Jesus! Watch out!

Luke 13:31-35

2/24/13

How many times have we watched bad movies where the plot is so transparent that we as the audience know exactly what is going to happen to the hero of the story before it actually occurs?  Think about it.  It’s like the old cartoon image of the villain with the handle bar mustache laying the heroine on the train tracks.  Old Nefarious Nick has taken Vicki Virtue, and Young Johnny Justice has to go save her. Johnny gets on his swift steed and, no matter how close the timing is, Johnny will come and untie her from the railroad tracks and save the day.  Nefarious Nick is foiled and justice has returned to the valley, at least for this day.  This isn’t exactly what the story of Jesus is like, but I can see some parallels.  Jesus lives a life dedicated to ministry to the down trodden in the land which upsets the powerful and wealthy.  We can see right from the get go that this business is going to end in confrontation, but I think the real twist in the Jesus story is that he can clearly see not only coming confrontation but the outcome of that confrontation as well.

How many times in our lives do we as Christians want to live wrapped snugly in the memory of Jesus healing the sick, feeding the poor, and fighting injustice?  We love the stories and images of Jesus as a child in temple conversing with the elders, of Jesus seeing a sea of hungry people and feeding them, of Jesus telling a paralyzed man to get up and take his mat with him, and of Jesus walking with us on a road and breaking bread with us later at dinner.  We start to think that, yeah, this guy was an amazing caring human being and maybe we can be just like him.  We ask ourselves things like “What Would Jesus Do if he was in this situation?”  We like to think that these stories are simply a wonderful rule book for how we should live our lives.  But, what we tend to forget is what Jesus has done once and for all time – he died because we are sinful creatures who forget how to live in true relation to one another and with God.  Our own self interests start to come in the equation whenever we think about what would Jesus do.  Our concern moves from concern about who we can maybe help to how we are doing as helpers.  It becomes about us.

I think that this is exactly the kind of thing that those Pharisees were trying to do when they came to Jesus on that day.  Jesus had been going from town to town and village to village teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem.  After Jesus makes his famous speech about how the first will be last and the last shall be first, some Pharisees came to Jesus and told him to get away because Herod was looking to kill Jesus.  Wait a minute.  Did the text just say that the Pharisees told Jesus to get away because Herod wanted to kill him?  That seems to be a real disconnect from the other stories we hear in the New Testament about the Pharisees.  In fact, more often than not, it is the Pharisees themselves who are doing the plotting and planning to kill Jesus.  So why are these particular Pharisees any different?  Well, I think that these particular Pharisees have witnessed the teachings and actions of Jesus in his ministry, and because of that, have come to see the great good that Jesus had done.  Yes!  Jesus has finally done it!  He has finally persuaded some of the people that what he is doing is right.  I can imagine them saying, “We finally have someone who can be an advocate and defender of injustice in the world.  Now all we have to do is keep him alive, because these teachings are causing quite a stir amongst the wealthy and powerful.”  If they can just hold on to him for a little while longer, maybe he will make a difference in the world.  These Pharisees are trying to desperately hold on to this Jesus who heals, feeds, and defends.  And you know, we are right alongside those Pharisees trying to cling on to the glory and majesty of Jesus’ ministry, but…

But, Jesus knows that this is not the way things are going to go.  He says as much when proclaims that he is “casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow and on the third day I finish my work.  Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed out side of Jerusalem.” Jesus knows that sin and brokenness are deeply ingrained into the human experience, and that the only way that our cycles of sin can be broken is through a radical act of love that takes place in the very city of Jerusalem.  What is heart breaking about this these few lines of text from Luke is that Jesus would like nothing better than if he could just be like a “hen [gathering] her brood under her wings.”  We would like to go along with this and have Jesus be our hen covering us with his wings, but Jesus knows that, because of our sinful nature, something radically different needs to happen in this world for anything to truly change.

It is exactly because Jesus knows that we, in the end, are not willing that is the amazing twist in the Jesus story.  Jesus knows and realizes what must be done and he does it.   Jesus sees that death and sin are realities and the only way to change that reality is to die and be raised up three days later.  And the Pharisees will know this is so, when they hear and experience that event in which sin and death loses its power when Jesus dies and the cross and is resurrected three days later.  When they hear that story and experience that story, they will be able to truly see who Jesus is and say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”  This is so, because the fullness of who Jesus is can only be known when one takes into account the fullness of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. 

Now that we are in the midst of the Lenten season, realize that we are on a journey that explores who Jesus was, what Jesus did and who Jesus is.  The Lenten season is a journey in which we retell and re-experience the Jesus story with the knowledge that at the end of the journey the fullness of who Jesus is revealed in his death and subsequent resurrection three days later.  So, yes we can reflect and think about who Jesus was and the things that Jesus did.  We can even take the time to ponder what Jesus might do in the dilemmas we come across in our lives.  But when you ponder about what Jesus might do, also ponder and know that Jesus is alive and present with us to day in this world that we live.  The new reality which Jesus brings in to our lives tells us that our sins are forgiven and that death is no longer the final end point in our lives. 

Like the plot of a bad movie, we can see exactly how Jesus is going to end up and we so often want to scream out, “No! Don’t go in there!  You’ll be killed!  Stay with us where it is safe and where you can care for us our entire lives!”  But Jesus knows that he will be killed, and Jesus knows that staying safe from harm will do nothing change the reality of the world in which we live.

When we realize that sin and death no longer has hold over us, we can then see the fullness of who Jesus is present in our lives.  We see what Jesus is doing when take the time to do as he did and care for the hungry.  We see what Jesus is doing when we speak out against injustices in the world.  And we see what Jesus is doing when we come together as a community in worship and mission.  “What Would Jesus Do?” can be a very important question to ask ourselves when are at a loss to know what we should do next, but when you are asking yourself that question, think about what Jesus is doing in the world, because Jesus’ loving actions are just as active now as they were two thousand years ago.

Flesh of our Flesh

Genesis 2.18-24 & Mark 10.2-16

10/7/12

            "Adam, things are about to get a lot more interesting."  Maybe that's something that God should have mentioned to him at the beginning of this Garden of Eden story.  In this second, different account of creation (That's right, this is a second, different account of creation. If you think the Bible is a completely accurate account of exactly how things have happened in history, then you simply aren't reading it.  This book is a collection of stories, poems, and letters that reveal to us truth about who God is, what God is up to, and who we are in relationship to God.  But I digress...)  In this second, different account of creation, God has decided to make this creation that has been formed by God's hands just a little more interesting.  I actually find this interaction that God has with Adam to be a little comical.  I mean, God's like, "Adam needs someone that he can interact with.  I know!  I'll make him one!"  But what ensues is scene where God parades this long line of animals to see if one of them would do.  I wonder how long Adam had to politely go through this process.  It's God, so you gotta give God a little bit more respect than the usual person.  But I wonder how quickly Adam was saying to himself, "Oh my god how long is this gonna take?"  All the while God's saying, "How does this, what did you call it?  Zebra?  How does this look to you?"  "No! a zebra will not work.  It doesn't even come close to interesting me."

            I find it funny, but I also find it really interesting.  I find it interesting that this part of the story doesn't conclude until God causes that deep sleep to come over Adam, takes his rib, and forms that first woman.  How wonderful is it that Adam finds his suitable partner, his helper to be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.  There is great truth in that.  Maybe it's because we are truly vain creatures.  But maybe it's also because we can only ever truly know ourselves.  No one can truly know what the world looks like to another person.  For instance, a color blind person CANNOT ever know it is like to personally experience the full spectrum of what we call visible light.  Yet, I feel that when Adam sees this woman, this Eve, he sees something of himself in her.  That here, finally in the body of Eve, Adam finds one who knows what it is to be human with everything that comes along with being a human.  This has never meant that women are lower to be subject to men.  The word used to describe what this woman is, helper, is word that is only ever found in Hebrew to describe God, our helper and redeemer.  This partner that Adam finally finds his joy in is his helper who he depends on as much as she.  Women were never meant to be viewed as unequal.  Never.  And I have to believe that that is part of the reason that Adam finds his joy in her.

            If this were a fairy tale, this just might be a good place to stop the story and say, "And they lived happily ever after..."  But we know the story continues on.  The story continues on with disobedience, blame, pain, suffering, murder, theft, selfishness, and indifference.  Adam and Eve disobey God. They are exiled from Eden.  Their child Cain murders their other child Abel.  Sin enters into the world as people turn away from God and turn toward their own desires over and over and over and over again.  "Adam, things are definitely about to get more interesting."

            And we complexity and pain that world offers every day.  People grow hungry in the world while each of us who live here in America let so much food go to waste in our trash bins and landfills.  People are forced to lived under the constant fear of terror from those who seek to destabilize and control others like we see going on in Syria this day.  Children are bullied for being different so that others may feel like they fit in sometimes to tragic, ultimate consequences.  Adults and children suffer from abuse that sometimes literally bruises and scars and sometimes causes emotional scars and bruises that can be as hurtful.  And families and relationships can lie in broken tatters as promises once made are broken.  The pain and suffering that we experience is most definitely not the "happily ever after" of a fairytale.  But our story does not end in pain and suffering either.  Things are about to get even more interesting.

            In our gospel reading for today, the Pharisees have come to test Jesus.  That must their job.  They spend an awful amount of time figuring out newer and newer ways to test him.  Yet this day, they come to Jesus to test him about something that obviously has been a sticky issue for thousands of years.  They come to him with a question about divorce.  First of all, I believe that this is such a sticky for us humans because we want to believe that the promises that we once made and wholly believed in when we made them should mean something to us even into a future that no one can possibly know.  Yet it is quite obvious that those promises do get broken, not by everybody, but by some.  But the thing about divorce is that at no time is it ever a completely joyous occasion that gather families and friends together to celebrate.  Divorce is hard, and anyone who has ever gone through will tell you that, no matter what the reason, it sucks.  Yet I also do know that there are times and places where it must happen for the health of individuals or for the health of children.  It is the classic case of something that sometimes needs to happen.  No one gets married intending to get divorced, but sometimes it happens and it is the healthiest choice for everyone involved.  So what are we to do with what Jesus has said to the Pharisees and later the disciples?

            I think that by making the judgment that he has made, he is lifting up the reality that divorce is an event where we indeed see clearly the brokenness of humanity in creation.  As to what Jesus says to the disciples, he affirms that divorce is never a way to upgrade to a new model just because you've gotten tired of the old one.  Jesus stands up and says that human relationships are not like children's toys that get discarded as something new and enticing gets introduced.  But even more than that, I firmly believe that the path to our forgiveness and salvation is not found in our ability to be righteously pure.  So even as Jesus names remarriage as adultery, he is not concerned with whether we have been adulterous.  Rather, I see that what concerns him the absolute most in our gospel reading for today is the real indignation he expresses when the disciples try to bar children from coming to him.  Moreover, I feel that anyone who is in a loving, life-giving relationship is doing a good thing that God sees and names good.  But again our salvation is not found in our ability to be pure in our relationships.

            God knows this.  God knows that even as Adam finds his joy in Eve, humanity will vainly search for forgiveness and life that we can see in ourselves, that we are still in search for that which gives us life even in the midst of our sin and death.  So I find it interesting, I find it wonderful that our salvation is finally won for us as God takes on flesh in the very person of Jesus who goes to the cross for all of us and all of our sins.  In Jesus, we see our God who has taken on our flesh with all the pain and suffering it means for us.  We see that our God comes to where we are.  We see that our God loves us dearly and will not even stop at death to bring us into new life.  In the end this is the truth that we cling to.  We cling to the God who has become flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone.  Then we see that the bonds of death cannot hold God in - that life, love, and forgiveness of all of our sins springs forth from this Jesus who becomes indignant, not at the prospect people divorcing, but at the prospect of children being brought to see and know him and his love and forgiveness.  For that good news is for everyone.  That good news comes to us, in Jesus, in God made flesh.

A case of the "supposed to's"

Mark 9.38-50

9/30/12

            On my mom's side of my family, whenever we get together for Christmas, Thanksgiving, or even summer vacation, we always end up playing one specific game together.  It's a game that we call "May I?"  "May I?" is a simple game where players try to be the first one to get rid of his or her cards.  There are seven rounds of play where each player must meet a requirement to start getting rid of the cards.  For example, in the first round, you must collect two books, which are two sets three of the same card - like three "nines" and three "jacks."  The requirement gets progressively harder each round.  The "May I?" part of the game comes in when someone lays down a card in the discard pile.  If it is a card that you need or want, then you simply have to say "May I?" before anyone else.  You then get the card and the top card from the draw pile.  By the way, did I say simple?  Maybe I should have said "a game with a long list of intricate rules that are best learned through experience and enforced ruthlessly."

            It's always fun to see new people introduced into the game as new people have been welcomed into our family.  It's always a process of helping the new person ease into what's going.  Although, adding new people into the game always brings a fresh perspective and new insights into what could possibly happen.  Yet, that's exactly where this game with extremely polite name can start to get a little nasty.  You see there are a number of unwritten rules that people are not allowed to break, no matter how much sense they may seem to make.  The biggest one of these is basically the process of "taking a knee" in the final hand.  You see, there can be someone who is so far ahead by the last hand, that he or she basically doesn't have to do anything except collect low point value cards without regard for trying to meet the hand requirements.  The only problem with that is that there is almost no greater way kindle the fire of my mother's anger than to engage in that kind of tomfoolery.  Without a doubt, it would be said, "But that's not how you play the game!"  Feelings get hurt, tempers are lost, and what was once a pleasant social family activity turns into a cause of strife.  All because of the notion of "That's not how you're supposed to act!"

            "John said to Jesus, 'Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.'"  Our Gospel reading for today very much has the disciples concerned with what people are supposed to/not supposed to do.  But before we go too much further into the gospel for today, we must remember what has come before in the story.  One chapter earlier in the gospel according to Mark, Jesus was telling the disciples and everyone else who was following him around all about following him.  And so now that the disciples found someone who was not following them but still doing some things in Jesus' name, they thought that they were doing the right thing because this person wasn't following in the same exact way as the disciples.  I can almost hear them say, "That's not how you play the game!"  Who are these disciples to be telling Jesus the rules, all the "supposed to's" of following Jesus!?

            To Jesus, all the "supposed to's" can become stumbling blocks in the way the little ones, those who are the children of the faith.  They then can become the very millstones that get hung around our necks.  Faith is not and has never been about following a list of "supposed to's."  Faith has always been the simplicity of trusting that Jesus brings us life in the midst of death.  Faith has always been the simplicity of trusting that Jesus forgives us even as we are all sinners.  Faith is about trusting in what God is up to, and that that is Good News for us all.

            You see, when Jesus starts listing off all those body parts that could possibly cause us to stumble and suggesting that they be cut off rather than drag you down into the fires of hell, he is not suggesting that we all go a grab our favorite sharpened knives to start cutting out our eyes, cutting off our hands, and cutting off our feet.  If that were true, then I assure you that would at least have a blind pastor standing before you today.  The stumbling blocks are those things in our lives which cause us to mistrust that God's grace is grace is real and is enough, even for our enemies, even for ourselves.  Have salt in yourselves!  Have that salt which is the good news of the kingdom of God be within you and never leave.  For if the Good News is like salt then the Good News can never lose the saltiness of its love and grace which seasons us all.

            Often we do get concerned with how things and people should be or shouldn't be.  Those are not the arguments that we should have in this world.  Rather rejoice that God's great love is an embrace that touches all of existence and be at peace with that!  With that joyous trust, we just may find that the Good News of the Kingdom of God is indeed a message that we and the people we meet need to hear.  We just may find out that it is a message that we even begin to feel should be told with all of our voices and hands in love and service to people who just might be the "little ones" of our faith.  Again, have that salt which is the love and forgiveness of God in the midst of our sin, and be at peace with one another.

Doing Compassion

James 1:17-27

9/2/12

            The oldest manuscripts (for instance the Muratorian Fragment from 170 A.D.) that we have of the scriptures do not include the Letter of James in its contents.  Martin Luther has famously called James the "Epistle of Straw," evoking the image that it blows away in the wind when it is examined too closely.  And honestly, it is light on what actually makes the gospel, gospel.  It makes a couple of passing mentions of Jesus.  And it runs counter to the message we hear from the Apostle Paul, "For by grace your have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that none may boast." (Eph. 2:8-9)  No, instead we hear in the Letter of James, "So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. (James 2:17)  So James, poor maligned James what are we to do with you?

            It would seem by some reasons, you should not be included in our Bibles.  But then why is it that Bible after Bible that buy or receive from parents, teachers and pastors have this "book" named James after Hebrews and right before 1 Peter?  Why has this book remained in our canon, the contents of our Bibles?  I could be cynical and say it only because some long dead men declared that it should be, but I truly do believe that would only be a discounting of how the Holy Spirit guided the Bible to become the book it has become.  It's here for a reason.  It's scripture for us because it has something very important to say about our life of Faith.  It's hear to say that the Word of God has come into the world to dwell richly within in us and call us to a life lived out in tremendous displays of compassion.  The Word of God dwells within us to move us into ever greater acts of love and sacrifice. 

            I want to take a moment and talk about a word that I just used – compassion.  Compassion is a word that has taken a few hits in recent years.  It has been weakened to refer mostly to the pity we might have for someone who's having a tough time in life.  We think of compassion today, and we think about someone who has had a really bad and we say, "There, there.  Everything is going to be alright."  More over, in recent years we've even had the development of the term "Compassionate Conservative" which describes a fiscally conservative person who cares for people in their plights.  Yet the response to people's plights too often in recent years has been, "I'm doing this thing that may hurt you, because it will be good for the whole and even you in the long run."  And that's fine.  The voice that says, "How do we help people change rather than enable behaviors?" is a good one in the political sphere.  Yet, when we begin to talk about who our God is and what our God does in this world, we have to be willing to delve deeper into what this word "compassion" means to God.

            Compassion means much more than feeling deeply sorry for someone else and their plight.  We can actually get deeper into what compassion means to our God when we look at the word's counterpart in the German language, Mitleid.  In German, that literally means with-suffering.  As the theologian Douglas John Hall writes in his book The Cross in Our Context, "To feel compassion, deeply and sincerely, is to overcome the subject/object division. it is to suffer with the other."  How do I know that that is what God means when compassion is used to describe God?  It is because, when I look upon that cross from which Jesus hung, I see that God has made the ultimate, grace-filled decision to come down from heaven and be with the creatures and creation that God has made in the midst of all of our pain, all of our suffering, even in all of our death.  Our God is compassionate because our God comes to where we are, in our suffering.  And then God lifts us up into new life, never abandoning us.

            The wonderful gift that the Letter of James gives each and every one of us is that it describes how this new life that we have in Christ must be a reflection of the compassion that our God has shown us.  Does James describe the pure perfect Christian life as one where church is never missed on Sundays, where only best clothes are worn, where you put on display to everyone else how good of a person you have been from day to day?  NO! In fact, the Letter of James expressly warns against that kind of behavior!  No, instead James paints a picture of the life of faith as one where we have true compassion for those who suffer – that we suffer with them.  Being a "doer of the word," means being someone who loves, cares, and stands with the other, because our God loves, cares, and stands with us.

            You might ask, "But Pastor are we also not to worry about how purely we are living?  Aren't we not to be stained by the world?"  Well, I say to you if an unstained life means that you care first and only for the purity of your morals, then you misunderstand what James is saying about the purity of religion.  Being unstained by the world means constantly remembering who you are as a person that God has done tremendous things for.  "Unstained" is not permission to distance yourself from the messiness of the world we live in.  "Unstained" keeping that identity that God loved you so much that God died on the cross to bring you up out of sorrow, sin and death as you engage and seek to suffer with world around you.  And if you read the Letter of James you will see over and over again that the works that James is calling us to are indeed works of true compassion.  The letter is filled with calls to care for orphans, widows, the poor, and the hungry.

            Will any of these works of true compassion save you?  Absolutely not.  But you have received the tremendous work of God's compassion throughout your whole life.  And I do think that begs the question:  How will you respond to the compassion that God has for you?  You have been made holy by a love that knows no bounds or depths.  God doesn't want our piety and our purity.  God wants us.  God wants us to be people who go forth bearing this good news to whole world, so that others may too see the boundless compassion that God has for the whole of creation.

Ruth: A Story of Life, Loss, and Faith

Ruth: A Story of Life, Loss, and Faith

Summer Pulpit Exchange 2012

            So who here has a brown or browning lawn?  Who here has fields of corn that are beginning to wither up because rain has decided to take a vacation this summer?  Who here is beginning to wonder and worry about what this year is going to bring, or maybe more accurately, not bring?  I know that I have been simply amazed driving to and from La Crosse and seeing all the grass and fields turning brown as if it were preparing for winter.  I heard that this summer nearly 2/3rds of the Midwest is experiencing drought this summer.  This is definitely looking to be a lean year.

            I come to you all this day to present to you all one of my favorite stories of the Bible and say a few words.  Way back in May, I decided on the story of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz.  This story begins with a few words that I think we all can somewhat identify with this summer.  "In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land..."  This is what sets the context for our story this morning.  Naomi has found herself in a foreign land, because her husband decided to move to where there was a possibility of food.  Only now, her husband has died.  She is a widow whose sons have even died, and she is only left with two daughters-in-law. 

(read Ruth 1:6-22)

            By all accounts of what we know about Ancient Middle Eastern society, being a widow was hard.  But being a widow who is the mother-in-law of two widows must have been worse.  So not only is Naomi grieving the death or her husband and her two sons, but she is also being faced with the prospect trying to provide for her life and the life of Ruth and Orpah without status and without claim to property.  She in final talk with these daughters-in-law even counts herself amongst the dead.  Naomi feels as if there is no hope for herself, and that's why she even decides to change her name from Pleasant to Bitter.  Naomi literally means pleasant in Hebrew.  Mara literally means bitter.

            Yet in all this bitterness a glimmer of something wonderful begins to shine.  We get to meet Ruth.  We get to meet someone who either loves Naomi so much as a mother or feels a dutiful commitment to her that she cannot turn away and leave her.  Ruth clings to Naomi.  Ruth will not abandon her.  This makes me think.  What are the things we will cling to in our lives?  What would be so important to us that we would never let that go? 

            Whatever the answers to those questions might be, I see something yet still in these opening verses of Ruth's story.  Clinging to Naomi is also clinging to Naomi's God.  A huge part of what Ruth displays is that what is important to her is her faith in God.  She puts total trust of her life in her God, even if her God only seems to deal in bitterness.  But is God only a god of bitterness and sorrow?

             Even though the answer may seem to be yes, based upon our story so far, I'm certain that the answer to that question is indeed, "No."  Ruth and Naomi are on a journey, and that journey is not over yet.

Sing verse 1 of "Lord Jesus, You Shall Be My Song"

Read Ruth Chapter 2:1-13

            Who here has ever been so hungry that your only chance for food comes from picking up the leftovers from a field that has just been harvested?  This is such the situation that Naomi and Ruth find themselves in.  Naomi is a widow without place or power.  Naomi can't even have children, so the prospect of re-marrying is off the table for her.  Ruth is also a widow, but she is a foreigner.  The only hope of a meal is literally picking through the leftovers, going through someone else's trash essentially.  Their journey has taken a bitter turn indeed, but Ruth does not waver in her commitment to stand by and care for Naomi. 

            I recently had the pleasure to accompany some youth from the Blair-Taylor area on a Youthworks mission trip.  We went to Heart Butte, Montana.  Now the thing about Heart Butte you must realize is that this small town rests in the middle of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.  If you were only to look around, you would see that life in the town of Heart Butte is not an easy one.  In our time there, the marks of poverty, unemployment, alcoholism, addiction, and abuse were easily seen.  Yet, one thing struck me as I reflected on what we were doing there painting houses, cleaning up yards, and working with children in an afternoon Bible school:  We may not have fixed everything for these people once and for all time, but in our service, they at least were able to see that they weren't unloved.  That they weren't forgotten.  That they still somehow mattered.  And when we were helping one particular family, the grandmother said, "Thank you so much for helping.  I don't know if I could ever have begun to do these things.  You all make me feel like I still matter in the world."

            And maybe that's where this story of Ruth and Naomi is going.  Maybe their journey is taking them to a place where they can see that they aren't forgotten and are taken notice of and loved.  And that's the great thing that Boaz does for Ruth and Naomi.  By taking notice of Ruth, Boaz says to her and her beloved mother-in-law, "You are worthy of love and compassion."  In effect, Boaz says to them, "I see you.  I have not forgotten you."

            That is one of the most powerful things that our God does for us.  Our God has indeed made a claim upon us and our lives in our baptisms, and God has said to each and every one of us, "You are mine, and I will not let you go."  Life indeed can take us down some bitter roads.  But we have that promise that God will be by our sides every step of the way.  That doesn't mean that it's all feather pillows and gumdrops for us for the rest of our lives, but it does mean that even in our darkest times our God gives us tremendous hope of new life.  God will be with us on our journey.

Sing verse two of "Lord Jesus, You Shall Be My Song"

Read Ruth 3:1-13

            Okay.  Sometimes feet are just feet.  We have come to the part of out story which Ruth and Boaz finally have their midnight encounter.  Could you heavily sexualize what is going on here?  I suppose you could, but I think you would be missing the point of this scene.  This midnight encounter is not in the Bible so it can be more exciting to read.  Rather than call this a tawdry scene full of innuendo,  I see this scene of Ruth coming to Boaz in the middle of the night as a scene of intimate love and affection that goes far beyond sex.  What Ruth does here for Boaz is care and comfort him and show him that she is as committed to him as she is committed to Naomi.

            So often in today's world we can get caught up in only thinking about what we can get out of relationships.  And this certainly goes beyond our romantic relationships.  We want our friends to show us a good time.  We want our friends to help us make more money.   We want our friends to help us advance along our career paths.  We want friends so that they can add something to our lives.  And it seems to me that that is an awfully selfish view of friendship and romantic companionship to only think of the other as a means to an end.  It seems to me that we should spend time considering what we bring to the relationship, how we can make someone else's life better.

            That's what I see Ruth doing here.  I see her finding a way to comfort and care for Boaz in his weariness.  You could make a case that Ruth is scheming with Naomi to get her proverbial slice of the pie, but why does Boaz consider what Ruth does here as loyal service?  Boaz reckons what Ruth does as loyalty, because even with all the other options of young men available to her, Ruth cares and comforts Boaz.  What she does is love and care for another. 

            It seems to me that Ruth's love and care is a reflection of the love and care that our God has for Boaz and has for us.  I think that's what steals Boaz's heart in the end.  He sees God's steadfast love in the face, hands, and feet of Ruth.  Is that not what we should show forth in our lives?  Should we not show forth the steadfast love that God ahs shown us?

Sing verse three of "Lord Jesus, You Shall Be My Song"

Read Ruth 4:9-12

            In the end, the story works out.  Naomi and Ruth have been welcomed into a new situation in which they will be loved and cared for.  Even though Boaz uses the traditional language of ownership, he takes Ruth as his wife with heart and eyes wide open happy to love and care for someone who loves and cares for him.  And Ruth and Boaz conceive a Son.  Do you know who that Son is? The son is the father of Jesse, who is the father of David, who the Gospels of Matthew and Luke trace Jesus' lineage to.  And that Son, would be the Son who give everything, even his own life, so that the whole world might be redeemed and know the depth of God's love.  You see in the end, this story is a story about faith.  It's a story about what God is up to in the world.  When we see what God is up to, that God is in the business of giving love and forgiveness to the whole, we see that the one who we trust is the one who gives us hope even in the midst of bitterness, sin, and death.  We see that our God has not and will not abandon us.  We are God's own children and there is no power in heaven or on earth or above earth or below earth that can separate us from that love.  Our journey is a journey of faith in the one who gives us life.

            Faith is not simply the unwavering belief that God is going to make everything better in our lives.  Faith is the trust that the one who made us and gave us the breath of life is the one who will love, guard, and guide us even through the bitter twists and turns of life.  Faith is clinging to God even when it might seem easier to turn away forsake the journey.  Faith is something that calls us to love and care for others in our life.  Faith is that life centering trust that no matter what may happen to us, our God loves us and always will us and will bring us into new life, even through our death.

Sing verse four of "Lord Jesus, You Shall Be My Song"

The case for Judas

John 17:6-19

5/20/12

            Who are the villians of the Bible?  If you think about scripture as the story of God within the world, who is opposed to God fulfilling what God want to do in the world?  We're in the summer blockbuster movie season, and already, we have seen villians who are disgruntled Norse gods and aliens who have come to destroy our world.  Many of our favorite stories have a main villain who we can all root against and hope for their destruction or neutralization.  So who are the villains of scripture?  Name some:

            Of course the primary villain in many of our minds is Satan, the devil, the Accuser.  And there are plenty of instances in which the Devil is trying subvert the will of God.  The Devil provokes God to rain destruction down upon Job to see if Job would still trust in the Lord even if everything was taken away from him.  The Devil tempts Jesus in the wilderness , trying to turn Jesus away from the path that is laid out before him.  And then the Devil gets portrayed as that one who is finally thrown into the eternal fires at the end of the book of Revelation.  But what other villains are there in the Bible?  There's the snake who convinces Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit in the garden.  There's the monstrous Goliath who is the champion of the Phillistines.  There are the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees (people who very well could have been Jesus' cousins) who antagonize Jesus throughout the Gospels.  And then there is Judas.  Judas, the one who was destined to be lost.  Judas the one who betrays his friend, teacher, and master with a kiss all for a mere 30 silver coins.

            Judas.  Certainly here is another villain who is unredeemable, right?  It could be easy to think that,  but today I want to challenge that.  I want to make the case for Judas this day.  I want to make a case for the one who set everything in motion that ultimately led to Jesus being beaten, ridiculed, and publically executed.

            The evidence is certainly stacked up against him.  It is Judas who questions why expensive perfume should poured out onto the feet of Jesus.  It is Judas who the author of the gospel of John accuses of being a thief who stole regularly out of the common purse that the disciples had.  It is Judas who accepts the bribe from the chief priests and Pharisees of 30 silver coins.  It is Judas, who in the guilt of what he had done, hangs himself in despair.  Going by the evidence, Judas was gulty of the terrible crime of conspiring to murder an innocent who had done nothing to him other than to call him to be a disciple and love him.  Yet with everything that is stacked up against Judas, with everything that points to Judas getting exactly what he deserved, I still want to stand here this day before you all and make a case for Judas.

            I cannot deny that Judas had done a great and terrible wrong.  I will not even stand here and try to convince you that he was simply out of his mind and possibly temporarily insane.  What I will do is stand here and proclaim to you that Jesus love enfolds around Judas just as surely as we are all wrapped up in the never-failing arms of Christ this day, the days we will all die, and into that future in which we will all be raised up into new life with all saints who now reside with the Lord.  I have this confidence not because of all the good things that Jesus did for people while he was living, but because he gave up his life so that we all may be raised up with him in the Easter resurrection.  Judas was indeed the one who was destined to be lost so that scripture may be fulfilled and that we may look upon our Lord as one who gives up everything, even his own life, so that we may not be condemned and lost forever.

            Furthermore, my confidence comes from the prayer that Jesus lifts up for the disciples and for us all, literally right before he is betrayed by Judas and sent on his way to the cross.  Jesus knows that this is the last night before he is to die.  Jesus knows that Judas has already left group to betray Jesus and hand him over to those who would have him killed.  Jesus knows that he is to be the sacrificial lamb for the forgiveness of the sins of all creation.  Yet with all that going on in his mind, Jesus prays for the lives of all the disciples whether they be deniers, abandoners, doubters, or even betrayers. 

            The case for Judas is simply this.  Jesus' death and the events that led up to his death are the good news that embraces us all, the whole of creation and raises us up into new life in Christ as a people who find our joy not in our own accomplishments, but in the great love that our God has for us.  The truth, the truth that makes us holy, is the truth that seeks us out in our failings, in our mistrust, in our dark places where it may seem like all we have done is done wrong in the world.  That is grace.  Have faith in that grace, and you too will find that Jesus still loves you and has always loved you.  Faith in what Jesus has done is what lifts us up.

God's love is gift and life; not reward

Acts 3.12-19 & 1 John 3.1-7

4/22/12

            I heard a friend speak earlier this week, and at one point during his lecture, he relayed a story about a team of researchers that were observing how and why children play with the toys they play with.  The researchers would bring in a parent and his or her child, and in one corner of the room, the researcher, parent, would sit down at a table.  The researcher would then turn to the child and then say, "You can either stay here with your mom or you can over to the other corner of the room and play with the toys." Over there in the other corner was a box of toys and a bright carpeted area to play in.  Above the carpeted area there was a mirror that allowed other members of the research team to observe the child as he or she would play with the toys.  They were to observe which toy the child played with the most – in other words, which toy the child liked the most.  If the child like the big red truck the most, they would write down big red truck.  If it was the stuffed doggy, they would write down stuffed doggy.

            They would take note of this and then would have the parent and child come back another day.  Only this time, the researcher would say to the child, "You can either stay here, or you can go over there and play with the toys.   But if you play with the big red truck (remember they observed that this was the toy that that specific child had chosen by themselves in the earlier session), if you play with the big red truck, I will give you a bag of M&Ms when we are done."  What would you expect to happen?

            Of course the child's going to want to go after the bag of chocolate encased in a candy shell that allows the chocolate to melt in you mouth and not in your hands.  I bet there are even a few of us older people who might even do something as simple as that for a bag of chocolaty goodness.  But that's not what interested the researchers.  They found that after you make playing with child's favorite toy a requirement for getting the promised reward, the child ended up HAVING to play with that toy.  Before, you can imagine a little girl or boy zooming around the carpet with their big red truck, making the sound of the engine, and picking up and dropping off loads of plastic frogs, blocks, and Barbies.  Now the child kind of sits there half heartedly rolling the truck back and forth wondering why her mom is taking so long.  In other words, the first time, the child GETS to play with their toy.  The second time, the child HAS to play with the toy.  The expectation of reward, which one might think might enhance the experience, has only ended up ruining it.

            How do we end up doing the things we do anyways?  It seems to me that our first two readings that we've heard today focus much on what God would have us do or not do.  In our reading from Acts, we see Peter speaking to a crowd of people, and what is he trying to tell them?  He trying to tell them who Jesus is, what Jesus has done, and finally what they should do in response.  In our reading from 1 John, we hear the author trying to explain what the life lived in Christ looks like.  He is trying to explain that living in the light has a bearing for how we live out our days here on earth.  Yet, I think the question still remains:  How do we live out these words that we gather around in our worship assemblies?

            Peter seems very much concerned with what it means to be a people of the story of Jesus Christ.  He recalls what Jesus did for us on the cross.  He recalls how death and the grave could not contain him as he bursts forth from that tomb.  But then he makes a call to repentance.  He makes that call for the people make a change in their lives in live them in different way.  So why should we heed Peter's words this day?  There are a couple of different reasons.  #1: We could hear them only as a promise of a future reward.  Yet will the promise of a future reward be able to sustain us throughout our lives and provide the motivation to live out a repentent life?  Or will the promise of reward (and the implied punishment if not followed) simply cause us to begin to hate having to play with the toy that once cause wonder and joy to well up within us?  My feeling is that we will would end up like that little girl who can barely tolerate HAVING to play with the toy just so she can get her reward at the end of this experiment we call life.  Following in the way of Christ must mean more than the expectation that we will get some goodies like angel wings, streets paved with gold, and dinners with grandma and grandpa.  Otherwise, we will simply end up despising all the things that we HAVE to do to make God love us.

            Thankfully, that is not what God wants from us in our lives.  God wants us to live fully and freely!  God wants us to live joyfully and abundantly with a grace and love that is able to embrace the whole of creation.  God wants us to live not in the expectation what we or I get out of this deal.  God's will is that, when the Son is revealed to us and in us, our lives will be changed, not because of what we have done.  Not because of how we've kept up our part of the bargain, but only because of what love Jesus has done and given to us in our lives.  We are to live out lives as if there is a toy chest of love, grace, and abundance that is open and available to us all to play with and share with the rest of creation.  God's will for us is to be able to say to ourselves, "I don't have to earn God's love.  It has already been graciously given to me.  I GET to share what love God has given me with the rest of the world around me."  And that is a life that is full of life and wonderful opportunities that is able to fulfill us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. 

            Some days this easier to feel than others.  Some days it feels as if there has just been a ton that has been taken away from us.  Yet, those are some of the days in which we need to hear those words "God forgives you." "Jesus is given for you." "God loves you." and "There is nothing in this world that can separate us from the love of God that we have in Christ Jesus our Lord."  These are words of gift.  These are words of promise.  These are words of life. 

Listen! And hear God's love...

Mark 9.2-8

"This is my Son, the beloved; listen to him!"

If any of you out there are wondering what exactly is going on in our Gospel reading for today, hear that phrase spoken by more than any of the other words that you've heard this morning. This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him! That right there is what this strange story on a mountain, dazzling lights, famous forebears of the faith, and terrified disciples centers on more than anything else – that Jesus is God's beloved Son and that we should listen to him. This has importance because it has huge implications for what happens next. So listen up people! God is about to do something wonderful. The only problem is that we often have a terrible time with listening from time to time.

For example, my mother likes to tell this story about when she was in college. It was the end of her third year of college, and with the end of every semester comes all the final tests that one must take to pass the classes you enrolled in to eventually get your degree. In one of my mom's classes, the professor hated how no matter how much he emphasized reading all the directions before starting on the test, most of the students would rip right into the questions as fast as she or he could. Some would do it because taking a test is like a race where you feel better about yourself if you get done before others. Others would start answering questions as fast as possible because the logic goes "the sooner you get done with a test, the sooner you are done with class and can begin the year end parties that some (definitely not me...) looked forward to.

My mother got to this final, and she heard again the clear caution to read all the directions before you started to answer the questions. the only thing was there were four pages of solid text that were the directions. Most people got through maybe a half a page of these severely pedantic directions and decided to just get on with the very long test so that they could get done with the class. My mother and a few others decided to heed the professor's advice and read all four pages of directions which concluded with "Thank you for reading all of the directions. Write your name on the top, turn it in, and meet me at the bar downtown for a beer. You will receive an 'A.'" Not many that day read all the directions, and really that does not surprise me too much.

We all have times in our lives where we have trouble actually listening to what is being said to us, whether it be in a text or in a conversation. We would much rather hear what we want to hear rather than listen carefully to what's been said. In fact, I believe the greatest indicator of how healthy a relationship (friendship or marriage) is how well the two people actually engage in communication. That truly is one of the most important things two people can work on in their relationship, and at times it takes hard work to truly hear what the other is actually saying. Yet, we also see this in our news as well. How many of you have heard a report or a commentator misquote or misrepresent what a public figure had actually said?

Yes, it is true we sometimes have a hard time really listening to what is being told us, even when God personally tells people like us to listen to the Beloved Son. How do we truly hear what Jesus is telling us through his life? First of all, there are times when we need to get out of the way of God is up to. Peter, who often sticks his foot in his own mouth, would love to enshrine Jesus on the top of that mountain so that he and others could always come back to that place again and again and again. But this Good Thing that has come down to earth cannot be locked up on the top of a mountain. Jesus is a Good Thing that must be brought out to the whole world for it is Good for him fill to fill the whole of creation with God's light and love.

Second of all, there are times when we simply would rather that God would do things in a different way, a way which would perhaps not include the cross which Jesus has become resolved march towards in this Lenten journey. Again, it is Peter who begins to scold Jesus for saying that he must go and die on the cross. But the cross is the way. It is the only way. It is the way which shows each of us the incredible self-emptying love of the God who truly gives up what he deserves to give us what we need – to give us mercy. In fact, that phrase I quoted at the beginning of this sermon? There are two other places in Mark's Gospel where it occurs in much the same way: 1.) at Jesus' baptism where God declares "This is my Son, the Beloved. With Him I am well pleased." and 2.) When Jesus dies on the cross and the Roman centurion proclaims "Truly this was God's Son." In sense, we only truly believe, we only truly see, we only truly listen when we gaze upon the cross which is itself the revelation of God's love in the world.

So if we truly take the time to heed God's words "This is my Son, the Beloved; Listen to him!" we must see these words as words that take us away from ourselves and towards others in the world as we too bear that cross to the whole world in our words and deeds. If we heed these words, we need not bear how wonderful our lives are, but simply bear how wonderful God's love is. For that has been and always will be enough. Because on that cross, that cross that journey towards again as begin another season of Lent this Wednesday, God's love and mercy embraces the whole world, a Grace beyond any measure. And in that, we just might find that we too might begin to be able to better listen to the world around us and hopefully respond with grace-filled love that has been shown us.

A Beginning WITHOUT and Ending

(Many thanks to Dr. David Lose of Luther Seminary, who was a germination point for this sermon.)

Mark 1.1-8

12/4/11

How many of you sitting out there today knew that the new year has already begun? Well, okay, maybe not the new calendar year, because I'm guessing that many of us are putting "2011" as a date on our checks. However, the church year always begins anew with the first Sunday in Advent. I'm not too surprised if you didn't notice. There's not much that marks the beginning of the new church year. Really the only thing that is much different from this beginning of the new year from the previous church year is that, starting last week and running throughout the coming church year, we will be hearing the vast majority of our gospel readings from the Gospel according to Mark. Not much is different, but there is something nice how the church marks each new year with the beginning prologue to the Gospel story that has brought us and our ancestors together in faith throughout the centuries.

Beginnings are terribly important to us in our lives, are they not? How much time and energy do we put into the start of something new? One of our favorite and biggest holidays of the year is New Year's Eve, as many people gather together to ring in the New Year as the clock strikes midnight on January 1^st. We mark the passage of time by celebrating the anniversaries of the beginnings of things. We measure the years of our life by celebrating the day we were born and our journey on earth began. Our marriages are marked by celebrating the day two people are united in the bonds of matrimony. And if you happen to be a Vikings fan, there's always the start of the new season, right? I believe that new beginnings are important to us because it shows us that life is not over. It shows that there is still something for us to live for. It shows us that there are new adventures for us to undertake – new stories to hear, new places that our friendships and relationships might go we live and grow together. Marking the beginning helps us to prepare for what just might be coming.

And really, this is where we find ourselves as we encounter these words from the Gospel of Mark on this day: We find ourselves at "the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Yet, even with all this talk of how things are beginning, we all know too well that so many things that everything that has a beginning also will have an ending. Sometimes that ending is tragic. Sometimes we just may feel that the ending has come all too soon. Sometimes the ending comes only a long journey filled with the ups and downs of life. That's one of the things we get to know to the core of beings, is it not? Friendships don't last. Whether through distance, disagreement, or death, all of our friendships come to an end sooner or later. The same goes with our work, our careers, and even the loving committed relationship we have with that special other person in our lives. This is all something we get glimpses of when we are young children, but become well-acquainted with as we get older.

Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Everything. Except that is for one thing: When we are baptized, we are baptized into something eternal, everlasting. We are baptized into the life love and Body of Christ that not even death and the grave can bring a ending to. This beginning is also a beginning steeped in the rich history of the past. John the baptizer is himself the very representation of the rich prophetic tradition of the Israelite people. He, very much like the prophets Jeremiah or Isaiah or Amos or Micah, calls the people back into the way of Lord away from the trappings of everyday life. Yet, comes bearing something new to the people who come to him to be baptized by him. He brings news. He brings Good News. He brings the news of the one who is coming after him who not even this pious man of God would be worthy enough to be a mere servant of. He brings news of the one who is coming after him who bears a gift to be given to the people: A new baptism that is itself the gift of God's Holy Spirit given to each so that he or she may be brought into A NEW BEGINNING WITHOUT AN ENDING.

That is really what all of our baptisms mean for each of us. Our baptism in an entering into a new life where no longer do we have to worry about what the ending is going to be. Instead we are given new life, right here and right now this day. It is simply a mistake to think that our baptisms only have to do with what happens to us when we die. No, on the whole they have a much greater importance the life we are able to live right here in this present moment. Each day we live out a response to the tremendous gift that is given to us as we receive the Holy Spirit on the day of our baptisms. We don't have to worry about the ending, so we can live everyday reveling in promise of that new beginning. We can live everyday still deeply amidst "the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" like it is a story that is still being played even 2000 years after it all began. We are not to give up on the life that we have right now. We are to live this day actively learning about what it means to be a people of The Good News. There is always something to learn or to discover or to engage in. What new thing would you like to learn anew this new year?

The intention of God's gifts

Matthew 25:14-30

11/13/11

The Gospel according to Matthew is replete with parable after parable after parable that Jesus often sets up in this way: "The Kingdom of Heaven will be like..." this or that or another thing. In earlier parts of the gospel, Jesus says the Kingdom of Heaven is like the little bit of yeast that is put into flour to make bread. In another place, he says the Kingdom of Heaven is like a king putting on a wedding banquet for his son. Yet in another place, Jesus says the Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a mustard seed growing from something very small to a large bush or like a tree. So if Jesus keeps on using parables to tell us what the kingdom of heaven is like, what is he trying to tell us?

Is the purpose of the parables to simply give one to one analogies of the specific ways that God acts? Is God a landowner who throws slaves out into then outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth all because the slave didn't invest the money that God gave him? Is the lesson to be learned that God wants us to invest with banks in our lives? No, I think that the parables seek to do one thing and one thing only: they seek to tell us a truth about the world, about us, and about what having a relationship with God is all about.

In other words, when Jesus begins the parables, he just might be saying that The kingdom of heaven will be like this....a place where truth is revealed.

The parables, and especially the parable Jesus tells us this week have to do more than give us a simple moralistic lesson like one of Aesop's Fables. They have to, because if they don't then why are we wasting our time gathering around the Word of God that really only works as an advice column rather than words of hope and life that are able to lift us up in our lives wherever we just might find ourselves and be words of love and of forgiveness and of redemption that call us into a new way of life where we seek to share all of that TRUTH with the rest of the world in our words and actions.

The Bible is not a place where you can get advice on single, separate issues like some kind of ancient "Dear Abbey" letter next to the comics of Garfield and Peanuts you would find in a newspaper. Can you even imagine what THAT would be like?

Dear Bible,

I'm a 29 year old man who has fallen in love with a gorgeous, intelligent woman, but there is a problem. She wants the financial luxury that a wealthy investment banker can give her, yet I'm only a teacher who makes $40k a year and I have student loan debt. What can I do to attract her?

Sincerely,

Not enough money for love

Of course the Bible doesn't work that way! Of course Jesus isn't some advice columnist who only seeks give a few words of wisdom about our minor, every day problems in life. Yes the Bible gives words of Wisdom, but words of Wisdom must eventually speak to the core of our being if they truly are going to be words that change and deeply affect our lives each and every single new day. They must speak to the truth about our lives. They must speak to the truth about who God is. They must speak to the truth about who we are in relationship with God. For if these words that gather us together as God's do not do that then, again, we are wasting our time here.

So what then is the truth in our parable for today? It is simply this (and this insight comes from Bishop Jim Arends of the La Crosse area synod): if we are indeed God's people, then we must let the gifts that God gives us be the gifts that God intends them to be. And God certainly does shower us with many gifts throughout the days of our lives. We owe our very life to God. There is no other place from whence it would be able to spring forth. We owe the people we call family and friends, those people love and support us in our lives, to God. For without God, we would not have them in our lives. We owe livelyhood that our skills and abilities earn for us to God. As many of us know, as much as we hard to develop the skills and education that lead to our vocations, our education whether in school or on the job refine the things we already have a raw innate ability to do. God is the source of these things, and that is where real stewardship begins, with the knowledge that all he have comes from God.

We are given those gifts not so that we can know that we ARE truly blessed by God. We are given those gifts so that we just might be able to share our gifts with in a loving community that seeks the welfare of others and not only ourselves. In some ways, God also gives us the gift of community through the ways we care for and share the gifts that we have been given.

And ultimately there is one precious gift that is given to us by God. We owe our forgiveness, our redemption, our new life in Christ to the God who comes to us in our lives where we are, where we have fallen short of the glory of God, where we should see that there has been no time and no place where we have earned the love and forgiveness of Lord for ourselves. This is a gift that is manifested in our lives as we are joined with Christ in our baptism. This is a gift that is manifested in our lives as we come to the Lord's supper as sinners indeed not worthy of the gift of Jesus' body and blood, yet still given FOR US. But here's the sticking point: we are not given these gifts so that we can isolate ourselves from the world in some kind of a mystical blanket that allows us to not have to worry about others in our lives. These gifts of our faith are indeed meant to bring us out into the world to engage our neighbor, to bring forth the love in Christ Jesus that we ourselves have already received. So in the end, the Kingdom of Heaven is truly the place where God gives us great gifts, gifts that are meant to burst forth and not be buried in a field because of some fear.

God or Taxes?

Matthew 22.15-22

10/16/11

So now here we’ve come – right to the intersection where politics and religion meet. And again, what are the two things you are not supposed to talk about in polite company? Politics and religion. Yet today the very center of our faith, the basis of our whole religion is encountered with a highly charged political question when Jesus is asked: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” Well, this certainly is not just any political question, but a question about something that colored the political discourse of our country for years now. It is a question about taxes. Taxes seem to be the one political issue that causes some of the most heated political debate to occur as we have a shared national history that literally began over a question of taxation.

And it continues to this day. One of the things I’ve seen that drives our public policy the most at the moment is the simple question: Will you raise taxes? Much of what drives our lawmakers this day is the pledge “I will not raise taxes.” A pledge that many of our lawmakers have taken in recent years. And what’s funny is that that pledge is a like a sword hanging by a small string over their heads ready to snap and slay anyone who would ever dare to consider raising taxes. The Pharisees and the Herodians in our reading for today are themselves seeking to place a sword on a string above Jesus’ head ready to snap at a moments notice if Jesus says “YES” or “NO.” But a funny thing happens as these people try to embroil Jesus into a debate over political ideals – He decides not to play their little game.

You see, what’s at the heart of much political debate is a process in which people are thrown into a discussion where ideas and the defense of those ideas is paramount to anything else in the discussion. So, rather than have a conversation about how to engage an issue in government and how to come up with a solution; politicians, the media, and protesters engage in fierce defense as to how their ideas are right and other’s ideas are wrong. So in the end, the ideas become what is important and not the problem or the issue which needs to be solved. And is that not where we err the most often in our life? Is that not our biggest sin? Do we not hold to our ideas above everything else to the point where those ideas and our pursuit of those ideas becomes the God we seek and defend through our actions?

That’s why Jesus really doesn’t concern himself with getting enmeshed into the sticky political debate. That’s why isn’t concerned with the question the Pharisees and the Herodians want him to get entangled in. Because, the question that Jesus is concerned with is the question: how are we going to relate to God; and, through that, how are we going to relate to one another? This question goes beyond and breaks us out of our self-absorption and reorients us upon God. For Jesus is not so much concerned with what people give to the Emperor. He is greatly concerned, however, with how people relate to God, because that relationship, and only that relationship has the ability to give us life and show us exactly where our life, everything we have, and our hope comes from. Only God, and not our own powers or own ideas, only God has the power to give us life. And here’s the thing! God gives it to us abundantly!

Moreover, God gives this gift of life to everyone else around us as we are all created in the image of God and given the command to care for all of creation and the things that live upon it as well. You see, our political convictions never abdicate us from the reality that we are all God’s good creation and that we are all given grace upon grace to live and share the love of God with those who are around us. Jesus doesn’t get enmeshed in the political debate, because he points us towards that which we should truly care about in our lives.

You see it is very simple. Our love for God is shown in our love for our neighbor. That is made very clear when Jesus gathers the disciples for that last supper together and tells them “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12) These are the things with which we are to consider if we are truly to live out our identity as followers of Christ. Being a follower of Christ does not mean forcing your ideas upon others in society, rather it means having what we say and do come forth from the setting of our eyes upon the Lord who truly does have the power to give us life.

It is very simple, yet as we know, it can be very hard for us because we are not always able to discern what is our own ambition and what has sprung forth from setting our hearts and minds upon the God who alone gives us life. But that is why grace abounds. That is why we are promised the Holy Spirit in our lives to inspire us to faith in the one God who gives us life. My prayer is always that the Holy Spirit may guide us from ourselves and to God and those around us.

Praise to you, O Christ? --> Praise to you, O Christ!

Matthew 21:33-46

10/2/11

There are certainly times throughout the church year where we’ll get done reading the Gospel lesson for the day and it just feels weird to say the words “Praise to you, O Christ” in response. The thing is, those are usually the times when we’ve heard a reading from the gospel that is filled with condemnation against God’s people or a group of God’s people. It feels disjointed to proclaim thanks and praise to God when we hear words like, “The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” Somehow those words don’t make me feel terribly safe, don’t make me feel terribly forgiven, don’t make me feel terribly loved.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it gain: I have never stood here in this pulpit and lied to you all. So when I say that God loves us and embraces us each all, I believe that message to my absolute core with every fibre of my being. So what then are we to do with this odd feeling we get when we say “Praise to you, O Christ” in response to a text that could make us feel like we have been raked over the coals? Well, for one thing, maybe we simply don’t feel like the message proclaimed by Christ is a message for us, because, surely God would not speak like that to a people as righteous as we are, right!? Yet even as I say those words, how can I not remember that Jesus is speaking to the righteous and Godly people of his day? This parable is a parable told specifically to the priests and elders, the leaders of the Jewish society! So to think that our righteousness and godliness saves us from these words being directed as us is folly. Moreover, as we take a closer look at this parable Jesus tells this day, can we not begin ourselves to identify with these wicked tenants?

It may not happen all the time in our life, and it may not be the way we generally view the world; but I wonder if there has been any time in your life where you could have possibly said to yourself, “I worked so hard to get to the place where I am at this day. I’ve put in long hours of study. I’ve been dutiful and conscientious with my time and money and not been frivolous. This life that I have now is mine, and I’ll not let anyone take it from me!” That very well may be true, but it does lose sight of some other truths along the way. No one has gotten where he or she is today all on your own. Family, friends, teachers, mentors have all helped us along the way, and if you are a Christian who believes that God the Father is indeed the creator of heaven and earth, the maker of that is, seen and unseen then you at the very least owe some kind of debt or gratitude to the one who has given you your very life!

And this is exactly what we see going on in this parable today. This landowner is the one who planted the vineyard and did everything necessary for it to produce fruit. Yet the tenants want to claim all of the fruit as their own. So the great sin committed in this parable is not so much that these tenants have beaten and killed everyone whom the landowner has sent to collect the harvest, as it is the profound foolishness that they thought that they could keep the whole harvest and then the inheritance for themselves. And in seeing that, the elders and the priests proclaim themselves a harsh judgment upon those wicked tenants.

So if we are like the elders, the chief priests, and these wicked tenants from the tale, what is the hope for us especially after this Word have fallen on us and crushed us? The hope lies not in what we can do to change God’s mind about this judgment. It lies in how God comes to the earth and acts. Again, look at the parable. When the landowner first heard word that his servants were beaten, stoned and killed, how does he respond? He sends more servants! And when that doesn’t work, he sends his very own son alone. If this landowner is indeed a representation of how God acts within the world, then I think we can see clearly that God acts, not in a way that brings destruction against these wicked tenants, but in a way where God continually seeks us out and seeks to bring us back into community!

Furthermore, let’s not forget where in the Gospel of Matthew this parable comes. This comes near the end of the Gospel, as Jesus has begun teaching in the temple in Jerusalem, before he is betrayed, tried and executed at the hands of Pontius Pilate. This parable comes to us as Jesus is in the very midst of going to the cross for our sins to reveal to us that our God is a God who gives up everything so that we may indeed see that we are forgiven and freed from our sins and death. This parable comes in the midst of the very thing that makes all of what we proclaim here to be GOOD NEWS!! And that is where our hope lies: In Jesus Christ our Lord.

There’s a song you may or may not know very well, but it is a song that I have gotten to know well over the years. Its lyrics come from a very early document that strove to teach the earliest Christians the Christian life. “As the grains of wheat, once scattered on the hill, are gathered into one to become our bread. So may all your people, from all the ends of earth, be gathered into one in you.” There are definitely times when it just may feel like we have been dashed, broken and scattered upon God’s judgment, but God does not leave us there. God seeks to gather us up, to gather us in, so that we indeed can brought into that warm embrace which holds us all even as we are sinners deserving death. And that why in the end, as much as this gospel reading crushes me this day, I can boldly say, “Praise to you, O Christ.”

The church, definitely a motley crue

Matthew 16.13-20

08/21/11

A cheater, a hot-head, an adulterer, a drunk, a deserter, a murderer, a nervous wreck, a gossiper, a harlot, a worrier, a doubter, the impatient, a moody person, a stutterer, the old, and even the dead. That is quite the collection of people, don’t you think? Let’s say you were given a project to get done. The only stipulation is that you have to get this project done with this motley group of people. And this isn’t like Burger King – You can’t get it your way. These are your people, and you either work with them or you don’t get the project done at all. By a showing of hands, how many of you here today would be excited to enter into this kind of a project? How many of you would even attempt to do something important if these were the people you had to work with? How many of you would rather have a good group of Norwegians or Germans from the old days instead?

Believe it or not, the church we gather in this day is standing here because of the lives of that group of people. That group of people that includes people who have done terrible things in their lives. Don’t believe me? Every single person from that group I just mentioned is a major character in the Bible. Jacob was a cheater, Peter had a temper, David had an affair, Noah got drunk, Jonah ran from God, Paul was a murderer, Gideon was insecure, Miriam was a gossiper, Rahab was a harlot, Martha was a worrier, Thomas was a doubter, Sarah was impatient, Elijah was moody, Moses stuttered, Zaccheus was short, Abraham was old, and Lazarus was dead. From that group of people, you can tell the story of just about every major event beginning with Genesis and ending with Revelation.

When I think about the history of God’s people, a history that we are grafted into in our baptism, a part of me is strengthened and assured that God works within the world even amongst all of our failings. In knowing this, I gain a comfort that God’s will within the world has not been and will not be thwarted by the ways we separate ourselves from each other and from God. But even more than that, I know that no matter what happens to us here in this day, in this congregation, God will still be our God and we will still be God’s people. In fact, that’s really what the word “church” means: a people who are “of the Lord.” So, even if lightning strikes our steeple, we will be a people of the Lord. Even if a great flood washes our building off of its foundation, we will be a people of the Lord. Even if finances dictate that we do things in a different way from the ways we have done them in the past, we will be a people of the Lord. That will not change because it cannot change. No earthly force can ever remove us from the claim that God has placed upon each and every one of us – nothing!

But also, in reading our Gospel for this day, I also see that this history and this heritage that we have inherited from that motley bunch of people is something that we have confidence in, not because we are smart enough to walk through these doors on the weekend, but because God works this miracle of faith in us each and every day. What is it that Jesus says to Peter after Peter makes that bold proclamation that Jesus is, “the Messiah, the Son of the living God?” Jesus tells him, “Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father in heaven.” Peter’s very own confession of who Jesus is comes not from within himself, but by the power of the Holy Spirit working in him, giving him the confidence, the trust to declare out loud who Jesus is. Now, Peter doesn’t exactly understand what all that means. In fact, he goes on from that place continuing to stick his foot in his mouth, denying that he even knows who this Christ is, and then arguing with Paul (the murderer remember?) about what it means to be a Christian.

And this is grace, because if it is left up to us, we will surely never become anything more than the things the mar others, ourselves, and our lives. We would never be any more than Murderers, adulterers, cheaters, deny-ers, doubters, and even the dead. For our trust lies within the one who is able to even pick us up out of our graves and gather us up into new life. We are God’s people, and God will never turn his back on us. Yet, God also continually calls us into a new way of life, a way of life defined not by the things we have done or not have done, but by what this Messiah, this Son of the living God has done for us. With that, this church has a foundation that cannot crumble no matter what the world may throw at us.