Peace

Luke 2: 1-20

Luke and Matthew both write that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and emphasize that Joseph was of the house of David.  Why was it important that Joseph and thus his adopted son Jesus be of the house of David?  Those awaiting the Messiah were taught that the anointed one would be from the House of David.  David was the idealized King and it all began when he brought peace to the land with one sling.  David brought many other military victories for Israel, and why wouldn’t a people oppressed by Roman occupation, dream of such a King, such a savior.  The Chosen People celebrated being freed from Egypt which included the Red Sea swallowing up those in pursuit, and they attributed God being on their side when they took the land they were promised by God from all the inhabitants.  Yet Matthew and Luke knew by the time they recorded these Gospels that Jesus did not come as a military leader.  All the disciples did not realize it until the resurrection, but they did eventually.  So is it still important that Jesus be linked to the House of David?   And the answer is found in the prophets that wrote of this new David, for they understood that it was not going to be the same type of kingship, or the same type of peace.  I share three prophets and five texts to make my point:

Amos 9:11

On that day I will raise up   the booth of David that is fallen, and repair its breaches,   and raise up its ruins,   and rebuild it as in the days of old;

Jeremiah 33:15

In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

Jeremiah 23:5

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

Isaiah 16:5

then a throne shall be established in steadfast love in the tent of David, and on it shall sit in faithfulness  ruler who seeks justice and is swift to do what is right.

Isaiah 9:7

His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom.  He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onwards and for evermore.  The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

These prophets make it clear that the new David will bring peace through justice and righteousness and not through violent victory.  This is clear from Jesus’ time on the tree, as He did not call down the Heavenly Army (the Heavenly Hosts), rather he triumphed over sin and death through the resurrection.  A peace that surpasses all understanding as it is tied to the hope and faith we have in God’s inevitable victory over evil.  Jesus’ victory and peace are tied to the eschatological Kingdom we have one foot in as we live in this world, as well.  His peace is not simply about no war today, but no violence or death forever.

“Divine, Son of God, God, God from God, Lord, Redeemer, Liberator, and Savior of the World” (Borg & Crossan, Location 928).

These are terms used a generation plus before Jesus was born for Caesar Augustus.  These terms we would think were unique to Jesus were exactly what people would call the victorious Octavian, who ended 20 years of civil war, to earn the term Augustus, which in Latin is One Who Is Divine. (Borg & Grossman, Location 904)  Thus it was Augustus’ victory and actions that lead to his “divinity” status.  That is even evident in his ancient biography as his “divine” conception was recorded not in the chronological beginning, but after the accumulation of his victories, while of course the Gospel writers make it clear of Jesus’ Divinity from the beginning, despite knowing it through the resurrection.  Augustus followed “…the four successive elements of Roman imperial theology—religion, war, victory, peace.  You worship the gods, you go to war with their assistance, you are victorious with their help, and you obtain peace from their generosity.  …For Augustus and for Rome it was always about peace, but always about peace through victory, peace through war, peace through violence.” (Borg & Crossan, location 949) This is his claim to peace.

When the Gospel writers call Jesus Divine, Son of God, God, God from God, Lord, Redeemer, Liberator, and Savior of the World, they were committing high treason.  We too are also to commit high treason to peace based only on violence.  Peace based simply on the absence of fighting is not the peace Jesus brings.  Jesus brings us a peace that surpasses all understanding and is based in righteousness and Justice.

Peace through violent victory is not real peace.

Peace through Justice & Righteousness thus gives us

Victory through Peace

Work Cited:

Borg, Marcus & John Dominic Crossan “The First Christmas; What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’ Birth”  HarperCollens e-books Kindle Edition, 2007.

Way of Faith

Matthew 3: 1-12

I knew two wonderful youth who were best of friends, but were extremely competitive.  Everything was a competition, especially academics.  I remember overhearing one ask, what grade the other got on a test.  “A” was the answer, and the one asking said “A, also,” after a hesitation, “94” the other replied with a larger smile, “95.”  They are very smart people, and their competitive nature I am sure had encouraged them to learn even more.  I was not that competitive with grades, and was in part why I chose to go to go to an undergraduate college without grades.  You may think that seems great, “no grades.”  However, it meant most of us students put in even more, but of course some simply did the minimum.  For most of us we worked hard to learn as much as we could.  We could not compare our success, except within ourselves.  I remember going to defend my senior thesis, there were two professors and a peer, and even though I had worked with my professors with drafts, I was still nervous I would not pass. 

In this scripture John the Baptist is coming to prepare the way for Jesus, which is on our mind as we wait for the baby Jesus.  However, John is talking about Jesus’ coming as our judge, not as a helpless baby.  Hearing that Jesus is coming with a winnowing fork can be scary, until you realize that each piece of grain has chaff and needs that removed.  Each of us needs our chaff, (sin) removed and how wonderful to know that Jesus will be down on the threshing floor working on each of us with the Holy Spirit (winnowing wind).  This is like the professor working with me to get me to that final meeting and John does remind us that there is an ax and the base of each tree.  Or how Paul puts it, “For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.” (2 Cor. 5: 10)  Jesus will work on us as individually helping to remove our sin, but ultimately there is a judgment.  Just as John warned the Sadducees & Pharisees not to simply say “we have Abraham as our ancestor,” Christians should not simply say, “I have Christ as my savior,” for we will be judged not just on faith but how we lived our faith.

Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount, that we are the light of the world, and shares the Beatitudes, including, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.” (Matthew 5: 29-30)  This tells me not that we must literally cut off our limbs but we must be self aware of the chaff that we have.  We are going to be judged, by the judge that gets down on the threshing floor with us so we may be ready.  I think the best scene for us to remember for the judgment, is when in John Chapter 8, the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to trick him (why just the woman I am not sure, since last time I checked it takes two).  Jesus response was, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  I can imagine the silence, as he etched something on the ground.  Slowly different men leaving as they examined themselves and realized they had chaff and sin to remove, and to be forgiven.  Finally, Jesus looks up and asks, “’Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, sir.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’”  Jesus asked each of the accusers to look in on themselves and passes a judgment of forgiveness to her as well as all of us from the cross, “Father, forgive them…”  We are not to judge others, for we are to worry about our own time before Jesus.  The good news is that our judge loves us so much that He spent time on a tree for all of our sins.  The way of faith is knowing we must “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 3: 2)  That is “Act as you are judged, because the Love of God is near.”

Hope

Matthew 24:36-44

During the season of Advent we wait for the coming Christ Child.  Today’s scripture reminds us that we are always waiting for the Son of Man’s return.  Jesus clearly states that no one except the Father knows when.  It is important to realize that people that try to discern contemporary events and even scripture for the Eschaton, are missing Jesus’ message.  We are to be ready and not know. Being ready is not simply looking forward to the event, but living today knowing it will happen.  Jesus makes it clear that there will be a day when the elect will be gathered and God will dwell with us and there will be a new heaven and a new earth.  But until the promise is fulfilled, “…you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” (v. 44)

So how are we to be ready?  We can remember to see Jesus in the “least of these”, as he told us in Matthew 25, and we should be ready by teaching discipleship around the world, as per Matthew 28.  To be ready we live by faith, hope, and love, as per Paul’s letter the Corinthians 13:13.  These words can be attributed to human time; faith tied to what has happened, hope is about the anticipated future, and love is about the present.  Now each is interwoven with the other, just as the Trinity, totally one and yet totally separate as well.  When Paul says that Love is the greatest of these, I cannot argue with that, since love is how one acts at any present time, taking their faith and hope in mind, to act in the moment.  To follow Jesus and be ready we should always be present with love.  Of course our faith is important as well, for it is the basis of or current moment and.  Today we look at hope as it is how we look to the future, the Christ Child and the Eschaton.

When I was a chaplain in a large hospital, I would do my rounds and thus visit patients I did not know.  In the course of the visit, I was always trying to be present with love as I was to witness for the Divine.  Every conversation would include some aspect of their faith.  They would tell me of their lovely church and how they became close to God.  Or they would tell me about the church that ostracized them and how they became distant with God.  This was their history, their faith, and it affected how they looked to the future, but you would not be able to predict simply from their history.  Some that had a wonderful history with God and church were just so angry they were ill they did not look forward with hope, while some that had a rocky past with God and church found the divine in their situation, and looked forward with hope.  I would listen for the stories of hope, such as Thanksgiving meals despite their chart suggesting they would be in that bed on Thanksgiving, hearing about their plans after they were home, simply talking about future years, or the most powerful, talking about being with the Divine love in heaven.  These are stories of hope, knowing God’s promise, and living it.  It is not about being optimistic, rather it is to know God’s triumph (we are attempting to be ready for) and living as if it already occurred.  Without it one lives in despair, and those stories in the hospital were limited to the reality of that bed, illness, discomfort and pain, or going home to a more the same, or the saddest, death.  Not seeing death as being part of the resurrection and rebirth is despair, of course we are all scared of death, but with hope we see it as the fulfillment of God’s promise. 

Let us live ready, living as if the promise of God has been fulfilled as we know it will.   Let us await the Christ with Hope.  

Christ the King

Colossians 1:11-20; Luke 23:33-43

Do you remember the story of Kai Leigh Harriott?  She was three years old when a bullet shattered her spine leaving her paralyzed.  Her sister and she were playing on their porch in Dorchester, Massachusetts, when Anthony Warren shot into the air to frighten the occupants of the first floor apartment.  The first bullet horrifically found Kai Leigh.  Three years after Anthony Warren had his day in court, and Kai Leigh wanted to be there to confront her attacker.  She did and said, “I forgive you Anthony Warren.  What you did to me was wrong, but I still forgive you.”  That story touches me every time I think of it and I appreciate that Anthony Warren changed his plea of “not guilty” to “guilty.”  Kai Leigh is quoted as saying to the press latter, “It’s kind of hard [to forgive] but as soon as you do it, it’s not that hard anymore.”

Today’s scriptures are both about Jesus as King.  The Colossians is straight forward as it is probably a baptismal hymn, and thus a proclamation of Christ’s supremacy.  It is made clear that Christ’s power has been since the beginning and will continue, and we are reconciled to his power in the blood of the cross.  Luke’s account of the crucifixion includes the ironic statements of the people crucifying him as well as the first criminal, as they deride him by calling him King or Messiah, and there is even a sign that reads “King of the Jews” on the cross.  They did not realize how correct they were.  More importantly the second criminal understood the situation, Jesus did not deserve to be on the cross like himself and the other bandit, and he asked Jesus to be remembered when he arrived in His Kingdom.   As Luke writes in Chapter 19 v. 10, “For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost,” that is exactly what Jesus does for the second criminal when he promised they would be in paradise. 

What is important is Jesus forgives and saves everyone from the cross.  This is his Kingdom, unlike earthly kingdoms.  Kings and elected officials get their power from the public.  It does not seem obvious at first since the elected officials of today we know nee the public for the power, but that was also true to Kings, as well, even if the power came from intimidation.  A week King would easily be taken over by another, but the power came from people, while Jesus’ power is beyond people.  “He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Col. 1:17).  So our King is this Christ, who lets His Kingdom be known by His blood and the greater power of Resurrection. 

The question becomes for us to follow Christ, “Is this a Kingdom Issue?”  If we want to follow our King, we need to see it not like our earthly Kings and Leaders.  We do not give the power to be led, we ask for forgiveness and live on faith.  We are to Forgive as we are forgiven, as we were taught to pray.  Kai Leigh knew that it was a Kingdom Issue to forgive the man that paralyzed her, and what a wonderful model for all of us.  I have a hard enough time asking the question to myself, “Is this a Kingdom Issue?” when a car cuts me off in traffic, so I try to remember Kai Leigh’s example.  And better yet my King’s example that forgave even from the cross as He was saving all.

Timing is everything

Isaiah 65: 17-25; Luke 21: 5-19

Jesus tells of the destruction of the temple, and Luke lived through that reality.  Luke then records Jesus’ prediction of such a monumental event.  However, Jesus was not simply telling us the temple would be destroyed or that it was a sign.  Jesus is making it clear there will be an end, just as there was a beginning; there is an Eschaton just as there is a Genesis.  As in each of the Gospels, Jesus tells us there will be an end time to the world as we know it; when good finally triumphs over evil, forever.  This passage from Isaiah picks up on this as well, by telling us God is creating new heavens and a new earth.  This is exactly what John the Revelator picks up on in his book of Revelation.  Specifically Chapter 21 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’”  This is the true accumulation of John’s Apocalypse (that word simply means Revelation).  John shares his Revelation of the end time, but the point is not to demonstrate when, but rather that there is an Eschaton, in which God triumphs over evil.  Jesus’ own words that make this clear that the end cannot nor should not be predicted.  When Jesus was asked about the coming age, He responded, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!” and, “The time is near!”  Do not go after them.” (Luke 21: 8)  Jesus makes it also clear the end will come to the whole world and to the cosmos, by suggesting there will be wars throughout the world and signs from heaven, but he then  says these “signs” do not determine when either, for “…the end will not follow immediately.”  Jesus is making it clear that while there is an end we are not to try to predict the time, rather we are to endure.  We are not to even prepare our argument as Jesus will protect us, every hair, and provide the words that cannot be questioned.

To explain the church year to people I will grab a piece of yarn (which I did during the sermon) and demonstrate that time is linear.  God created and we know that eventually there will be end of the world, where God will ultimately triumph.  We know that people are born and die (born anew), a beginning and an end with hopefully born again along the line.  We know that football games end (despite the last two minutes lasting longer than any other), television shows begin and end, etc.  We know that time as linear, both as a reality and theologically as discussed above.  However, the church takes this linear time and makes it circular.  Jesus is the beginning and the end (the Alpha and Omega).  We make it a circle by the way we celebrate and worship Jesus through the church year.  See every year we start with Advent, preparing for Emmanuel, God with us.  Then Christmastide becomes epiphany where and we celebrate Jesus’ baptism.  We then prepare for the great mystery of the death and resurrection with Lent, which brings us to the seven weeks of Eastertide (approximately 1/7 of the year, the Sunday of the year) and then we have Pentecost the birthday of the church.  Then onto Kingdom Building period, which much of the scripture is Jesus’ teaching, capping off with Christ the King Sunday.  Then we start it again.  This also what we do each Sunday when we come to the communion table remembering the most important part of our faith.  The death and resurrection of Jesus and this is how we live as Christians.  We live in this circle.  We know that there is an Eschaton, an end that reveals God to the whole new heaven and new earth.  However we simply keep inviting people into this circle of love, for as Jesus tells us, “by your endurance you will gain your souls.”

Born Anew

Luke 20:27-38

Sadducees were part of the aristocratic class and truly did not believe in the resurrection.  We often hear of how the Pharisees were in conflict with Jesus in the scriptures, and that is because they were generally the group more similar to Jesus and His followers.   The Sadducees did not uphold the prophets but only the books of Moses, the law.  This is in part because they were most interested in keeping the status quo in which they flourished as many of their people suffered under Roman oppression, waiting for their Messiah.   Here the Sadducees are determined to stump, Jesus with this rhetorical question about seven brothers and one wife.  The problem is their idea of the resurrection was more like an escalator into heaven, continuing this life on another plane (if they could imagine of an escalator that is).  Jesus answers not with a parable, but rather with a straightforward reasoning.  There are two parts to Jesus’’ response the first being that this age is not like the age to come and the second is that God is a God of the living not of the dead (as per their own scripture).  While Jesus clearly tells us that in the resurrection we are not simply continuing the life we know, but are rather like angels and are with God, this was an issue for some of the early followers.  In Corinth it was a worry as they knew of believers who passed away and were now decomposing in their tombs.  If they were to be resurrected how will the body go on to glory?  Paul makes it clear as Jesus did in 1 Cor 15: “There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another.” And Paul admits it is a mystery later in the chapter: “What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”  This is important that we will be changed upon the resurrection; it is not simply a new realm, but something gloriously different, where we dwell with God, where we are with God.

The early Christians often recorded one’s death as their Birthday, this is in part because they did not have records of everyone’s birthday, but it was also a theological statement that upon death you are born anew into the resurrection.  This reminds me of my friend Mary Anne who can claim three birthdates, see she was born in Ireland 80 or so years ago, and her mother recorded the date in the family Bible.  Her father was to record the date in town about a month or so later when he brought sheep to market.  As she tells it, she believes, he may have visited the Public House prior to the Towne Clerk, and he remembered it was a Tuesday, but recorded the date later.  Then in sixties she emigrated from Ireland to the United States, and somehow through the bureaucracy gave her a third birth date.  While that may be a funny story, I believe it is true that we have three birthdays.  The first being the one our mother’s told us, when we are born again, and then the one to come when we are born anew.  Now some people are not as exacting about their born again date and others are, but that does not make it less true.  Some people grew up in the church and did not realize a change as some did, but the fact is that if you believe in Jesus you have been born again. 

Well this brings to mind the metaphor of the butterfly.  It is a wonderful metaphor the caterpillar eats and eats, and worries about the physical body, until it is time to get in the cocoon, and it is dormant (dead), and comes out changed as a wonderful butterfly.  This is a great metaphor especially that we are changed, but we are not caterpillars, we are not animals.  We know or better yet believe in the God of Love through His Son Jesus whose “birthday” on the cross brought us reconciled to the Divine.  Therefore we don’t just go eating and worrying about the perishable for we know that only the imperishable will inherit the Kingdom.  We are Born Again and celebrate our Born Anew by participating in the resurrection today.  Our belief does not allow us to simply wait to be Born Anew into the glory that is God, but we are to share this knowledge and belief with others, bringing aspects of Heaven upon earth.  We participate in the Bodily Resurrection by being the Body of Christ on Earth, for our belief puts one foot on earth and one in heaven, it is the already but not yet.  This is the mystery that we are changed by our belief and we are anticipating another change in a twinkling of an eye, but we know God as the God of the living and as we continue to live we live for God.

Made Well

Luke 19: 1-10 (Zacchaeus)

He entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax-collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.’ So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, ‘He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.’ Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, ‘Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.’

While reading, researching, and praying for preparation for this sermon, I had Leadership Durant which is once a month.  This is a group of leaders from our community that the Durant Area Chamber of Commerce sponsors and we explore leadership on many levels.  This month was economic development so we went to some very large places in the area.  Such as Big Lots! Distribution Center, the new Choctaw Resort, and Cardinal Glass with a furnace that consumes the greatest amount of natural gas in the state of Oklahoma.  There was also the large heart of REI that helps create businesses or help small businesses in rural Oklahoma, through education, loans, and various other resources.  While all of these places I fell will help us to understand this week’s scripture, it was at Eagle Suspension that I heard something that brought the message to life.  At Eagle Suspension they manufacture suspensions for large and small trucks, as well as orders for classic cars.  They moved to this facility just over four years ago, from Canada, with three people who knew how to work the machines, now there are over 300 jobs at this plant and obviously still growing.  I have as a Christian Minister served many people and I hope have also changed some lives (I have been told), but to be able to provide an actual livelihood is exactly what all these people we visited provide.  This is important as the Gospel cannot be heard on an empty stomach and to simply fill it with charity is only part of the solution, people creating jobs are an important ministry for humanity. 

How does this relate to Zacchaeus, preacher, you ask? Well I hope to make that clear and I will start by exploring what is happening at this sycamore tree.  Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector thus a sinner in the eyes of the Jewish people, as the tax collector was an essentially the extension of the Roman oppression.  This is the only time that the term “chief” is used, indicting him as being even more involved in the unjust system. We know Jesus came for everyone, including sinners and thus often ate with sinners, which, just in this instance, was not received well by most.  We realize that Zacchaeus had a personal conversion, either on his way up or down the sycamore tree (or before) that led him to this relationship with Jesus, who knew He was to stay at his house.  Zacchaeus responds to this grace by a wonderful commitment to help the poor and to pay back those he had wronged greater than the Jewish law would require.  Jesus then says, “Today salvation has come to this house…” This is a theme throughout Luke’s writings (Luke & Acts), that salvation would come to a house or household, (Acts 10:2; 11:14; 16:15-31; 18:8).  One of these is the story of Lydia, who we also know as a rich person, like Zacchaeus.  She has a personal conversion along the river hearing Paul witness Jesus.  Thus her whole household is baptized.  In the account of Lydia, we are not privy to her being a sinner, such as a tax collector, (of course all humans fall short), so when we hear of her entire household we read it as an extension of her witness to those that live and work in her house.  I want to emphasize that in the first century a household is not like we think of it today, rather it is more accurately an economic unit.  It is not even limited to one roof and certainly not one family, but rather a unit of workers under a patriarch and on rare occasions, such as Lydia’s, matriarch.  This is essential to understand Jesus’ blessing of Zacchaeus’ house.

Salvation in the Greek (swñ or σωτηρία) is often translated as saved or salvation, but can alternatively be translated as, “healed,” “made well” and/or “made whole.” Recently in a sermon I explored how ten lepers were sent by Jesus to a priest, and on the way all were physically healed.  One, a Samaritan (interesting in itself), turned back to thank and praise Jesus.  Jesus then says according to the English translation, “your faith has made you well.”  (Luke 17:19).  We know that he was physically healed and thus is why he came back to thank Jesus, and thus receives salvation (the same word).  Zacchaeus had certainly repented and understood Jesus as Lord and Savior, and then spreads his salvation to others.  Not in the sense that he gave them a personal relationship with the Lord, but he helped out their physical needs.  He helped his household and the poor with half his wealth.  This is the Good News that our personal conversions are to spread wholeness to others. 

Our right relationship with God depends on our confession that Jesus is our Lord and Savior and we then must actually not simply hold that knowledge, we share and witness it to others.  Yet someone may not be ready for such witness if they are hungry or oppressed.  Thus I remember how Jesus explains the judgment in Matthew 25: 31-46:

‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’ 

Jesus tells us that it is not simply our personal belief or our personal conversion, but this important work.  To help those in need, sharing the love Jesus showed us.  A witness that is very powerful.  To see salvation as both a personal and communal event is exactly what this scripture is demonstrating.  Through Zacchaeus’ conversion, his household received salvation along with the community, or better healed and made whole. 

The corporations and the people that got them to our small community, provide this wholeness to the community even if it is not directly in the name of Christ.  This is as important work as ours to witness our personal salvation, as people need to have a living and purpose in order to be able to hear our witness.  If three people can come with the knowledge of making suspensions and now over 300 people have a living from that knowledge in four years, how much more can us Christians share our knowledge and grow.  This is important knowledge, that Jesus’ is our personal Lord and savior; knowledge that we must go out and help the “least of these,” in our community.  This is a knowledge we must share as salvation for the individual and the community, the healing of the individual and the community, the wholeness of the individual and the community, depends on us sharing this knowledge.  

I Thank Thee.

Luke 19:1-10

Praying and researching this scripture I kept recalling two interviews I did in the library of Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland.  I was there studying how the University and the students had effected the growth of the city outside the downtown, as my senior thesis in my Bachelor of Arts.  I would interview the students about their life at the University and prior.  One day I was interviewing two, Protestants, Ulstermen, Orange Men, and/or Loyalist (which ever label you prefer) about growing up before university what they thought of the, Catholics, Irish, Nationalists, and/or Republicans (which ever label you prefer).  The answer was I thought they had horns growing out of their head, was their answer.  The next day I got the exact same answer in reverse.  Both of parties went on to explain that their time at Queen’s University had changed that perspective.  Yet I knew the majority still lived at home in their respective enclaves, perhaps only yards from their classmate separated by a wall. 

This illustration comes to mind because the scripture emphasizes not only being humble but defining oneself against someone else’s identity.   Humility is, in part, not defining yourself as what you are not, but to be yourself.  This importance is emphasized in Prophet Jonah’s experience.  We will often read Jonah as he was scared of God, and thus ran.  If you look closely at the scripture one will find that Jonah was not scared of God, but was too invested in defining himself against those of Nineveh.  See Jonah did not run because he was scared of God, but that the merciful God would save them from the doom he believed they were due.  So when Jonah did prophesize Nineveh’s destruction, the people repented.  Jonah was a great prophet to truly have them repent, that God saw and said, he would not bring the calamity upon them.  Then in Chapter 4, Jonah makes it clear, it was not God he was scared of, but having those “others” saved that made him run and even made him angry, despite it being his work that saved them.  It reads: “But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.’ And the Lord said, ‘Is it right for you to be angry?’”  Clearly Jonah could not understand himself, even with a personal relationship with God, without defining himself as other from another.

To truly be humble we must be able to simply say “I thank thee.” And not “I thank thee that I am not…”  In today’s scripture the Pharisee is actually is more like us, in that he is doing all the proper religious things and thus reminds me that I may at times say or at least feel “I thank thee that I am not….”  And the first that comes to mind are those people who say, “I am not religious, but I am spiritual.”  I do believe from having met many people who claim that, most are saying it to change the subject of the conversation, but the small percentage, are actually perusing the divine in their own individualistic way.  It is not, for those that are truly seeking God, unlike this parable in Luke, as the tax collector is repenting without all the tradition the Pharisee does and upholds in his prayer.  The parable was told, according to Luke, to those “…who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt,” and this has been reversed by many that look on us who are religious and say, I am glad I am not like those church goers, yet we must look at ourselves and realize that despite being active in church that we are tempted to do the same.  We must with humility look at those people earnestly seeking God and find what we can learn from them as well as they can learn from us and the great Christian tradition.  Imagine if in the parable the Pharisee went over to offer the tradition of prayer, or better yet went over and learned from the man’s passionate and humble repentance.

We thus thank Thee “period.” We define ourselves with humility only through the Christ.  

Mark your Calendar

Luke 18: 1-8

I should have titled this sermon “Luke Your Calendar,” for we will be exploring prayer as per the Gospel of Luke.  This parable is about our “need to pray always and not to lose heart” (v. 1).  Luke writes about our teacher, Jesus, praying in such manner:  Luke 6:12 “Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God;” Luke 22:44 “In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of flood falling down on the ground.” This model of prayer is hard to follow, praying all night and so intensely that sweat is like blood.  Jesus models this, but what else does Luke tell us about what Jesus says about prayer? 

Luke 11 Jesus teaches the disciples to pray the Lord’s Prayer.  Jesus says “When you pray, say…”  And the first part is about claiming God as a personal God, “Father hallowed by your name;” Then Jesus tells us to petition for our great goal as recorded in Revelation 21: 1-4 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’”  This is exactly what we call for ultimately and in slivers of it currently, when we pray “Your kingdom come.”  Each day we need substance, but not simply bread and we are reminded by Jesus’ words to the devil in Luke 4:4 “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone,’” for we do not simply ask for food for our bodies but also for our souls when we pray, “Give us each day our daily bread.”  Then we are to ask to be forgiven, but with the caveat we must do the same, “And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.”  Then one last petition is taught according to Luke, “And do not bring us to the time of trial.”  These petitions are important for us to learn as the Lord’s Prayer, whatever version and/or language one prays it.  Though it is not simply about saying these words, but knowing that every prayer contains a bit of what Jesus taught us to say.  One may be simply acknowledging God and the relationship, or may be simply asking to be feed physically or spiritually and any infinite combination.

The last petition though seems difficult in light of today’s parable on prayer.  If we are to pray so persistently and follow the model of Jesus, prayer itself seems somewhat like a trial.  Thus let us look back at the scripture.  The key is in verses seven & eight, “And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them?  I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.” This is the Good News, yet we also know we need to pray persistently as Jesus models and the widow suggest in this parable.  We are taught by Jesus what we must say in our prayers and we realize we must petition persistently.  And we should realize the other half is that we must listen.  Just as Elijah found God in the “…sound of sheer silence..” (1 Kings 19:12) we must Listen.  We will be answered quickly, but if we do not hear and we often don’t because it is not what we want, we must continue to pray until we can hear.  We must pray as Jesus models, because we do not listen as loudly as we petition.  Let us pray constantly with our ears and heart open to God.

On the way...

Luke 17:  11-19

Soda-Pop tastes much better in a glass bottle, and I remember walking an extra mile just to get a Pepsi in a glass bottle after my paper route in town every so often, into the late eighties, but I recall in 1985 finding a machine that sold pop in glass.  It was a great find in rural Maine along with three old fire trucks, both of which were at this local mechanic’s garage.  See we were heading  to Acadia National Park for a family vacation when our sedan began to smoke and we pulled to the side of the road.  This was not unusual and often my dad would get us on the road again, however this time it was clear that the radiator hose needed to be replaced.  After waiting to see if a trooper or someone would stop my pa jumped the fence and headed to the farmhouse to call for a tow.  Well it was stressful for the parents for we had to stay overnight in this small town waiting for this important part, but I recall having a great time climbing over the old fire trucks the mechanic maintained for local parades and enjoying the treat of pop in glass bottles.  This event became part of the story of this vacation which was actually our last vacation before my parents’ divorce.  It was a great vacation as I recall, even remembering a fight during the stay as well.  Yet the event of breaking down on the way help to define the reality that even through all the stresses of life including divorce, my parents were able to stay calm and  find joy for the children. 

Luke writes about Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem often (9:51; 13:31-35; 19:28) and this scripture is quite specific about traveling to Jerusalem.  This is the city “…that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!” (Luke 13:34), this is where Jesus will be crucified and we will be saved.  This is the event that is essential to us as Christians.  And in this scripture Luke tells of two events that occurred “on the way.”  As Jesus traveled between Samaria and Galilee, he was approached by ten lepers, who did keep their distance.  They were following the rules for lepers as per Leviticus, keeping away from others in a group, and begging where travelers would pass.  They asked Jesus to have mercy on them and he did, telling them to go present themselves to their priests, they were healed as they went. All ten received this miraculous healing.  Now one of them we know was a Samaritan, and we assume the other nine were Jewish, we do know the other nine did continue to the priests to share their healing as Jesus had told them to, and as the Hebrew Scriptures would have commanded them so they could be examined and allowed to be part of society again.  Now the Samaritan that was healed was overjoyed and returned to Jesus to thank him.  Jesus does ask about the other nine and then makes it clear that this one that was praising God was a foreigner, a Samaritan.  And Jesus says to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”  Was not this Samaritan already healed with the other nine?  Of course, for that is why he returned to praise Jesus.  The verb, “made well” is usually translated as “to be saved,” which makes sense since the Samaritan was already healed, and thus his faith and belief ensures salvation, “made well.” 

This event on the way helps us to realize aspects of the Cross, the event in Jerusalem.   The Cross is a miraculous healing of everyone available to everyone.  It is not the physical healing as per these recorded events but a grace that is for the entire world and if someone, even someone out of the chosen people, has faith and praising God, salvation is achieved.  Thus the event of the Cross must be understood not simply as an event that could have occurred at anytime, but an accumulation of Jesus’ ministry, as well.  The Cross is where the rubber hits the road, and humanity knows atonement, but we do need Jesus’ entire ministry to understand and respond to this event in history and our lives.  We need not only where the tire meets the road, but also the radiator hose and the whole car, to get where we are going, as the journey helps us to understand our destination.  

Bread of Wholeness

1 Corinthians 11: 17-32

The Corinth Church did not get it.  They came to the Lord’s Table as if it was a party, that would be bad enough, but the party benefited the rich over the poor.  Even though the Gospel should have had them realize there was no longer “slave or free” in the church.  Yet we must be very thankful of the Corinthians’ mistake, for we have Paul’s writing on the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.  The Gospels have the accounts of the Last Supper, but this is the only full account of the church’s ritual of remembrance.  And we can learn a whole lot from this scripture.

Paul states we must examine ourselves and discern the body prior to partaking in this meaningful feast.  Sometimes this idea of discernment and examining of ourselves is taken so that individuals demand perfection prior to sharing the bread.  This is of course an extreme as the only perfect human is Jesus who is inviting us to the table.  Our General Minister and President, Dr. Rev. Sharon Watkins has preached that there are three discernments of the body we need to be at this meal.  I believe that these three discernments are essential to our approach to and beyond the Table.

The first discernment of the body is that of Jesus’ body.  We need to remember what Jesus’ broken body had done for us, historically and personally.  During the early part of the Restoration Movement (in which our denomination stems from) there was a great emphasis on the Lord’s Supper being an act of remembrance over the idea Jesus’ presence at the Table.  However, it was never that simple, and if you listen to the prayers of Elders and Pastors at the table, you will hear prayers such as written in our book of worship, “May your Spirit transform this bread and cup into signs of Christ’s living presence and engrave upon our hearts the life-transforming image of Christ.”  Not only do we remember what happened at that specific time in history that saved each of us, we feel and know the presence of Jesus in each of our own individual lives.  The word that is used in our scripture for “Remember” is the Greek word anamnesis which means more than to simple recall, like what was written on a grocery list, it includes the idea of re-presentation and thus the real here and now.  Such it is when we smell our favorite comfort food; we do not simply remember when it was prepared but are brought back to all the feelings and reality, for at least an instance. This is what is meant when we break bread in remembrance of Jesus’ body, we recall what he did on the cross and what Jesus’ presence has done in our individual lives.  Barnett Blakemore states it well in The Revival of the Churches (1963)  “The role of remembrance is not that it brings the Lord into our presence, but that remembrance opens our eyes to him into whose presence we have already been brought by faith.”

The second discernment of the body is that of the body of Christ.  It is clear in this scripture that Paul is very concerned with the Body of Christ.  He writes about how the Corinth body, the church, was looking at itself with priority for the rich.  This was the problem that caused Paul to write about the ritual of Communion.  Then we read about how the church is to see herself in chapter 12 verse 12 “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”  The church is the Body of Christ we must discern as we break bread together.  While we are not at risk of getting drunk at our table with unfermented wine, nor can we eat till we are full with our small pieces of bread, we must understand how important we feel interconnected with the entire church, not simply in the building but beyond the walls and even time.  This is essential to communion as we are called out of society to be Christ’s Body and we need to understand, “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored all rejoice together with it.” (1 Cor. 12:26).  This was truly what Paul meant when he asked the Corinthians to discern the body, for that was the body they were not able to see, but one can see the interdependence of people if they understand what Jesus did for them on the cross and how the presence is known now.

The third discernment of the body is that of the body of Jesus the Christ, truly combining the two above.  We recall the scripture Mathew 25 where the righteous ask when they had served Him, hungry, thirsty, imprisoned, etc, and Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”  Therefore the last discernment takes on our own personal remembrance of Jesus in our lives as our savior, and the interdependence of our church existence and discerning what we take away from the table.  We must continue discerning the breaking the bread away from the table and see Jesus’ body everywhere we go.  This discernment is how we are Christians, how we are Church.  We go out into the fragmented world inviting people to this discernment, to the Table.  We go out searching for this body thus creating wholeness in individuals and society by serving as we have been served, loving as we have been loved, and welcoming all to the Lord’s Table as God has welcomed us.

(Must give credit also to Michael Kinnamon and his reflections on the new identity statement as printed in Disciples World)

Clever & Prudent

Luke 16: 1-13

This scripture is not easy for many Christians.  First of all how can Jesus use a dishonest person as an illustration?  And if the point is to be clever and shrewd is that usually for one’s “own skin” as it is in this parable?  It is difficult to grasp, and Luke does record an interpretation that clearly states we are to serve one master and to be honest in everything, yet it does not answer the questions posed above.  We should not be surprised to see someone that is not perfect at the center of an illustration, for only one person was truly perfect.  We all come to church with positive and negative attributes yet we are all used by God.  Why shouldn’t Jesus use someone who happens to be dishonest but is shrewd?  Another thing we must appreciate is that parables are to make a specific point, and thus we should not think we should act like the individuals contained in the story.  Such it is with the parable with the forgiving father (better known as the prodigal son), we are not to go out and live a prodigal lifestyle to be forgiven rather the point is the forgiveness not the wastefulness.  Here the point is being shrewd and clever with your domain.  The assumption is that if one is being shrewd and clever, they are doing it to save their own skin.  Certainly that is what the dishonest manager is doing in this parable.  However, the commentary that follows the parable makes it clear that the point is being clever, and specifically clever with the resources one has available.  This reminds me of Jesus charge to his disciples, in Matthew 10:16, “See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”  Jesus makes it clear that we must be like serpents, wise, clever, shrewd, AND innocent as doves.  The innocent as doves can be equated with serving only Jesus; not serving alterative motives, only innocent love.  Yet being clever and shrewd, with what you is available to you.  Most of us are not heads of state but rather have each our own sphere of influence.  We are to serve only Jesus and that includes being clever and prudent.

Thinking about this scripture I was having a hard time finding an illustration, until I was in the dentist’s chair the past week.  It then came to me, when I was a baker I knew a woman that worked as a cashier part-time and as a veterinarian technician part-time.  She loved animals.  Her husband was going to graduate school and they had what they needed but there was currently not a lot to spare.  Her young dog got in a freak accident in which his lost three canine teeth.  These are like fingers to dogs, hence the name, and it was important that the dog get implants.  It would have been a very difficult life without at least two of those teeth.  She did research on getting a dog orthodontic surgeon and the cost was simply prohibitive.  The cost of the implants themselves was expensive enough without the specialist’s fee.  Well she had her sphere of influence.  She was very well liked by the vet and by the whole bakery customer community.  And thus she got the dentist and the veterinarian to do the surgery pro-bono.  The dentist borrowed books from the vet and did some studying as the implants were shipped.  Then late Saturday afternoon, the vet sedated the dog and the dentist went to work.  I recall the vet being impressed with the lighting and the dentist loved having the patient out for the procedure.  This is a prime example of being clever and prudent with what you have, while following only love.

At the office that Saturday, was a dental assistant and her elementary age girl, who watched the procedure with amazement.  That Monday the little girl’s teacher asked everyone what they did that weekend, and as you know the girl shared the story I shared, from her perspective.  The teacher did not believe her and told her not to lie.  The girl held to her story and was even sent to time-out crying.  The teacher was upset as well since the girl did not typically lie and called her mother late in the afternoon to discover the truth.  Thus I believe that we, the church, does live among wolves, and even when we are wise as serpents and innocent as doves, the world will not always believe that the resurrection happens.  We must continue to serve only Jesus, with the conviction of that innocent elementary school girl!

Amen. 

Finding Joy

Luke 15:1-10

I felt called to ministry as a young child.  However, my parents were not active church people and thus it was not encouraged.  During my teenage years I even rebelled some from the church, being someone that was concerned about the abuses of the historical church.  I did have a friend named David that would remind me that I did still have faith in God, sometimes he was very gentle and nice about it, but I do remember one time that he pushed my pendant of the Holy Spirit into my chest, that I always wore, and said, “remember.”  I did finally start going back to church, because as David reminded me, I remember how God had “spoke” to me as a child.  It was after living in Belfast, Ireland, I observed how even young people went to church, and I realized that if I wanted to answer questions about the Divine, I needed the history, practice, and fellowship of the church to explore.  I started going back to church in Manhattan, and I never felt welcomed into the congregation and thus not engaged.  I must admit I continued to feel lost among all those that worshipped around me.  I then moved to my dad’s home to help take care of him and to simply get out of the city.  I found a church in town and when I started going I felt welcomed by most, probably because I had befriended the associate pastor in the dog park.  I know that there were some wary of a man in his 20’s who had no children or wife going to church in this town.  I was different, and I certainly felt lost as someone that had ignored my calling for so long.  If it was not for the handful of people who were simply overjoyed to learn with me, work with me, and incorporate me into the fellowship I would not be here.  I would not have felt engaged without that welcome, that radical hospitality. 

A year or so later we all experienced the terrible trauma of September 11, 2001.  I was devastated, but glad I had a church home.  I found myself on September 12 acting as an usher for the ecumenical prayer service.  Many of the new people who showed up did not fit the “norm” of the church.  That is of course interesting, but what I truly observed was the open welcome that came from those established in the pews.  It could have been because of the greater number and the excitement of that instead of one or two new visitors that did not fit the mold.  However, I believe the welcome came from that fact everyone was dealing with this tragic event.  Not only were the new members looking for answers those in the church also were looking for answers from the seekers. 

Today’s scriptures do show us that God is always looking for us, and will not stop until we are found, and will celebrate!  That is great news.  Jesus shares these parables, because some religious leaders (Pharisees and scribes) were grumbling because Jesus welcomed sinners to table fellowship.  Not only did the shepherd look for the one lost, he left the 99 in the wilderness to find the lost.  Is not the church still in the wilderness awaiting the Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven?  The woman burns precious oil to look for the lost coin, does not the church use resources to share the gospel with the lost?  And in these two cases and the one following the Forgiving Father (often referred to as the Prodigal Son) there is a celebration.  Thus when people do come to use to eat at this communion table we should in our hearts see the celebration and celebrate with God for those found.  To insure this we most practice radical hospitality.  It is not about finding joy, God does the finding, it is about enjoying the joy and love of being found.  These parables remind me that I was also lost but by the grace of God was found.  I remember this joy at the table and at times remember David prodding, so that I can celebrate all of us who are found.

Useful Freedom

Philemon

Did you hear about baby Jamie? His parents and twin sister were on the news and the internet last week. Jamie was pronounced dead at birth, while his twin sister was healthy and thriving. His parents wanted to say good-bye by loving him. His mother got him on her chest skin-to-skin and they held and talked to him. They wanted to love him for the last minutes of his life. The doctor warned them that he would make involuntary movements and not to get their "hope up." The minutes turned into tens of minutes, and they were simply overjoyed to have more time with their dying son. Even when he opened his eyes they were just happy to have seen his eyes before he would die. They were loving him onto heaven. They time continued with more movements one would not believe a clinically dead baby would make, and while they were still in the mindset of loving him to God, they were starting to have some hope and asked for the doctor to visit. The doctor kept reporting back through the nurses that it was natural for a baby to move etc. Well when it was about two hours later and the Jamie tried to move his head and grasp with his fingers, the father reported he said a little white lie to the doctor. He told the nurse to tell the doctor, "We have come to grips with our son's death, and we wanted to talk to him about how it happened." The doctor arrived and today Jamie is five months old.

When I heard what the father did to compel the doctor to check out his son I thought about the letter of Philemon. No, Paul does not utilize any white lies, but he does carefully craft this letter to influence Philemon's actions. Paul is writing this letter to Philemon so Onesimus will be accepted back into the home not just as a slave, but as a brother in Christ. Paul starts this personal letter by also naming others in the household, knowing it would be read not just to the head of the house, Philemon. Paul also ends the letter by saying prepare a room for me, which is his way of saying he would check up on Philemon's action. Some believe that Onesimus was a slave that ran away and found his way to Paul, which may be the case if he was compelled to hear about Christ from Paul, but if he truly wanted to escape he would not have gone to a friend of the household. It seems that Onesimus was actually sent to Paul by Philemon, but was greatly delayed in returning. He was delayed perhaps because Paul needed his services and because Onesimus was accepting Christ as his savior through his work with Paul and the others who were imprisoned. In those days, if someone delayed a slave or helped him escape, they would owe the owner for the work, hence Paul's offer to put anything owed on his account.

Paul wants not to simply have Onesimus accepted back into the household but to be an example about how the church should operate. Paul uses Onesimus' name to make a point for it means "useful," but Paul states that Onesimus was not previously useful. This must not be true in the literal sense, for why would Philemon be concerned about a runaway slave or delayed slave if he was not useful, and if he was sent to work with Paul would he not choose a useful servant to work with Paul, who planted the church in Philemon's own household? So when Paul is saying Onesimus was not useful, he was playing with his name to make a point that how he accepts him into the household, into the church, will be a useful example. Onesimus will be able to do the same useful work, but now he will also be a brother, not a slave. And even though Philemon owes his very self to Paul (which Paul will mention he will not bring to bear) Philemon must accept Onesimus on the basis of love. This rhetoric that Paul uses, does seem to our contemporary selves, to be "passive-aggressive," however I believe Paul's point is that he is not trying to tell Philemon what to do, but that his freedom from sin and evil through Christ Jesus, must be the authority.

When Jamie's parents were loving him into death, they were intent to listen to that love. Love was their authority and a resurrection happened.

God is love and thus Love is the authority and if you follow Love, resurrection happens!!!

Kingdom Talk

Luke 14:1, 7-14

Five years ago this week I was flying back from Costa Rica, with twelve others, after a mission trip where we tiled a sanctuary floor and painted a parsonage in a small town. We were fortunate that our return trip was routed through Dallas, as Miami was feeling the effects of Hurricane Katrina, which moved methodically across the Gulf towards Mississippi and New Orleans. While we were en route the pilot told us to look out the right side windows to see the storm that had been in the news. We were not of an altitude to see the eye of the storm, like the classic pictures of Katrina we all know so well, but we could see a wall of gray. We knew within 24 hours where we would send our next mission team.

Since our Senior Minister grew up in Mississippi she got contacts for our middle school youth group with FUMC of Biloxi. The youth exchanged letters and raised money for rebuilding. I began searching for places to serve with the intergenerational team, most of who had served in Costa Rica, but most of the youth were still under the age of 16 prohibiting them from most of the work sites. I then realized that the church in Biloxi had started their own rebuilding mission center. Their first mission after repairing the water damage to the church (saved from the surge by the one building in front of the church that had the first two floors wiped away) was to install six showers to be able to house volunteers. I called and talked with the coordinator and convinced them that my youth under 16 were prepared and mature enough, it helped that we were not simply a youth group and that the youth had been in contact with their youth group. So off we went in April of 2006 to help rebuild Biloxi.

We arrived in Biloxi and could see the massive destruction from the surge and a great amount from wind away from the coast. There were a lot of construction workers, but all of them were working on the hotels and casinos. At the church, there was some confusion at where we would be working which is quite normal for a volunteer effort. Some teams more skilled then others and thus work goes quicker or slower then you can plan. We decided to combine out youth with the youth from a church from North Carolina and then the adults were split among three work sites. I went with the youth along with an adult from the other church and our guide. Our job was to do landscaping. That does not seem very productive when there was important building work to be done, but if you spend the day with our team you would have understood the importance of this task. We were outside small FEMA trailers planting flowers and/or cleaning up the signs of the storm that lay around from trash to broken limbs. Yes some of the homes still needed to be rebuilding, but people were still waiting for money from insurance companies, donations, etc. We had free labor but supplies were limited to help everyone at that time. I remember one FEMA trailer that the church built a ramp from the trailer to inside the house, so the woman who was in a wheelchair could have her laundry room and some storage in the house and thus have that much more room in the trailer. A temporary fix but a thoughtful and greatly improved her standard of living, and that is what the landscaping did for many. We even went to the director of the volunteers home that was not affected by the hurricane to mow his lawn, as he spend more hours at the center then he did at his office before retirement. The youth understood how important this ministry was for the people trying to live in Biloxi that first spring after Katrina.

The adults were working on various homes two were modest homes, while the largest work site was a wonderful three-story home with a small lot. The owner was a divorced woman with 2 kids, who had started rebuilding by hiring some contractors. The first group took her money and did nothing and the second simply did shoddy work (even to us unskilled volunteers). These types of con jobs were numerous, while the high paying construction jobs went to those working on the casinos. I remember coming back in the evenings and hearing from some of the adults, how they were disappointed they were not working on building homes for the poor. There was one man that was very disappointed and I had a conversation with him about how most of the poor had left the city wither because their home was destroyed and/or their jobs were gone, or are waiting for funds for the homes from grants, donations, and insurance. He said he understood, but I could also tell he was still disappointed and upset that he was working on a home that was like his own back in New England. Every night we would gather for devotionals and reflection and on the third night I paired him with a middle school student. She shared her experience and how she was happy to serve, even if it was not to actually building a home. He shared his frustration and she made him understand that it was not about helping someone that was poorer and less fortunate; rather it was about helping as God needs you to help. The next day he shared with me how she opened his eyes, and I will confirm his attitude improved greatly (as well as all the adults).

Two years later (three years after the storm) we were back with some new missionaries as well, in New Orleans. For the first time I was able to get into the infamous 9^th ward. I was expecting to see some devastation, but I honestly did not expect it to be as bad as it still was three years later. There were a few homes being lived in and a few being worked on, but for the most part it was row after row of destroyed homes getting worse with weather and time. I could not imagine being on one of the roofs calling out for a rescue. It made me think of the buses that came to the Super Dome and how people wanted to get on those seats. Seeing the devastation still so evident, I realized that it was important for people to stand up and make known what happened to them. It was even confirmed recently in court that the army corps of engineers cut corners and knew about it. It is important that not everyone take the humble seat and simply wait for someone to raise them to a seat of higher honor.

This brings us to today's scripture. Jesus is talking specifically to these Pharisees about the Kingdom and not simply creating a new social norm. That is if someone takes this scripture to mean we are to go somewhere and act more humble to be exalted then are you not simply being humble to be exalted? Jesus was not reforming behavior but came to change it. Just look carefully at the scripture, it is clear that all the guests who were to take the lesser seats at the next party, for the host is not to invite them, but rather people that cannot repay. At first glance, my anecdotes above contradict these parables, however, it you realize that Jesus is talking specifically to these Pharisees and not simply changing the etiquette. The woman that we helped rebuild her house certainly has the ability to repay us, but she is going to pass-it-on not just help someone to repay us. When we go on missions even when we are helping the poor we must not be doing it to simply appease our guilt for that would put us in the position of being repaid for our effort. And as the Rev. Doc. Martin Luther King Jr. said in his famous "I have a dream speech" our founders wrote a promissory note to everyone. Throughout the history of this country it took people to stand up and require better seating. If that was not true, we would not have celebrated 90 years of women's suffrage this past week. Katrina brings light to the fact that it is important that people not simply wait humbly but need to speak up humbly and thus exalt the Divine. This is what Kingdom Talk is, doing what is right for God and not for ourselves; right for our fellow humans not for our own glory, for the glory of God.

 

Unfetter

Luke 13:10-21

 

We find Jesus in the synagogue on the Sabbath, as a Rabbi one should not be surprised. There are other instances in which the authorities try to trick Jesus by presenting someone to be healed, but not in this case. She happened in and Jesus saw her and had compassion for her and cured her ailment that he described as being bound by Satan. We have an understanding that disease is not caused by someone sinning or their family sinning, but in the first century that was a common belief. (Sadly there are those today that uphold that same notion). In this scene Jesus is making it clear that he has the power to cure and heal her. There is a difference between healing and cure. Jesus will always provide healing, it may not be the miracle cure we desire, but we will be made whole by the Love. Cures take away all the sickness, and as humans we have discovered many cures for ailments that plague us, but there are also cures that are simply miracles. Thus when someone asks for prayers of healing, I always ask also for the miracles, for as you can see that is not beyond Jesus' love.

What I find more interesting in this piece of scripture is the metaphor Jesus uses to demonstrate that the woman should be healed on the Sabbath and the two small parables he states because of this interaction. Jesus reminds everyone that they would not leave their donkey or ox at the manger but would untie them and bring them to water even on the Sabbath. How much more would a daughter of Abraham deserve to not be fettered by Satan? This of course wins the argument hands down and leads Jesus to respond with the two parables that compare the Kingdom of God to small things.

The first is the mustard seed which everyone knew was a small seed and Jesus describes the mustard bush as a tree larger than normal as it would be home to many birds. The second is that of the leaven, the yeast, my favorite in part because I was a baker and pastry chef for years prior to seminary. In those days, yeast was known but it was not visible, as there were no microscopes, but the bakers kept the yeast alive as a sourdough. This makes me think of what we would use today for this parable, and I believe it would be a molecule as we cannot see molecules yet we have an understanding that they exist. Well the woman took the leaven and kneaded it into three measures of flour. Now that is not like three cups, but more like what a bakery would receive as a delivery rather than have as a recipe, making this even more astonishing. Why would Jesus share these parables after healing this woman? I believe there are many answers but one of the simplest is that we too get bound and fettered by emotions such as envy, fear, jealousy, etc., even if we are trying to harvest fruits of the Spirit. The good news is that we only need a small amount of the Spirit to grow the Kingdom of God in each of us.

Reading and studying this scripture I kept being reminded of my first two days at work at the Henion Bakery. I had worked for a few months in a bakery that had a lot of machines, and I was excited to work at this artisan "by-scratch" bakery. The first day I was shown what my responsibilities were and shadowed Dave my wonderful boss, as he demonstrated how the work. Much of the work I understood why and how to do the work, until it came to the second to last thing of the day. (The last thing is always to clean-up). It was to make the apple strudel; I was not intimidated by throwing the apples, sugar, flour, and spices into the bowl without measuring correctly, but by stretching the dough. I had made small strudels using phyllo dough from the grocery store, so I understood creating the many layers of dough with butter between to create the flaky crust around the apples, but I could not understand how he stretched a piece of dough I could fit in the palm of my hand at least 3 feet by 3 feet. It seemed he could go further, but the bench was only so deep. I was frightened. The next day went well until I got to stretch the dough; I could feel my anxiety raising stopping me from even starting. I was fearful of failing. I said to myself, "I have all the physical ability to do this task, I have faith in myself." Well the anxiety still fettered me, I was fearful of failing, not of doing it. I then realized that even if I failed I could learn and my new boss would not fire me. This anxiety of fear had stopped me in the past, but this time that small speck of love I felt, unburdened me from the fear and anxiety. To this day I go back to that moment when that type of anxiety and fear surfaces, reminding me it only takes a small speck of the invisible love to unfetter me. I stretched the small piece of dough very well that day. From a small blob to a great thin sheet that created a dozen or so of large pieces of apple strudel for the next day.

We will be bound by these negative emotions and greater demons, and the Kingdom of God will unbind us from if we allow God's love to grow within us, which only takes knowledge of that love, you do not even have to see it.