Luke – Page 8 – Salvaged Faith

disconTENTment

Posted on January 31, 2010Leave a comment

In our gospel reading this morning, we come across some very angry folks in Jesus hometown of Nazareth.

These are ordinary, run of the mill folks. They aren’t Pharisees who have a beef with Jesus. They aren’t disciples – those people who chose to follow Jesus and who should understand. No, these are small town people – a lot like you and me – who are just trying to get by.

Last week in our gospel reading, we remember that Jesus came back to his hometown after being away for a while. He walked in through the doors of the church and everyone was so happy to have him back again. I can imagine lots of handshakes and hugs going around as Jesus was passed from one person to the next. I can even imagine an older lady or two wanting to pinch his cheeks.

Jesus grew up among these folks. They knew him his whole life. And here he returns and they are just waiting for the hometown boy to make good. They are waiting for him to show off all of the stuff that he has learned out there in the big wide world.

So when the time comes for the reading of scripture, the scroll was handed to Jesus. And he found the place in Isaiah where it says: “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.”

Now, Jewish custom in church was not to have one person give a sermon, but the leaders of the church would have the opportunity to comment on the reading and to bring up insights. In many ways, that’s what we do in our bible studies – especially the roundtable pulpit. Every voice is heard and respected.

Well, Jesus finished his reading and he too had a comment to make about this passage from Isaiah. All he said was, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

In Mark’s gospel – just giving that little speech sets the crowds off in a tizzy – they can’t believe his arrogance, they want to know who he thinks he is to claim such things. After all, he is the kid they grew up with, that little snot-nosed bugger from down the street.

In Luke’s version of the story – that is not what the people are upset by. In fact, they are pretty amazed at first. Oh my, could this really be Joseph’s son? Where did he learn so much?

No, what get’s the people mad and upset and full enough of rage that they want to throw him off of a cliff is that Jesus picks a fight with them.

After he’s been gushed upon and praised, Jesus starts to get a little concerned that perhaps the people need to have a little reality check.

“This scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing – but unfortunately, I’m not talking about for you. “

In Luke’s gospel – Jesus has been sent to be a light to the Gentiles. His mission is to bring about the kingdom of God, but he starts not with his own people from his hometown, not with the Jewish people, but with strangers and foreigners…

Maybe to think of a modern parable for this story, it would be as if someone that grew up here in Marengo, someone loved and respected, went off to college and graduate school. And then the came back into town with fanfare and that young woman told everyone – I’m going to lift this community out of poverty and rehabilitate all of the people in the prison, and I’m going to bring jobs and good things to this town, and I’m going to fill the pews of this church. And then, she choses to do so by working only with illegal immigrants in Williamsburg.

The kingdom was still going to come – they were just going to have to wait a little bit longer.

Would you be upset by that? Your hometown hero comes back to raise all of your hopes and then you think that they just dashed them to the ground.

The people were enraged – angry enough to kill – whipped up into a frenzy when they dragged Jesus to the brow of Nazareth Cliff… but it wasn’t his time, and he walked away from the fray without a scratch.

Jesus found himself coming home to a lot of discontented people. They were unhappy about how life had been going in their midst. They were hoping that maybe this one would turn out to be their savior… and he was, and he would be – but since he wasn’t exactly who they wanted him to be, their discontentment kicked in and they kicked him out.

There are people who live in a perpetual state of discontentment. In your bulletins, you may have noticed that that word is typed a little funny. That’s because I really want to focus this morning about the states we choose to live in. The attitudes we choose to clothe ourselves with.

Some people in this world are never happy. They can surround themselves with all of the good things in life and they will still find something to complain about. They can attend the best church in the city and they will still find something to be angry about and they will leave and try somewhere else. They can have the best husband or wife on the planet, and still they will nag and bicker. Do you know any of these people? Have they pitched their disconTENTment near you?

For the past few weeks, we have been exploring in Sunday school and our special Thursday night study the roots of this discontentment. Yes, we are talking on the surface about finances and money – but underneath all of that are things like greed, and pride, envy and sloth.

Underneath all of our financial turmoil is the simple fact that sin is present in the world.

While there are many ways that we can talk about sin – I think one of the best images for sin is turning our back to God. We turn our back to the good things that God offers us and instead seek our welfare, seek our happiness in things and money or food or alcohol or power or might.

In doing so, we are setting up the poles and laying out the stakes of discontentment. We may be erecting a fine and beautiful tent – it may be expensive and it might keep us warm… but it will never make us content. It will never make us happy.

There is only one thing that can bring us joy and happiness in this life. And we find a glimpse of it in 1 Corinthians.

Paul is writing to a group of Christians who have it all. They have people who are ready and willing to work – they have resources and money and gifts and talents. But they fight amongst themselves constantly. They are always trying to prove who is better, who is the most fit for leadership, they are always arguing about what color the carpet should be in the sanctuary and about who gets to hand out the offering plates and who should count the money.

Okay – well maybe those are a few 21st century things to fight about – but you get the picture. They may be faithful Christians, but they are still living in their old discontentments.

This would most assuredly be a church that would try to kick Jesus out of town if he ever really stopped by. He would probably have something truthful and challenging to say to them – just like he did to the people of his hometown – and they probably would have nothing to do with it.

Our Apostle Paul hears about the mess that they have made of their church and so he writes to them. (note: writing a letter is a whole lot safer than showing up in person sometimes!). He writes a letter to them and wants to encourage them to be their best selves. He tells them that they are the body of Christ and that each of them has an important role to play in the church. He tells them that each of them is gifted and that they should pay attention to and rely upon the gifts of others. He tells them they need to give and accept help and to treat all members with respect.

And then he launches into a beautiful part of his letter that is very familiar to us.

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing

.
All of this stuff that you think is so important – Paul writes – all of this stuff that you are arguing about, it means absolutely diddly squat if there isn’t love in the midst of your community. You could have the most money or be the most talented or live in the most beautiful house, or even have the most elegant prayers and the most book knowledge…. But all of it is for nothing if there is not love in your life.

Paul’s not just talking about the romantic love between two people. He’s talking about deep, sustaining love. He’s talking about the love that knits people and communities together. He’s talking about the love that only comes from God.

What if, instead of living in discontentment – we learned how to live content in God’s love?

How would our lives be different?

How would the response of Nazareth have been different if instead of being jealous and full of rage when Jesus went to minister among other people they had love in their hearts for the broken and hurting people of Capernum?

How would the church in Corinth be different if the people stopped fighting with one another and instead worked together to bring God’s love to the people of their city and the world?

How would your life be different, if you stopped working so that you could get things and be happy, and instead, in all things worked with God’s love at the forefront of your mind?

3 ways to be content from the book….
– “it could be worse”
– Count your blessings and give thanks
– Know where your true joy lies – know that only in the ground of God’s love are we sustained – only when we pitch our tent there will we find abiding peace.

Story of a man who was angry with his wife and so he stormed out of the house and grumbled to God. Just like that definition of sin earlier, he turned his back on his wife and the love that was there and he was discontented. But something happened. There was a change in his heart as God worked on him there. He turned around back towards his house – just like he was turning back to God. And he was reminded of all the wonderful things about his wife and began thanking God for them.

In our lives – too often we turn our backs on God and the good things that God blesses us with. We want things our way and we deny the contentment at our fingertips.

But we also have a chance to turn around. Did you know that the literal definition for repentence – the greek word – is metanoia. It means to turn around – to do a 180, to turn from living with our backs to God and instead turn and face him with our faces. To seek him as the source of all our joy and happiness. To live our lives in his love.

Today – that is our blessing. That God’s grace turns us around and we have a chance to face God once more. To lay aside all that has pulled us kicking and screaming into our discontented lives and to rest in the joy of God’s abiding peace.

What tent will you live in?

What does “The Book” say?

Posted on January 24, 2010Leave a comment

This week, my husband and I borrowed a steam cleaner from his dad and we spent the past few days cleaning our carpets. They get a regular vacuuming, but never a deep cleaning like the one they just received.

I got to thinking during that last hymn – take time to be holy – that if I just changed a word it could have been our theme song this week – take time to be clean.

This morning, I woke up and because just yesterday we did all of the upstairs carpets in the main living areas, it was very strange to walk out and see nothing there. Our dining room table was in the middle of the kitchen along with some chairs. Everything else had been stuffed into our spare bedroom – end tables, chairs, bookshelves, you name it.

If the carpet is dry – tonight but probably tomorrow, we will begin the work of putting everything back into place.

In a much bigger way, that is what is happening in our reading from Nehemiah this morning.
Ezra and Nehemiah came before the people to say that it was time to put their lives back together.

For the past generations, everything had been in disarray – like our couch standing on its side by the front door – because the people had been living in exile in Babylon. They were away from their homes and the countryside that they loved and everything familiar.

But when Cyrus of the Persians conquered Babylon – he allowed all of the Jews to return home. And so Ezra the priest, and Nehemiah who became governor led the way.

They knew that rebuilding and putting every piece of their lives back together was the first priority. As Rev. Timothy Schehr describes it,
Nehemiah’s plan was to reconstruct the walls of the city of Jerusalem. That would give them a sense of security. Ezra’s plan was to rebuild the faith of the people. He understood that a right relationship with God was the only true source for security. / Ezra also understood that God’s law was the foundation for any spiritual rebuilding.
So they start this whole project by getting all the people together and reading the scriptures. From early in the morning until noon, God’s law was read aloud to the people. And as they took the time to listen to God’s promises and God’s desires for their lives together – the people began to weep as they realized how unfaithful they had been.

But instead of lamenting along with the people – Ezra and Nehemiah instead urge the people to celebrate. Because this is a day of new beginnings – this is their chance to let go of the past and to actually put into practice the word of God that they have heard.

From time to time in our lives – we need a fresh start and a new beginning. I know that while I wasn’t looking forward to doing the cleaning we did this weekend, it sure feels good to have it done now.

And our spiritual lives need a bit of scrubbing and spit and polish at times too. A chance to step back and really hear God’s word for our lives with new ears and a fresh new commitment to live it out.

When we hear the scriptures, we are reminded of who we are supposed to be. In the gospel of Luke this morning – Jesus enters the synagogue and he too – reads scripture. As he reads from Isaiah, we find out a little more about who Jesus is and what his church (all of us) will be and do.

“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.”

We are called to do all of these things – because we were meant to be a blessing. We are called to be the hands and feet of Christ in this world bringing hope to the poor and setting the oppressed free and healing those who are sick.

This morning in Sunday School – we talked about being blessed to be a blessing. And we talked about the fact that a big part of that blessing has to do with money.

First of all – many of us are called to be a blessing to our families. We have people who depend on us and we need to provide for them and bless their lives. This might be our immediate family or our more extended family – but our family nonetheless. And to do so, takes money. Money for utilities, money for food, money for clothing.

But once we have provided for our families and our own needs – everything else that we have is the Lord’s! Everything else is the opportunity to bless someone.

I have never had a great relationship with money. As a young woman I had far too easy access to credit and at that time not a care in the world. Today, I still carry with me some of the debt that came along with plane tickets to visit family and friends and eating out and shopping.

But I don’t think I ever really thought about money as a spiritual issue until I really spent some time in the scriptures.

I found out that there are over 800 verses in scripture that talk about money. Over 800!!! Why does God care so much about our money and what we do with it? Because we are blessed to be a blessing.

I have here with me some of those many passages about money and finances. Here in my hands are just a tenth of all of the scriptures about money in our Bible. And I think, like the people of Israel – we too might weep with shame and regret if we spent time reading them all out loud to one another.

But like that community that was gathered, I want us to look at some of these scriptures and to really think about how they are each opportunities for us to put our lives back together – how they represent a fresh way of looking at our money that will help us to do God’s will.

As we pass these out, spend some time with the people around you reading the passages that you have. And then out of all of the ones you received, come up with just one thing that we should celebrate – one way that we can be a blessing to others if we put the wisdom of the scriptures into practice.

….do it!…. (We spent about 7 minutes reading our scriptures to one another in small groups and lifting up a piece of wisdom to share with the whole community)

The word of God, for the people of God… thanks be to God.

Photo by David Siqueira

Hope or Despair? Birth Pangs of the Kingdom

Posted on November 29, 2009Leave a comment

As I started exploring and reading our texts for this week, I was instantly transported back to my best friend’s kitchen – 1997. I was a sophomore in high school and my family had recently started going to church. I knew the basics of the Christian faith, but was becoming aware of how muc more there was to the bible.

The late 1990’s was a time of religious fervor – at least as far as I remember them. Mega churches were just starting to be noticed, the Left Behind Series of books were on everyone’s reading lists, and in my high school bible studies and prayer meetings were popping up all over the place. Oh – and the year 2000 was on the horizon and no one quite knew what to expect.

For the most part, I was a typical high schooler and oblivious to what was going on in the rest of the world. Living in rural Iowa, that scope of vision was even smaller. So as a new Christian, sitting in my best friend’s kitchen, my entire world was rocked when my friends and One of their moms started talking about end times prophecy.

I can’t remember why we started talking about it, but before I knew it they had pulled out these time lines and charts and bibles and were explaining to me what order things were going to happen for Christ to come back again. They talked with such certainty, such confidence, and I remember feeling nothing but lost.

In fact, my stomach turned as visions of the world being destroyed passed before my eyes. I remember feeling clammy when I thought about billions of people dying in the tribulation. I was terrified by descriptions of the seven seals being opened.

Perhaps most of all, as I sat on that kitchen stool, I remember how unprepared I felt. My friends knew all of this information – but more importantly, they believed and were confident in the face of impending doom! I, on the other hand, was uncomfortable, had questions I was afraid to ask, and if they were right, I was pretty sure that I wasn’t going to be among the faithful. That assurance they felt that told them they would escape the troubles… yeah, I didn’t have that.

I mostly avoided talking about it with my friends, but I nearly gave up on Christianity after a series of those conversations. I started reading the Left Behind books and I was so upset by them I stopped a few books in. The picture of God that was presented by them and by all of this prophecy just didn’t match up with the God I had met in my United Methodist youth group. There we talked about love and grace and forgiveness and becoming a new creation… and all I could see in what my friends were so sure of was judgment and destruction.

In some ways – we get that same kind of feeling from our gospel text this morning. We are told to be alert at all times so that we have the strength to escape from all of these things that are about to take place. We are told that people will faint from fear of what is to come because the heavens will be shaken. I hear a lot of doom and gloom in these few passages that come to us from the gospel of Luke.

But I hear these words very differently today than I did ten years ago. After we got past the Y2K scare and I started reading the Bible more, I realized that the sure and certain scenarios presented on those time lines in my friend’s kitchen weren’t the only possibility presented to us in the Bible.

As we have talked about in Sunday School recently – I started to see that Revelation isn’t a schedule for the apocalypse but a book of hope in secret code for a community being persecuted. I have now read just as many verses in Paul’s letters that talk about not knowing what is going to happen in the future, as I have the ones that seem to have the inside scoop. And – perhaps more importantly – I have started seeing the scriptures as a whole, and not in isolated verses.

When we look at the entire scope of the scriptures – we see the story of a God who created us out of love and has been continually yearning for relationship with us. We see the story of a God whose response to our endless denial was to come and be born in our midst. We see the story of a God who lived among us to show us the path of the righteous, and who died so that we could follow him. We see the story of a God who is not interested in scrapping this world and starting over, but who re-creates and redeems and transforms even the heavens and the earth.

Read in light of that story – these verses in Luke sound very different. People will faint and tremble not because terrible things are looming – but because they THINK terrible things are looming… they don’t understand what is happening… they don’t understand the signs.

About a year ago – my husband and I had some of our own signs to decipher. We go over to his sister’s house every Friday night to have dinner with their family. It is a wonderful time to eat good food and play games and hang out with our niece and nephew. A couple of weeks went by and I started to notice that my sister-in-law had stopped having her usual glass of wine with dinner. Then I noticed that she was eating less and less at our meals and was tired and seemed to be losing weight. And I started to get slightly worried, because I didn’t understand what was happening. Was she sick? Was there something that we should be concerned about?

And then the announcement came – Bevin was pregnant! She had stopped eating and was losing weight because she had such terrible morning sickness. She was tired because there was new life growing inside of her!

I had completely misread the signs.

If we go back a little bit further in Luke, chapter 21 this morning, Jesus is trying to tell his disciples not to be afraid by what might come next – by what appears to be happening around them.

They ask him for a simple answer – when are these things going to happen? How will we know? And in response he tells them not to listen to those people who say that the time is near. He tells them not to be afraid by the signs of the times. Or as the Message translation puts these verses: “When you hear of wars and uprisings, keep your head and don’t panic. This is routine history and no sign of the end … nation will fight against nation… over and over. Huge earthquakes will occur in various places. There will be famines. You’ll think at times that the very sky is falling.”

But those are just the outside symptoms. They are similar to the things I was seeing in my sister-in-law: weight loss and not eating and I thought something was wrong because I misinterpreted the signs.

Jesus goes on to talk about a particular time when it will seem as if all is lost, or as the Message bible puts it – “everything will come to a head.” And at that moment – when things appear to be their worst, when all appears hopeless – that is when the Son of Man – that is when Jesus will be seen.

I think all of this would be a whole lot easier to understand if Luke didn’t leave out and important detail. I think he left it out because Mark and Luke have almost identical passages. If you look at Luke chapter 21 and Mark chapter 13 – there are many similarities except for one… after Jesus reminds them that there will continue to be wars and natural disasters he says: This is but the beginning of the birth pangs. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.

I was with a group of pastors a few weeks ago in Indianapolis and we were reading this exact same passage in Mark. One woman spoke up and said – I’ve had five children… I know exactly what Jesus is talking about!!! It always seems to be the worst, it always seems like you just won’t survive, right before your child is born. That’s when the pain is the worst and that’s because you are growing and stretching and waiting for this new life to emerge. That’s a really different way to understand this passage.

Paul talks about the groaning of creation, he talks about the birth pangs and waiting for redemption and if we think about God’s Kingdom being born in our midst, its going to take a little bit of change and transformation. Things will be shaken up a bit just like when birth happens in our lives.

We could look around us at the melting of the icecaps and tsunamis and tornadoes and the strange weather we have had this past year and we could be worried about the end. We could look at the violence in our own community – much less in the world – in this past year and think that we are on a downhill slide into immorality and destruction. We could look at the wars we are engaged in – especially in the middle east – as signs that all is lost… as the impending day of judgment and doom.

Or we can listen to the scriptures. In our passage today, it says Stand up and raise our heads because what is coming is not destruction – but redemption. What is being born in our midst is the new creation.

Today is the first Sunday of the Christian year.

Today is the start of a season of hope in the midst of despair, the season of light when everything appears to be dark.

If last week we prayed for Christ the King to come on earth – then today is the day that we start looking for the Kingdom.

Today is the day we look around and see the signs of the kingdom everywhere. We see it in the hunger that young people have to understand and learn more about who God is. We see it in the hunger we experience as we gather to worship and pray. We see it in that spark of hope that is in our hearts – even though we could look at the world and think radically different things.

I think in many ways this church understands that because two years ago you were faced with a tough decision. You looked around and church attendance was declining and you had to decide if you were going to go to part time or stay with a full time pastor. Some churches in that situation would have said, well – we are pretty much hopeless.

But you said that something new is being born in our midst – and we are going to wait and see what happens. That’s why we light this candle today. We light this candle remembering that hope is just around the corner that the promises of God are almost in our reach. That all of the groaning and birth pangs around us are merely getting us ready for what is to come. There is no fear to be had. There is no trembling on this day. Because God is coming near to us. God is coming and so let us stand up and raise up our heads and await the glory of our King. Amen and Amen.

Forgive

Posted on February 1, 2009Leave a comment

This is the third sermon in a series I am preaching on the Lord’s Prayer. And the first one that had enough of me in it to publish. I needed a way out of a preaching rut and finally got to the place where I could preach again:

Sermon Text: Luke 11:1-10, Mark 1:21-28

Recently, I came across an article about a church in Seattle that is trying to reclaim a more “masculine” Jesus. Their pastor, Mark Driscoll, argues that Jesus and the church have been feminized – that Jesus is seen as weak and soft – the type of guy who would hang out with cuddly sheep and babies, rather than the sort of man’s man who turned over the tables in the temple.

My first thought as I read that article was, why can’t Jesus be both? I have always thought that Jesus embodied the fullness of both men and women, male and female – the best of both worlds if you will. But I also got to thinking about the church and how good of a job it does in truly representing that Body of Christ in the world today.

I did some research. On any given Sunday, the church will be made up of about 40% men and 60% women. Each week, 25% of married churchgoing women come to church without their husbands. I count myself among that group. So do quite a few of you. So part of me wants to hear what Rev. Driscoll has to say – I want to know what exactly he thinks the church is missing.
In an interview he gave, he said something to the effect that the church is full of chicks and pastel colors and songs full of emotion and feelings… and that guys would rather be out hunting, or working on their trucks, or watching football. Pretty apropos for Super Bowl Sunday, I thought.

But perhaps the problem is a bit deeper than that. As I was working on this sermon, the movie “A Knight’s Tale” was on in the background and I caught a bit of dialogue that was like a light bulb coming on.

Count Adamar in the film is strong and powerful and his rival becomes a young peasant boy who is mascarading as a knight to compete in a jousting tournament. When the Count sees young Will show mercy to a competitor, the Count is disgusted. “he shows weakness,” The count exclaims. “That’s all mercy is.” Lightbulb!

Could it be that some men stay home not because of pastel carpet or children’s sermons or pretty music, but because churches are full of mercy and forgiveness?

Strength and power in our world are defined by justice and retribution. To forgive someone, to show them mercy, to let them off without punishment is weakness. And yet that is exactly what we talk about in the church. In fact, today, we celebrate the two sacraments of our tradition that revolve around forgiveness and new beginnings – baptism and communion.

We live in a dog eat dog world of war, prisons, and defense policies that involve getting the other guy before they can get us. Power is defined by how big our guns are, how much money we have, and who we have pushed out of the way to get to where we are. Not acts of forgiveness with simple things like water and bread.

The problem here is not that the church is weak and the world is strong. That violence is power and mercy is weakness. The problem is that we haven’t done a good enough job of really proclaiming the power of God.

That power shows up in our reading from Mark this morning… only a little bit in disguise. We read this passage and hear something about Jesus teaching others with authority only to have a possessed man interrupt. Jesus casts out the spirit, so we think this must be about healing.

But the word that we translate into authority can also simply mean power. Jesus’ very teaching is powerful. It is what he has to say that first amazes the crowds. His very speaking demonstrates that the power of God is present.

And only then does the unclean spirit show up.

Ofelia Ortega writes that “the forces of evil know of the healing power of Jesus’ word; they are not submissive or indifferent. Jesus’ powerful teaching not only is fresh to the ears of the faithful, but it also disrupts the undisturbed presence of evil. Evil discovers that it is running its course.” (Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 1, page 312)

All Jesus had to do was speak, and the evil powers of the world started shaking in their boots.

“Be silent.” Jesus commanded. “Come out.” He said firmly. And the spirit obeyed.

I don’t know what to tell all of you about demons and spirits. I have never personally experienced them, although I know people who have. What I can tell you is that I firmly believe that God has power over the evil in this world.. As Gary Charles puts it, “from the onset of his Gospel, Mark signals that no oppressive boundary will stand or withstand the [power] of Jesus…. No one (except the demons) understand that the boundary between heaven and earth has been pierced and the reign of God is “at hand” (Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 1, page 313)

The reign of God… the Kingdom of God is at hand. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer and we get to that part about “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth”… we are talking about God’s power to live within us. We are praying for God to help us tap into that amazing power that the people witnessed within the synagogue. We are praying not only to be cleansed of our own internal demons – but we are also praying for the power to love others who have been their own internal demons.

You heard one story of the power of forgiveness this morning – of the mother who found the power to reach out to the mother of the boy who killed her son. She admitted that it was God who gave her the strength to do so.

I want to tell you another story today. A story about a church here in Iowa that took seriously Jesus prayer and the command to forgive. This story is related in the book “Becoming Jesus’ Prayer.”

Nine years ago, Farmers Chapel, a United Methodist congregation, “was burned to the ground by an arsonist. In the weeks and months that followed, the congregation had to wrestle with how to forgive the person who destroyed their 107-year-old church…. [their pastor] wrote an open letter to the unknown arsonist and had it printed in the local newspaper…” (Becoming Jesus’ Prayer, page 37-38)

Part of the letter is as follows:

“Our worship time is 9:00AM every Sunday. I tell you this because I want you to know that you are invited. In fact, we even plan to reserve a seat just for you. Our faith has a lot to say about forgiveness. Every Sunday we ask God to forgive our sins but only as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. That would be you. So if you would join us for worship, we could practice this kind of forgiveness face to face. I say “practice” for a reason. I don’t expect us to get it right the first or even the second time. Of course we’ll continue to work to forgive you even if you decline our invitation to worship. Forgiveness is the cornerstone of the faith we have inherited. Some people think it is impossible. They may be right. I only know that we have to try. Our forgiveness of you is tied to God’s forgiveness of us. We can’t receive something we are not willing to give others. So you see, if we harbor hatred for you in our hearts, we harbor the smoldering ashes of your arson. If we cling to bitterness, we fan the embers of your violent act. If we fantasize about revenge, we rekindle a destructive flame that will consume us. Forgiveness may indeed be impossible, but for us it is not optional.” (as printed in Becoming Jesus’ Prayer)

That 107-year-old church that burned to the ground has been rebuilt and at the focal point of their worship space is a cross that has been built out of the charred timbers of their old building. Every single time that Body of Christ comes together, they are a living witness that “life comes out of death, that hope emerges from desolation.” (Becoming Jesus’ Prayer, page 39) There is no weakness there – only power.

Today as we gather around the waters of baptism, we become witnesses to the love of God that claims us before we even know how speak. And we are renewed by the Spirit of God, that flows among us and helps us to resist evil and injustice and oppression in the world. That is not weakness – that is power.

And every Sunday that we come together for a meal of simple bread and juice, we are witnesses that all are welcome at the table of our Lord. We partake of that meal not out of simple ritual, but because there is real transformative power. The bread and the cup transforms us into the body of Christ poured out for the redemption of the world. The redemption of the world is not the stuff of sissys or pansys or the weak – it is for the bold, those who are willing to take the risk of stepping out of our comfort zones and truly carrying grace and forgiveness outside of these walls and onto the streets of our town.

When we pray Jesus’ prayer – when we truly pray it – we are asking… no we are begging for our lives to be changed. We are asking for this church to be transformed and for it to be a place of transformation.

Instead of being a church of pastel carpet, pretty music, and potlucks… the call to forgiveness challenges us to be a church where unwed mothers and drug addicts and yes, even guys who would rather watch football than listen to a sermon, find grace. Find forgiveness. Find God.

When we become that kind of church – then we will be able to stand up to the powers of this world and say to them that their way does not work. We will speak loudly and boldly that mercy does have power, that forgiveness is God’s way. That the Reign of God is at hand and that they too are invited to belong.

Amen and Amen.

Light in the Darkness

Posted on January 4, 2009Leave a comment

Luke 2:22-40, Isaiah 60

On this morning, we finish the Christmas story by celebrating the Epiphany. The word Epiphany means “an appearance or manifestation” and on this holy day, people around the world celebrate that God came down to earth, took on our human form, and lived among us. In particular, we celebrate those to whom this good news of great joy was first revealed… the shepherds at Christmas, Anna and Simeon in the temple, and the wise men who journeyed from afar to pay homage to the Christ Child.

As Matthew tells the story, these magi followed a star in the sky – a light in the midst of the darkness – in order to find this Messiah. And that glimmer of light and hope reminded Matthew of another time of darkness and the promise of God that Isaiah shared with the Israelites.

No longer shall the sun be your light by day, Nor the brightness of the moon shine upon you at night; The LORD shall be your light forever, your God shall be your glory (Is 60:19).

In Matthew’s eyes, it wasn’t a star in the sky at all, but the light of Christ himself, revealed to all the world, that pulled those magi over mountains and deserts and seas to the countryside surrounding Jerusalem. He may have been a tiny infant in his mother’s arms, but in the words of John’s gospel – the light shone in the darkness and the darkness could not overcome it.

Too often, we quickly pass over the darkness in these stories. We want to stay with the light and focus on the beautiful image of wise and powerful men bowed down before a humble and poor baby. But I think that we can only appreciate how powerful the light of Christ is, if we remember just how strong the darkness was that surrounded him.

You see, in between the appearance of the light in the sky and their encounter with the Christ-child, the wise men found themselves on the doorsteps of power, and in the words of Father John Foley, they “walked with transluscent innocence straight into the jaws of the power-hungry, luxury-loving King Herod.” Now, “king” is actually a fairly loose term to use here, because Herod was actually more of an appointed ruler – a puppet of the Roman Empire who had turned his back against his fellow Jews. Through political maneuvering and not a little bit of money, scheming and treachery, he had gotten to the top of the pile – or at least as high as he could climb – and now happily sat in Jerusalem as the “king of the mountain.”
Kate Huey paints the picture for us. “Herod was a brutal and fearful man, insecure because he was just a puppet of the hated Roman Empire, not a real king. Can you imagine how thrilled this pretend king was on that day when a little band of “wise men” from the East showed up at his palace and asked for directions to the real King of the Jews?”

In desperation, Herod turns to his advisors – the chief priests and the religious establishment – for guidance and they find within the scriptures a prophecy that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem… the birthplace of none other than King David himself. What was once only a prophecy written on an ancient scroll suddenly became very real for Herod. In his mind, there could be no other king but himself and his heirs…

Huey’s description of this scene continues: “Herod survives, even thrives, on brutality and fear. Now he turns to secrecy and deception, too, calling the strangers in behind closed doors and pretending to be on the same page with them. He tells them what they need to know, and then makes a request. ‘Go and search diligently for the child,’ he says, ‘and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’” Everything that came out of his mouth and the crooked smile on his face sounded right, but we know what kind of terrible things Herod was not only capable of, but actually carried out.

I can imagine that days, weeks even, might have gone by with Herod anxiously awaiting the information about who this baby was. Not so he could seek out the child and give up his power, but so that he could end the threat against his throne once and for all. But no word came and the strangers from the East never showed up, and so Herod, driven to the brink with his fear and insecurity sent troops to the quiet town of Bethlehem and killed all of the males who were under two years of age. Herod was taking no chances.

But even the darkness of Herod’s heart could not put out the light of Christ that had entered the world. Those magi left the palace grateful for the information regarding Bethlehem, a mere nine miles away, and would have unwittingly led Mary and Joseph and Jesus straight into a trap. But God intervened and warned the travelers not to return to Herod, but to go home by another way.

Then, the same angel that led the magi to return home by another route warned Joseph of the impending threat and they quickly made haste to escape – not only from Bethlehem, or even Judea, but out of the country entirely, into the land of Egypt.
This poor family, who were not even able to bring a lamb for the presentation of their son at the temple, somehow found a way to get out of the country… perhaps only because of the costly gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh that the magi had left with them. They escaped from the reign of terror that Herod afflicted on the countryside and lived in exile in the land of Egypt until Herod’s death many years later.

The Christmas season is a time of joy and hope and peace, and I truly pray that each and every one of you were able to glimpse that spirit of Christmas in these last few weeks. But just as the Christmas decorations begin to be put away, the cold harsh reality of the world hits us. We find ourselves right back where we were before this season of consumer frenzy, perhaps with emptier pockets and fuller bellies, but back in reality nonetheless.

And perhaps we are left wondering what all of it was really for. Are we just rehearsing the Spirit of Christmas, much like we get out the decorations and put them away again when the time has passed? Is our hope in the pomp and circumstance, the beautifully wrapped presents and the music of the season, or is it in something else? Something that will sustain us long after the wreaths have come off the door?

I want to share with you a poem by Gerhard Frost, a poem that is his response to that great question of hope:

If I am asked
what are my grounds for hope,
this is my answer:
Light is lord over darkness,
truth is lord over falsehood,
life is lord over death.

Of all the facts I daily live with,
there’s none more comforting
than this: If I have two rooms,
one dark, the other light,
and I open the door between them,
the dark room becomes lighter
without the light one
becoming darker. I know
this no headline,
but it’s a marvelous footnote;
and God comforts me in that.

The tale of Epiphany is not a naïve and happy story of Kings and babies, but a powerful message about light and darkness. God chose to enter the world, to reveal himself to us in the form of a vulnerable child in dangerous times. The light of Christ, the truth of God shone forth all the way to the steps of power in Jerusalem, and even Herod – in his heart of hearts – couldn’t deny that this child was destined to become the King of the Jews.

But what Herod did was he shut the door to the light of God and the word of the prophets and revolted against them… choosing instead a path of death and destruction.

The wisemen in our story today sometime seem like fools – walking right up to the reigning King and asking where his successor was. But perhaps they were wiser than we can even imagine. Because even in the gifts that they placed at the feet of the Christ… gold, which was a gift for a powerful king; frankincense, the symbol of a holy priest; and myrrh, an oil for the embalming of the dead – carry within them that reality of light and darkness, truth and falsehood, life and death. They understood better than anyone else at the time, that this child who was born would become the Lord of all, would intercede and make a sacrifice on our behalf like the priest in the temple, but that last gift of myrrh demonstrates that they knew how difficult the journey would be.

But the God who came down and lived among us is stronger than darkness, more powerful than any falsehood, and can overcome even the reality of death. And what is amazing about Christ and his love for us is that his strength comes not from conquering those forces, but by going to them – by facing them – by entering into our darkness, and our pain and our suffering, and even our death – by walking through them with us and leading us through to the other side. Jesus Christ, revealed to us on this day, is the way, and the truth, and the life. Glory to God! Amen.

Special thanks to Fr. John Foley, S. J. and Rev. Kate Huey and Daniel Deffenbaugh for their online thoughts and challenges to look with different eyes at the Epiphany story.

Good Tidings of Great Joy!

Posted on December 28, 2008Leave a comment

While the Advent journey takes us through an emotional rollercoaster of joy, fear, humility, and anticipation, there is no other emotion to guide the days after Christmas than pure celebration. Each of the readings for this Sunday call us to take a deep breath of relief, to look around at the beauty of what God has done, and to simply enjoy it.

We have waited patiently for four weeks in this season of Advent and in these fast paced days, a month may seem like an eternity.

But our scriptures from Luke for this Sunday tell us of two people who had been waiting their whole lifetimes for the birth of Christ and then who absolutely couldn’t keep silent when they encountered the Christ-child.

First of all, a little background about why Mary and Joseph and the newly born Jesus find themselves in Jerusalem in our gospel reading this morning. This probably would have been the second trip that the trio would have made into the holy city – first in order to name their child and to have him circumcised eight days after his birth, and then this second trip – in order for Mary to be purified after the birth according to the law. In the book of Leviticus, the law proclaims that any woman who has given birth would be ceremonially unclean – or unable to worship at the temple or to touch holy things, for 33 days if the child born was a boy, or 66 days if the newly born baby was a girl. While this may seem to be strange – it was actually probably a welcome time of rest and a chance for the new mother and child to bond in peace and quiet.

But then after that time, the family would come to the temple to make the required offering. Families who could afford to do so would bring a lamb, but Mary and Joseph were only able to bring a pair of small birds as their gift to God.

These trips back and forth, all of this pomp and ceremony, were actually very normal, really, expected parts of what it meant to have a baby. Mothers and fathers and infants would have been a common sight around the temple as they marked this important time of their lives in God’s presence.

But in the midst of other mothers and fathers and babies – Luke tells us that two wise old saints- Anna and Simeon – picked this unlikely trio out of the crowd and knew that they were something special.

Perhaps it was the fact that Anna and Simeon had been waiting for such a long time to see the Messiah. Perhaps they were just more in tune with the power of the Holy Spirit after lifetimes of faithful service to God. Or maybe they just allowed themselves to be overcome by the joy of the moment and couldn’t help but be silent. In any case, both Anna and Simeon rushed to the new parents and their infant son, God-in-the-flesh, and gave praise to God.

Simeon was a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit, and long ago a promise was made to him that he would not see death until the Messiah had come. Most people were looking for a leader to rise above the people – a powerful and spiritual figure. But when this infant child crossed his path, Simeon knew that the promise had been fulfilled. He understood that this child would grow to become not just a light of revelation to his Jewish brothers and sisters, but would be the light of salvation to all the world. And the Holy Spirit helped him to understand that this path to salvation would be a heart-breaking journey for Mary and Joseph, but also for God. Now that he had seen the Messiah, he could pass from this world in peace.

Anna was a prophetess, a woman of God who spent her life worshipping God through fasting and prayer in the temple. It is likely that she had served God in this capacity for nearly sixty years of her lifetime! In those sixty years, surely many babies had passed before her eyes. And while we don’t know of anything particularly special about the way the infant Christ looked, something about this month old child caught Anna’s eye. Her heart was filled with joy and Luke writes that she began to tell the story of this amazing child to everyone that was looking for redemption and hope in the city of Jerusalem. Hope has come! Light has entered our midst! was likely her cry.

She may have been eighty-four years old, but she wasn’t going to let anything stop her from sharing what she had experienced. Maybe she thought in the back of her mind of our text from Isaiah today: “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest.” Her years of prayerful anticipation had been answered, and now she simply couldn’t keep her mouth shut.

My question for all of you this morning is simple. If an eighty-four year old woman and a dying old man can share the joy of this birth with all of those around her—why aren’t we?

This morning, I want to give us all the opportunity to share, to announce, to celebrate, how God has entered our midst in this Christmas season. You can do this through sharing a story of something that has happened to you or your family this Christmas, through calling out a favorite Christmas carol that helps you to celebrate the good news of God, or even just by saying something that you are thankful for, or something that you are still praying for this Christmas season….

But on this Christmas Sunday – let each one of us open our mouths to proclaim good tidings of great joy…

Lectionary Leanings – Celebrate!

Posted on December 23, 2008Leave a comment

December 28
Isaiah 61:10-62:3, Psalm 148, Galatians 4:4-7, Luke 2:22-40

As an avid user of Facebook, I have come to realize that people are excited and grateful for many things in their lives. I frequently check on the status updates of friends and family and get to hear all about the amazing pie they just had at a local deli, or how terrific their new fuzzy socks are. But these updates are not always so material. Facebook is now often the first place where friends announce engagements or tell the world that they are expecting a child. We simply cannot be silent, we can’t hold our tongues (or our fingers) still one moment longer and must tell the world about the joys in our life.

The question is, do we do the same for those experiences of God’s grace? Do we rush to the computer to promptly type in “Katie just witnessed the good news of God in…”? Do we even share those encounters with the risen Christ when we head to church on Sunday? Sometimes, but usually not.

Our scriptures from Luke for this Sunday tell us of two people who simply couldn’t be silent when they encountered the Christ-child. Perhaps it was the fact that Anna and Simeon had been waiting for such a long time to see the Messiah. Perhaps they were just more in tune with the power of the Holy Spirit after lifetimes of faithful service to God. Or maybe they just allowed themselves to be overcome by the joy of the moment and couldn’t help but be silent. In any case, both Anna and Simeon rushed to the new parents and their infant son, God-in-the-flesh, and gave praise to God.

We don’t know much about what happened to Simeon after this encounter with God. He had been promised after all that he would not see death before he had witnessed the coming of the Messiah. But we do know that Anna simply couldn’t keep her mouth shut about the good news of God. Luke writes that she began to tell the story of this amazing child to everyone that was looking for redemption and hope in the city of Jerusalem.

She may have been eighty-four years old, but she wasn’t going to let anything stop her from sharing what she had experienced. Maybe she thought in the back of her mind of our text from Isaiah today: “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest.” If an eighty-four year old woman can share the joy of this birth with all of those around her—why aren’t we?

Let it Be with Me…

Posted on December 21, 2008Leave a comment

This is our fourth week of waiting for that coming of Christ – and we are so close we can almost taste it! We are ready for the heavenly choirs of angels mingling with the smelly shepherds in the field, for the time when wise men led by celestial signs witness the fragility of an infant of a manger. It is a season of holy anticipation – not for experiences beyond this world, but ones that are embodied in things that we can touch and feel, live and breathe. We are getting ready for God to take on human flesh in our midst!

This morning, we get to hear the beautiful telling of the annunciation – the announcement ! – in Luke’s gospel this morning. The angel Gabriel appears and proclaims Mary to be favored in God’s eyes – blessed among all woman – for she will bear a child who will be called the Son of God. And Mary, for her part, asks but one question: How will this happen? And then responds with that very familiar statement: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

Maybe this is because for over half of my life I have heard this story as a child – but Mary has always been in my mind a wise and beautiful woman, full of the grace of God and ready to face any challenge that might come her way. She is filled with a maturity that to me has always belied her age. She seems so much older than me, so much more ready to accept God’s joyful burden, and yet- Mary was probably no more than fourteen or fifteen years old when the angel Gabriel stood before her.

Fourteen or Fifteen years old! For nearly half of my life I have been OLDER that this amazing young woman who said yes to the impossible.

Now, granted, Mary was living in a world of prearranged marriages and was likely promised to her husband-to-be, Joseph, for many years. Young women would have been married and having children by the age of eighteen to be sure. But it was also a world where a woman’s only education would have been in the home, a world of Jewish faithful living under a Roman occupation, a time of darkness and poverty, disappointment and despair.

We witness her willingness to accept the burden that God is bestowing upon her. We hear her song of praise to the God who has come to her, a lowly servant. “Let it be with me according to your word.” And we forget how difficult it must have been to not only accept this joyful burden with those words, but to carry that joyful burden in her life.

Because of the nature of Christmas, we hear the annunciation on Sunday, and by Wednesday evening we have a beautiful, bouncing, baby boy in a manger. There is so much we skip in these precious few days before Christmas… and in part, we skip this part of the story because we do not know what happened. The scriptures leave us to fill in the blanks.

We are told in the gospel of Matthew that Joseph probably would have quietly broken off the engagement had not an angel of the Lord intervened. Thank God for angels.

Mary would have still been living with her parents at this time, but we don’t know how they responded. I can tell you that it was customary to send an unwed mother off to live with distant relatives, so as not to shame the family… perhaps this is the cause of Mary’s hasty trip to visit her cousin Elizabeth after the angel Gabriel appeared. Elizabeth, herself, was overjoyed to greet Mary and her unborn child – yet Elizabeth was also in on the secret of this divine birth and was in the middle of her own miraculous pregnancy. Her husband Zechariah wasn’t so sure… at least not at first.

With the exception of these two, we don’t know how the rest of the family responded, or how her community responded. A young woman, still unmarried, becomes pregnant and the people are supposed to…what? Celebrate? Extol her virtues? Even if Mary told everyone that it was the Son of God in her womb, who would have believed her?

I think that this is an important part of the story that we miss, because if she wasn’t believed, and if she wasn’t protected, Mary would likely have been stoned for adultery. And yet, it is precisely in this vulnerable and difficult experience that we come to understand that Christmas as the celebration of God entering the world, not to condemn it, but to redeem it.

Christ comes into this world not to condemn it, but to redeem it.

Two thousand some years ago, a young woman, a girl really, said “yes” to God’s invitation – and just look at how the world has changed. But then, if you think about it, that is how God has been working all along. It is how God has always changed the world.

From the very beginning, the people of God were transformed and moved along and inspired by ordinary nobodies who hesitantly said “yes” to God. Think of the poor nomad Abram, think of the murderer Moses, think of the shepherd boy David.

Each of them, in their own way, said “let it be with me according to your word.” And they opened themselves up to God’s will in their lives. They followed his call. They tried to live obediently. And God accomplished amazing things through them. That is how God works.

Does that mean it was easy? No. Does it mean that they faced straight paths with no obstacles? No. Does it mean that they found perfect happiness? No.

Think again of our young Mary. She would have to struggle to protect her child from the slaughter of infants by fleeing to the foreign land of Egypt. And then she would live to see her own son crucified by the Romans. There was no way of knowing when she said “yes” to God that this would be the course her life would take. But still she said, “let it be with me according to your word.”

We look back, and perhaps we are thankful that we have not been faced with such a momentous decision. We are thankful that we do not face persecution because of our faith. We are glad that God did all of that work a long time ago, so that we can now enjoy this life that we have in Christ.

The Gospel of John reminds us that:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God…. And the Word came and lived among us, and we have seen his glory… From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

The Word came and lived among us. God took on flesh – God worked through human lives, God’s will was embodied in the small “yeses” of many insignificant people. And the world was changed.

But you know, right now, in this season of Advent, we are not only preparing to celebrate what happened in the birth of Christ 2000 years ago, we are also preparing for Christ to come again – we are getting ready for the new thing that God is about to do in our midst.

And the question I want us to really ponder today, is what would it mean for the call of God to ring out again? How would we respond, if we, as ordinary people not unlike Mary or Joseph, or Moses or David, we asked to say yes. Not as some kind of temporary commitment, like a new years resolution that we make today and forget about tomorrow, but in a real and powerful way?

What would it mean for us to stand here, fully and openly before our God and say, “let it be with us according to your word.”?

Are you ready, are you prepared for something new to be born within your spirit? Within this community? Are we ready for Christ to enter our midst, our hearts? Does that idea terrify you?

You know what. It terrifies me a little bit. Because I hear that call of God all the time. I hear that call of God challenging me and challenging us to really and truly take the plunge, to hand our lives over to God’s will.

I hear God calling us to stop being simply Sunday Christians, or even, every other Sunday Christians, and to fully let the Word of God dwell in our hearts every single day.

I hear God challenging us to take risks and to put ourselves on the line as we go out into the world to be the hands and feet of Christ. I hear God urging us to say yes, because God doesn’t want to change the world without us.

And what is so hard, what is so scary, is that saying yes means everything will change. The kind of transformation that God wants to see in this world – the kind of redemption that God is continuing to bring about is only possible if we leave behind everything that we know and follow.

The reason that we haven’t fully said yes in the past is because we keep assuming the path will be easy. We keep hoping that whatever comes our way won’t involve some kind of radical change. We want to believe that we are already living the way we are supposed to and that not too much more will be required.

I can guarantee you – that is not the case.

Everything changed for Abram. Everything changed for Moses. Everything changed for David. Everything changed for Mary. Everything changed for every single one of those disciples who put down their nets and their tax bags and decided to follow Christ.

But you know what… they didn’t have to do it alone. And when someday, we find the courage to say yes to God, we will not be left on our own either.

As the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, one of the first things that he whispered in her ear was: “Do not be afraid.”

The words of that hymn we have used quite often – “You are Mine,” seem to express the words of encouragement that might have helped Mary find the strength to accept this blessing in her life, in spite of the difficulty, in spite of the whispers behind her back, in spite of the long hard road ahead. “Do not be afraid, I am with you… I love you and you are mine.”

No, we will not be left to our own devices when the time comes and the call is given. Because while God freely chooses to use ordinary people to accomplish his will – God also gives us everything that we need.

That is what grace is all about. That is what love is all about.

During this time of year, there are goodies everywhere. My sister-in-law loves to bake, but she also really wants to involve her children in the process. Now, Cami and Xander are 3 and 7 respectively, and so there is only so much that they can do as children in the kitchen, but Bevin tries hard to include them nonetheless. She calls them each into the kitchen, gives them various small tasks to do, and pretty soon, before they know it, they have made a beautiful and delicious masterpiece.

In many ways, that is how God works. God wants so much for this world to be transformed, but he also loves us so much that he lets us in on the secret, wants to teach us the recipe, and hopes that we will want to help out where we can. So little by little, we are charged with the task of redeeming this creation. Little by little, we do what we can. Little by little, God helps us along. Like a loving parent, God will not leave us on our own to burn ourselves, or let us be with a sharp knife, but carefully, painstakingly, helps us to navigate through the dangers. God molds us, supports us, guides us and leads us.

Don’t be afraid. I love you. I will see you through this. You are mine and I am never letting you go.

Are we ready to roll up our sleeves and say yes? Have we spent enough time preparing? Have we put off the call long enough?

In three days, we will come together again in celebration and joy for the birth of the Christ child. May these days of waiting and anticipation help us to get ready for Christ to be born in our hearts. May these days help us to be able to say, “Yes, Lord, Let it be with us according to your will.”