel, Luke’s version of the beatitudes, Jesus in not saying that the hell of living in poverty or grief for example is somehow better, somehow blessed because of it. Not at all. Rather, in life everlasting, we shed the graveclothes now, we live knowing we are getting out of the tomb, living now as if we already have life everlasting, whole complete.
“If Christ has not been raised” is not flash fiction, although we can imagine and wonder so much as we live our days in faith. Pauls’ challenge to the people in Corinth is ours: Let us live as we will die trusting in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.

"Legacy Living" - 2/10/2019

Sermon shared at Hope Lutheran based on 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. 

Legacy living. As we live in a wealthy nation where our first thoughts turn to our economy; we usually think of legacy as something financial. We can leave financial assets for future generations. It can range from a life insurance policy to be distributed to our beneficiaries, a will for how in case of death how we want our property to be distributed, to leaving monies or property toward a foundation or endowment.
When prodded we may think of legacy in sense of progeny. For example, our view of how we may want to be remembered may be like the words of author Augustine Og Mandino who wrote: “I am convinced that the greatest legacy we can leave our children are happy memories: those precious moments so much like pebbles on the beach that are plucked from the white sand and placed in tiny boxes that lay undisturbed on tall shelves until one day they spill out and time repeats itself, with joy and sweet sadness, in the child now an adult.”
When we think of leaving a legacy we may think of our vocation, jobs or careers and the mark we may leave on the world. As one employer put it, “our company is the legacy of good people” who have used their time and talents to serve our customers. Maybe your hope is that your legacy will be a combination of all three!
Yet, I wonder are there any other meanings to legacy living that may come to mind! Today, we celebrate the past, present and future of scouting to be and build young people who are trustworthy, loyal and helpful for example. But of course, not all options for leaving a legacy for future generations are open to all of us, like not all of us have or will have children. Not all of us have or will have the financial resources to make much of an impact, unless they turn over the cushions for some loose change. And of course, not all of us are in job, careers or living out a vocation that we may feel we may have much of an impact, much less now or the future.
Yet, I was thinking recently about the theme of legacy living after I re-read an illustration, I used several years ago in a sermon. It was a story about Derek --- you see Derek K. Miller was dying. After a long battle with cancer, the tech expert was coming to the end of his life and decided to post his last words on his blog. “The Last Post,” was the title, and it began with this: “Here it is. I'm dead, and this is my last post to my blog.” On the day he died, as arranged, his wife clicked “Publish.”
But the reason it is remembered at all is because soon after this post, the buzz on social networking sites resulted in his blog getting bombarded with traffic, causing it to shut down intermittently with an error message that would pop up suggesting that people contact Derek if the problems continued.
Awhile back Google launched a tear-jerking ad campaign called “Dear Sophie,” where a man sets up a Gmail account in his daughter's name and e-mails her throughout his life as a kind of digital memory book. The implication is that this will be a record she'll keep forever online, and dad's memory will always be just a click away. Tech experts call this 21st-century phenomenon is “Digital Death.” What's left on the web, our living legacy after we're gone is our “digital remains” that need to be managed and archived just like our physical remains.
Yet I wonder if there is something more legacy living? Well as Christians thank God for Easter. Easter reminds us that death; the grave and digital purgatory are all temporary problems that God has already solved. Easter reminds us that although people’s memories of us will fade, that we may not leave a cent for those who follow or that our jobs may have left more a mark on us than the other way around. Easter reminds us that even if we may not leave a single snippet of DNA/RNA around, Easter is the assurance that God never forgets us. Without the resurrection, Jesus would have been long forgotten as just another idealist who got nailed to a Roman cross. Without the promise of our own resurrection, we would indeed be eventually forgotten. While the Internet can't guarantee forever, God does. Resurrection is what makes forever possible!
This is the “good news” that Paul wants to convey to the Corinthians in this famous resurrection chapter, our 2nd lesson. The good news of Jesus' resurrection is the hope upon which people should “stand” (15:1) and through which they are “saved” (v. 2). The core of Paul's preaching and work was centered on the central fact of the resurrection of Jesus, who “died for our sins ... was buried ... raised on the third day ...” (vv. 3-4). To add support to this bold statement, Paul has a three-fold use of that phrase “in accordance with the scriptures.” Remember this was before we have the New Testament canon, but it does indicate that the record of what had happened over the centuries in the past, wasn't just a random Instagram of God's work. The resurrection of Jesus is the culmination of a story that had been moving from the beginning of human history; The empty tomb stands as God's ultimate last word on human suffering and death. As God raised Jesus from the dead, two millennia ago the promise is that we, too, will be raised to a new life in a renewed world where we will not only be remembered, but will be part of a restored creation, the Kingdom of God --- no forgettable password required. We won't need to preserve our words because we will see the Word that became flesh.
Paul in writing to this congregation in Corinth reminds them for that reason, and with that promise in mind, they now had an opportunity to use the present as a time for living with a different kind of legacy in mind, that will last beyond them and into the coming kingdom of God; a kingdom reality made real to us first in Jesus' resurrection from the dead and in this who follow.
What Paul realized and is now sharing with the small church in Corinth is that the reality of the resurrection, a sign of what is to come, is that it puts our lives, and whatever legacy we may have in mind, in the context of God's larger purposes and perspective. We may not be remembered as individuals three or four generations from now, but the legacy of what we do for the kingdom is something that lasts. Leaving behind words is a good thing, but an even better legacy to leave behind has to do with making the world look more and be more like the kingdom so that when it comes, it's not such a culture shock.
The criteria are set for every time we feed those who are hungry, provide a healing touch to the hurting, give our attention to the outcast, challenge the principalities and powers, and give our lives humbly and passionately in sacrificial service to others, we are building a legacy that will last well beyond us. When we not only take in the words of Jesus but also apply them, we are living the resurrection already.
Jesus' resurrection clearly shaped Paul in such a way that his writings were less important to him than his ministry, which would continue long after he was gone, in the generations of people who became disciples of Jesus through the churches he planted. As Paul indicates is that God’s trust through grace in him has not been in vain, that the legacy he will leave reflects God’s own legacy. When Jesus finally appeared to Paul himself, then known as Saul, this appearance was unlike the others, and it occurred at the very time Saul was persecuting the church. Because he was an enemy to Christians everywhere, he now considers himself the least of the apostles.
And it is with this self-assessment that Paul addresses the importance of grace --- God’s lavish, unmerited, merciful and amazing grace. Without God’s grace, he has no place … no ministry … no job … no nothing. And he knows it.
Saul/Paul retraces what had happened within his lifetime. Christ appeared to Peter, John, Mary and all the apostles. He showed himself to the two believers walking on the road to Emmaus. He appeared to a crowd of more than 500 people (vv. 5-7). These people for Paul/Saul sort of “deserve” to be elevated to a special place of recognition. They merit the attention given to them. They clearly qualify for a place at the table. They rightly have a legacy.
Saul/Paul however sees himself as unfit and undeserving. “Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle” (vv. 8-9). Paul feels that his former opposition to the “church of God” counts against him. But he recognizes that despite what he was then, God reached out to him making him the new “creation” he is now. God’s loving grace saved him, lifted him up and set him on a new course, giving a new and quite different meaning to his life.
But look at verse 10: “By the grace of God,” he wrote, “I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain” (v. 10). In other words, Paul wasn't concerned about taking credit or making sure everybody remembered him forever. Whether it was the disciples of Jesus or anyone else who was preaching resurrection, Paul was satisfied that the Corinthian church was coming to believe it (v. 11). Meaning that his living legacy was vested in these people and showing them the resurrection life in the present.
What does that mean for us gathering at this spot of earth called Hope? Do we have similar view of legacy life that goes way beyond death? Has God’s grace nurtured us, or do we feel that it was given to us in vain?
Perhaps there are those who will think, “Well, what does God expect me to be and to do? I go to work every day, and I do this to help support my spouse and children. I try to be there for my kids and raise them to be kids with integrity. And I help in other places, too, as I am able, like church, the library and the humane society?” This is a good question. One I ask myself.
The answer of course is that God expects that we reframe our lives so that we recognize that legacy living is our life. By God’s grace we are who we are --- single, parent, spouse or professional. God’s grace is not in vain. Rather, we legacy live in the light of God meaning for example that we are conscious that in our various roles, we are recipients of God’s grace, and all the glory and praise go to God. God’s grace saves us and nurtures us.
Paul felt he was the last person who should be granted grace, yet he was. Peter responds to Jesus’ miracle of plenty by saying, “Go away from me, Lord: for I am a sinful man!” Yet, Peter steps out of the boat and follows. Without question, God used these flawed and fragile human beings to proclaim God’s mercy and love. Jesus didn't fade away into dead space or cyberspace, rather he lives. And because of the assurance of our Baptism, by grace, we are part of and legacy live. This is a wild idea, within our grasp, it only takes the will to live a legacy. Amen.

"Transparency" - 2/3/2019

Sermon presented at Hope Lutheran based on Luke 4: 21-30

One observation among many tourists to our nation is this: many Americans have a love affair with a quintessential condiment found in many refrigerators and tables --- ketchup. Keen foreign observers will note that American’s put it on everything from eggs to fries to hot dogs, the thicker and for some quantity the better. I realize that ketchup isn't something that we normally talk about, especially on a Sunday morning. It's just something we take for granted. But have you ever wondered why?
It wasn’t so long ago that ketchup could be dangerous. In 1866, as the nation was recovering from the civil war ketchup was, according to cookbook author Pierre Blot, “Filthy, decomposed and putrid.” A short tomato growing season, coupled with carelessness, lack of clean storage, generally unsanitary conditions, no government oversight, and the addition of highly flammable coal tar to the mix to enhance the red color, all combined to make ketchup a potentially lethal concoction.
Enter Henry J. Heinz. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_J._Heinz In 1876, the Pittsburgh visionary bottled his first batch of tomato ketchup. However, Heinz was not simply looking for a fast buck, Heinz was a man who believed that “heart power is better than horsepower,” and worked hard at developing a safe environment and process for ketchup to be produced in a way that was honest, enjoyable and transparent.
To accomplish his vision, his factory was spotless. His workers were encouraged to be meticulous about cleanliness, and Heinz rewarded them not only with a living wage but with fresh uniforms, free laundry, free life insurance and health care, and athletic facilities.
Heinz was so focused on his product that he realized that that alone would not work, transparency was just as important. He refused to bottle his ketchup in the opaque brown bottles that were common at the time, choosing instead to use clear glass bottles as a way of demonstrating the product to the public. Heinz even opened his factory so they could see that the company had nothing to hide.
The history of ketchup is helpful to remember as we continue the story that began from last week as Jesus begins his public ministry. From last week, Jesus reads from Isaiah 61:1-2. The good news is this: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Jesus then tells the congregation, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” As I shared last week, this is his public statement about the future of his ministry and to whom he will sharing the good news. Added to that Jesus is also being very honest and transparent. Why is this important?
Initially, the congregation’s response is quite positive to Jesus’ assertion. “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.” Then, they said, “Is not this Joseph's son?” Now, this is not derogatory. They hear what Jesus is saying and they gossip with each other.
Now that may seem odd to us unless we realize that their point is that Jesus is a hometown boy, and, therefore, special favors for Nazareth are expected. In terms of middle-eastern values of the first century, a person had an obligation first to their family and then to their hometown. Was not Joseph one of us? Does not Joseph's son, then, have a special bond with us? Should we not be the first beneficiaries of his “gracious actions” which, we are now assuming, follow his “gracious words”? In a sense the community feels they won the lottery and since we are his hometown, Jesus will be remembering us.
Jesus however anticipates their reaction and responds by saying that surely, they will cite the proverb “Doctor, cure yourself.” What does this mean? Jesus knew that the future this hometown crowd has in mind that he would bring the “year of the Lord's favor” first to them before others. If Jesus pronounced the Isaiah passage as truly fulfilled, then they assumed they must be the first and special beneficiaries of it. The “doctor” is to cure not just himself, but also his own --- his kinfolk, his neighbors. Jesus does not let this expectation go on for long for he then adds that “no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.” And to further make the point transparent, he alludes to two biblical stories about which they were quite familiar.
The first reference is to a famine during which God sent the prophet Elijah to a poor starving Gentile widow rather than to any poor starving Hebrew widow. The second story involves the prophet Elisha and his healing ministry with the wealthy Gentile Aramean military officer Naaman who had leprosy. Elisha, apparently, was not sent to heal any of Israel’s lepers. The people in the Nazareth congregation get Jesus’ point --- that even though Jesus is a hometown boy, his fellow Nazarenes have no special first claim on his powers: Jesus came for all. Jesus is not being dishonest --- not at all. What is the reaction to Jesus’ honest transparency?
At this point they had a choice; acceptance or anger? Not hearing what they want to hear, they reveal their true colors. We can almost hear one of them shriek, “Fake news!” Soon, a mob mentality takes over. They try to throw this purveyor of honesty and transparency off a cliff. Jesus of course, escapes and goes on his way.
But’s lets return to that question: What makes Jesus’ words so unacceptable to them? A major piece is that Jesus’ words don’t conform to the commonly held understanding that the Messiah would destroy Israel’s enemies. Jesus talking about God’s mercy to a poor Gentile widow and a wealthy Syrian soldier doesn’t fit that image. Therefore, in their minds, Jesus isn’t fulfilling a basic requirement of that Isaiah reading and what he says is fake at best, and dangerous at worst.
But why would they think that? All Jesus said in his adoption of Isaiah 61 as his own statement of mission is that his work was to: bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, let the oppressed go free, proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. and, by omission, not proclaim the day of vengeance of God. Jesus was being honest and transparent that there was no favoritism toward them in the delivery of the ministries cited above.
Then again, we all know that anger and violence are sometimes the last defense of those who must face the honest and transparent truth. That transparent truth will continue throughout his ministry, with his disciples, to the crowds and religious leaders, through his trial, through his death and subsequent resurrection.
So, what might this story of honesty and transparency at the beginning of his ministry mean for us. Well, we could go many directions, but I decided for us to focus on one truth that continues to challenge and even anger us.
In reading through the New Testament it's clear that God somehow uses --- but not causes --- suffering. We hate the truth that although we are faithful, suffering is a bitter pill. Didn’t we win the lottery?
Instead, what I usually hear are excuses and blatant untruths. One of course is that “God causes suffering.” That is not true. Just like the Nazoreans we have expectations that as people of faith we are supposed to be excluded from suffering. I am nice, try to be good, been baptized …but…just like the neighbors of Jesus we expect association to be a golden ticket to God’s factory of good stuff.
Second, it is true that God does use suffering ---- however, we get angry with that as well. In Romans 5:3, for example, the apostle Paul says that “suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character and character produces hope.” How often do we apply that to others but not ourselves? Jesus said that we are to rejoice when we suffer, because it means that we're representing Jesus and we're coming closer to the kingdom. Although Jesus is reminding us, in a counterintuitive way, that suffering can wind up producing the best in us, I don’t want to rejoice in suffering, and I am happy the way I am, I don’t want endurance… thank you very much.
We only need to look at a ketchup bottle to be reminded of this. The classic glass Heinz bottle doesn't make it easy to pour out the ketchup. The thick tomato mixture is strengthened with xanthan gum, which makes it a “non-Newtonian fluid,” or one that changes its flow rate under stress. That's why we must whack a glass bottle of Heinz ketchup repeatedly to get the good stuff to come out, but it must be done correctly. Pounding on the bottom of the bottle only causes the mix at the mouth of the bottle to get thicker, thus restricting the flow. The way we get the ketchup to transform into sheer thinning fluid, or non-non-Newtonian fluid, is to tap on the top of the bottle or, even more ideally, to tap two fingers on the “57 Varieties” label on the bottle's neck. That's the force that produces an even flow.
In our life in Jesus the pounding of suffering can produce the same effect in us. It can cause us to stiffen, or get angry ---- or it can trigger a flow of the fruit of the Spirit in us that can season the world. This is exactly what happened with Jesus, who emptied himself on the cross, bringing people to God (v. 18).
Jesus is honest and transparent as we are to be honest and transparent with others. God does not cause suffering, but God does use our lives as disciples by producing the kind of fruit that is clear in conscience, and pure in heart, life and motive.
Let’s take that down to the personal level. What kind of suffering has been pounding on us these days? It is not coming from God and Jesus is fully transparent that he will not take our suffering away. Rather, Jesus is clear by reminding us how can we allow the Holy Spirit to help us be more fruitful. As Jesus said, the people of God will be “known by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16).
In other words, are we presenting ourselves to the world as beautiful yet opaque bottles? I got it together yet inside I am rotten fish guts, full of hatred, sin and revenge, full of hypocrisy? Or, are we fruitful by being honest and transparent not as a diorama of stiff saints but as a hospital of the living but broken? Inviting the world to see the vision of the one who loves us, cares for us and employs us?
As disciples let us trust in faith and respond with honesty and transparency, even when others are trying to dump the spiritual equivalent of toxic coal tar into our life. Suffering is just one aspect of the Christian life, but the way we react to it can make a difference. Jesus at the inception of his public ministry modeled honesty and transparency, let us not take it for granted. May we follow the way of the cross. Amen.

"A Disaster Map and Action Plan" - 1/27/2019

Sermon based on Luke 4: 14-21 shared at Hope Lutheran Church.

It wasn’t too long ago that we here in Texas were watching Hurricane Harvey slamming into the gulf coast, the Rockport/Victoria area and then swerving over to do major damage to the greater Houston area. Not only did that hurricane cause a great deal of damage, it taught us a great deal, like how much of Houston’s rapid growth is built on flood plains. But we were also reminded of another fact, the benefit of social media.
In a massive disaster like Harvey, one of the greatest challenges for aid agencies is finding displaced people who need to be rescued. Ordinary phone lines are down, and the few cell towers still operating can be overwhelmed with voice calls. Even when voice calls do get through, the survivors may be on the move. For rescue workers, knowing yesterday’s --- location is of little use.
But voice calls are not the only communications carried over cell towers. Many social-media users, such as Facebook customers, have their location services turned on. Without them even being aware of it, our mobile phones are constantly sending identifying signals to cell towers, and Facebook’s servers are triangulating our location. Often, those tiny pips of data get through when voice calls do not.
Realizing the value of their location data to rescue workers, Facebook’s Data for Good Division has a service called Disaster Maps. During a disaster like Harvey, Facebook aggregated the location data of all its customers and reported those overall trends to government agencies and NGOs coordinating the emergency response. Disaster Maps was able to tell officials during and after the hurricane where the largest the survivors were located or where they were headed.
I don’t mean to laud Facebook as the abuse of our data is of major concern, but there are some benefits when disaster strikes.
What is interesting is that in today’s gospel, in a day and an age when social media was nonexistent, Jesus places himself on a map and provides us a plan for his ministry. The map is not at the centers of power, Rome or even Jerusalem.
The author of the gospel of Luke begins by telling us that Jesus is “filled with the power of the Spirit.” The author of Luke by the way, loves this phrase. It is Luke’s way of communicating to us readers that Jesus is about God’s business. We are also told that Jesus is in Galilee, teaching in “their synagogues.” This is another unique feature to Luke. Jesus is a devout Jew --- he went to the synagogue on the sabbath “as was his custom.” The author also informs us that Jesus’ mission thus far has met with astounding success.
But then, the author quickly narrows from Galilee to Nazareth to synagogue. In a broad sense we can understand why the author wants to get to the point quickly. This is a big deal, by stepping up to read and preach, Jesus begins his public ministry. You can tell Luke notes its importance by the way the author narrates it. Sometimes in scripture, whole centuries can pass in a sentence. Here, the action slows way down with seemingly everybody movement noted. Jesus “went in.” He “arose to read.” The book of Isaiah “was given.” He opened the book. He found the place.
As many of you know, in any work of great literature, the first statement by the main character has special import. That is likewise the case here. Though the book of Isaiah “was given to him,” Jesus chose which passage to read, and the first words of his public ministry were those of Isaiah, specifically most of 61:1-2 with dashes of Isaiah 58.
And what else catches our attention is the accent of the first three phrases for it is on Jesus himself: “The Spirit...is upon me...for (the Spirit) has anointed me... (the Spirit) has sent me.” This is of course, establishes a firm link between the anointing of Jesus, his being “in the Spirit” and being about God’s business.
But it is the second half, the disaster map and his plan for ministry that caught my attention this past week. Reading from Isaiah, Jesus declares that the Holy Spirit has anointed him “to bring good news to the poor ... to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.” For the people of God, his mission is to proclaim good news, announcing “the year of the Lord’s favor” (vv. 18-19).
Jesus is laying out his where he sees that disaster and what he will do. In other words, centuries before our smartphone era, Jesus demonstrates an unerring awareness of where the hurting people are and what they most desperately need.
Even after he’s become “Jesus Christ Superstar” in the eyes of the awestruck multitudes, he’s grounded enough to stop and speak personally with the woman who touches the fringe of his robe or visit Mary and Martha at the death of his friend and their brother Lazarus. His feeding of the 5,000 would have left even the most efficient Red Cross canteen operator standing slack-jawed in awe. Our Lord, however, is no mere aggregator of data, Jesus is a hands-on healer and helper, a spiritual --- sometimes even material --- first responder to the “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” according to Matthew 9.
Not only do we find out today his disaster map and plan for ministry as Jesus closes his remarks, Luke again slows the action down to include Jesus' body movements. “He closed,” “gave”, “sat down.” This gives the remarks additional importance and provides a time for the reader to integrate what has just been said for “the eyes of all...were gazing intently upon him.” Jesus gives what is perhaps the shortest sermon ever: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your ears.” The word “today” appears twelve times in Luke's gospel. Fulfillment is a present reality. Today, means today.
What does this have to do with us. Well, practically speaking this means that Jesus’ disaster map and plan for ministry is ours as well. By his example, Jesus calls us to become first responders, too. Remember his words to Peter in that miraculous scene on the seashore following his resurrection? After feeding his friends barbecued filet of fish, Jesus asks the fisherman a simple question. He repeats it three times for emphasis. “Simon son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” “Then feed my lambs” (John 21:15).
As Jesus prepares to depart this earth, he knows his days of grilling fish will soon be over. But his mission to the lost and lonely, the homeless and the hurting, remains more vital and more urgent than ever.
Now as I suspect many of us are probably good with this. The first response to a disaster is often a compassionate, rescuing response. We Christians, particularly as Lutherans are very good at charity. Jesus, however, is more than a carrier of charity to people and places of disaster.
It’s the second part of his response, which is more challenging because after the floodwaters have subsided or the wildfire has burned itself out, another sort of response is called for: the preventive response. After the mine closes or the factory is boarded up in an economically depressed community, the first-response services of a food pantry may be much appreciated, but charity is not a permanent solution to hunger.
Not only did Jesus follow a disaster map he had an action plan, so not only did call up words of encouragement to Zacchaeus, but think about why was Zacchaeus the tax collector hated in the first place? It wasn’t simply that he collected taxes for the Romans but also his corruption. Jesus challenged and addressed the cause of people’s pain, the corrupt actions of Zacchaeus. When Jesus stormed into the temple courts, interrupted the business of the day by overturning tables, yelling, and driving both people and animals out of the courtyards using a whip, he was condemning the greed and corruption of political and religious leaders.
There’s a little parable that I have heard expressed in a variety of ways but let me share an old version. A man was relaxing beside a fast-flowing river one day. He looked up and noticed a baby in a basket quickly floating down the water toward him. Of course, he waded into the water and pulled the baby out. Then another baby floated down to him, and then another. It became apparent that something upstream was happening and casting babes into the stream.
What is the most faithful response to the problem? One response is charity, pulling the helpless babies out of the water one by one. And an additional response is to hike upstream and discover why the babies are in the water in the first place.
Unlike Facebook’s Disaster Maps --- which rightly knows that hurricanes and earthquakes are forces of nature beyond our control --- there are some human disasters Christ’s church can and is to directly address. We have many ways to do so but one mentioned often comes in the form of fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Have you ever noticed that all of fruits of the spirit include some type of action? To be kind, to love, to share peace, to model patience and self-control and in order to do so, we are to confront those who do not love, or share peace.
Think about it, many of the great social-reform movements of past years have been spearheaded by who --- Christian disciples. The abolition of slavery is a notable example. The abolitionist movement would never have succeeded were it not for people of faith responding not only in charity but also in action. England’s William Wilberforce, who labored for decades to convince Parliament to ban slavery in the British Empire, was a devout Christian. So were the Quakers and others who operated Underground Railroad stations. So, too, was Presbyterian minister Elijah Parish Lovejoy who was murdered in Alton, Illinois, defending his printing press from an anti-slavery mob. It took faithful Christians praying for, educating, confronting and convincing and cajoling the Christians of the south to stop interpreting scripture to support slavery. It can messy for example, the Presbyterian church split between the north and the south over this very fight.
Just last week we remembered the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. The civil rights movement is the most notable example in recent memory of people of faith rallying to fight against voter suppression, segregation and racism in non-violent opposition. The recent resurgence of white-supremacy groups shows how much that work continues to be needed today.
And recently people of faith --- especially those of the younger generation --- are deeply engaged today in Earth care organizations that are courageously naming and fighting the causes of climate change as well as the welcome, inclusion and celebration of LGBTQIA+. In all those cases the fruits of the spirit lived out through charity and action is following Jesus at the local level.
I grew up in the old world of folding gas-station road maps, so I am easily impressed by the way that Google Maps, for example can zoom in, with just a few mouse-clicks, from a very large-scale view to a local perspective. For those who don’t know once the map is zoomed in to a given locality, it’s possible to switch over into Street View. In my opinion, that’s when Google Maps really shines; Street View makes it seem like we’re there, like we would see from our own car window.
But Google Maps isn’t always accurate. In 2010, a detachment of Nicaraguan troops crossed the San Juan River that separates their country from Costa Rica and planted the Nicaraguan flag on an island. It was by accident because while they were looking for a place to make camp, the soldiers were relying on Google Maps, which clearly placed the island on the Nicaraguan side of the border. The Costa Rican authorities were not amused. Fortunately, after the Nicaraguans apologized, a serious international incident was averted.
As faithful followers of Christ, it is at the street view where our charity and our actions mean the most. Today, Jesus begins his public ministry proclaiming what he will be doing for the roughly next three years. The same is with us. The real street view is right out on Callaghan; our disaster map and action plan. The Spirit of the Lord is upon us. The Spirit of the Lord has anointed us. The way of the cross includes charity and action on the street. Amen.

"A Beloved Household of God" - 1/13/2019

Sermon preached at Hope Lutheran Church based on the Gospel, Luke 3.

When we adopted our two daughters, we spent a lot of time on their names. We wanted names to fit their Chinese/American identity and were not too long.
Our first decision had to do with their last name. For those who are not aware my wife and I followed the practice of my northern European heritage where women did not necessarily change their last name upon marriage. My wife has kept her last name of Borstad. So, when it came to our daughters, we decided that if we were going to live in the United States it would be easier to have their last name of Fredrickson.
Next, we wanted to continue to use their Chinese names in some way. We chose to use their Chinese first names, as their middle names.
However, it was it their first names that took the most time. After a lot of back and forth between my wife and I, a few resources we consulted as well as our mutual family trees, we ultimately decided on Mari for my oldest and Anna for my youngest. “Mari,” a form of Mary and “Anna” are both relatively common first names in Northern Europe and would fit the last name of Fredrickson. But their first names are also translatable and transferrable. Mari is how the Chinese translate Mary and Anna are found in the Mandarin version of the stories in Luke in the Bible.
Not everyone takes that amount of time on names, like the woman who named her baby Female (pronounced feh-MAH-lee) for no other reason than that it was on the newborn’s wristband. Another couple also after some time in the hospital, named their child Urine (pronounced yuREEN). One couple I heard decided to pick a random middle name, and so they settled on Random. And of course, here in Texas we have the famous Governor James Stephen Hogg and his wife Sarah who named their daughter Ima.
I have been thinking about names because of our Gospel. Not only are names and their meanings common in biblical times but names provided some identity. For example, if you read the footnotes of your Bible, they will often explain the meaning of various names. Aaron means “teacher” or “mountain of strength.” Isaac means “laughter.” John comes from “the grace or mercy of the Lord.”
Biblical names also carried an identity; A hoped-for destiny. In Matthew we are reminded that “She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Although the name “Jesus” was as common in that day as Michael, John or David, the meaning Jesus had was entirely uncommon. Jesus literally means “salvation” or “the Lord saves.” In this case, his name and his life were one; they show his meaning, identity and destiny.
This has meaning for us, in the season of Epiphany, when we affirm the combination of not only Jesus his identity but affirm but his title as “Christ, the Messiah.” In Luke’s version of the story of Jesus’ baptism not only do we recognize the shining forth of God to humanity in human form, but we hear captured an element of his destiny as the Messiah.
It begins today, as we hear today, with John the forbearer, unfurling God’s ultimate plan for redemption. John was then --- as we would probably see today --- as somewhat of an oddity in society --- dressed in camel hair and eating locusts and wild honey. We also get the sense that --- now as then --- that wild look in his eyes bore the divine authority of prophecy. He was a man on a mission.
We are also informed that this John toured about the countryside, smashing societal conventions not only through his clothing but what he said. John said, that this redemption plan of God’s would not come through a redeemed religion or a redeemed ancestry. It would come through the very Epiphany of Redemption.
John went about “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” The messiah, John said, wanted their public proclamation of their brokenness and need. This messiah would be a righter of wrongs who would level the playing field between spiritual haves and have-nots. All people could access this salvation from God, and so even tax collectors --- our modern-day terrorists and death-row murderers --- even those people could be baptized by John and have their identity realigned.
We are told that in response to John, “the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah.” But John said that he was not to be named the “messiah.” Nor was John baptizing them in his name --- in his identity --- in his destiny. Instead, “Christ” the anointed, John knew would be the one. “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
So, as the people entered the waters with John, he baptized them into this kingdom coming. Into this Name which would one day arrive.
And then one day … the Name appeared.
We get so little of Jesus before today. A baby Jesus, a circumcision, a refugee, a 12-year-old in the temple, and then quickly we have gone through the sands of time and suddenly we have an adult man, a roughly 30-year-old Jesus leaving his home in Galilee and entering his life of public ministry. We are told that Jesus came to the Jordan to be baptized by John as well --- a symbol of his inauguration of the kingdom --- his identity as its King.
God, however, would not have an ordinary coming-out naming party for his Son. God made it spectacular. As Jesus emerges from the waters of baptism, God attended through a supernatural manifestation of his Spirit and through words each of us would be giddy to hear: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” “Salvation” is called “Beloved.” While Jesus was being baptized, his Father named him Beloved and showered him with pleasure. But what is also interesting is that this naming of Jesus today as beloved, means something for all of us as well.
What might it mean? Well, in today’s naming of Jesus we get the inauguration of what will be our identity in baptism. It is a family name without a name; a family of “faith.” Certainly, Jesus had a nuclear family in Mary and Joseph and siblings. Also, Jesus grew up, lived and died a Jew. For example, shortly we will hear that when he returns to Nazareth his former neighbors exclaim, “isn’t this Joseph’s son and aren’t his mother and siblings here with us?” But that is not the only identity we hear today.
When we adopted our daughters, it was important to include a family name. Somewhere in my distinct past I had an ancestor who was Fredrick --- and in that culture the son took on the father’s first name and added “son” --- and became Friedeksson. It was the same for the women, “dottir” or daughter added to Fredrick would be Friedeksdottir and would remain unchanged.
Today we hear that the public identification with family is important and pleasing to God. But the family name we are talking about of course is not one designed by biology, ethnicity, sexuality or gender, Jew or gentile, rather it is the family of God, i.e., a family of faith.
Second, in Jesus’ baptism we see the signs that this naming includes a kingdom. At our wedding my wife and I formed a new family. We certainly came from families but in marriage we established a new household. Later, after we realized that biological children were a challenge, we chose adoption. Our daughters then became part of our household, “our kingdom” with rights and responsibilities. Similarly, today, God confirms that Jesus is part of a family and kingdom. This household of God, this kingdom has business in the world. It has work to do with rights and responsibilities. As the author of the gospel of John would quote Jesus reminding us: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (13:35).
Now we could spend time what it means to be part of this household, this kingdom but for us 21st century Americans, let me mention one important aspect. God’s household includes some distinctly unfavorable people and as you notice Jesus didn’t say distance yourself from Judas so they will know you aren’t whacky, too. Likewise, this kingdom includes people I personally have difficulty with, people I consider outright racists and homophobes. A symptom of that is Sunday’s mornings are most divided hours in the US.
The tax collectors were baptized by John, and then Jesus was. Our family name is “Beloved” and just like our human families, it may have a few characters as well --- relatives we wish would just go away. Yet, we all have rights and responsibilities, along with vocations, in this household of God, this Kingdom of God bound by God’s forgiveness and love.
And finally, one other aspect that we remember and see in Jesus baptism is that it reminds us what baptism means for us. It isn’t a hoop to jump through and a box to check. It isn’t a spiritual security blanket for our children. It isn’t a religious routine that just goes with the territory or because we don’t want to hurt grandma’s feelings.
Jesus goes into the waters of baptism to publicly affirm that he identifies who he is and whom God has made him to be. So, by the same token an important aspect of Baptism in not only do we recognize the baptized persons place in the family, we agree with them that they are God’s and God is theirs. And we agree with them that we engage in a lifelong commitment to grow in our faith asking for and trusting in forgiveness. It is a means of grace as we grow in rights and responsibilities.
That is why when children have an opportunity to affirm their faith, they join us in affirming a faith every day. And affirmation even through death, that in faith we have an identity, eternal to which we belong. Throughout this journey our baptismal destiny as part of God’s eternal family is celebrated.
We can be such insecure, approval-seeking people. Our clothes have labels, our honor-roll children have bumper stickers, our titles put letters behind our names, we idolize the most handsome or most beautiful. There is a corner of cyberspace that many of us call social media whether Facebook or snapchat or Instagram where we can carve out as our own --- our pictures, our music, our quotes, our blogs and journals --- and to cap it off, a counter numbering all those who have added us as their friends and a place where they can leave us messages.
But before cyberspace was even invented God provided a way for us to know we are liked, even more so, beloved. Much of social media is a way for to impress, add our voice, distinguish ourselves and gain approval, but in Baptism God identifies us and call us into a family and kingdom with right and responsibilities.
Meaning, if we are good enough for God, we are good enough.
In following God, through the baptismal waters, we are given God’s name --- God’s meaning, God’s identity, God’s destiny.
After the naming event, Jesus left the water and went ashore and started living out his identity and name. May we sisters and brothers rise and bear the family name as we live out the grace of God! Amen.

Janus Faith - 1/6/2019

Sermon presented at Hope Lutheran Church on January 6, 2019 based on Matthew 2: 1-12. 

Here we are in transition. Last year you and I experienced some changes with the retirements of both Pastor Bill and Music Director Vicky during the summer. I experienced a departure from Good Shepherd to serve as your transitional part time pastor beginning in late July. Together we are exploring the development of a parish among this and the other three congregations on the northwest side of San Antonio.
So, it was some trepidation that I begin my sermon this morning by reminding you that in some ways, January is an exciting month because we are in tension, but not for what you may think on this, the first worship of 2019.
In fact, the name of this month not only has associations with tension, but it goes along with the concepts of beginnings, doorways, openings, and gateways while simultaneously with a foot firmly rooted in the past.
First some background. There’s little doubt that the name of our month of January derives from the Roman god Janus. Janus is usually depicted as having two faces, one looking to the past and one to the future. But before we jump to the conclusion, “That is why January is the beginning of the year!” we would be wrong.
What we often forget is that the Roman calendar (from the Latin calends) began with March, not January. And that makes sense because for the Romans, the months before January were numbers 7, 8, 9 and 10 --- and thus you all who have some Spanish ability recognize --- September comes from septem, October from octo, November from novem and December from decem, Latin for “ten.”
Why the names and numbers on the months no longer match is that in 1582, Pope Gregory adjusted the calendar so that January became the first month of the year. And in 1752, the British and the colonies adopted the same calendar which we call the Gregorian calendar.
That of course means very little for us today except for as I said we have an opportunity to understand this “tension” between the past and future through the eyes of faith.
Janus as I mentioned is usually depicted with two faces, one looking toward the past and the other toward the future. And in some ways, this is where we are today. We are “Janus” like, alive in this tension between the past and future. We are looking ahead and wondering what’s next. “What will this year bring forth? What can I reasonably expect?” And perhaps we’re also wondering, “Where is God leading us? What can we do better to utilize our gifts in the kingdom of God?” Likewise, we have our eyes on the past with longing and sadness as well fondness for what was.
Into this discussion, the Bible can help us, particularly, the story of the Magi. Because it is through the eyes and experiences of these foreigners, traveling from their native lands, east to west, that we can learn as we live in this tension.
The “magi,” not so much kings as our sending hymn our 18th century folk song suggests. More than likely they originated from a priestly class. Therefore, they were sorcerers, fortune-tellers, astrologers. They represent the “wisdom of the east.” Which in of itself is interesting because as you may know, Judaism and Christianity traditionally did not and do not care that much for fortune-tellers and astrology. If you are wondering why, Leviticus 19 is but one example. And to clarify we don’t know how many Magi there actually where, we go along with Longfellow’s famous poem, there were three because of the number of gifts. But perhaps the Orthodox churches have it right and there were twelve.
Whatever the number, the author of Matthew presents them as a bit innocent. They seem naive about Herod, and the political and social culture they enter, though they followed generally the proper trajectory --- east to west --- they wind up nine miles off, to Jerusalem instead of Bethlehem.
Yet it is there in Jerusalem that we are told, the magi tell King Herod about the birth of a “king of the Jews.” What a shock for these foreigners to tell Herod this because that of course is the title which technically belonged to Herod. But we digress for however innocent there were, they came following what they had believed a star had told them.
Now King Herod and the people of that day would not have been surprised at the mention of a natal star. The births of Pliny and Alexander the Great had supposedly been attended by astral events. Virgil notes that a star led Aeneas to the place where the city of Rome was to be founded.
More importantly however, at the news Herod we are told is agitated, troubled, filled with inner turmoil --- “and all Jerusalem with him.” Jerusalem as you may remember was a “company town,” dominated by the Temple bureaucracy, the king and their overseers, the Romans. So, when the king gets nervous, the whole city gets nervous. A “king of the Jews" other than Herod could be upsetting.
In response, Herod does what all of us can resonate with, he mines the past, trusts in what he knows. He calls the experts together --- “the chief priests and scribes.” Not so much unlike ourselves when confronted by something that throws us off balance; don’t we look to mine the past for answers. The “chief priests and scribes” provide an appropriate citation. The central text appears to be Micah 5: 2: “But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me, one who is to rule in Israel.”
Now after the past has given direction, we move but not without an interesting query; Herod quizzes the magi on the time the star appeared. Why is this important and how is it that everyone but these Magi missed this visible star we are left in the dark, nonetheless their response establishes a range of age that will set the stage for what happens in the section that follows: Herod's slaughter of the innocents. All born within two years of this “exact time” will be killed.
And perhaps using their naivety, Herod sends the magi to Bethlehem with his permission with the condition that they supply him information about the child. He wants to “worship” him, he says, but, of course, he really wants to eliminate this rival. Lying and violence go together. They are “business as usual” all under the guise of honoring the past. The magi seem to go along with this. They go interrupted by the star, which returns to guide them to the child.
We are then told that the magi see the child --- Mary is mentioned via preposition, and Joseph not at all --- and they worship. We are also told that gifts were presented. The magi bring gold and frankincense, which recalls Isaiah 60:6 --- “they shall bring gold and frankincense.” But those well-known gifts fit for a king also include myrrh, a very expensive perfume used by the Romans to mask the smell of decaying corpses. Why is this third gift included? It is as many have wondered does it portend the future --- that Jesus will die on the cross.
Before the magi take their leave, they receive a dream which tells them to avoid Herod, and they go home “by a different way.” The magi are led and instructed by God onto a new path.
Again, how does this story help us? Astrologists from the East recognizing what in hidden right before everyone? Magi giving gifts fit for a king and the dead?
In this final story regarding his birth we have a reminder of what the 20th-century Quaker theologian Elton Trueblood called the “holy conjunction” this tension between the coming together of “and:” Christ’s humanity and divinity, king and messiah, roots and fruits, the life of devotion and the life of service.
The late M. Scott Peck, a psychiatrist and best-selling author who wrote a lot about religious themes, took this idea of the holy conjunction further. He argued that the ability to integrate faith and reason into our lives is part of what constitutes integrity. Like the magi, “instead of an either/or style, we are pushing for both/and thinking. We are not trying to get rid of reason but promote ‘reason plus.’ Reason and mystery. Reason and emotion. Reason and intuition. Reason and revelation. Reason and wisdom. Reason and love.”
In other words, in the magi we have the conjunction of reason and mystery and in Herod we have the unwillingness to live in this tension and the threat it brings with the temptation to respond with lies and violence.
Another name for what Peck is talking about is the tension of opposites. It is this Janus-like looking backward/forward of this month: an exercise in seeing our opposites in tension; our beliefs and our actions often seem at odds or our strengths appear at times to be cancelled out by our weaknesses; our habits by change.
Parker J. Palmer, who writes on spirituality, says that more than once he “despaired at the corrosive effect” upon his life of his contradictions. He explains, “I had thought that living spiritually required a resolution of all contraries and tensions before one could hope, as it were, to earn one’s wings.” But he says that as he labored to remove these contradictions before presenting himself to God, he eventually realized he had to become less focused on the contradictions in his life and more focused on what God wanted him to be. “Perhaps,” he concluded, “contradictions are not impediments to the spiritual life, but an integral part of it. Through them we may learn that the power for life comes from God, not from us.”
We have placed January as our cultural beginning, but we would be amiss if we were not to be honest and see our tensions this new year; neither complacent about the places where we fall short, but fearful of what change in the power of God might mean. The foreign magi were comfortable living in that tension of reason and mystery but not Israel at the time of Jesus.
Let us therefore once again this Janus day, neither deny nor exalt in our contradictions --- are we foreign Magi who recognize Jesus/or are we so into our American culture we do not recognize Jesus --- but more importantly let us recognize and live into these tensions between our dreams and deeds and count on the grace of God each day. Paul would later explain it this way to the Philippians, “Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”
The ancient Roman god Janus along with our gospel story reminds us that six days into 2019, on the first day of new season, while we know we have not yet reached the goal of full identification with Christ, let us press on for we are in Christ. Let us live into the tension between our dreams and deeds and live on Jesus. Christmas is over and now is the time to leave from the manager a different way than the way we came.
Today, this is more necessary than ever. At Hope do we live out as a church with habits of the past or live into the unknown because Christ Jesus has made us his own? This question can be one for us as citizens, can we be politically conservative and advocate for social justice? Can we be politically liberal and promote personal responsibility?
In our story of the magi can we be foreigners and recognize the reason and mystery of the Christ child? Can we both give and leave our gifts and go a different way? As Martin Luther put it, can we be simultaneously saint and sinner?
Let us live into this two-faced Janus for in faithful living will we find grace for the new year as we are Christ’s own. Amen.

"Our Song" - 12/23/2018

Sermon presented at Hope Lutheran Church on December 23, 2018, 4th Sunday of Advent based on the Gospel Luke 1: 46-55. Recently, I had an interesting experience that I have not had in a long time. We were invited to someone’s home for fellowship but that was not what was different. What was interesting was that we had group singing! Over refreshments and before a light dinner, we sang Christmas carols at someone’s home!
Group singing is rapidly becoming a lost art in our wired culture. I am thankful for our shared ministry “beer and hymns” events we had this past year, but I realize that are some of you who remember the singalongs around a piano in someone’s living room or a church hall. That’s a pleasure largely lost on most of us who are younger.
In thinking about that experience, I also realized that as 21st century Americans, there are just four occasions --- outside of hymn-singing in church and perhaps at a concert with our favorite performer --- when we typically consent to turn off the TV, or remove the earbuds, stow the smartphone and join our neighbors --- in song.
The first one I thought of is the solemn observance we share: singing the National Anthem together at a sporting event or community gathering. The second time we seem to sing together is during the seventh-inning stretch at a baseball game. Against all odds, at the first stanza of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” --- a pop song of a bygone era --- people join in. The third is at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve. Although the Scottish dialect of “Auld Lang Syne” is largely incomprehensible to many, it is the one foreign language song that some will cheerfully mumble their way through it --- maybe it is the champagne that helps. I wonder if we should try some prosecco or champagne at church to help our church singing?
But it is the fourth national if not international song that I think is truly the one where even the most diehard, “I can’t sing” person will join. The fourth is “Happy Birthday to You” just before the guest of honor blows out the candles on the cake.
It is this fourth one, that I have been thinking about as we approach Christmas for some obvious and less obvious reasons. There’s something very personal, even intimate, about singing “Happy Birthday to You.” Unlike the other numbers in our oh-so-limited national American songbook, this is the only song directed to an individual. It is not directed to support patriotism, each other or a seventh inning stretch. Rather it is a song which the whole gang may cheerfully join, in a personal way by name!
We do remember and observe the birthdays of some people we don’t know personally, mainly because there are Monday holidays associated with them ---George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. --- but if it weren’t for the day off from work, even those would probably escape our attention.
The other big public birthday celebration, of course, is Christmas. The irony here, though, is that nobody knows when Jesus’ real birthday is. December 25th was chosen by the early church, several generations later, to blunt and co-opt the impact of the Roman winter solstice celebrations. As the pagans in the northern hemisphere celebrated the coming of the sun, it was easy for Christians to celebrate the birth of the Son of Righteousness.
That is why today’s gospel reading is so interesting because for Christians. “Happy Birthday” is not the preferred song as we prepare for God to blow life into this world. Rather we have a new song, the Magnificat, Mary’s song.
Fortunately for Mary, she has a home to go to sing, a place where she receives a warm welcome. Although we don’t include the back story, her older cousin Elizabeth is also expecting. Whatever her neighbors in Nazareth may be whispering about her, she knows she and Elizabeth will have much to talk about.
Elizabeth receives her with the warmest possible greeting: “Blessed are you...” It’s not the sort of thing people typically said to an unmarried teenage mother. No, the people around such a young woman are more likely to say, “Cursed are you. Cursed are you, to have brought such a fate down upon yourself and upon this family.” Elizabeth, however, has no such reservations. She welcomes her relative with open arms. She blesses her.
Mary’s not the only one who can sense the blessing in this upcoming birthday. Elizabeth does too. Between them, they have more than enough faith to see this thing through, giving life to both Jesus and John: two men who, between them, will change the world. It couldn’t have happened, though, without the faithful vision of Mary and Elizabeth, enabling them to bear the burden of this birthday. It is to this welcome from Elizabeth that Mary sings.
Now we know that there are of course several others what are called songs in the Bible, poetic words without the music. In the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament, there are the songs of Moses (Ex 15: 1-18), Miriam (Ex 15: 19-21), Deborah (Ju 5:1-31), and Hannah (1 Sam 2:1-10). And there are a couple more in the New Testament all found in Luke who will besides Mary’s Song provide three more, the song of Zechariah (1:67-79), Simeon (2:28-32), and that of “a multitude of the heavenly host” (2:15).
But it is this song, commonly called “the Magnificat” that we are all encouraged to group sing along with today. It is a song where Mary in the first part (1:47-50) speaks of what God has done for her. What does God do for Mary? God “…has looked upon the humiliation of his servant, for behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed...” In first century Israel, one could hardly be more humiliated than to be a dirt-poor, unmarried, teenage woman.
Yet, “behold!”, Mary exclaims. “Behold” is an important word. It signals: “Pay special attention.” “From now on” --- from hitting bottom onward --- everyone “will call me blessed.” Mary’s relative Elizabeth had already done so, and repeatedly, but now everyone will.
“...for the Powerful One has done great for me and holy his name, and his mercy (is) into generations and generations, to the ones fearing him...” Mary concludes her own personal exaltation of God for doing “great for me.” She then celebrates God's mercy far into the future.
In the second half (1:51-55), Mary speaks of what God has done for Israel and the world, a theme that we will hear repeated throughout Luke; the proud, the powerful, and the rich are the opponents of Jesus. But now in Mary's child, God has intervened on behalf of the “lowly” and the “hungry.” God lifts them up, but “scatters the proud ones,” “destroys the powerful ones,” and “sends away empty” the rich.
Mary is singing that God has a “preferential option for the poor.” God is always on the side of those on the bottom, those who are excluded, those left out. It is of course, not that the poor will suddenly become materially rich, rather that God is about justice. Yet, God does not triumph over the rich and powerful in a vindictive way, but rather as a loving parent. God wants the rich and powerful to change, like Zacchaeus and join the mission of the kingdom.
What this group song reminds us is that this is how God triumphs. God triumphs not through violence. Violence is the way of the powers of this world, and of evil and is their customary pattern. God, however, triumphs through compassion and love.
So, as Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth, she sings her own birthday song. Unlike however when we sing “Happy Birthday to you…” Mary’s anthem of God’s triumph is not without its dark themes --- the scattering of the proud, the fall of kings. What a burden she must bear! Yet, what a blessing she discerns during it all.
On this 4th Sunday of Advent, can this be our song as well? Absolutely for all of us have been lifted, no matter the depth of where we are or where people or society have put us, we are lifted by God’s love, forgiveness and grace. Or perhaps we are the rich, reminded to walk in the steps of Jesus. Today Mary teaches us a new song, that not only does God not care about our wealth, what we have or have not achieved, God prefers the poor.
When Mary’s sings todays, there is a so much behind it. For example, Jesus’ upcoming birthday is a burden for Mary and Joseph, no doubt about it. The news of Mary’s pregnancy during her betrothal period sets off a minor scandal. It nearly leads to a breakup of her relationship with Joseph. As so often happens with awkward pregnancies everywhere, Mary travels away from home for a while. Whether her parents arrange to have her sent away, or through Joseph’s insistence or whether she undertakes the journey on her own, no one knows and is left unsaid. This journey could very well be that everyone needs to get a little distance from each other to sort out this ambiguous news --- a mixture of joy and anxiety.
This is where it returns to us. It is a mixture of joy and anxiety for us who live 21 centuries post-Birthday to remember it’s not always an easy thing to glimpse God’s promise in these days. It is hard to join in group singing.
It’s so much easier to avoid the truth and focus on the veneer, the things the world is fond of seeing this time of year. The promise of the secular Christmas is merrymaking --- without true joy. It’s a profusion of material goods --- bereft of spiritual values. It’s frantic, scurrying people grasping --- all the while failing to celebrate gifts of the Spirit they’ve already been offered in abundance.
Faced with the onslaught of Christmas materialism, it’s easy to avoid singing during the holiday. It is easier to complain. We complain about Christmas trees going up in department stores before Halloween. We complain of how “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” so often seem to drown out “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and “Silent Night.” We complain about people rightly pointing out that the words to “Baby, it’s cold outside” has a much darker meaning 50 plus years later. We complain that the holiday seems to have hijacked the holy day.
Well, these things are all true, but if we let our distaste for all that birthday materialism eclipse the deeper meaning of Christmas found in Mary’s song, then this birthday will lose it depth and simply become another “Happy Birthday.”
In just a day, we will be singing Christmas carols. Within days we will sing for a new year. Bowl games will begin with our national anthem.
It is today, in this Christmas group song from Mary that we truly are blessed. Blessed are we, as we walk through these final days of Advent with eyes wide open to the signs of God’s presence for the lowly --- and God’s promise to the rich and powerful --- ready to sing along with Mary. Amen.

"Fear" - 12/16/2018

Sermon based on Zephaniah 3:14-20 and Luke 3:7-18 shared at Hope Lutheran Church.

“Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”
That line is from the carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” It is a wonderful image of eternal light beaming from a stable setting where the Christ child dozes. But did you do what most of us do, not really hear that line? Hope springs eternal from this birth to a world where hope so often seems in short supply …. but fears? “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” What does fears have to do with Christmas?
The history of the carol provides a hint. It was written in 1868 by the famed Episcopal pastor of Trinity Church in Boston, Rev. Phillips Brooks. As you may have noticed it was 150 years ago and the American Civil War had ended only three years earlier. Yes, Lee and Grant had signed their peace accord. Yes, battle-weary veterans from both sides had laid down their arms and trudged home. But just imagine, families had been decimated by the carnage of the most brutal war America had ever known. Families counted themselves lucky if those returning had come home lacking an arm or a leg or an eye or shivering with PTSD. They knew their loved ones could just as easily have not come home at all. Major portions of this nation still lay in ruins, the KKK was growing in power and influence and President Andrew Johnson --- regarded by many historians as our nation’s worst --- was doing his best to dismantle everything his predecessor President Lincoln had accomplished for former slaves at such a terrible human cost.
Therefore, when Rev. Brooks wrote the lyrics to what became “O little town of Bethlehem,” it gave war torn Americans some comfort to picture the humble Bethlehem stable as the place where hope and fear meet each other in the Christ child. Almost seems quaint --- but is it? Although most of us ignore the lyrics of what we sing, I wonder if it is important to review why fear is included at all?
Do we have fears? Our answers, no doubt, are probably as varied as our numbers this Sunday morning. Now I don’t want to engage in a debate into what is real or imagined because public perceptions do not match reality. Although you and I are largely safer and on average will live longer than fifty years ago I sense most of us would say these are anxious times. Whether rich or poor, employed or unemployed, member of the majority or minority, the cacophonous “Isn’t it awful?” refrain of our American society pounds its way into our hearts and minds.
Now if you are still wondering what that has to do with preparing for Christmas look again at our gospel and John the Baptist. How can that voice crying in the wilderness be something other than a bump in the road. It seems quite the opposite from anything Christmas: “Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Well, if you haven’t figured it out yet, let me let you in on a little secret, Christmas is as much about fear as it is about hope; we cannot have one without being honest of the other.
We do not vanquish fear by denying or avoiding it for fear is as much a part of the Christmas story as peace and joy. By acknowledging our fears, it will help us prepare for what comes. It is only by moving through our fears can we fully grasp the joy that awaits us on the other side, the triumphant good news of the Christ child coming into the world.
We see that played out in today’s scripture not only in Luke but in our Old Testament lesson as well. If you ever wonder, why Lutherans bother to read from the Old Testament, this week is a good reminder. The author of the gospel according to Luke seems to be trafficking in fear while the Zephaniah passage sounds a note of triumphant hope: “The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more.”
Not that Zephaniah’s larger prophecy is all sweetness and light. Like his contemporary the prophet Jeremiah, Zephaniah earlier voices the message of an angry God seemingly with words that John the Baptist could have repeated: “On that day, says the Lord ... I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the people who rest complacently …., those who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will he do harm.’”
Those words from over three thousand years ago could be an indictment of our culture. How many of our neighbors respond to God with a shrug, “The Lord will not do good, nor will God do harm”? How many of us feel the same? But that is the point of Zephaniah and John the Baptist, if we do not grapple with our fears honestly, we will certainly not be able to understand a God of love.
Now if you are wondering how is it that John’s and Zephaniah’s words that seem more about judgement help us to understand our fears? I know I am getting ahead of myself, but we hear it in the angel’s repeated greeting: “Do not be afraid.” To Joseph, to Mary, to Zechariah, to Elizabeth, to the Shepherds, just go down the list of Christmas characters. What is said to all of them, “Do not be afraid!”
There is the obvious, an angelic presence might have seemed startling, but fear is about the future. We humans have a negativity bias. Our brains pay more attention to the negative situations, experiences and information in life than the positive. It’s easy to imagine a future of gloom and doom rather than to imagine a positive and happy one. So for example, God sends a message about the future and we imagine ---- gloom and doom.
Second, fear is about loss. We fear change. We fear the end of things. We fear that someone we love will leave us or die. We fear losing a job, income or the pleasures we’ve come to enjoy. We fear losing our health, comfort and control. We fear we’ll be rejected. We fear dying alone. That is why when we hear about God’s judgement, like in John’s message, we immediately assume the loss of control, and we do not like change!
Once we walk out these doors, we don’t get any of this discussion in the secular version of the coming holiday. I triple dare you, when you are at HEB next time and O little town of Bethlehem comes on and the line is repeated “Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight” see what happens if you were to shout out, “Let’s talk about our fears!” and see what happens.
Christmas has been made into all light and no shadow, all merriment and no wickedness. And for those who turn for a moment from the relentless yuletide cheer to acknowledge some all-too-human problem, difficulty or fear, they might be accused of lacking enough “Christmas spirit.”
Our secular American culture may be quick to domesticate God into a benevolent philanthropist, a kindly figure very much like Santa Claus, but that’s not the full biblical witness. To prepare for the coming of the Messiah we are preparing as John the Baptist is reminding us that “God is to be loved, yes; but God is also to be feared” and we can’t have one without the other. We are afraid of loss; we are afraid of loss of control and can’t imagine God any other way! No wonder it is a shock when it comes in a baby! Fear in a baby?
I realize that is a problematic thing to say, because none of us wants to hear about fear when churches around this nation are less and less important in people’s lives. Who wants to be reminded of fear especially to neighbors who already have an image of God as harshly judgmental --- perhaps even terrifying. Pastor, what we need right now is to be reminded that God is one of love and peace, of empowerment and affirmation.
Well, God is all those things as well, to be sure --- but in order to do so, we need to bring our fears as Joseph, Mary, Elizabeth and all the rest brought theirs. Clearly, John the Baptist sees the connection, as do the gospel-writers, as they bookend the Christmas story with angels who preface good news with “Fear not,” on one side, and with the soldiers of a jealous national leader who run babies through with their swords, on the other.
We don’t get to Christmas by detouring around fear. Rather in this season of preparation, if we listen to our fears, Zephaniah and John are telling us good news. They’re telling us that all these fears of ours are ultimately powerless when laid up against the great plans God has for this world and all who dwell therein.
Theologian Leonard Sweet describes this Sunday this way by in a story about a certain Native American tribe who had a unique way of preparing its young for adulthood. On the night of a boy’s or girls 13th birthday, they were led out into the wilderness to spend 3 days alone. Most young people, at that point in their lives, had never been away from the security of their elders. Yet, these young teenagers were blindfolded and taken miles away. When each one took off their blindfold, they found themselves in the middle of the wilderness. Alone. Dependent on nothing but their wits, what they remembered from their survival training and the good will of the Great Spirit.
We can well imagine the three days for these young people. Imagination magnified every sound, until it seemed like a fearsome monster. But then, finally, came the fourth day. When dawn broke, they would rub the sleep from their eyes and look around. What they would see would not just be the wilderness in the light of the day but — a person from the tribe, standing armed with bow and arrow. It would be a parent or other elder. They would have been there all along, weapons at the ready, watching over these youngsters for the whole time.
What did that teach those young adults? Fear is human. We are all afraid. There are indeed times when thick darkness surrounds us, and we may justifiably wonder if we’ll ever see daylight again. Our nights can be long and dark. But those young people were taught that even in our deepest moments and times of loneliness and despair, we are not alone. There is one who waits beside us.
In a matter of days, we will gather to celebrate the good news of the Messiah’s birth. Will these days of fear meet hope in the manger? The fear of God, as Proverbs says, is “the beginning of wisdom” because we when we are honest about our fears, we are open to the fact that we are not in control, and we will face loss, and those fears will be met by the presence of God as a babe. Amen.