tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38981906912008569382024-03-26T09:37:33.877-07:00This. New. Thing."Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
Mary OliverAmy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.comBlogger169125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-3916289162533611882024-03-26T09:36:00.000-07:002024-03-26T09:36:48.455-07:00What Kind of Triumph? -- Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday<p><b style="text-align: center;">Mark 11:1-11 (Mark 14:1-11)</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">March 24, 2024</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">As
many times as I have heard the story of Palm Sunday, as many times as I have
read the story in the gospels, and as many times as I have preached on this
particular Sunday, I have never considered the meaning of a <i>Triumph</i>. The
“triumphal procession” of Jesus into Jerusalem at the beginning of what we now
know as Holy Week was merely a description in my mind. Jesus would process into
Jerusalem, and even though his death won’t seem like a triumph to anyone who
witnessed it, it would be because he would be resurrected. And in Jesus’
resurrection, he would have ultimate victory over death. A triumph! But a
Triumph has an historical meaning that I knew nothing about until this past
week. So, I thank my friend and colleague, Blake Hawthorne, for giving me some
historical background on a Triumph. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">In
the Roman empire a Triumph was much more than a victory parade into the city.
When a Roman military leader decisively conquered an enemy in battle, the
Senate could approve a Triumph. This was more than just the town council
approving a tickertape parade. A triumph was a spectacle that could last
several days. The conquering hero must be heralded by his soldiers. He would be
dressed in purple and gold, royal colors. He would process into the city and
finally to the temple in a chariot. He would wear a laurel wreath. The
procession would include slaves taken from the fallen enemy, sometimes the
conquered king, war riches, etc. There would be speeches and feasts and it was
a big deal. But to qualify for a triumph, the conquest had to be mighty. More
than 5,000 enemies must have been killed. And the enemy must have been a
difficult one to overcome. If that qualification was not met, then it might be
considered an Ovation rather than a Triumph. An Ovation, as I understand it
from the account I read online, involved the killing of less than 5,000 people
or the defeat of enemies that were not considered honorable like pirates. If a
conqueror received an Ovation, he road into the city on a horse, and the
celebration was more subdued. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">With
this newly acquired history in mind, I began to look at Jesus’s triumphal entry
in a new way. If the Roman Triumph was the standard for a conqueror to enter a
city, then Jesus’ entry seems as far from a Triumph as possible. If I’m being
honest, Mark’s telling is rather anti-climactic. Jesus and the disciples were
approaching Jerusalem, and they were at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount
of Olives. Jesus sent two of the disciples ahead of him into the village. He
told them that the minute they entered the village they would find an unridden
colt tied there. They were to untie that colt and bring it back to Jesus. Jesus
warned them that if anyone should ask why they were taking the colt, they were
to respond, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">The
disciples did what Jesus told them to do. They were questioned just as Jesus
told them they might be. They responded the way they were instructed to, and
they brought the colt back to Jesus. They threw their cloaks across the back of
the colt, and Jesus rode it into Jerusalem. It is true that people gathered to
welcome him into the city. They cut leafy branches and spread their own cloaks
on the ground before him. People encircled him, before and behind, shouting, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming
kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">This
sounds like a sort-of spectacle. Although, as triumphs go, it was still not
even close to the triumph a conquering Roman would have experienced. But there
were no speeches. There were no feasts. Once the procession is over, Jesus
doesn’t do anything that you might expect him to do. He performs no miracles or
healings. He doesn’t offer his followers even a rousing sermon. Instead, he
goes to the temple, looks around at everything, realizes it is late, and goes
back to Bethany for the night. Jesus does not even stay in the city. He returns
the way he came. Anticlimactic is an understatement. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Mark
puts a great deal more emphasis on the telling of how the disciples managed to
get the colt than he does on Jesus’ actual entry into Jerusalem. The procession
seems more like an afterthought than a plan. Although Jesus does seem to have
clairvoyance about the challenge that might be involved in getting that colt,
and I suspect that Jesus also knew that the people who heralded his advent into
Jerusalem would have seen the grand arrival of others before him.. The people,
who whether they knew of imperial triumphs or not, would have witnessed grand
parades and processions of important figures riding into the city in chariots
or on a mighty steed. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Writer
and theologian, Debie Thomas, described two processionals that happened that
day. One came from the west, and it was a full-blown royally regaled romp,
dripping with both pomp and circumstance. This parade answers the question, why
was Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem at the same time as Jesus? Pilate did not
normally reside in that city. Pilate was in Jerusalem because of Passover.
Passover was a Jewish festival that remembered, celebrated, and elevated the
miraculous and divine exodus of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery and
oppression. If ever there was a festival that could get folks riled up at the
occupying Romans, it was Passover. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Pilate
surely processed into Jerusalem with all the might and majesty he could muster.
His processions must have been a vivid reminder of what the people would face
if they tried to rebel or riot. Let the people see the splendor and the
strength of the Roman empire on full display. It might not have been an actual
Roman Triumph, but it would have gotten the message across all the same. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">But
from the East came another procession, another parade. In the light of a Roman
Triumph, this parade was nothing. It would have been considered laughable by
the Roman leadership – although the Jewish religious leaders were certainly not
laughing. While Pilate may have been heralded with trumpets, Jesus was heralded
with Hosannas. When I was a kid I thought that Hosanna was an old-fashioned way
of yelling, “Hip, hip hurray!” But it means, “Save us. Save us now.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">And
for a minute, the people thought that their salvation had come. But what kind
of triumph ends with crucifixion? What kind of triumph ends with death and the
defeat of all their hopes and dreams? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">You
see, that’s the challenge of this day. Growing up in another denomination, we
always observed both Palm Sunday and Easter. But we never observed Holy Week.
And that’s what this day marks – the beginning of the Holiest and hardest weeks
in our church calendar. We begin the week on a day of procession and
celebration and hopes and dreams, with hosannas and maybe a hallelujah thrown
in for good measure. But in this week Jesus will be betrayed and denied. The
hosannas will fade and the shouts to “crucify him, crucify him” will rise. He
will be tried, convicted, and executed for sedition and incitement. He will
require anointment for burial before he dies, because it will not be allowed
upon his actual death. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">What
kind of triumph is this? Unlike a Roman conqueror, Jesus conquered no one. He
killed no one. He enslaved no one. He stole the riches of no one. Instead he
healed, he set free, he made all things new. Still, this week ends with the
cross. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">What
kind of triumph is this? We know that Easter will come, that resurrection will
once more make the world new. But we cannot skip this week. We cannot jump from
procession to resurrection. We must walk through the valley of death before we
can climb the hill of new life. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So, on this Palm Sunday, let us
remember that it is also Passion Sunday and that we are beginning the holiest
of weeks and the hardest of weeks because the powers and principalities still
try to extinguish the Light of the World. We still think that Triumph comes
from conquering and subduing and defeating. But what this week will teach us,
if we allow it to, is that the real triumph comes from Love and Love alone. So,
even as we walk into this week of growing darkness, we also walk into it hope,
trusting that the Light still shines and that God is still making all things
new. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Let all of God’s children say,
“Amen.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Amen.<o:p></o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-75751322547947540452024-03-26T09:35:00.000-07:002024-03-26T09:35:13.031-07:00On Our Hearts -- Fifth Sunday in Lent<p><b style="text-align: center;">Jeremiah 31:31-34</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">March 17, 2024</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">The
movie, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Return to Me</i>, is a sweet story
about a new heart; literally. Bob and Elizabeth, a young couple very much in
love, are on their way home from an award gala when they are involved in a terrible
car crash. Elizabeth is killed, and the decision is made to donate her organs.
Her heart is given to a young woman named Grace, who without Elizabeth’s heart
would have surely died herself. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Grace’s transplant is successful.
She lives. Not only does she manage to keep breathing, but she also rides a
bike, sings at her grandfather’s restaurant, and does many other things she
wasn’t able to before this new heart began to beat within her. With this new
heart, Grace lives more fully than she had ever been able to in the past. But
she cannot forget that the life she is now living so completely came at a cost
to someone else. It was because of someone else’s death that she now lives. Her
family’s rejoicing over her new heart and her newly found life walks
hand-in-hand with another family’s grief and tragedy. Grace wants to somehow
thank the family of her donor. She wants to honor their loss, so she writes the
woman’s family a letter. The donor and donor family were anonymous, so she had
no names or personal information beyond an address. But she writes the letter
regardless. The letter reaches Bob, the widower in the story. However in his
grief he is unable to open it, so the letter sits on his desk, unread, and is
eventually covered by other mail. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To make a long story short, Bob and
Grace eventually meet and fall in love; Elizabeth’s heart beating in Grace’s
body connects them in an unexpected way. They find their own happy ending,
complete with the twists and turns that make for good cinema. But it was this gift
of a new heart that created a new life for them both.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A new heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A new life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Although the word of the Lord given
to Jeremiah is not exactly about a heart transplant, it is about something new
– a new covenant. The Law, which was once written on tablets of stone, will now
be written on the hearts of the people. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“But this is the covenant that I
will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put
my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their
God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or
say to each other, ‘know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least
of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity and
remember their sin no more.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Verse 31 begins, “The days are
surely coming …” and then we hear these powerful words of hope and assurance
that come with this new covenant, this new promise God will make with his
people. God has forgotten the promise breaking of the past. God has forgotten
how the people have forgotten him in the past. Now is the time for the new – a
new covenant, new life, new hope. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Forgetting
is a dominant theme in these verses in Jeremiah. As I understand the larger
context of this passage and this prophet, the people have been paying for the
sins of their ancestors. Their complaint has been that God never forgets the
sins of the past – even the sins committed by others. New generations continue
to pay for the transgressions of the old. When will they stop being punished
for the sins of their parents? When will God finally forget?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the verses immediately preceding
our passage, God assures the people that, indeed, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>he has forgotten. No more will the people be
judged for the sins of those who went before them. No more will a child’s teeth
be set on edge because a parent ate sour grapes. From now on, God tells them,
there will be new life in your midst. Humans and animals will once again
multiply. Judgment was brought on them for wrongdoing, but blessings will be
bestowed as well. God tells them that he has plucked up, but he will also
plant. One commentator wrote that God is reversing the previous relationship
with Judah and Israel. No longer will their relationship with God be based on
disobedience; instead it will be based on a new covenant, a new promise, a new
heart.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Jeremiah
is not known for being a joyful book. Jeremiah puts into words the heartbreak
of the people’s broken promises to God, the heartbreak of their time in exile.
Yet these verses before us are filled with joy and hope, beauty and comfort.
That is probably why these are some of the most recognized verses from
Jeremiah. Some scholars see this as the gospel before the gospel. This covenant
that God promises will not be like the old one. <b><i>Before,</i></b> God took
them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. <b><i>Before</i></b>, God led them
like a parent leads a small child. <b><i>Before</i></b>, God carefully showed
them the way they were supposed to live. <b><i>Before</i></b>, God gave them
the Law, but the people broke the Law over and over, and broke their
relationship with God over and over. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But <b><i>now</i></b>, in this new
covenant, the Law will be more than words that can be too easily forgotten or
overlooked. The Law was once written on stone tablets, but now the Law will be
written on their hearts. The Law will live within them. They will no longer
need to teach or instruct one another on the Law. It will no longer be a course
of study. Instead the people will fully and absolutely know the Lord. They will
finally and completely be God’s people, and he will be their God. All people –
learned and unlearned, rich and poor, strong and weak – will know God in both
heart and mind. In the days that are surely coming, they will know the Lord,
and the Lord will forgive their iniquity, remembering their sins no more. With
this new covenant, God is giving the people a new promise, a new life, and a
new heart.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The language of these verses in
Jeremiah is so beautiful, so poetic, that it is easy for me to get caught up in
the sound and the emotion of them, without really understanding in a practical
way what they mean. But what do they mean? God promises the people that he will
make a new covenant with them. It will be unlike the covenant of the past. It
will not only be words on paper – or stone – it will be something that lives
within them. When God tells them that they will know him, it seems to me that
this will be an innate knowledge; instinctive, intuitive. The estrangement
between God and God’s people, the connective cord between them that sin severs,
will be restored and refashioned. The people will know the Lord in a new way
because they have been given a new covenant.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What is a covenant? A covenant is a
promise rather than a contract. A contract specifies failure. If I fail to pay
my car payment, which is a contract that I signed with the financing company,
then I will be in breach of contract. A contract specifies failure. But a
covenant does not specify failure, it specifies faithfulness. God promises
again and again to be faithful to his people. God promises that despite <b><i>our</i></b>
failure to be faithful, <b>God will not fail</b>. God will remain faithful to
us, even when we have not been faithful to God. In these words of covenant, God
promises to forgive our sins and forget them as well. But this is not one-sided.
We have our side of the covenant to uphold. Our side of the covenant calls us
to love. We are called to love God, to love neighbor, to give our whole lives
to living out the love God has for us. We are called to trust that God is
faithful and to be faithful to God in return by loving others and all creation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>While contracts have a time limit,
covenants do not. The covenant God made with Abraham did not end with the
covenant God made with David. The Davidic covenant did not end with the
covenant we find in our passage from Jeremiah. The covenants of God flow one
into another, finding their final fulfillment with the coming of Jesus -- God’s
promise made flesh – into our midst.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Contracts remain fixed between
certain people, but covenants expand to welcome others. It is unfair to the
context and nature of these words in Jeremiah to make them merely an allegory
of the Christian life to come. Still we, the descendants of Gentiles, are here
because we were welcomed into the expanding promise of God. We too have
received a new heart.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There are those beautiful words
again – new heart – but what does that mean? Is it about seeing God’s world and
God’s people with new eyes? Is it about living a life grounded in love – the
love that works for peace and acts for justice? Is it just some sort of
spiritual transplant?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Or do we find that new hearts are
beating within us when our old hearts are broken wide open? In the second verse
of the hymn, <i>Here I Am, Lord</i>, there is a line that reads “I will break
their hearts of stone, give them hearts for love alone.” I tried to think of
one concise illustration of a heart of stone being broken so that the heart
could exist for love alone. There are plenty of examples out there, thousands
of them. But I realized that sometimes the best example is the one that is
ours. So, rather than tell you about someone receiving a new heart, I am going
to ask you to do something that feels very un-Presbyterian. I am going to ask
you to close your eyes for a moment and think about a time when your heart has
been broken open, when you’ve seen a person or a situation or something else in
a new way with new eyes. Maybe it was a moment when someone who thinks
differently from you shared something that you hadn’t considered before. Maybe
it was a moment when your child asked you a difficult question that you didn’t
know how to answer. Maybe it was a moment when you saw something you could not
unsee. I know those moments exist for you just as they do for me. So, close
your eyes and think. Close your eyes and remember. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Maybe in that moment that we’re
remembering, our old hearts were being chipped away. Maybe in that moment, God
was working on our hearts, breaking hearts of stone and giving us hearts for
love alone. Maybe in those moments God was writing his love on our hearts, so that
we will know, intuitively, instinctively, innately, and forever, the love of
God that is the true law of God. In those moments, and in many more moments to
come, God is writing his love on our hearts. Thanks be to God.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Let all God’s children say, “Amen.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Amen.<o:p></o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-14525911309381121072024-03-12T09:56:00.000-07:002024-03-12T09:56:10.888-07:00Lifted Up -- Fourth Sunday of Lent<p><b style="text-align: center;">Numbers 21:4-9, </b><b style="text-align: center;">(John 3:14-21)</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">Fourth Sunday of Lent</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Snakes. Why’d it have to be
snakes?”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">So said Indiana Jones in the
movie, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Raiders of the Lost Ark</i>. I
will never forget sitting in the theatre to watch this movie for the first
time, hearing that iconic John Williams music, and watching with delight and
excitement as Indiana Jones, an archeologist, a professor, and an unexpected
swashbuckling hero, take on the bad guys. As an archeologist, Jones finds lost
treasures and rare antiquities, and the reason he must take on bad guys is to
prevent them from using archeological treasure for nefarious purposes. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Raiders</i>, the “bad guys” are the
Nazi’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The great irony of the story is
that Hitler – who wanted to wipe the Jewish people off the face of the earth –
wants to find one of the most sacred relics of Judaism, the lost Ark of the
Covenant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The premise of the story is
that Hitler would be able to use the Ark’s powers to win the war and rule the
world. Indiana Jones must find it before Hitler’s minions do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Indy
and his friend and colleague, Sallah, find the location of the ark. It is
buried underground in some sort of ancient cavern. Looking down into the
cavern, Sallah asks, “Indy, why does the floor move?” Indiana throws a torch
down and there they are: snakes, hundreds and hundreds of snakes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">“Snakes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why’d it have to be snakes?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Indiana
Jones was terrified of snakes and seeing the movie that first time and trying
not to hide under my seat at the sight of all those snakes, I felt vindicated
that I share a phobia with a courageous hero like Indiana Jones. Because of
this phobia, it may seem strange that I chose to use this strange story from
the book of Numbers as my preaching text this morning. But here we are.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We don’t hear from the book of
Numbers very often in our lectionary cycle. Just as this story is strange,
Numbers as a book is also pretty strange. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">It
is in Numbers that we read the story of the talking donkey. Yes, there is a
talking donkey in scripture. In the verses immediately preceding this one, God
helped the Israelites to overcome the Canaanites. But in the next breath, the
people forgot how God had helped them. In the opening verse in our story we
read that the Israelites leave Mount Hor for the Red Sea, “to go around the
land of Edom.” This means that they were still following Moses. They were still
being fed by manna and quail. But they were getting fed up with what they were
being fed. They were clearly tired of the lack of options on the menu. Once
again, the Israelites whined and complained.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Why have you brought us up out of
Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and water, and we detest
this miserable food.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If you think about it, this is a
pretty funny line. We don’t have any water. We don’t have any food. And, by the
way, the food stinks! The people had complained against Moses before, but if
I’m correct, this is the first time they’ve included God in their complaint. What
is God’s response? Snakes. And these were clearly not harmless little garden
snakes. These were poisonous, terrifying, venomous snakes. Why’d there have to
be snakes? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">What
the NRSV translates as <i>poisonous</i> can also be translated as <i>fiery</i>.
I don’t know which sounds worse. Regardless of the translation, the snakes
slither through the people and bite them. People are dying left and right, and
those who are still alive quickly realize the error of their ways. They go to
Moses, proclaiming that they have sinned against God and against him. Please
Moses, ask God to take away the snakes. Moses prayed for them, and in response
to his prayer, God gave him the cure. Make a bronze image of a serpent and put
it on a pole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If someone is bitten, all
they have to do is look at this image of a serpent and they will live.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Perhaps
our first question about this story is why did the cure come from staring at a
serpent on a stick, rather than God just making the snakes go away. A second question
to ask is why are we reading this story in the first place? Let’s answer the
second question first. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">The
reason we read this odd little story from Numbers is because Jesus refers to it
in our passage from John’s gospel. Just as the serpent on the pole was lifted
up and the people lived, so shall Jesus be lifted up on the cross so the people
may live. Then Jesus spoke perhaps the most well-known words in all of
scripture. “For God so loved the world…”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Now,
let’s consider the first question. What did snakes represent in the ancient
world? They were a personification of evil. Think about the serpent in the
Garden of Eden. One commentator wrote that the people have been thinking
poisonous thoughts and speaking poisonous words. They could not seem to
remember how God was with them, even in the immediate past. The longer they
wandered in the wilderness, the more poisonous those thoughts became. Perhaps
snakes are as much a metaphor for the people’s own venom in thought and word,
as they were literal serpents. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Israelites had been wandering
for a long, long time. Older generations were dying, and new ones were being
born. For every moment that the Israelites recognized God’s saving presence,
there were many more moments when they didn’t. From their perspective, one that
was colored by wilderness wandering and a minimum of food and drink, Egypt
looked pretty good. Just as they forgot God’s presence, they also seemed to
forget exactly what their lives in Egypt really were. They were not halcyon
days of bliss; they were days of slavery and backbreaking work. God saved them
from that life. God called them to new life and made a covenant with them and a
promise to them to be their God and asked them to be God’s people. But in this
story they can’t see that. They don’t remember that. They don’t fully trust
that God is with them or that Moses knows what he is doing, until the snakes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And how are their terrible wounds
from these terrible snakes cured? Debie Thomas states that the people are cured
of their wounds not by some magical means but by facing what had bitten them.
Their healing came when they faced what had made them sick. Healing came not
only when they looked up at a bronze image, but at the poison that resided
within them. That was the cure, that was when the healing began, by facing what
had made them sick, by looking honestly at what had poisoned them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus refers to this strange story
as an analogy to what God is doing through him. Although we don’t read the
beginning verses of this chapter, the setting is that Nicodemus, a pharisee,
comes to Jesus by night, presumably so that no one will know he is talking to
this controversial man, Jesus. And Nicodemus asks Jesus about the signs that
Jesus is doing, because he recognizes that God’s presence must be with Jesus,
otherwise he could not perform these signs and wonders. And in his answer to
Nicodemus, Jesus references this story from Numbers and makes this analogy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“And just as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever
believes in him may have eternal life.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Israelites were healed when they
faced the poison that was killing them. Perhaps that is also the healing power
of the cross. What is the cross but the representation of the worst of
humanity?! The cross was brutal. It was merciless. It was a terrible, terrible
way to die. It was suffering. It was pain. It was inhumane. It was
representative of the cruelty and the brutality that we humans show one
another. And Jesus would be lifted up on one. As Debie Thomas notes, looking at
the bronze serpent healed the people of the poison within them. Maybe when we
look at the cross, our healing begins by facing what is the worst in us. Maybe
our healing begins when we face, honestly, the consequences of our cruelty and
violence. Maybe our healing begins when we see the One who shows us again and
again what being truly human can be lifted up on the cross of our own inhumanity.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It seems to me that this is what
this Lenten season calls us to do – to face not only what keeps us from God,
but also what keeps us from one another, what keeps us from being truly human
to one another. Maybe if we can look up and face the cross and our inhumanity
with honesty, then maybe we can see that endless war solves nothing, that
violence begets only more violence, that dehumanizing some dehumanizes all, and
that the only real cure comes from love. That’s it. Love. For God so LOVED the
world, the cosmos, the entirety of creation, that God sent his only Son, not to
punish the world, but to show the world what LOVE really is and what LOVE can
do, so that whoever sees the Son and believes in the Son won’t suffer the
endless cycle of death and the hell we create on earth, but will have life,
abundant life. It’s all about LOVE.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Our healing begins when we face what
is killing us. Our healing begins when we see, really see how God loves so that
we can begin to love in return. On this day and always, look up at who is
lifted up and may we all be healed. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Let all of God’s children say,
“Amen.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-29327679001907856362024-03-06T07:23:00.000-08:002024-03-06T07:23:52.749-08:00Zeal -- Third Sunday of Lent<p><b style="text-align: center;">John 2:13-22</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">March 3, 2024</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Did you grow up looking at pictures
of Jesus? I know that there are no actual pictures of Jesus, but there are
plenty of artistic impressions of him. Did you grow up looking at any of them?
There are three specific pictures of Jesus that I remember from my childhood.
One was a painting that we had hanging in our living room for as long as I can
remember. It was a painting of Jesus talking with two other men, and they are
walking on a path, and in the distance, you can see the outline of an ancient
city. Without being told this specifically as a child, I knew the one guy was
Jesus. I just knew it was. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized this
was a depiction of the road to Emmaus story from Luke’s gospel. When I was a
little kid, it didn’t matter to me what the story was. I just liked to look at
Jesus and the two men, and I would trace the path to the city with my finger
and imagine the conversation they were having. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The second picture that I remember
must have been one that I saw in Sunday school. It was a picture of Jesus standing
outside of a door inset into a stone wall. It looked like a door into a garden.
There were vines and flowers growing around it, and Jesus was standing before
it, knocking. I was told that the door represented my heart, and Jesus was
knocking, asking to be allowed in. See, Jesus is knocking at the door of your
heart. Let him in. Whenever I looked at that picture, I vowed that as soon as I
heard Jesus knocking on the door of my heart, I would let him in. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The third picture that I remember
may be one that you all remember too. It is a painting of Jesus that is far
more famous than I knew until I started doing some research for this sermon.
Painted by American artist, Warner Sallman, the painting’s official name is
“Head of Christ.” But it is also known as Sallman’s head. It is a picture of
Jesus with very pale eyes, light skin, wavy light brown hair, staring off into
the distance, looking beatific and perfect and divine. It’s a nice picture. It
is a comforting picture. I don’t remember if we had a version of that picture
in our home, but I know I saw it in other places. And I remember looking at it
and thinking that Jesus looked nice and kind and safe. This picture represented
what one commentator called, “a manageable deity.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Those are the images of Jesus that I
grew up on. There’s nothing inherently wrong with them, other than he doesn’t
look like a Middle Eastern Jew in any of them. But they were nice pictures to
grow up, and clearly, they sparked my imagination as a child and stuck with me
into my adulthood. But those depictions of Jesus seem very far from the Jesus
that we read about this morning. This morning we read about a Jesus who gets
angry, who is zealous. We read about a Jesus who goes into the temple, makes a
whip of cords and begins to drive out all the animals that were gathered there
for sacrifice. This is a Jesus, so filled with zeal and righteous anger, that
he dumps out the coins of the moneychangers and overturns their tables. He
yells at the people selling doves, saying,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Take these things out of here! Stop
making my Father’s house a marketplace!”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Jesus who cleanses the temple –
cleansing being a euphemism, like ethnic cleansing – this Jesus does not clean
but scatters and crashes and flips and causes chaos. This Jesus seems very far
from being a manageable deity, and even further from the Jesus who stood at a
door and knocked. This Jesus may not be one we like to consider very often, but
here he is. So, this is the Jesus we deal with today.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Just as we may not quite know how to
deal with the Jesus before us today, I can imagine the disciples didn’t know
how to deal with him either. I can imagine that they were as shocked by Jesus’
behavior at first like everyone else who witnessed this. They must have looked
at each other in alarm, eyes wide, maybe silently mouthing to one another, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“What’s
happening?” “Where did this come from?” “Why don’t you try and calm him down? <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Why don’t <b><i>you</i></b> try and
calm him down?” “I asked you to do it first.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">And
so on, and so on. John’s gospel does tell us that the disciples remember that
the scripture says, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Jesus was certainly
filled with zeal.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">It
must be noted that this is a story found in all four gospels. When you come
across a story that each of the gospel writers included in their version of
Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection, it is a good idea to pay particular
attention to the story they all share. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">In
Matthew, Mark, and Luke, this story comes near the end of the gospel. This is a
final act of Jesus, one that contributes mightily to the religious authorities
saying, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“That’s it! Enough with this guy!
He’s gotta go!” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But John puts this story right at
the beginning of his gospel. When you read this in the other gospels, Jesus’
anger makes a little more sense. After all, he’s been in public ministry for
three years at that point. He’s been preaching, teaching, healing, proclaiming,
showing, modeling, and exhorting. Some people got it, but a lot of people
didn’t. And part of his anger in the other gospels is that he was protesting a
religious system that had become more about exploitation of its weakest members
than it was about worship. But why is Jesus angry this early in John? He’s just
getting started. He has just left the wedding at Cana where he turned water
into wine. Why turn the temple upside down at this moment? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Well, firstly, the question must be
asked, is Jesus more zealous than angry, is his anger fueled by his zeal or is
his zeal fueled by his anger? As I said earlier, the scripture that the
disciples remembered was that he would be consumed with zeal for his father’s
house. Certainly, Jesus is consumed with zeal in this story. And that zeal
leads him to overturn the long-standing practices and systems that took place
in the temple. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The moneychangers were there, not to
exploit, but to change money. The Law prohibited coins with images on them in
the temple. The only coins the people would have been allowed to use outside of
the temple would have been Roman. Roman coins bore the image of Caesar on them,
so those Roman coins must be exchanged for coins that were lawful in the
temple. The great number of animals were in the temple because sacrifices of
animals were expected. It was part of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>their practice of worship. In order to buy an
animal for their required sacrifice, they had to purchase it with an approved
coin. What was happening in the temple was what was expected and approved of by
the religious authorities and the Law as they all understood it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But Jesus comes in and sees this and
basically proclaims, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You have all missed the point!” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But he proclaims this with his
actions, his unexpected and scandalous actions. So, of course, Jesus is
questioned by the religious leaders. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What sign can you show us for doing
this?” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And Jesus answers them by not
answering them, not directly, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But they don’t get it. The temple
has been under construction for forty-six years, but this guy says it can be
destroyed and rebuilt in three days?! Sure. Whatever you say, Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>They missed the point. They could
not yet see what was right in front of them, <i>who</i> was right in front of
them. They thought the only temple was the one of wood and stone, the place
where God lived exclusively. But the temple was flesh and blood and standing in
their midst. Jesus was trying to make them understand that God dwelled in him.
God was not confined to a building. God had come into flesh and blood, into <i>his
</i>flesh and blood, and was loose in the world. God had left the building. And
if it took Jesus disrupting the status quo, physically as well as verbally, for
them to understand and see this, to believe it, then so be it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus was consumed with zeal, with
fervor and passion. One commentator called him the Great Disrupter. But his
zeal was not about destruction for destruction’s sake, but about tearing down
what kept people from full and abundant life in God and building up a new way
of living and being as God’s beloved children. His zeal, his anger, his passion
was for all to find life, to see and believe that God had left the building but
was loose and growing and creating in the world, in him and in them. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Maybe that is something we need to
focus on in this season of Lent. We need to claim the zeal of Jesus as our own.
We need to see Jesus in his fullness, not just the calm, safe Jesus of art, but
the Jesus who was not afraid of righteous indignation, the Jesus who loved and
lived passionately, the Jesus who had zeal and fervor for doing God’s work in
the world, the whole world. Maybe it’s okay that Jesus is not a manageable
deity. Maybe it’s okay that safety is not what following Jesus is all about.
Maybe it’s okay if our status quo is disrupted. Maybe it’s okay if Jesus tears
down our expectations and our ideals about how we think things should be. Maybe
it's okay because what Jesus is really doing, what God does through Jesus, is
creating new life, abundant, verdant, lush life, and inviting us to be a part
of it all. Jesus’ zeal is for life. May we be as zealous for life as well. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Let all of God’s children say,
“Amen.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Amen.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-46412427838366069182024-02-28T15:22:00.000-08:002024-02-28T15:22:33.068-08:00Six Days Earlier -- Second Sunday in Lent<p><b style="text-align: center;">Mark 8:27-38</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">February 25, 2024</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Get behind me!” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">I’ll
be honest, usually I think of those words in the context of protecting someone.
As in, get behind me because there is danger ahead. Get behind me so I can
protect you or take the full brunt of whatever it is that might hurt us. Get
behind me, so you can stay safe. Get behind me, I’ve got this. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“Get
behind me!”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">These
should be words of love. If you love someone and you see them in danger, you
want them to get behind you. You want to put yourself between your loved ones
and the threat that lies ahead. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">But
in our passage from Mark’s gospel, these words, “Get behind me,” convey a very
different meaning especially when the name “Satan” is added at the end. “Get
behind me, Satan,” doesn’t sound so much like words of love or protection as it
does accusation. And even though I’ve preached and read this passage many times
before, it still startles me to hear these words spoken by Jesus and spoken to
Peter. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“Get
behind me, Satan!”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Do
you remember a couple of Sundays ago when we observed Transfiguration Sunday
and read about Jesus, Peter, James, and John going up a high mountain? Do you
remember reading about Jesus being changed before them, revealing his glory in
his dazzling white clothes and shining countenance? That passage begins with
“Six days later.” Our passage today is the six days earlier Mark was referring
to. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Six
days earlier, life seems to be going as usual – or as usual as it can be when
you are a disciple with Jesus. Jesus and the disciples were visiting the
villages of Caesarea Philippi. As they traveled, Jesus asked the disciples who
the people they met believed him to be.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“Who
do people say that I am?”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">The
disciples told him that some of the folks believed him to be John the Baptist.
Others thought he was Elijah. But there were others, they told him, who thought
he must be one of the prophets. Then Jesus asked them another questions.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“Who
do you say that I am?”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Maybe
this question made the other disciples pause. Maybe they hadn’t really
considered who Jesus was before. Maybe they shifted their feet and stared at
the ground hoping Jesus wouldn’t call on them individually, because they
weren’t sure how to answer. But Jesus’ question caused the other disciples to
hesitate, on Peter it had the opposite effect. Peter, in what must have been a
moment of glaring clarity, answered, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“You
are the Messiah.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Peter
was right. And in response to his answer, Jesus told the disciples what he had
been telling others when they guessed his identity, don’t tell anyone. But this
exchange between Jesus and the disciples did not end with Jesus’ stern warning.
Jesus began to teach them what it means to be the Messiah. Jesus began to tell
them, openly and clearly, that being the Messiah meant suffering. It meant
rejection. It meant death, and then in three days’ time, resurrection. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Whatever
insight and understanding Peter had about Jesus’ identity as Messiah came to a
crashing halt. It was one thing to recognize Jesus as the Messiah; it was a
whole other net of fish to hear his explanation of what it meant to be the
Messiah. Jesus’ words to the disciples were shocking. Indeed, they were
scandalous. Peter and the other disciples probably couldn’t believe what they
were hearing. The Messiah would suffer and be rejected and die?! This just
can’t be true! <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Maybe
that’s what Peter said to Jesus when he pulled him aside. Maybe Peter told
Jesus that what he was saying was ridiculous and certainly could not be true.
Maybe Peter told Jesus to just be quiet, stop talking about this, stop talking
altogether. We don’t know exactly what Peter said to Jesus, but we do know that
Peter rebuked him. And we know that a rebuke was not merely Peter telling Jesus
to “ixnay all the talk about ufferinsay.” Peter rebuking Jesus was essentially
Peter telling Jesus to shut his mouth, something a disciple was not supposed to
say to his teacher. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Not
only would Jesus not shut his mouth, but he also rebuked Peter in return. This
was more than just a disagreement between the two of them. It was an intense
and angry argument. Jesus rebuked demons. While Peter’s rebuke must have stung,
Jesus’ rebuke of Peter cut to the core. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“Get
behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on
human things.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“Get
behind me, Satan?!”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">No
matter how many times I read those words, no matter how many times I read this
story, no matter how many times I read Jesus’ words, I cannot get my mind
around how awful it must have been to be Peter in that moment. I’m guilty of
jokingly saying those words to people when they offer me some temptation or
other. But this was no joke. I don’t think Jesus was declaring that Peter
actually was Satan, but he was stating that Peter’s ideas, beliefs, and
expectations about the Messiah were not from God. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">After
this scathing retort, Jesus spoke not only to the disciples, but he called the
gathered crowd around them to listen as well. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“If
any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their
cross and follow me.” For those who want to save their life will lose it, and
those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will
save it.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">If
I had been in that crowd, I would not have found that description of a follower
appealing. At all. In terms of public relations, it must have been the worst
marketing strategy ever. If you want to be my follower, you’re going to have to
deny yourself, pick up a cross and follow me. You are going to have to be
willing to suffer as I am willing to suffer. You must be prepared to die, just
as I will die. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Following
Jesus meant a cross. Following Jesus meant suffering. Following Jesus meant
death. I know that Jesus also prophesied his resurrection, but I suspect that
the people listening could barely wrap their heads around the cross and dying.
I suspect that those words of resurrection and new life were lost in the horror
of everything else he told them. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Jesus’
words were scandalous. But let’s be honest, the gospel is scandalous. The
people listening to Jesus were surely scandalized by what Jesus said, and we
should be scandalized as well. If we’re not, then we’ve stopped listening. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">I
know that being a Christian, following Jesus, does not make everything all
sweetness and light. In fact, it could make life even harder. I grew up
believing that no matter how hard the following was, you just had to focus on
the end result. That’s not wrong per se, but I think that following Jesus also
involves a change in identity. Following Jesus is not just what we endure until
we get to heaven. Following Jesus means that we bear a cross of suffering just
as he did. My cross, my suffering, may look different from yours, but we each
have a cross to bear. But where does that cross take us? When Jesus told the
disciples and crowds that discipleship and following meant bearing our cross,
he was not claiming that he would lead them away from the world. Just the
opposite. When we follow Jesus, we are led <i>into</i> the world. We carry our
cross, and we follow Jesus into a world of crosses. Following Jesus, our
relationship with Jesus, is not a private affair, and I suspect that focusing
solely on our individual salvation misses the point. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">If
following Jesus means following him into a world of crosses, then we are called
to not only be willing to suffer for our sake but suffer for the sake of
others. Following Jesus is not easy, and it is also not just about us alone.
When we answer Jesus’ call to follow, we answer the call to stand with all
those who suffer. Following Jesus is a deliberate, intentional, mindful way of
living and being. It calls us to go into the world of suffering people.
Following changes us, and we are called to follow even when it is hard, even
when it means suffering, even though the call includes carrying our cross. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">This
is the scandalous good news. When we follow Jesus, we follow the One who gave
flesh to the love and grace of God. We follow the One who willingly suffered
and died – for our sake, for the sake of the world. We are called to get behind
him, to follow and to trust that no matter how difficult the path may be, we
are never alone. We are never without love. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Let
all of God’s children, all of us who are picking up our crosses and following
Jesus, say, “Amen.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Amen.<o:p></o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-5681804752816435072024-02-21T07:44:00.000-08:002024-02-21T07:44:55.099-08:00God's Promise -- First Sunday of Lent<p><b style="text-align: center;">Mark 1:9-15</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">February 18, 2024</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Many, many years ago I went on a
white-water rafting trip to West Virginia with a youth group that I worked with
as a leader. I don’t remember where we went in the state or which river we
rafted, but I know that our youth group was large enough that we had to be
split into several rafts. Each raft had youth, a leader, and a rafting guide. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Our guide was 18 years old. He told
us that he was only recently certified to guide a group by himself, but that
he’d been rafting since he was a little kid. So, he knew the river and he knew
rafting. <span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Before we started on our journey down the river, he went
through all the rules for our ride. He explained everything that we would need
to know to stay safe in and out of the raft. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember
most of what he told us, but I do remember this one pithy piece of advice that
he shared. He looked around at our group, made up of teenagers and adults,
males and females, and said, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">“The
best way to keep from falling out of the raft is to keep paddling no matter
what. You keep that paddle going in the water, you’ll do just fine. I’ll tell
you right now. The only ones who ever fall out of the raft and have to be
rescued are the ladies. Y’all scream and panic and you stop paddling, so you
fall out.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I don’t know how the other “ladies”
felt about our guide’s pronouncement on women being able to stay in a raft. But
for me it was a gauntlet. I thought, “Okay, you cocky little twerp. We’ll see
who falls out of this raft and who doesn’t.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Our guide said that the trick to
staying in the raft was to keep paddling, so I paddled like my life depended on
it. On some of the bigger rapids when our raft shot up and hovered above the
water for a second or two, I paddled air. No way was I going to fall out of
that raft! I’m happy to say that I did not fall out of that raft, not once. Staying
out of the wild water was hard work. I came close to pitching overboard once or
twice, but I didn’t because I just kept paddling. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, none of us “ladies” fell out of our
raft. The only ones who did go overboard were two middle high boys, and they
were thrilled. Staying in that raft was like passing an unexpected test. It was
hard as heck, but I did it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">One
definition of the word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">test</i> in
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary is something that “reveals the strength or
capabilities of (someone or something) by putting them under strain.” That
white water rafting ride was not the most serious or important test that I’ve
ever had to endure, but I do think it revealed something about me. There are
plenty of times I’ve been told I can’t do something, and I’ve believed it,
right or wrong. But never, ever tell me I cannot do something simply because of
my gender. When it comes to that I am stubborn, and I will do everything in my
power to prove you wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Even
though my test on the rapids took place in what is considered a wild place, I
can’t go so far as to call it a wilderness test; not in the sense of the
wilderness test that Jesus endured. Today is the first Sunday of Lent, which
means that regardless of which gospel we’re reading, we hear that gospel’s
version of Jesus’ time in the wilderness. The challenge today is that in Mark’s
gospel is that there is not much to tell. It is only two verses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“And
the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the
wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and
the angels waited on him.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That’s it. That’s all the
information Mark gives us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As is typical
for Mark, and unlike Matthew and Luke, the details are sparse. Mark just tells
us it happened. But even though Mark’s telling is lean on specifics, there is
still much to discover in these two verses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One aspect to note is the verb that
is translated “drove out.” That verb, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ekballo</i>,
is also used by Mark to describe Jesus’ exorcism of demons. The Spirit drove
Jesus out to the wilderness just as Jesus drove out the many demons who
confronted him. This suggests that Jesus did not volunteer for this time in the
wilderness. Maybe he would have preferred not to go at all. Jesus was filled
with the Spirit after his baptism, which happened only moments before, and then
the same Spirit drove him into the wilderness. And it sounds as though the
Spirit didn’t just give Jesus a gentle nudge. It sounds more like the Spirit
almost hurled Jesus into the wild. Nothing about this was tame or gentle. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Although the common understanding of
these accounts of Jesus’ time in the wilderness is an emphasis on him being
tempted, the scholarship that I’ve read suggests that these 40 days were as
much about testing Jesus as they were about tempting him. Certainly, Mark
states that Jesus was tempted by Satan. But wasn’t Jesus tested as well?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What is the difference between test
and temptation?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In each of the
wilderness accounts,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>temptation and
testing walk hand-in-hand. Yet there is a difference between them. Mark may not
give us the specifics of how Satan tempted Jesus, but we do know that Jesus was
able to resist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He withstood the
temptations. He withstood Satan. That is both good news and bad news. It’s good
news that Jesus was human just like us. He was tempted just as we are. We are
not alone in being tempted. But it can also be bad news – or at least
frustrating news – because while Jesus resisted temptation, I have not always
been so strong. If Jesus’ resistance set a standard for resisting temptation,
then I never have and never will live up to it. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">But
if this is a story that is also about testing, then how was Jesus tested?
Thinking about the definition of testing that I shared earlier, what is
revealed about Jesus? Forty days of fasting and temptation and keeping company
with wild beasts would put anyone under strain. What did that strain reveal
about Jesus? What was revealed about his humanity as well as his divinity?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Here’s
the thing, when we profess that Jesus was truly human, we’re supposed to mean
it. The story of Jesus in the wilderness is not the story of a superhero who
possessed powers that helped him resist what we mere mortals cannot. Jesus was
human. That is what incarnation is all about. God did not just put on the
likeness of humanity. God became human. So I have no doubt that the temptations
Jesus faced were real and painful. I have no doubt that he was vulnerable, both
physically and emotionally. But if the testing that he endured revealed
anything about Jesus, it revealed that he was faithful to his call, faithful to
what he came to do, faithful to who he was. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was not only obedient to the point of death
on the cross, but he was also faithful to that point as well. The testing Jesus
endured and the strain he was put under, revealed his faithfulness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">What
kept Jesus faithful? Was it just the fact that he knew who he was? I’m sure
that helped. But when you are in a sparse and hostile land for 40 days and
nights, when you are surrounded by wild beasts, who probably don’t care that
you are the Son of God, then how do you remain faithful? Maybe one way that
Jesus kept going was that he remembered God’s promise, God’s promise to the
world, God’s promise to him.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Our
first lesson this morning was the end of the story of Noah and the flood. We
read about the moment when God promised never to despair of God’s creation
again, never to flood the whole world again, and that promised was marked by a
rainbow in the clouds. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">But
there is another promise that we read about today. As soon as Jesus came out of
the waters of baptism, he saw the heavens torn apart and he saw the Spirit like
a dove descend on him, and he heard a voice. He heard God’s voice telling him,
“You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">You
are my Son, the Beloved. There is promise in those words, the words that in
Mark’s gospel, only Jesus can hear. God not only loves Jesus, not only calls
him beloved and that he is pleased in him, but God is with him. That is the
unspoken promise in those spoken words. God is with him. God is there. God will
abandon or forsake him. God will not leave him alone – in the wilderness, in
his ministry, even on the cross. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Jesus
must have trusted in that promise. Jesus must have trusted that the wilderness
would test and tempt him, but that it would not overcome him. Jesus must have
trusted that he was not left alone to Satan and the wild beasts, but that
angels would be there too. And they were. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And doesn’t that promise extend to
us as well? No, we are not Jesus, but Jesus was like us. Jesus was truly
tempted, and Jesus was truly tested in that wilderness. And we are too. We all
have our times in the wilderness, we all face our own temptations and tests.
But even when we fail., even when we fall, we are not alone in those times and
places. God is with us, even if we don’t always know. Angels minister to us,
even if we don’t recognize them right away. God is with us, so we must cling to
our faith, as hard as it is to do so at times. We must cling to our faith, even
when it wavers, cling to our faith and trust in God’s unfailing, unwavering
promise. We are loved. We are not alone even in the wildest of wilderness
places. God is with us. God promised. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Let all of God’s children say,
“Amen.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-22612407214499357372024-02-13T10:08:00.000-08:002024-02-13T10:08:07.640-08:00Up a High Mountain -- Transfiguration Sunday<p><b style="text-align: center;">Mark 9:2-9</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">February 11, 2024</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What if Peter got it right? I’ve
never asked myself that question before. What if Peter got it right? It’s a
question that a commentator on this passage in The Christian Century posed, and
it has stuck with me ever since. What if Peter got it right? Had I not read
this commentary, would I have ever even considered this question? I can’t tell
you how many times I have preached on the transfiguration of Jesus and not once
have I even thought about this option, pondered this possibility, asked that
question. What if Peter got it right with his declaration to build three
dwellings, to stay there on that mountain? What if Peter got it right?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In all honesty, I generally assume
that Peter doesn’t get it right, not only on this high mountain, but at other
times as well. Peter is impulsive. Peter rushes into situations where it would
be better if he watched and waited a little longer. Peter opens his mouth and more
often than not inserts his foot. Peter can be awkward and passionate and
intense. I love Peter. I feel for Peter. I empathize with Peter, but have I
ever once been willing to consider the question, “What if Peter got it right?”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus has taken Peter, James, and
John up a high mountain, just the four of them. We don’t know what the other
disciples are doing during this time or where they might be hanging out. But
Jesus brings just these three. They go up this high mountain, and without any
explanation or forewarning, Jesus is transfigured before them. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What does this transfiguration mean?
What does it look like? The gospel writers give us a description, although I
suspect that words cannot capture what the disciples saw on that high mountain.
Jesus is transfigured. He is changed, transformed. His clothes become dazzling
white, whiter than any laundering or bleach could make them. Before the
disciples could wrap their heads around this strange change of their teacher,
Jesus is no longer standing alone. Moses and Elijah – the Law and the Prophets
– are with him, talking with Jesus, engaging with Jesus. And Peter, not knowing
what to say or do because they three of them were terrified, speaks up and
says, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Rabbi, it is good for us to be
here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for
Elijah.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Whatever Peter might have expected
to happen at that moment, he probably didn’t expect what actually did happen. A
cloud overshadowed them, and from that cloud came a voice saying, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“This is my Son, the Beloved; listen
to him!”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And just as suddenly as all this
began, it was over. Jesus was the Jesus they knew once again. His clothes were
just clothes again, minus the dazzling brightness. However he looked while he
was transfigured, all that was done – for now. And he was standing there alone.
Moses and Elijah were gone as well. If they stayed on that high mountain for a
while, catching their breath, and trying to get Jesus to tell them what
happened, we don’t read about it in the text. It would seem that as soon as the
transfiguration of Jesus was over, they made their way back down the mountain.
The only thing we know that Jesus told them at that moment was not to tell
anyone else. Don’t breathe a word of it until after the Son of Man is risen
from the dead. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So, did Peter get it right? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As I said, I’ve never considered
that possibility before. When I read this text and I read Peter’s statement
about the three dwelling places, or tabernacles if we want to stick closer to
the Greek, I just think he’s being impulsive Peter again. He is terrified, and
his fear makes him want to fill the strange space with words. But what’s so
wrong about wanting to stay and see Jesus in his glory? What is so wrong with
wanting to be, <b><i>just be</i></b>, in the light of glory, the light of God
that not only surrounded Jesus, but seemed to stream from him as well? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The commentator who asked this
question made the connection between that light and the light of creation. The
light of glory that transfigured Jesus came from the One who said, “Let there
be light!” Peter was right, it was good for them to be there. It was good for
them to witness that light. Maybe Peter being Peter was exactly what was right
at that moment. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Six days earlier, Peter got it right
– just before he got it terribly, terribly wrong. Six days earlier, Jesus asked
the disciples what the people were saying about him. Who did they think he
truly was? The disciples answered, “Well, some folks think that you’re Elijah,
and some think that you’re John the Baptist, or another one of the prophets.”
But Peter said what no one else was saying. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You are the Messiah.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Peter got it right. Of course, if
you remember the rest of that story, the minute Jesus begins to tell them what
it really means to be the messiah, that it means suffering, that it means
death, Peter took Jesus aside and told him to knock that kind of talk off!
Peter rebuked Jesus! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then Jesus
rebuked Peter. He rebuked him in the way that he rebuked demons who possessed
people. So, Peter got it very right, but then he got it very, very, very wrong.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But six days later Jesus, Peter,
James, and John go up this high mountain and Jesus and everything else changes.
This was a pivotal moment. This was one of those moments, one of those times,
when looking back on it, there would always be a before and an after. You know
the moments I’m talking about. They can be personal – like the moment you met
your spouse or the moment your children were born. Or they can be collective –
like epic moments in history – when President Kennedy was assassinated or
September 11<sup>th</sup>. Personal or collective, all these are pivotal
moments. They mark a moment of absolute change, a before and an after. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The transfiguration is one of those
moments. When Jesus and the disciples go back down that mountain, nothing will
ever be the same again. Even when Peter and the other disciples don’t get it
right – and there will be plenty more of those moments to come, this is a
moment of change, of turning. There was a time before they witnessed Jesus’
transfiguration and there is every moment after. There was a time before they
went up that high mountain and saw Jesus change and become illumined and
dazzling with supernatural light, when Moses and Elijah appeared with him and
talked with him, and there is every moment after.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But no matter how wrong Peter and
the other disciples get it after this moment, they cannot unsee what they have
seen. They cannot unknow what they now know – even if that knowledge is not yet
complete. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So, maybe Peter was right to want to
stay in that moment. Maybe Peter’s instinct to settle into the moment was spot
on. It’s just that moments like that cannot last forever, at least not in this
space and time. That moment came to an end, and they went back down the
mountain, but it gave them a glimpse of what was and is to come. It gave them a
fleeting look at the glory of God, the light of light, glowing fiercely at the
edges of what we see. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In our contemporary church calendar,
Transfiguration Sunday is a pivotal Sunday. It marks the end of the season of
Epiphany, the season of light, and the beginning of Lent, the season of
shadows. It’s like the creators of the lectionary want to give us one last,
dramatic, epiphanous burst of light before we move into the somber days of
Lent, before we turn our heads and hearts to the cross. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Needing some inspiration for my
sermon this morning, I did a search of artwork around the transfiguration. I
wanted to see how artists have interpreted this story over the centuries.
Classical artists often depicted Jesus, Moses, and Elijah as surrounded by a
halo of light and hovering off the ground. I guess when you have no sure way to
depict supernatural light, having them hovering is another way to show just how
otherworldly this event was. But my favorite piece of art was not of figures at
all. It was just a circle of light, light that looked like it was moving,
dancing, flickering like flame. It was a burst of light that made me wish I
could reach out and touch it. It looked like light that would illumine
everything around it, that it would make everything clear, at least for a
moment. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And maybe that’s what the
transfiguration was as well. A burst of illuminating light surrounding Jesus,
making everything clear to the disciples, at least for a moment. Maybe Peter
was right to want to stay within the boundaries of that light, but that wasn’t
possible. But maybe, just maybe, even if Peter couldn’t stay there on that high
mountain, basking in that glorious light, maybe he could take a little of that
light with him. Maybe it was that light that carried him through the
increasingly dark times ahead. Maybe it was that light that kept him following
even when he messed up. Maybe it was that light that sparked the flame <b><i>within</i></b>
him when those flames of fire descended <b><i>upon</i></b> him. Maybe he
carried that light with him into the valleys where the shadows of death waited,
where the outline of the cross loomed ahead. Maybe Peter got it right after
all. Maybe he carried a little of that light with him, and maybe we need to do
the same. May we carry this light of transfiguration into the shadows of Lent,
trusting that the light of glory is there as well, waiting to burst into full
and glorious light, illumining our way and welcoming us home. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Let all of God’s children say,
“Alleluia.” Amen.<o:p></o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-35969676163070364592024-02-13T10:05:00.000-08:002024-02-13T10:05:53.760-08:00Restored<p><b style="text-align: center;">Mark 1:29-39</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">February 4, 2024</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Several
years ago, I watched a wonderful movie called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lars and the Real Girl</i>. It is a relatively little-known indie film
that tells the story of a young man named Lars Lindstrom. At the beginning of
the movie, we see him living in the garage of his family home after his older
brother, Gus, and sister-in-law, Karin, have moved back to the family home
while they expect their first child. Lars is a quiet, painfully shy, kind of
odd young man. He’s very much a loner and no matter how hard Karin tries to
engage him in their lives, he resists. Always with a smile, but he
resists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">But
his resistance doesn’t mean that he’s not lonely. Lars does want a meaningful
relationship, and he finds one in a unique way. He orders his girlfriend
online. Lars orders an anatomically correct, life size doll from a site called
RealDolls. Lars sees this as an opportunity to finally have a relationship with
a woman. After the doll arrives, Lars goes to Gus and Karin and asks if he can
bring a date to dinner. She’s just arrived in town. They met on the internet,
and she must use a wheelchair, so he’ll need help getting her into the house. Of
course they agree, thrilled that finally Lars is interacting with other people.
And they can’t wait to meet Lars new girlfriend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Imagine their shock and surprise
when Lars brings this doll to their house for dinner. He introduces her as Bianca
and tells them her story of doing mission work in other countries, and the
travels she’s had.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>You might expect that the movie
becomes some snarky joke at this point, but it doesn’t. Lars isn’t doing this
as a joke either. Lars is living in a delusion. He believes that Bianca is a
real girl and has come to be in his life. He even asks Karin if Bianca can
borrow some of her clothes, because they’re about the same size.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Even though they know something is
terribly wrong and Gus is convinced that Lars is going to need some sort of
hospitalization that night, they decide to play along with him. Karin even sets
the table for four, so that Lars can see that Bianca is included in the meal. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The next day they take him to a doctor,
Dagmar. She is a good doctor, a psychologist, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and a kind woman. She tells Lars that she is
going to give Bianca a checkup. She tells him that Bianca is going to need a
treatment for low blood pressure every week for a while. And while Bianca is
receiving the treatment, she talks to Lars. But at this first visit she tells
Gus and Karin that they should continue going along with Lars on this delusion
and pretend that Bianca is real. Lars has brought Bianca there for a reason,
and perhaps the best way to help Lars and find out the source of his delusion
is to allow him to live with it for a while.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Gus and Karin agree, and they turn first
to their church, their pastor, and members of the church council for help. They
share what’s going on with Lars, and everyone, every single person, agrees to
go along with it. They welcome Bianca and accept her as real. Phone calls and
e-mails fly through the town. If this is the way to help Lars, then this is how
they help Lars. Bianca is real. Lars brings her to an office Christmas party.
He brings her to the local hair salon where she’s given a makeover. Church
friends invite her to help with children at the library. At one point she’s
even elected to the school board. They do all this to help Lars.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>At other points in the movie you
find out a little more about why Lars is caught in this delusion; why a
relationship with a doll is easier for him than with a real person. But that’s
a spoiler I won’t share. But what makes this movie so remarkable and sweet is
that the people in this town love Lars enough to do this for him. They walk
with him through this delusion, not condescendingly, not patronizingly, just
with him. And in turn, their love, their willingness to be there for him in
this amazing way gives him the space to heal, to let go of his need for Bianca
and imagine living in a relationship with a real woman, not a real doll.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Gus, Karin, Dagmar, the
congregation, and the whole town come together to restore Lars to health, to
lift him up out of his sadness, out of his loneliness, out of his delusion.
They lift him up to restore him to life and wholeness, and in the process, they
are lifted up and restored as well.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Our story in Mark is about healing,
about restoring people not only to health but to wholeness, to the life they
were called to live. Jesus and the disciples leave the synagogue and go to
Simon and Andrew’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law is suffering from a terrible
fever. In those days before antibiotics, a fever could have been fatal, so the
family’s fear for Simon’s mother-in-law would have been palpable. Jesus goes
into her. He takes her by the hand and lifts her up. Immediately her fever left
her, and she is restored. She stands and begins to serve them.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For many folks, including myself,
this point in the story is troublesome. Simon’s mother-in-law is restored to
life so she can … serve? Didn’t she deserve even a few days of bedrest before
she had to get back to her household responsibilities? There’s no way to
completely reconcile this with our modern understanding of serving, but I will
say this. The Greek word used here is where we get our word for <i>deacon</i>.
It is the word used to describe the ministrations the angels gave to Jesus. Her
service was not just about household drudgery but about serving God. And when
Jesus lifts her up, it is more than just an action, it is a resurrection. He
will be lifted up, resurrected from the tomb, from death, and this unnamed
woman was resurrected too. She was restored. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Word of this healing
got out, and by sundown when the Sabbath was over, the whole city had
congregated around the door, bringing sick loved ones, friends who were
possessed with demons, etc. for Jesus to heal. And Jesus did heal them. He cast
out demons and warned them not to speak of what he had done, for the demons
knew his true identity before anyone else had realized it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Can you
imagine what that scene must have looked like? A whole city assembled at the
door of this one house. Even if it was a small city, or a small town, that’s
just described as a city, that still would have been a lot of people pushing
and nudging, trying to get Jesus’ attention, trying to make their mother’s,
their brother’s, their friends’ needs known to him. Jesus healed them. He lifted
them up and restored them from their sickness, from what possessed them. He
healed them and he restored them. There were many more who wanted to be healed,
but early the next morning, after Jesus spent time in prayer, he knew it was
time to leave that place, to keep going. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One
commentary states that these stories are hard for modern readers to take, not
because we don’t believe them, but we wonder why those people thronged around
Jesus are the lucky ones. How many of us have prayed for healing, prayed and
prayed for restoration, whether it’s for ourselves or someone else, and the
situation has gone from bad to worse? Someone gets sicker, someone finally
loses the battle. Why weren’t they lifted up?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Why were they not restored? And what about those people that Jesus left
behind? What about them? In a few minutes we will offer our prayers of the
people, and all of us will pray for someone who we hope will be restored,
restored to health, restored to wholeness, but we have no guarantee that they
will be. Will Jesus restore them as he restored the people in this story? And
if they aren’t restored as we think they should be, what does that mean? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">There are no easy answers to these
questions. Certainly I don’t have them. But it seems to me that this story is
not so much about why some people are healed and some are not, but about the
response of the woman who was healed and restored to the fullness of life. She
responded by serving. She responded by ministering. She was a <i>diakonos</i>,
a deacon, sharing the love of God through acts of kindness and pastoral care. She
served, not only because it was her duty or because of the gendered roles of
that culture, but because it was her response of love to being restored. It was
her response of love after experiencing the love of God through Jesus. What I
find so remarkable about the movie <i>Lars and the Real Girl</i> is what the
entire town did for Lars. They put their prayers and their faith and their love
into action. They walked with him, even in this strange delusion. They walked
with him, and they accepted him, and they loved him, and in that love and
acceptance he was restored. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">When someone we love is sick or
hurting, we may long for and pray for miracles, for supernatural experiences of
restoration. Sometimes that happens. But I think the real restoration, the true
restoration comes not from a hand reaching down from heaven, but from a group
of people walking with the hurting person in love. It seems to me that
restoration happens, in all the ways that it happens, when we remember that we
are part of the body of Christ in this world. We are his hands and his feet and
his heart. He restores us so we can restore others. He showed us true service
so we too can serve. He loves so we can love in return. So, may we gather
around one another, walk with one another, love one another, restore one
another as we have been loved and restored as well. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Let all of God’s children say,
“Alleluia.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-29452474018066558302024-02-13T10:03:00.000-08:002024-02-13T10:03:45.613-08:00With Authority<p><b style="text-align: center;">Mark 1:16-28</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">January 28, 2024</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Winston
Churchill referred to it as the “black dog.” Apparently, it was something that
hounded and haunted him. Author and illustrator, Matthew Johnstone, created a
book and an animated short film about the black dog, because he too was hounded
by that creature. In his short film, Johnstone illustrates how he tried to
ignore the dog, but it wouldn’t go away. He tried to suppress it, silence it,
but the dog continued to pursue him. Johnstone pretended the dog didn’t exist,
especially when he was around other people. He put on a happy face, and
silenced the canine as best he could. But nothing seemed to work. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">As
Johnstone grew older, the dog grew bigger. He turned to drinking and smoking,
but the dog refused to be silenced. It refused to heel. No amount of ignoring
it, pretending the dog didn’t exist or numbing its ferocity through other means
made the dog disappear. It was persistent. At one point in the film’s animation,
the man and the dog become one creature; the man brought down to his knees by
the dog who not only followed him but seemed to have possessed his entire
being. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">This
black dog is depression. With no disrespect intended to either dogs or the
beautiful color black, this was an apt and poignant analogy for what depression
feels like and for what it can become to the person who is struggling under its
weight.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">According
to statistics published a few years ago by the World Health Organization,
depression affects over 300 million people worldwide. According to that
organization, “It is the leading cause of disability worldwide, and is a major
contributor to the overall global burden of disease.” That was a statistic
before the pandemic. I can only imagine what it is now. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">In
2020 Mental Health America reported that 1 in 5 Americans are living with a
mental health disorder of some kind. And another statistic I found said that
16.1 million adults, aged 18 years and over, have experienced at least one
major depressive episode. That represents 6.7 percent of all American adults.
Perhaps you have not experienced depression yourself, but there is a good
chance that someone you know, someone you love, has. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Depression
can feel like a dog that won’t leave you alone. Depression can also feel like
you have been taken hold of by something you cannot understand or control. In
other words, to be depressed feels as though you are possessed.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">I
realize that this is a provocative statement. To say that someone is possessed
has many difficult connotations. For those of us who are old enough to remember
the movie <i>The Exorcist</i>,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>thinking
about someone being possessed might bring up images from that movie. That movie
and others like it, along with the descriptions we have from scripture about
people possessed by demonic forces, seem a far cry from how we understand
someone who is depressed today. I think of the man in the tombs, who in Mark’s
gospel appears in Chapter 5. That man had no control over his words, his
actions, even his own strength. The people would bind him with manacles, and he
would still break free. That doesn’t sound like our modern understanding of
depression. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">And
I certainly don’t want to make an insensitive connection between depression and
demonic possession. People who struggled with mental illness were thought to be
possessed by demons, and how much worse was their suffering made because of that
kind of thinking?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">But
if you have ever struggled with depression, if you have ever seen the world
through its particular lens or bought into the great lie that it tells you,
then maybe the image of possession isn’t such a far cry after all. Depression
feels as though it owns you, body, mind, and soul. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">It
is impossible to know if the man with the unclean spirit who confronted Jesus
in the synagogue was depressed or not. But we do know that the spirit that
possessed him recognized Jesus. The unclean spirits that Jesus confronted
always seem to recognize Jesus. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">And
the first thing that Jesus does in Mark’s gospel, his first public act of
ministry, is to exorcise this unclean spirit, to rid the man of this thing that
possessed him. The first act of Jesus’ ministry tells us a lot about the gospel
writer and how he sees Jesus, and all four gospels record a different first act
of ministry.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">In
Matthew’s gospel, Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount. In John, Jesus
changed water into wine at a wedding in Cana. In Luke, he preached in the
synagogue and was rejected by the people. And in Mark’s gospel, Jesus exorcised
a demon. Biblical scholars make a point of noting these differences because as
I said, they denote the gospel writer’s agenda. So, here we are in Mark, and
Jesus exorcises a demon. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Jesus
does not exorcise the demon through prayer or rite or ritual. He offered no
laying on of hands. Jesus exorcised this demon by rebuking it. He ordered it to
leave the man. The unclean spirit confronted Jesus by calling out to him,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“What
have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know
who you are, the Holy One of God.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">But
Jesus was having none of it. He was not cowed by the presence of this unclean
spirit. Jesus rebuked it. He ordered the spirit to leave the man … and the
spirit obeyed. The spirit obeyed because the spirit recognized Jesus. The
spirit recognized Jesus’ authority. Jesus exorcised that demon with immediacy
and urgency. And that’s a fundamental message of Mark’s gospel. Immediacy. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Jesus
is on an urgent mission to preach to the people that the kingdom of God was in
their midst. His ministry was urgent, because God was on the move and there was
no time to waste. Anything that prevented God’s people from full life, from
abundant life, had to be dealt with … immediately. If anything could prevent
someone from the abundant life found in God, it would be an unclean spirit. So,
Jesus wasted no time in sending that spirit packing and freeing this man to the
fullness of life in God.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“What
have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Yes.
Anything that possessed people, any spirit or idol or ideology or blinder that
kept people from recognizing God, from full and abundant life in God, had to be
swept away, Jesus did not just exorcise that demon, he confronted it. He
rebuked it, and he did so with authority. His ministry at that moment was made
clear. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">I
wonder who else in that synagogue needed Jesus to release them? I wonder what
other unclean spirits needed to be rebuked. The man may have had the unclean
spirit, but I can say with assurance that he was not the only one who was
prevented in some way from living an abundant life in God. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">What
keeps us from having abundant life? It seems to me that you don’t have to have
experienced depression or another form of mental illness to understand
possession. Maybe you are possessed by fear. Maybe you are possessed by
hopelessness or anger. Maybe despair holds you in its grip, or maybe it is
something else. But whatever it may be, know this, the first thing Jesus did in
Mark’s gospel was exorcise that demon with authority, the authority that comes
from God. He rebuked it, confronted it, and cast it out, so that the man could
have abundant life in God. Isn’t that what God wants for all of us, for all of
God’s children? Isn’t that what God longs for? Isn’t this a fundamental tenet
of the incarnation, of the Word becoming flesh in Jesus? Jesus came so that
what blocks us from relationship with God, what prevents us from abundant life,
and that which makes us stumble and fall could be rebuked, removed, and cast
out.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">The
first thing Jesus did was confront and cast out a demon. The first thing Jesus
wants for us is to be able to live the abundant life God has promised. That is
our hope. Maybe what possesses us cannot be cast out as cleanly as the unclean
spirit was, but that does not mean that Jesus is not working on us and in us.
The first thing Jesus does is confront what stands between us and God. And he
does it still, again and again, calling us to follow, calling us to abundant
life. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Let
all of God’s children say, “Alleluia.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Amen.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-13225714644248200092024-01-18T08:05:00.000-08:002024-01-18T08:05:20.269-08:00It Is the Lord -- Second Sunday after Epiphany<p><b style="text-align: center;">I Samuel 3:1-20</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">January 14, 2024</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The story of Samuel begins with the story of
Samuel’s mother, Hannah. Hannah was one of two wives of Elkanah. The other wife
was Peninnah. Peninnah bore children for Elkanah, but Hannah could not. And
Peninnah made sure to rub this in Hannah’s face at every opportunity. Each
year, Elkanah, Hannah, Peninnah and their whole household would go up to Shiloh
to worship at the house of the Lord. Elkanah would give portions of the animals
he sacrificed to everyone in his family, but to Hannah he gave double portions
because he loved her so, children or not. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But Elkanah’s love and
tenderness could not stop Hannah from grieving for the children she could not
bear. On one of these visits to Shiloh, after everyone had eaten, Hannah got up
and went to the house of worship. Eli the priest was there, sitting by the door
of the temple. But if Hannah noticed him, the text doesn’t say. She had other
things on her mind, and she needed to pray about them. She prayed earnestly and
fervently that she would have a child. She made a promise to God. If God would
give her a son, she would make sure she raised him as a Nazarite. A Nazarite
was set apart as someone intent for serving God’s purposes. She would make sure
that he never drank wine or anything else that might intoxicate him. She would
see that no razor touched his head. She promised God that should she conceive
and have a son, she would make sure that son was dedicated to God and God’s
service. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Hannah was praying all
this silently, but her need was so great and her pain so deep that as she
prayed her lips moved. I wonder if she swayed a little, especially because she
was most likely kneeling. Her eyes were probably tightly closed and maybe her
swaying changed to rocking back and forth. Maybe the tears that were so close
to the surface spilled down her cheeks. I suspect that she was so intent on her
prayer that the sudden sound of Eli’s voice must have startled her. Hannah was
praying, but to Eli it looked like she was drunk. And he told her so. He told
her to stop making a drunken spectacle of herself and put away her wine. But
Hannah wasn’t drunk; she was a woman who needed God’s intervention and when she
explained this to Eli, that she was pouring out her soul to God, Eli softened
toward her and told her to go in peace. Go in peace and may God grant her
prayer. Hannah did just that. With a tranquility she had not had before, she
left the temple. She went home with her husband and family. And she conceived a
baby – a little boy named Samuel. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Hannah was true to her
word. She cared for Samuel until he was old enough to be taken to the temple
and serve under Eli’s tutelage. And that’s how we come to this part of the
story. Samuel’s story begins with the story of his mother, Hannah. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When
we encounter Samuel again, he is sleeping in his usual place in the temple near
the ark of God. We’re told immediately that “The word of the Lord was rare in
those days; visions were not widespread.” Another way to translate the word <i>rare
</i>is <i>precious. </i>The word of the Lord was like a jewel that is found
only once in a lifetime. If God had spoken often to earlier ancestors of the
Israelites, God wasn’t speaking much to them anymore. So, that would mean there
were no expectations that God would make an appearance that night or any other.
It was business in the temple as usual. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">But then Samuel
hears a voice calling his name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Samuel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Samuel.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Samuel,
who did not yet know the Lord, had not yet encountered the Lord, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>thinks Eli is calling him. Any one of us would
have made that mistake, especially when we were kids. Who else could it be? Samuel
gets up and runs to Eli.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">“Here I am! You
called me.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">But it wasn’t Eli.
Eli tells him to go back to bed. But three times Samuel hears the voice and
three times he runs to Eli. Samuel hears the voice, but he doesn’t recognize it
as the Lord, and he doesn’t know how to listen. Eli is losing his eyesight, but
he does know how to listen. The third time Samuel comes to him, Eli realizes
something else is happening, someone else is speaking. It took Eli’s perception
to realize that the voice Samuel was hearing was the voice of the Lord. And it
took Eli’s instruction before Samuel knew how to listen to God’s voice and
respond.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Our
verses end here, but the story goes on and takes a difficult and darker turn.
The first word of the Lord that Samuel heard and received was a harsh message of
judgment about Eli and his family. As one commentator quipped, the message was,
“Tell your boss he’s fired.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
priesthood, which Eli and his sons were direct descendants of had become
corrupt and fat with its own sense of power and authority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Eli’s
sons had blasphemed against the Lord in words and in actions. Eli knew what his
sons were up to, yet he did nothing to stop them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So Eli and his family, he and his sons
together, would soon be shaken up and torn down in order to make way for a new
beginning – for the priesthood and for Israel. Eli accepts this message with
resignation and faith.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“It is the Lord, let him do what seems good to
him.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
message delivered to Samuel was probably not what either of them wanted to
hear, but Samuel, even though he was just a kid, found the courage to share it.
Eli had the courage to hear it. He listened and he accepted the outcome,
knowing that all things are ultimately in God’s hands.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
story goes on to say that as Samuel grew up, the Lord was continually with him.
From this first experience with God’s call, all of Israel came to know Samuel
as a trustworthy prophet of the Lord. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the story of Samuel began with the story
of his mother, Hannah. His story began in his family, and it continued in the
community of the temple, and he would serve as a prophet in the community of
his people. Samuel was a great prophet and he heard God’s voice, but he did not
hear God’s voice in isolation. He heard it in community. He learned to
recognize it through the help of others. From the very beginning, he was prayed
for, nurtured, loved, raised, taught, and encouraged in community.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">I think if the
story of Samuel teaches us anything it is that we all need help to hear. We
need help to hear God’s voice. God may have called directly, a voice in the
night, but in our lives, I think God calls us most often through the voices of
others. We need help to hear. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">Just as Samuel
needed Eli to help him recognize and respond to God’s call, we need others of
faith to help us hear God’s word. We need this time of worship together, as a
community, to hear God’s word, to recognize it, to act upon it. Samuel needed
help and so do we.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In
a few minutes we will ordain and install our newest ruling elders. These four
people – Charlie, Emmy, John, and Paige – have come to this moment in a variety
of ways. But they have all been nurtured in their faith through community –
through the faith of their families, through the churches where they grew up,
through this community of faith. They have heard and answered this call,
because it is a call, through this community and for the sake of this
community. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Calls
to serve do not happen in isolation. A hallmark of being Presbyterian is that
we believe the Holy Spirit moves and breathes and blows and creates in groups
of people working together, in other words, community. It is the Spirit that
has brought us to this moment. It is the Spirit, working through this community
of faith, through the relationships that are forged here, that has helped each
of these four people to hear the voice of the Lord calling them anew. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
story of Samuel also reminds us that that God’s word to us isn’t necessarily
one we want to hear. Sometimes, the word of the Lord demands difficult choices
and difficult responses. But part of the promise that we make today for these
new elders, and all our elders, is that we will support and trust their
decisions. Sometimes, a session is called to make tough decisions, decisions
that will challenge us, maybe even unsettle us. We may not always agree, but we
hold fast to the bonds of this community, and we trust that our elders are not
only being affirmed by this community but working to give back to this
community, this community and family of faith. <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For
our elders, for one another, for God’s beloved children gathered together in
this community, we give thanks. Let us continue to help one another to hear
God’s call and to follow in faith and trust. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">Let all God’s
children say, “Alleluia!”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">Amen. <o:p></o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-84336188260870999952024-01-09T09:45:00.000-08:002024-01-09T09:45:51.233-08:00A Voice from Heaven -- Baptism of the Lord Sunday<p><span class="normaltextrun" style="text-align: center;"><b>Mark 1:4-11</b></span><span class="eop" style="text-align: center;"> </span></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">January 7, 2024</b></p>
<p align="center" class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">I’ve always loved the
spiritual, <i>Wade in the Water</i>. You know the one that goes, “Wade in the
water. Wade in the water, children. Wade in the water. God’s gonna trouble the
water.” This wasn’t something that I grew up singing in church, but it feels
like a song I’ve always known. It was the Fisk Jubilee Singers who brought this
and other spirituals to a larger audience in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s,
but the history of this spiritual goes back much further than that. It would
have originated during slavery and was probably passed down orally long before
it was set to paper. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">It's also believed that it
was a coded song, possibly used by Harriet Tubman to send messages to enslaved
people seeking to escape to freedom. Coded songs were a powerful way to share
information. Some songs would give escape routes, places on the Underground
Railroad that would lead enslaved humans from this country to freedom in
Canada. Other songs would offer encouragement for the journey. Wading
in water prevented bloodhounds from tracking someone’s scent or leaving
footprints for slave patrols to follow. </span><span class="eop"> </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI",sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">I may not have grown up
singing this, but a dear friend of mine grew up in a Black church. She told me
once that in her childhood congregation, <i>Wade in the Water</i>, was sung
every time someone was baptized. I was excited to hear that, because whenever
we come to the time in our church year when celebrate the baptism of Christ, I
always think about this spiritual. No matter which gospel account of
Jesus’ baptism we are reading, I find myself singing these beautiful words
about wading in the water without even realizing it. But there’s one phrase in
it that I’ve always wondered about. What does it mean to sing, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">“God’s </span><span class="spellingerror">gonna</span><span class="normaltextrun"> trouble the
water?” </span><span class="eop"> </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI",sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">I’ll be honest, I don’t like
the thought of troubled waters, even if God is the one doing the troubling, and
even if there’s a bridge over those troubled waters to reference another
popular song. It’s just that I’ve seen the destruction that floods can do to
towns and cities as I’m sure you have too. And it’s not just the terrible winds
from hurricanes that cause so much damage – although they do – it’s also the
flooding that occurs after the rains from the storms as well. No, troubled
waters aren’t really my cup of tea. </span><span class="eop"> </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI",sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">But the song says that God’s
</span><span class="spellingerror">gonna</span><span class="normaltextrun"> trouble
the waters. Does that mean that God’s going to whip up a flood or cause a tidal
wave? Does it mean that God is doing something dangerous on the
waters? For enslaved people, so desperate to escape to freedom, did it
represent their hope that God would produce a miracle like Moses and the
Israelites crossing the parted Red Sea on dry land? Or did it mean that
God was protecting them, troubling the waters, stirring them up so that
detection would be even harder? Is that the kind of troubled waters the song
refers to? </span><span class="eop"> </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI",sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">Maybe this phrase isn’t
talking so much about destruction as it is about something new. Something
different. In our passage from Genesis when a wind from God swept over the
waters, life happened. God troubled those waters in that formlessness and
void, that chaos and creation was conceived. </span><span class="eop"> </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI",sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">So what happens when God
troubles the waters of baptism? We have it in our gospel text today that
John appeared out of the wilderness baptizing people from all over the Judean
countryside in the river Jordan. Baptisms were nothing new when John came
along. Different forms of baptism, essentially ritual cleansing, had been
taking place for some time. But there was something about John. There was
something about him that drew people to him. Maybe it was his strangeness, his
peculiar style of dress and diet. Maybe there was something charismatic about
him, about his preaching and teaching, that we cannot fully perceive through
the written word alone. It might have been all of this and more, but something
about John drew people to him. People came out in droves to be baptized by him.
The people were clearly hungry for a new word from God, for something new, for
someone new. I think John must have recognized their hunger. But he made sure
they understood that it wasn’t him they were seeking. He was only the messenger.
He was only the one who pointed the way to the One who was to come. The One who
was to come was the One they really longed for, the One they had been waiting
for. This One would not just baptize with water as John did. This One would
baptize with the Holy Spirit. </span><span class="eop"> </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI",sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">And that brings us to the
crux of this passage. Jesus of Nazareth comes to John and is baptized by
him. And as Jesus comes out of the water, he sees the heavens torn apart
and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. He hears a voice saying, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">“You are my Son, the
Beloved, with you I am well pleased.” </span><span class="eop"> </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI",sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">Whenever the story of Jesus’
baptism is read, questions about why he was baptized in the first place arise.
If baptism is about cleansing from sin, then certainly Jesus didn’t require
that. Was he setting an example for those who would follow him and for the Church
that would expand around the globe in his name? Was it to prove his
identity? Did he do it for some other unknown reason? I’m not sure
that we can truly know the fullness of Jesus’ reasons. </span><span class="eop"> </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI",sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">But what we do know is that
Mark’s telling of Jesus’ baptism is different from the other gospel writers. Mark
makes it clear that Jesus is the only one who can see the disruption in the sky
that his baptism caused. Jesus is the only one to see the dove descending and
hear the mighty voice from heaven. No one else present there witnesses this
dramatic scene. And I’m sure it was dramatic indeed. The Greek verb
that is used to describe the heavens being torn apart is the same verb that’s
used to describe how the curtain of the temple was ripped in two on the moment
of Jesus’ death on the cross. </span><span class="eop"> </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI",sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">It seems that with Jesus’
baptism God not only troubled the waters, but the heavens as well.</span><span class="eop"> </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI",sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">Something about God
troubling the waters makes things happen. Something changes when God
troubles the waters. I don’t want to presume that Jesus was changed when God
troubled the heavens above Jesus and the waters in which Jesus waded. Jesus was
who he was and is who he is. But things, life, became very different from
that point on. A tremendous shift in action takes place in that moment. From
that point on the world was different. When Jesus waded into those waters,
the ushering in of the Kingdom was set in motion.</span><span class="eop"> </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI",sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">When God troubles the
waters, things change. Things happen. The waters and all who enter them are
changed.</span><span class="eop"> </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI",sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">For many years one of the
souvenirs that I kept from my trip to the Middle East was a plastic bottle of
water from the Jordan River. I still don’t know how I managed to get it from
there back to the States and through several moves around the country without
it leaking or just generally exploding. I even used some of the water for one
of the first baptisms I ever did. Let me make it clear that I used it after I
boiled it like crazy. There was no way I was putting it near an infant’s little
head without sterilizing it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">But a few years ago, maybe
before we moved back to Tennessee, I got rid of it. The bottle was in rough shape,
and I suspect the water in it was a science experiment by that point. I love
the memories I have of that trip and collecting that water. But what I really
remember from that trip to the Jordan was the president of our seminary,
Hartley Hall, fussing at all of us for collecting the water in the first place.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">I can still hear him saying,
“Don’t do it! It’s just water. It won’t heal you. It’s not magic.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">He fussed at us like this
while we were still by the Jordan. He fussed at us when we got back on the bus.
It’s just water. It’s not magic. I’m glad he liked me because once we were on
our way to our next stop one of my friends ratted me out to him. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">“Amy wasn’t just collecting
water. She was using it to make crosses on people’s foreheads.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">And I was. It seemed like
the right thing to do at that moment. But Hartley was right. It was just
water. What’s the difference between water from the Jordan River and the
water we would use for a baptism? Except for some microorganisms and
pollution, absolutely nothing. It’s not the water or the topographical source
of the water that makes it different. It’s God troubling the water that
makes the change. </span><span class="eop"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">So when we wade into the
waters of baptism, whether we do it literally or figuratively, as babies, as
children, as young and old adults, we are wading into troubled
waters. Waters that have been changed by the power of the Holy
Spirit. God troubles the waters of our baptisms. And we are swept
into the tide of God’s great and remarkable love, grace, mercy, and justice. We
are empowered by the spirit to follow in the footsteps of the One who saw the
heavens open and the dove descending and heard the voice proclaiming. You
are my son, the Beloved. With you I am well pleased. So, let’s wade
into the water. Let’s wade into the water trusting that God troubles the
waters, stirring them up and stirring us well – stirring us into service and
justice and faithfulness, stirring us to bear witness to a voice heard from
heaven and the good news that through the beloved Son, the kingdom of God is in
our midst. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">Let all of God’s children
say, “Alleluia.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="paragraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="normaltextrun">Amen.</span><o:p></o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-14098843314407302262024-01-09T09:43:00.000-08:002024-01-09T09:43:07.991-08:00My Eyes Have Seen Your Salvation -- First Sunday of Christmas<p><b style="text-align: center;">Luke 2:22-40</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">December 31, 2023</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When Phoebe was born, I had quite a
few visitors at the hospital. We had visitors when Zach was born too, but they
waited until we got home. But with Phoebe, they started arriving a few hours
after I was moved from labor and delivery into my regular room. And when people
would come to see us, they wanted to hold the baby, of course, understandably.
When Zach was born, letting other people hold him for a while was easier
because I also had a two-year-old to chase around. But Phoebe was my first, and
when people would ask to hold her, especially when we were still in the
hospital, I would certainly let them, although I insisted everyone who touched
her wash their hands first because I was <b><i>that</i></b> new mom. But while
I agreed to let them hold her, inwardly I was thinking, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“But,
but I just got her. I didn’t realize I would be expected to share her this
soon.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>After a time, this inner turmoil
wore off. The realities of taking care of a newborn sunk in pretty quickly and
getting a break for a few minutes when someone else wanted to hold her was a
blessing. But right at the beginning it was hard for me. So, if Mary and Joseph
had some qualms about this old man coming up to them at the temple and taking
their precious days-old baby in his arms I get it. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the
temple to make a sacrifice as the Law required after a baby was born. So, if
they were being respectful and polite and not outwardly protesting when Simeon
took him out of their arms and into his because custom and culture dictated it,
I understand that. But I can’t help but wonder if inwardly they were slightly
panicking thinking, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“Hold
his head. I think you might be pinning his arm down in a weird way. You know,
he really likes to be held against your shoulder to help his tummy. He’s a
little colicky. Is this man strong enough to hold a baby and stand up at the
same time? Could we ask him to sit down with him first?” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">And
even though the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ conception and birth were
already extraordinary, considering it began with a visit by one angel and ended
with the heavens full of them, it was probably still strange and peculiar for
Joseph and Mary that this old man took baby Jesus into his arms and then started
praising God. This was no ordinary praise either. It was no thanksgiving about
the blessing of children in general. It was thanksgiving that <b><i>this</i></b>
child had been born and that he, Simeon, was finally experiencing what had been
promised to him. Before he died, he would see the salvation of God, and the
salvation of God was right here in his arms. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">The
text tells us that Joseph and Mary were amazed at what Simeon was saying about
their baby, and I bet they were. But before they’d even had time to process what
Simeon said, another person came over to them and added to the unexpected and
strange scene. The prophet Anna, a widow of many years, who lived day and night
at the temple worshipping and fasting and praying, joined their small circle,
and began to praise God. She exclaimed to everyone around them that those who
were looking for the redemption of Israel had found it in this child. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">I
have officiated for quite a few infant baptisms in my time as a pastor, and
I’ve held my own babies while they were baptized, and yet with all the prayers
and joyful blessings and exclamations of hope and delight that I have witnessed
and offered myself, I’ve never seen or experienced anything quite like this.
Probably none of us have. As I said earlier, even though Mary and Joseph
already had plenty to be amazed about with the birth of Jesus, this must have
been even more mindboggling for them. They had been told many things about
their baby, who he was and who he would become, but our human minds can take a
while to process information and processing such astonishing information as
this could take even longer. Mary and Joseph had been giving an overwhelming
amount of information to process. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">So,
what do these stories mean for us today? Certainly they are confirmation of who
Jesus is, confirmation of the incarnation of God into the world, the Word
become flesh. And that confirmation is more than enough. But what do we take
away with us today? Normally, when I sit down to write a sermon my struggle
comes with how to begin. But today it is reversed. How do I end it? What deeper
message needs to be imparted? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">One
detail about this story that, even though I’ve read it many times, I hadn’t
paid much attention to before, is that the Holy Spirit rested on Simeon. When
it comes to the gospels, we tend to think of the Holy Spirit coming later. Even
though there are many references to the Spirit of the Lord throughout
scripture, the Holy Spirit is associated with Pentecost. The Holy Spirit comes
as the comforter and the advocate after Jesus leaves this earthly realm. And
since the author of Luke is also the author of Acts, and the coming of the Holy
Spirit on the disciples at Pentecost is a foundational part of Acts, I forget
about references to the Holy Spirit before that moment. But here it is, in
chapter two. The Holy Spirit rested on Simeon. The Holy Spirit revealed to
Simeon that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.
Simeon clearly trusted the Holy Spirit. He trusted and he waited. And his wait
was rewarded. When he saw Mary and Joseph bring their baby into the temple, he
knew who he was truly seeing. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">There
is no more mention of Simeon or Anna after these verses, but I think that it’s
fair to assume that Simeon did not live much longer. He knew when he saw Jesus
that the Messiah had entered the world <b><i>and</i></b> because of that he
could now depart it. He could be dismissed from this life in peace. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">But
let’s also think about what Simeon said. He praised God. He said that he, God’s
servant, could be dismissed in peace because he had seen the salvation of God,
the light of revelation, not just to Israel but to the Gentiles. And then he
blessed Mary and Joseph both, but he had one last word for Mary. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“This
child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a
sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed –
and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">And
a sword will pierce your own soul too. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">I
wonder, if as Frederick Buechner suggested, that Simeon hesitated before he
said those last words. Maybe he didn’t want to say them at all. Maybe he wished
he could just not say them and let this young mother leave with nothing but joy
in her heart. But he had to say them. He had to be honest. He must share what he
knew. This child is the salvation that the world had been waiting for. But this
didn’t mean that there would not be a cost. The man Jesus will tell those who
want to follow him the same thing. You must count the cost of discipleship.
There will be a cost to Jesus, and a cost to those who would follow. Mary will
also suffer and pay her own price. There will be a cost for her as well. A
sword will pierce your own soul too. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">What
mother, what parent, doesn’t look with wonder at their precious baby, imagining
their amazing future, and also know, deep down, that one day this child will
grow up and go into the world and be hurt by it? We long to protect our
children, but if we’re honest, we know that we can’t protect them completely.
And we will feel every hurt, every rejection, every pain they feel, no matter
their age or ours. That is real the cost of parenting. Mary learned early that
she would pay a greater price than others. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">A
sword will pierce your own soul too.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">And
maybe this is the message we need to take with us today, especially as we enter
into a new year. We wish one another a happy New Year, but we know that in the
coming months there is the opportunity for both great joys and great sorrows. I
want nothing more than for all of us to experience overwhelming love and
happiness in these next twelve months, but we also know that we just don’t
know. We just don’t know what lies ahead. But we do know that God was and is
incarnate in this world, in our lives, in our hearts. We do know that the Holy
Spirit is alive and moving and stirring up good and beauty and hope. We do know
that we are not alone. We do know that we are loved and that this love will
carry us and abide with us and comfort us, no matter what swords may pierce our
souls. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">And
for all of this and so much more, we give thanks and praise, because God is in
the world. God is in the world. Our eyes have seen his salvation.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Let
all of God’s children say, “Alleluia.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Amen.<o:p></o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-46787206405961213382023-12-27T08:54:00.000-08:002023-12-27T08:54:28.194-08:00Something New -- Christmas Eve: Christ<p><b style="text-align: center;">Luke 2:1-20</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">December 24, 2023</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">On that night there was fear. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">There must have been. On hillside and in stable,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">fear permeated the darkness. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Fear was a presence around the fire,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Held at bay by the flame’s dim light. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Luke tells us of the shepherds’ fear.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Startled by angels, surrounded by glory,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Those shepherds trembled and shook<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">while the sky and stars exploded into heavenly choruses<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">overwhelming their senses. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Was this a dream, these angel voices,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">This dizzying brightness, celestial praises?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Was this a dream?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">But the shepherds were not the only fearful ones. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Mary and Joseph, consigned to an animals’ stall,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Both must have feared what that night would bring. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">For mother and child, birth is a dangerous thing<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And the journey from womb to world<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Is harrowing. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">On that night, Mary, so young, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">should have been encircled by other women,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Midwives and mothers crooning their wisdom <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Concerning this woman’s work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">But only the deep snuffling sound of animals could be heard<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">As Mary labored for Love to be born. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And on that night, surely Joseph was also afraid. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Maybe he swallowed back his fear and held Mary’s hand, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Whispering words of comfort.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Maybe he fought back his fears of what could go wrong<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">By reassuring her of all that was right. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Was he overwhelmed by her pain on that night, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Desperate to take it from her but helpless<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">As she endured alone? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">There was fear that night, on hillside and in stable<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">when the sky filled with glory of the heavenly host, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">But that band of angels came not with news of terror<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">but with glad tidings of great joy. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Do not be afraid! <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">A savior is born. God is with you.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">God is doing something new. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Do not be afraid!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">There was fear on that night, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">But it was swallowed by the angels’ song. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">On this night in Bethlehem<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">The nativity sits on top of rubble,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Surrounded by destruction, cracked concrete and wire. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And hatred still causes fear in hearts and minds. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And how can we not be afraid <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">When wars rage on and on<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And a little child tries to lead us<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">But the grownups refuse to listen ? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">But on that night,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Jesus was born into that fear<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Into that messiness<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And sadness<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And into a weary world<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">That did not know how tired it was.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And on that night Light pierced the darkness<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And Love disrupted hate<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And Peace refused to be silenced by war<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And Hope would not lose heart. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And on this night<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Jesus is born into our messiness<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And our soul-deep sadness<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And Jesus is born into this weary world <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">that still does not know<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">How tired it is. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And on this night, if we can only tune our hearts to listen,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">We can hear the heavens resound with angel song<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And glad tidings of great joy<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And on this night, God still works through <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">the improbable<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And unlikely<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And on this night we hear again <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">these ancient words<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And ageless story<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And in them we see God<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Doing something new<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Something wonderful<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Because God will not be kept <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">From loving us<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And God will not be stopped<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">By cracked concrete or wire<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">And God will not forget <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">The promises made<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">and the heavenly hosts <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">will not be silenced<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">and the good news <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">is still good news <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">for in Bethlehem <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">on that night and on this night<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">a child is born in the way that all children are born<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">and on that night and on this night<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">a baby’s cry is heard<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">and joy and love and peace and hope <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">are more than words, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">because God is doing something new<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">and God is doing something wonderful<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">so do not be afraid<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">God is here<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">God is with us<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">On that night and on this night<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Love is born. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Alleluia.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Amen.<o:p></o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-62548091753089973412023-12-27T08:52:00.000-08:002023-12-27T08:52:52.243-08:00Here Am I -- Fourth Sunday of Advent: Love<p><b style="text-align: center;">Luke 1:26-38</b></p><p><b>December 24, 2023<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>There is a legend that claims
that Gabriel visited several young women with his announcement that they would
be the favored one, the <i>theotokos</i>, the God-bearer. But these other young
women said “no.” Discouraged but not defeated, Gabriel appeared before a young
woman named Mary. Just as he had with the others, he greeted Mary saying, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Greetings, favored one! The Lord is
with you.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And then he told her that she had
found favor with God, that she would bear a child, that the child would be
holy. There was a name already picked out – Jesus. And this baby boy would not
be just any baby boy, but the Son of the Most High and he will be given the
throne of his ancestor David. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I don’t know if the legend specifies
at what point in this encounter with Gabriel the other young women made their
apologies saying, “No. No thank you. Not for me. I don’t think I’m ready to be
the mother of God this year, but maybe next year we can talk again.” But unlike
the other young women, when Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her what would
happen Mary said, “Yes.” Mary said yes. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Obviously, this is just a legend. I
don’t know where it comes from and certainly, if there were any truth to it, it
would be impossible to prove. But what I think is interesting about this is
that it makes the point that there was a choice involved. Where others said no,
Mary said yes. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Even if the legend isn’t true, Mary
said yes. Why? Why did she say yes? Was it because she was predestined to say
yes? Was it because Mary was the only one who could? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Today’s story is known as the
annunciation. The angel, Gabriel, shows up on Mary’s doorstep and announces
that she will bear the Son of God.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Greetings, favored one! The Lord is
with you.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Mary is understandably confused by
the angel’s words. In fact she’s more than confused, she’s greatly disturbed by
his words. In the story of Zechariah, which immediately precedes our story this
morning, Zechariah is described as disturbed by Gabriel’s words. But he isn’t
as disturbed as Mary is, yet his questioning of Gabriel results in his
inability to speak for the length of his wife Elizabeth’s pregnancy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">What
does this mean? Mary is a young woman, a young girl really. She does not have
an exalted family lineage. She comes form a non-descript little town. She is
not rich nor is she royalty. She is just Mary. But here this angel of God comes
to her and calls her favored. He announces to her that the Lord is with her.
Not only is the Lord with her, but she has found favor with God. God has sought
her out to bear a son who will be named Jesus. This child will not be just any
child, but the Child of the Most High. He will sit on the throne of David. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“He
will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no
end.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">This
is incredible news. It’s strange and confusing news. Mary is one of the lowly,
but she is greeted by an angel who calls her “favored.” I won’t say that she
argues with Gabriel, but she does question the news she’s given. “How can this
be?” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Her
reason for why the angel’s words are impossible is sound. She is a virgin. She
is betrothed to Jospeh, but they aren’t living fully as a married couple yet.
While the word <i>virgin</i> in Greek can also be translated as <i>young girl</i>,
it is clear that Mary is not in the right circumstances to conceive a child.
And that reality means that this pregnancy will be scandalous. Scandalous!
Gabriel tells Mary that the Lord is with her, but Mary surely knew that others
would not be. Her reputation, and more seriously her life, would be on the
line. Matthew’s gospel records that when Joseph heard the news that Mary was
pregnant, he wanted to end their betrothal. He wanted to do it quietly, true,
to keep her from any disgrace, but he was ready to end it because of the
shameful implications and potentially damaging and detrimental consequences of
this unlikely pregnancy. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Joseph
knew this. And Mary knew this too. Mary might have been young, but I doubt that
she was naïve enough not to realize what an unmarried pregnancy would mean for
her, her child, and their lives. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">So,
understandably, Mary was greatly disturbed by the angel’s words, by this
life-altering news that he brought. Perhaps to help convince Mary that what he
said was true, Gabriel tells Mary of another unlikely, improbable, and
impossible pregnancy. Her cousin, Elizabeth, who is an old woman and has been
barren for years is also pregnant with a son. Then Gabriel echoes the words
spoken to Abraham by another divine messenger when he was told that Sarah would
bear a child in her old age, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Mary
hears these words, hears about her cousin Elizabeth, and without anymore
hesitation accepts these strange and impossible tidings. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“Here
am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Here
am I. Here I am. Mary said yes. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">We
Presbyterians believe both in predestination and in freewill. Free will
suggests that Mary indeed could have said no. She could have said no because
she was more than just the quiet, beatific looking figure in our nativity
scenes. She was flesh and blood. She had a mind and a heart. She had hopes and
dreams, just as we do. She had a will. She was not just an empty vessel or a
pawn to be manipulated by others, not even the divine. Could Mary have said no?
Yes. But Mary didn’t say no to the news the angel brought. She said yes. She
said, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it
be with me according to your word.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">That
sounds familiar, doesn’t it? It sounds like the answer that Isaiah gave when he
was called by God. Mary was called too. This is not just a pregnancy
announcement; this is a call story. She was called to be the <i>theotokos</i>,
the God-bearer, the Mother of God in this world. Mary said yes. She said yes to
God’s call. She said yes to God’s purposes. Mary said yes. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">But
what finally convinced Mary to give her affirmation? Gabriel spoke lofty words
to her. He called her “favored one.” He told her the Lord was with her, that
the Lord would do great things through her, that this child would be the Son of
the Most High and would reclaim the throne of David. This child would be God in
the world, the Messiah. This child was the one they had all been waiting for,
for so, so long. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">And
all of this is amazing and wonderful and scary and thrilling, but it wasn’t
what convinced Mary. What finally convinced her? One biblical scholar pointed
out something that I had not considered before. What finally convinces Mary is
not the exalted promises that Gabriel shared with her, but rather the information
that her cousin Elizabeth was also pregnant. Her cousin Elizabeth was going
through this too. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Now
maybe this convinced Mary because Elizabeth’s pregnancy was as unlikely as her
own. But maybe it also gave her reassurance that she was not alone. That there
was another person in the world, in her life, who understood exactly how
amazing and scary and wonderful and thrilling this was. I realize that some of
Gabriel’s first words to Mary were that the Lord was with her, but how is it
that we see the Lord with us in our lives? Maybe some folks see angels, but for
many of the rest of us we see God in our lives through other people. We see God
with us through them, through their eyes, their hands, their hearts, their
love. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Mary
saw God working in her life because God was working in Elizabeth’s life. This
does not diminish Mary’s courage in saying yes. And she was courageous.
Answering a call from God, no matter how small or large that call may be, takes
faith and trust and courage. And Mary had all of that, but maybe just maybe,
her courage was amplified, magnified because she knew Elizabeth was with her
too. She was not alone. She would not be alone. Mary said yes. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Mary’s
song of praise, the Magnificat, which is the second part of our story today, is
sung after she goes to Elizabeth, after the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaps for
joy at the sound of Mary’s voice, the mother of his cousin, the mother of God.
Mary sings this amazing song of praise about this new and wonderful thing God
is doing in the world through Elizabeth, and <b><i>through her</i></b>. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">God
is bringing down the powerful from their thrones and lifting up the lowly. God
is filling the hungry with good things and the rich are walking away
empty-handed, God is keeping the promises God made with the ancestors, with
Abraham, with Moses, with David. God is with me, Mary sings, and from now on
every generation will call me blessed. Yes, yes, and yes!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Mary
said yes because she knew that she was not alone. God was with her. Elizabeth
was with her. And she would bear Emmanuel, God with us, into the world. Mary
was not alone. She did not go through this alone. Neither do we. Whatever our
calling is, there are people with us, people who remind us that God is with us.
So, let our answer to God’s call be a resounding yes! Let our answer to God’s
call be here am I. God is with us. God is with us in hope, peace, joy, and
love. We are not alone. Yes!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Let
all of God’s children shout out, “Alleluia!”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Amen.<o:p></o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-71984860945726411512023-12-19T14:04:00.000-08:002023-12-19T14:04:49.343-08:00Anointed -- Third Sunday of Advent: Joy<p><b style="text-align: center;">Isaiah 61:1-4,8-11</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">December 17, 2023</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When I was a little girl, around
this time of year, I was given a book called something like, “The Wonderful
Smells of Christmas.” I may not remember the title correctly, but I do remember
that book. But it was a large picture book that had the unique addition of
scratch and sniff illustrations. It was about a little bear who was excited
about his family’s preparations for Christmas. And in the book the little bear
liked to sniff the air and smell all the wonderful smells that were part of the
holiday. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>His mother would bake gingerbread
and just as the little bear sniffed the air and smelled the warm gingerbread,
you could scratch the picture of gingerbread on the page and also smell warm
gingerbread. Each page had something like this. There were candy canes, and you
could smell the peppermint, hot chocolate and you could smell the cocoa, and in
his stocking, he got a big, juicy orange, and you could smell the orange. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I loved this book! And I read
through it a lot because I loved to scratch and sniff the pictures. I read it
so much and scratched those pictures so many times that eventually they lost
their fragrance. You could scratch and scratch but the only scent you got was
book. There’s a joy in that scent too, but not when you want to smell
peppermint. It made perfect sense to me, even as a child, that scent and
fragrance and aroma are connected with our associations of time and place. I
loved the way our house smelled at Christmas too, like cinnamon and sugar from
my mom’s baking and peppermint and orange and anise from the special stained
glass Christmas candy we made each year, and when it was cold enough, wood smoke
from the fires my dad built in the fireplace. The little bear’s house smelled
like Christmas and so did ours. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">When
I have preached on this passage and others like it in the past, I have learned
that the oils we read about in scripture would have been aromatic. They would
not have been bland, odorless oils processed in factories. They would have been
oils pressed from family owned olive groves and flowers and herbs. <span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Some of the oils mentioned in
scripture would be comparable to what we know as essential oils today. There
would have been myrrh and frankincense and lavender oil and olive oil. If I
remember my brief research into this correctly, the nard that we read about
would have been like what we know as lemongrass. The oil and oils that are
spoken of in both the Old and New Testament would have had fragrance and aroma.
They would have smelled of spices or flowers and grasses or of wood and trees. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">I’m not entirely sure what
specific oil was being referred to in our verses today. I don’t know if it
would have been frankincense or lavender or olive, but I do believe that the
oil referred to, the oil of anointing and the oil of gladness, would have had a
defining scent. And maybe when the original audience for these words heard
them, they would have known exactly what that aroma was. And when they thought
about that oil, they would have been able to conjure up in their imaginations
its scent, its aroma. And maybe they would begin to associate that aroma with
the one who was anointed, who brought good news, who shared these words of
God’s comfort and healing and wholeness to a people long suffering, exiled from
home and land. And that smell and its association would stay with them. When
they smelled the scent of that particular oil, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>they would think of the anointed one, they
would remember God’s promise, they would smile because it was indeed the oil of
gladness. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Anointing was a regular part of
life in that culture. Oil was believed to be curative. Remember in the story of
the Good Samaritan, when he cared for the man left to die on the side of the
road, he poured oil on his wounds. In Psalm 23 the psalmist’s head is anointed
with oil as a sign of God’s blessing and abundance. Priests would have anointed
believers with oil. And kings would have been anointed with oil as a symbol of
their leadership and reign. To be anointed was both figurative and literal. To
be anointed was to be chosen, lifted up for a special purpose. The prophet
begins by telling the people that, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">“The Spirit of the Lord God is
upon me because the Lord has anointed me …”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">And the reason the Spirit of
the Lord God was upon the speaker, and the reason that the Lord anointed him
was not to reign over the people, or to lead them in battle, or to build a new
empire, it was,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">“to bring good news to the
oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoner’s;”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">The people who had been long
suffering, long afflicted, long exiled from home and land, were now hearing
from this anointed one, that God was with them still. They would be given a
garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle
of praise instead of a faint spirit. They would be delivered. God was with them
still. And maybe from that point on whenever they thought about these promises,
whenever they remembered the words of the anointed one and the oil that
anointed him, the oil of gladness they were promised, they also remembered the
fragrance of that oil, and the fragrance and the promise became intertwined in
their memories and their imaginations. And whenever they smelled that
fragrance, they remembered the promises and covenant of God, and that
fragrance, that oil of gladness, became for them the fragrance, the smell, the
aroma of joy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">And many years later when the
great, great grandchildren of these people went out to the wilderness to see
this man named John and to be baptized they thought of the stories their
grandparents told them, the stories passed down one generation to the next, and
the promises they knew from the holy scrolls, and maybe these people sniffed
the air to see if this John fellow smelled like the anointed one, to see if he
smelled like joy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">And when Jesus, in the gospel
of Luke, begins his ministry by preaching in the synagogue and quoting these
words from Isaiah, and telling the people that the words have been fulfilled in
their hearing, that he, by implication, is the anointed one, maybe those
worshippers also sniffed the air, wondering if he carried that scent of promise
and covenant and joy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">If smells can evoke memories
and associations and feelings, can you imagine how wonderful it would be to
smell the oil of gladness on a person who has been anointed – not just anointed
in general, but anointed to bring good news and deliverance and comfort and
hope and peace and courage and renewal? If the anointing oil had a fragrance,
then smelling it would be like smelling God. Like smelling God. I don’t mean
that irreverently or jokingly. But think about the power of smell, and what it
can do. Close your eyes for a moment and think about the smells and scents that
you associate with this time of year. What do you smell? What do you remember? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">If smell has the power to
unlock memories, then think about how powerful it would have been to smell the
oil of anointing and remember God and the promises of God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">We read today of one who has
been anointed, called, chosen, by God to preaching good news of deliverance and
comfort and restoration. We read today ancient words that Jesus read, setting
the tone and expectation of his earthly ministry. We read of one who has been
anointed, who not only bears the oil of gladness but shares it. And if that oil
of gladness had a smell, an aroma, as I think we can assume it did, then for
generations that fragrance would unlock the memory of God for the people. It
would be for them the smell of joy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">In this world where so much and
so many are broken, when the people and the land are continuously ravaged by
war and violence, we need more than ever the words of the anointed one. We need
to trust that God has called us as well, anointed us with the power of the
Spirit to not only share the good news with the world but to be the good news
for the world, to work for the deliverance and the restoration of all God’s
people. In this world, in this sacred season, on this day, when we lift up joy,
may we bearers of joy, peace, and hope to a world in desperate need of that
promise and that comfort. Like the anointed one, may we be bearers of the oil
of gladness, the smell of promise, the scent of joy, the fragrance of the Holy
One. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Let all of God’s children say,
“Alleluia.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-37183363137688522172023-12-19T13:59:00.000-08:002023-12-19T13:59:08.666-08:00Prepare the Way -- Second Sunday of Advent: Peace<p><b style="text-align: center;">Mark 1:1-8 (Isaiah 40:1-11)</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">December 10, 2023</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I try to take a water aerobics class
a couple of days a week at a rec center in Columbia. I really enjoy the class,
and I never regret the days that I make it because I feel better when I’m done.
I feel more energetic. I’m ready to get my day going. But the hardest part of
the class is not the exercise itself. It’s not even getting out of bed to get
to the class. No, the hardest part is when I take my first step down the stairs
into the water. It doesn’t matter how prepared I think I am to take this first
step, I’m not. The water is always colder than you think it’s going to be. And
now as the days grow colder, the heat in the pool area is cranked up. That doesn’t
technically change the temperature of the water itself, but when you go from
this warm air into the pool, the water feels colder than normal. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It’s interesting to watch the
different ways my classmates ascend into the water. Some of them slowly wade
in, arms held high, getting gradually deeper, hoping that by the time their
arms must touch the water, they will be adjusted to the temperature. Some of
them stand at the edge of the pool and splash themselves with water, trying to
get a little wet first without getting too cold at the same time. I do it a
little differently. I walk into the water just up to my waist, and then I take
the plunge and drop all the way in. It’s a shock but then the shock is over and
I’m moving. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The way that Mark begins his gospel
feels a little like that sudden plunge into cold water. There is no slow
warming up or wading in. There is no playful splashing. Mark is urgent and
immediate and if you’re going to dive into his gospel, you are going to dive
in. Yes, the water is cold, but get in and let’s get moving. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The beginning of the good news of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The beginning. This is the
beginning. This is where it all starts. The beginning of the good news of Jesus
Christ, the Son of God. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Biblical
scholars debate whether this was Mark’s first sentence or a title. But whether
he meant it as a heading or as the first sentence, it summarizes the point Mark
is making. This is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of
God. This is it, people! This is it! But notice that Mark’s beginning names
Jesus but it does not start with Jesus … or God … or the Holy Spirit. No, Mark’s
beginning starts with John the Baptist. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Mark quotes the prophets,
specifically Isaiah, that God is sending a messenger ahead to prepare the way.
This messenger is the voice crying out in the wilderness. This messenger is the
one who is calling all who will listen to prepare the way. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In true Markan fashion, we do not
hear about this John the Baptist as someone who has been living in the
wilderness or that he was known by folks and went out to the wilderness to do
his preaching and baptizing there. He wasn’t a neighbor or just that weird
solitary guy that everyone already knew. No, John the Baptist “appeared” in the
wilderness as if out of nowhere. He appeared in the wilderness, he seemingly
just showed up one day and began hearing people’s confessions, baptizing them
in the River Jordan. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Where did he come from? We don’t
know and Mark isn’t telling, but his sudden appearance is not a deterrent to people.
Mark tells us that the people in the whole Judean countryside and all of
Jerusalem were going down to him. Something about John compelled them to go to
him. Whether it was his message or his strange clothes and diet or a
combination of both, we don’t know. But the people made their way to him. Maybe
they thought he was the messiah, the one who had been promised. But if that’s
what they thought, John told them otherwise. He made it clear that he was not
“the one.” John proclaimed to the people that, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The one who is more powerful than I
is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his
sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy
Spirit.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I’m not the one, he told them. I’m
not the one, and furthermore the one who is coming is so much more powerful
than I am that I am not worthy to do for him what a servant would do for the
head of the house. I am unworthy even to stoop down and untie the laces of his
sandals. All I can do, John seems to be telling them, is to get you ready, to
proclaim that this one is due to arrive. I’m here to prepare the way. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Prepare the way. That is a theme in
both our passages this morning. In Mark’s gospel, the people are confessing
their sins and being baptized. The prophet Isaiah is telling the people that
the Lord is calling them to prepare the way by making the paths straight, by
lowering the mountains and lifting the valleys, by making all level ground.
This kind of preparation is actually an invitation from God, with the idea that
God is really doing the lowering and the lifting but inviting the people to
join God in this work. One commentator wrote that this is like a parent
inviting a two-year-old to help bake cookies. The two-year-old probably won’t
be of much help, and the parent will do most of the mixing and baking, but what
matters is not the cookies but the relationship between the two, parent and
child working together. Is God inviting us to help, to prepare, like a parent
invites their toddler? How are we called to prepare the way? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There are lots of preparations this
time of year – decorating, shopping, wrapping, baking, hosting – but surely
these are not the preparations John and the prophets called for. Surely our
preparations are to go deeper than that. In the gospel passage, we hear of the
peoples’ confession of their sins. So, confession must be a part of our
preparations, one way in which we make the paths straight. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But we confess every week. We
confess corporately. We confess in the silence of our hearts. Maybe part of our
preparation, maybe the way we prepare the way, is not only confessing but
responding as well. How do we respond to confession? How do we respond to being
forgiven? We confess, we receive the words of forgiveness and then what? Did
the people leave John by the Jordan with a new understanding of what God was
doing in their lives? Or did they leave John wondering about the one who was
coming next? Or was it both? Or was it something more? Did they realize that
they were to prepare for someone and something, for God’s new intervention in
their lives, even if they could not fully understand what that would mean and
what that would look like? Did they leave John recommitted to their faith, to
their call by God? Were their hearts and minds prepared just as their bodies
were by their confession and their baptism? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>How are we called to prepare? I
don’t think we get answers that are spelled out. To prepare the way is not to
fulfill a to-do list, crossing off each task as we complete them. I think our
preparations are something that we figure out even as we do them. We aren’t
sure what God is doing, but we know and believe and trust that God is doing
something, so we try to figure out our preparations. Mark’s gospel is the
shortest of the four gospels. From the very beginning Mark’s emphasis is on the
immediate, the urgent. He wastes no time. And he calls on those who will listen
to follow in the same way, to heed this urgency, to see the immediateness of
God’s interceding in the world in this new way, through this One who follows
John the Baptist. So, we respond accordingly – with immediacy and urgency. God
in Jesus is on the move, and we must be on the move too. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Maybe our preparation is not just
something we think about but something that we do. It is that plunge into the
cold water. We are called to prepare the way by jumping into the good news with
both feet. We are called to prepare by loving God, loving neighbor, and loving
ourselves without hesitation. We are called to live as though Jesus will come
again any minute. That’s what Advent is about really. It’s not just about
waiting for a baby; it’s about waiting for God to surprise us anew. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And that is the good news of the
gospel. God is still doing something new. God is still on the move in this
world. God is still lowering mountains and raising up valleys. God is still
leveling the playing field so that when God’s glory is fully revealed we will
see it as one people. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>God is still doing something new and
unexpected and surprising. God is still calling us to prepare the way, to live
with steadfast hope, to be makers of peace, to trust that the one who is coming
is more powerful, more loving, more gracious, more life-giving, more glorious,
more wonderful than any of us can imagine. Prepare for the unexpected. Prepare
for the unimaginable. Prepare for the new. Prepare for the surprising. Prepare
for the sudden appearance. Prepare the way. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Let all of God’s children say,
“Alleluia!”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Amen.<o:p></o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-69782928468694060752023-12-07T11:02:00.000-08:002023-12-07T11:02:55.061-08:00Keep Awake: First Sunday of Advent -- Hope<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b>Mark 13:24-37</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b>December 3, 2023<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Babysitting was my primary source of
income when I was a young teenager. Until I was old enough for parttime jobs, I
babysat. I babysat on and off all the way through seminary. I love kids and I
had no money, so babysitting was the way to bring my love for kids and my need
for cash together. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When I began to babysit, my mom
taught me early on that I always needed to pick up before the parents came
home. I didn’t have to clean their house for them, but if the kids had eaten
something I needed to gather all the dishes and get them to the kitchen; load
the dishwasher if that was an option, but at least get them collected and in
the sink. After I put the kids to bed, I needed to pick up whatever toys or
books might be scattered around. I took my mom seriously and I always made sure
to do that. I told Phoebe the same thing when she started babysitting. Parents
appreciate coming home to a picked up house. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Because I was never exactly sure
when parents would arrive back home, I worked to keep things cleaned up as I
went. I didn’t wait until a few minutes before I thought the parents might
arrive to start cleaning. I did it right away. I didn’t want to be caught
asleep on the sofa with toys and dishes scattered all around me. When the
parents came home, I wanted a neat house to be the first thing they saw. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Waiting for parents to arrive at the
end of a babysitting gig is not quite the same thing as what Mark is describing
in these verses from chapter 13, but you get the idea. In the last paragraph of
our reading, Jesus tells about a man who goes on a journey and leaves his
servants in charge of their work and tells the doorkeeper to be on watch for
his return. You don’t know when the man is going to return so keep awake, be
ready, keep awake. Don’t drift off. Don’t relax your stance. The man of the
house could return at any moment. Keep awake. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Warnings to stay awake. Stars
falling. A darkened sun and moon. Heavenly powers shaken up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not exactly images we normally picture at the
beginning of Advent. There’s no babe lying in a manger for Mark. No cattle lowing,
no shepherds being led to the child by a host of heavenly messengers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Instead on this first Sunday of
Advent, we have what is known by Biblical scholars as Mark’s little apocalypse.
This chapter begins with Jesus’ predictions about the destruction of the
temple. Then Jesus and a few of the disciples – Peter, James, John and Andrew –
retreat to the <st1:place w:st="on">Mount of Olives</st1:place>, look out over
the temple and discuss the end times.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">The disciples question Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">“Tell us, when will this be;
and what will be the signs that all these things are about to be accomplished?”
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Jesus tells them about many
signs. False prophets and false messiahs. Beware those who come in his name,
making claims in his name, yet in reality lead the faithful astray. Wars,
nation rising up against nation. Earthquakes, famines, natural disasters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t be alarmed, these are the beginning of
the birth pangs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">There will be suffering, Jesus
warns them. The disciples will be forced to testify to the good news in front
of councils and governments. But don’t worry, he reassures them, the Holy
Spirit will speak through them. And again, there will be false prophets and
false messiahs pointing the people in the wrong direction. Leading the elect
astray. So, wake up! Stay awake!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Then we come to our verses.
When the end times truly arrive, cosmic signs will fill the sky. Stars, sun,
moon. Then Jesus, the Son of Man, will come surrounded by clouds in his power
and glory. Angels will be sent to bring the elect from every corner of heaven
and earth. All this will happen in God’s time. Not even the angels or the Son
himself know when the end will come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Only God the father, and he is not telling. So, stay awake! Remain on
watch, wait open-eyed for the master’s return. Because no one knows when he
will come.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Apocalyptic literature and
predictions about the end times, such as what is found in Daniel, the book of
Revelation and this chapter in Mark, usually come out of a community that is
oppressed and under siege by political, religious, or military leaders. The
situation in the community seems so utterly dire and desperate that their only
hope is in divine intervention. No mortal means can end their suffering. Only
action from God and God alone. Then their suffering will be justified. A new
world will be issued in.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">The word in Greek that gives us
our word <i>Apocalypse</i> does not refer to the end of the world. When Jesus
speaks about end times, he is not talking about the earth blowing up on God’s
orders with nothing remaining. Apocalypse means an unveiling, a revealing. The
end times that Jesus refers to are the times when God will be fully revealed,
completely unveiled. They will see God. And when you are living in a crisis
moment, when you are living with catastrophe all around you, what more do you
want than to see God; to see God revealed and unveiled? What more do we want
than to know that God is right here with us? Look, there is God! Can we see
God? Can we finally see Him? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Can we finally see God?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I admit that I’m having a hard time
with seeing God lately. I know that may shock some folks, and it certainly says
more about my struggling faith than it does about God. I know that God is with
us. I just can’t <b><i>see </i></b>God with us these days. I can’t see God
because catastrophe and chaos feels very near, very close at hand. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The war in Ukraine goes on and on.
The war between Israel and Hamas is brutal, and not only do we read or hear
about its brutality, but we can also see it through live news coverage. We can
hear the anguished voices of children who have lost their parents and parents
who have lost their children. The news here at home isn’t much better. There is
violence and anguish and sometimes it all gets to be too much. When I’m
listening to the news in my car, I reach a point where I can’t listen anymore.
I turn off the news and I listen to one of my audiobooks or music or nothing at
all. And at those moments, other moments too, but especially those moments when
I hear and feel the anguish of the world, I long to see God. I long for God to
be revealed, to be unveiled. I long to see God at last. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus begins our passage by saying,
“But in those days, after that suffering.” But in these days, the suffering is current
and real. It’s happening right now. It hurts to feel this suffering, and you
may be feeling that hurt too, and if you are, you probably wish that you could
come to church and just sing Christmas carols and admire the decorations in the
sanctuary and look forward to the coming of a little baby into the world.
Instead you get a little apocalypse and talk about the end times. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But remember that the apocalyptic
writings that we have in our scriptures came out of communities who were being
persecuted, oppressed, who were living in chaos and with catastrophe close at
hand. They longed to see God’s revelation. They longed to see God revealed at
last. It’s what gave them hope. To look for the revealing of God in their midst
kept their hope alive. And isn’t hope what we need as well? This is the first
Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of this season when Hope is the key word, it is the
theme. Hope.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And our Hope, our hope that comes
from faith, is not a blind hope. It isn’t a fingers crossed and a wishful
thinking kind of hope. Our Hope with a capital H is hope that names the reality
in which we live. It names that which is hard and scary and disturbing. In
fact, if we can’t name it here, in this sacred space, in this sacred moment,
where can we name it? No, with our Hope we name the chaos in which we live. We
name the catastrophe that is all around us, and then we proclaim Hope even
more. As long as we are living, as long as we are breathing and moving and in
this world God has given us, we have reason to Hope. We have reason to Hope
because in spite of appearances there is good and there is love. We have reason
to Hope because we have been given hands and hearts and minds and bodies to do
the work of God in the world – in the larger world and in our corner of it. We
have reason to Hope because we have the ability and the responsibility to act,
to do, to create, to live in such a way that our Hope becomes the Hope for
others. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We have reason to Hope because in
the growing darkness the light from one candle can make all the difference. We
have reason to Hope because in the growing darkness, we are finally able to see
the stars. Advent is a season of expectation, of waiting, of hoping, and
trusting that our Hope, our constant and abiding Hope will be fulfilled in the
coming of Christ into our world. As a babe. As a man. As God revealed. So I say
to you and I say to myself, keep watch. Keep awake. Keep watch. Keep awake. Our
Hope is at hand. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Let all of God’s children say,
“Alleluia.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Amen.<o:p></o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-59447658541013005082023-11-21T09:54:00.000-08:002023-11-21T09:54:41.792-08:00Entrusted<p><b style="text-align: center;">Matthew 25:14:30</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">November 19, 2023</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I am not an extreme sports kind of
person or a thrill seeker. When I was younger, I used to love going on roller
coasters, but now I look at them and think “that’s going to kill my neck.” But
even though I have never been one to go looking for excitement-slash-terror, I
have tried a few activities that might be considered more extreme or scarier than
others. When I was in my early 20’s, I got the chance to try rappelling. I went
with some longtime friends and their friend, who was a certified instructor, so
he was big on safety. But I was still nervous-slash-terrified that I was about
to go bouncing backwards down the side of a cliff. But the instructor and my
friends helped me get harnessed and walked me through what would happen. Once
the instructor was at the bottom of the cliff with the rope to belay me, he
would give me the signal, then I would walk backwards to the edge of the cliff
and then I would rappel my way down. No problem. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>All this took place. I took several
deep breaths, then I started to walk that backwards walk. I reached the edge
and had one foot in the air and one foot still on solid ground when I heard a
“pop!” I stopped right where I was and called out, trying to sound calm, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“I
just heard something pop.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">The
others didn’t know what I was talking about, so I repeated myself.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“I
just heard something pop. I don’t think I should hear a popping sound as I’m
about to go backwards off a cliff.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">To
my mind my friends didn’t seem to be responding fast enough or with the right
sense of urgency, so I decided to speak a little louder.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“I.
Just. Heard. Something. Pop! SOMETHING POPPED!”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">By
this time, the instructor and my friends were at my side trying to figure out
what I’d heard. There were two carabiners, these little hooks things, that held
all the ropes in place. One had a safety closure on it, and the other didn’t.
The one that didn’t have the safety closure had come a little undone and that
was the popping sound I heard. It turns out I was still very safely harnessed
and would not have gotten hurt or, you know, tumbled to my death. So, the
carabiner was refastened, and I went through those first backward steps again.
And … I did it. I rappelled my way down. Midway, I got some confidence and
started to have fun with it. I even went down the cliff a second time. It was
an extraordinary experience and I’m glad that I overcame some of my fear and
took the risk. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">There
is no rappelling in this morning’s passage from Matthew’s gospel. But there is
risk, and I suspect that fear is closely associated with that risk. Often when
we have heard this story, we hear it as part of a stewardship sermon. God, who
must then be the man in this parable, has given us a significant number of
talents. We must use them, or we risk disappointing God, and look what happened
to the servant who did that. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Yet
while we associate <i>talents</i> with special abilities that we have been
given or skills that we have, for example Brent’s singing, Pamela Sue’s
artistry, Kim’s photography, Charlie’s skill at medicine or gardening, in this
parable a <i>talent</i> was a sum of money. A large sum of money! One talent
was equivalent to what a daily wage earner might make in 15 to 20 years! That’s
a lot of talent, and it is <b>a lot</b> of money. One commentator estimated
that combined, the property owner entrusted his three servants with
approximately 1.5 million dollars in today’s money! 1.5 million! Other scholars
have suggested it was even more than that. That’s a lot of money to be entrust
to someone. It's a risk to entrust and it is a risk to invest. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">This
is the more traditional interpretation of this parable. A second that I have
read in several sources this week has been slightly different. Rather than see
this parable as allegorical, with God being the master who goes away leaving
his slaves with a lot of money to watch over, perhaps the real hero in the
story is the third slave. If we are reading this parable in economic terms, and
it would make sense that the original hearers of this parable would have been
well aware of the economics of it, then hearing about a master expecting his servants
to make even more money for him hints in this of economic exploitation. The
idea of trading or reinvesting goes directly against specific laws found in
Leviticus. And the first two slaves, in doing that, would have been accessories
to the breaking of that law. It was only the third slave who understood that
what the master was doing was wrong, and in burying the treasure he was given,
refused to participate in any economic exploitation. If there is an allegorical
angle to this parable, then that third slave would be Jesus, who spoke truth to
power just as the slave speaks truth to the master, and who, in a very short
time, would also be buried. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">I
debated which way I should go with this, which interpretation I found the most
compelling. But the truth is, I think there’s truth in both. This is a hard
passage. This is a hard parable. The parables Jesus are telling are becoming
increasingly challenging and dark. He knows that his time is limited. He knows
that his arrest and crucifixion is not far away. He needs those who follow him,
those who will hear him, to understand the urgency of his message. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">The
first five words of this passage are “For it is as if …” Seemingly innocuous
little words. But they tell more than you would expect. Because this is a
kingdom parable. For it is as if the kingdom of God is a man who goes on a
journey. But before he leaves, he entrusts three people who are bound to him
with talents. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">So,
is there a way to understand this parable as Jesus reminding his followers that
he is entrusting them – not necessarily with money or skills but with mercy,
with compassion and forgiveness and the gospel itself? I am entrusting you with
God’s good news for the world. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in
heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. I am entrusting
you, I am faithful to you, and this trust requires faith on your part. It
requires you to take risks on your part. It requires you to overcome your fear
and trust in God, trust in me. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">And
is there also a way to hear this parable as a call to be the one who goes
against the culture? Just because there is temptation to live as the world
lives, to measure success as the world measures success, that does not mean
that you should give in. To do what is considered foolish, to refuse to
participate in harming others, might just cause you to be banished and cast out
and even lose your life. But those who lose their life for the sake of the
gospel will save it, and those who save their life for the sake of the world
will lose it. Being foolish is what the gospel is all about. We follow a
foolish gospel – at least according to the standards of some. But don’t be so
fearful of being foolish that you give into temptation. Following the gospel
requires risk. And I am entrusting you to take that risk. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">I
think there is truth in both interpretations. I could find reasons to support
either one, but I’m not sure that making a choice is what is important. It
seems to me that the crux of the message that we need to take with us this
morning, what we need to be reminded of – probably again and again – is that
when it comes to the kingdom of God we are entrusted to live as though we
believe that the kingdom is really in our midst. We are entrusted with mercy,
so we need to be merciful. We are entrusted with grace, so we need to be
gracious. We are entrusted with justice and righteousness, so we need to act
with justice and live righteously. We are entrusted with peace, so <b>we must
be peacemakers</b>. We are entrusted with hope, so we must be hopeful even in
the face of what seems hopeless. We are entrusted with love, with love that
risks, with love that acknowledges fear but does not let fear stop it or stand
in its way. We are entrusted with love that puts its boots on and gets out in
the world and works to make love real for others through everything that I just
said and more. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">We
are entrusted with the gift and the call and the responsibility and the
requirement of the gospel. We are entrusted to live out and share the good
news. And that can be a scary thing, even scarier than walking backwards off a
cliff. We are entrusted to take the risk of faith, and that can be more
frightening than hearing the pop of a carabiner coming open. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">We
are entrusted with the gift and the call and the responsibility and the
requirement of the gospel. There is no time to lose. There is no time to waste.
The kingdom is in our midst. Are we ready to live and to give and to love with
all which we have been entrusted? Are we ready to live out the risky business
of faith? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Let
all of God’s children say, “Alleluia.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Amen.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-52588277891934746892023-11-14T08:32:00.000-08:002023-11-14T08:32:56.843-08:00Trim Your Lamps<p><b style="text-align: center;">Matthew 25:1-13</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">November 12, 2023</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>In my final year of seminary, I
faced my ordination exams. The ords, as we called them, are a series of five
exams that must be passed to be ordained. They focus on biblical content,
worship and sacrament, theology, polity, and biblical exegesis. As potential lawyers
must pass the bar exam to practice law. presbyterian candidates for ministry must
pass the ords to practice the ministry of word and sacrament. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The time of my ordination exams was
upon me. I spent months, well actually four years, preparing. The morning of my
first round of exams, I woke up early. I made sure to get plenty of sleep the
night before, so waking up wasn’t hard. I went for a walk to get exercise and
clear my head. I ate a healthy breakfast. I made sure to have all my materials
that I could bring with me the night before. I got to the exam room early. I
was calm. I was prepared. I was ready to go. Then a classmate looked at me and
said, “Amy, where’s your Book of Confessions?” We were allowed to bring that
with us into the exam for reference. I knew exactly where it was. It was
sitting on my bedside table in my apartment. I had been reading through it the
night before. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I am not a runner, and when I do try
to run, I am certainly not speedy, but I have never run so fast as I did that
morning, running back to retrieve the one thing I’d forgotten. Gone was my
calm. Gone was the peace of mind that I felt from having such an organized and
well planned morning. My heart was pounding. Adrenaline was racing through me,
and all the anxiety about the exams that I worked so hard to quell was now
overflowing. But I got back to the classroom with minutes to spare. I was able
to take some deep breaths, regain a little of the calm I’d felt before, and
proceed with my test taking. And, in case you were wondering, I passed. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Remembering this moment in my life
gives me a lot of empathy for the five bridesmaids who are collectively known
as foolish. Maybe they thought they were well-prepared for the wait for the
bridegroom. Maybe they believed they had done everything necessary to assume
their responsibility as bridesmaid. Perhaps they trusted that their lamps were
fully trimmed, that their oil was plenty, and that they were ready to go. I can
imagine how they must have felt when they realized the opposite was true, how
their hearts must have raced when they had to run to the shops to buy more. And
unlike me, who made it back before the exam doors closed, these bridesmaids
must have felt nothing but bitter disappointment that the door to the wedding
was closed on them. They may be known as the five foolish bridesmaids, but I
feel for them in their foolishness. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When I come to this text, I must
admit that I have more questions about it than I do interpretative answers.
Debi Thomas, in her essay from a few years ago, brings many questions to this
text as well, and her questions inspire and provoke many of mine. So here are a
few that I have of our passage. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>First question, where is the bride?
There are 10 bridesmaids and a bridegroom, but no bride. I know that this is a
kingdom parable, it says so right at the beginning. But where is the bride? Who
is the bride? Who is the bride meant to be? Is the bride an allegory of the
kingdom? Is she God or creation? Who is the bride? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Second,
at what wedding is there not a specific time for the bridegroom to show up?
When Brent and I planned our wedding, we both knew that at 4:00 pm we were
heading down the aisle. This uncertainty about the bridegroom’s arrival makes
me anxious. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Third,
why are the five “wise” bridesmaids so stingy with their oil? I have a hard
time <b><i>not</i> </b>hearing them in my head as a cross between mean girls
and valley girls. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“Please
give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“Like
no. There will totally not be enough for you and for us. I mean if we were you,
which we’re not, because, you know, ew, we would go find an oil dealer and get
some more. So, you better go. No, really, you better go.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">And
my final question, why is it that the bridegroom doesn’t even recognize the
other bridesmaids when they return? Be angry at them for not planning? Okay, I
get that. But not to even recognize them? Shut the door, lock them out, cry ‘I
don’t know you’?! I don’t get it. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">I don’t get it,
and that’s why I’m asking these questions. It isn’t to be irreverent or to make
fun of the parable and the characters within it. It is to try and make some
connection, cling to some inkling of understanding that might come my way if I
only ask the right questions. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">But
I cannot ask these questions of this parable without asking questions of the
larger context around it. This parable Jesus tells does not stand alone. It is
surrounded by other stories about people told to watch and to wait. In the
chapter and verses before these, Jesus spoke about the end times, about the
necessity for watchfulness, and the signs and events to watch for. At the end
of our passage today, Jesus warned those who would listen to stay awake. Keep
watch. Neither the day nor the hour of the bridegroom’s return is known, so you
must stay awake. And unlike the foolish bridesmaids you need to be prepared for
the long haul. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Maybe
the question to ask of this parable is not so much about the details, but about
the message that is being relayed through them. What is Jesus trying to tell
people to do in this parable? What is he telling them about the kingdom? What
is Jesus saying about the people’s response? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Is
Jesus trying to make folks afraid, afraid they will be shut out of the kingdom?
Or is he trying to make them let go of their assumptions that they will be the
wise bridesmaids? Once again, I too often see myself as the “good guy” in
scripture. I assume I do the wise and right thing. But it is quite possible
that I am a foolish bridesmaid, instead of one who came prepared. It is highly
probable that Jesus is warning me, not the person sitting next to me, to be
watchful, to stay awake, and to make the necessary plans for the long haul that
is waiting. When it comes to our faith and our understanding of God’s word,
should we always assume we get it right? What do we need to hear in these words
of Jesus? What message do we need to cling to and what lesson do we need to
learn? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">A
colleague of mine said about this passage that maybe it means that when we are
asked to show up, we should really show up. If we’re told to stay awake, we
should try to stay awake. If we’re told to watch and wait, then that’s what we
should do. Yet waiting and watching and staying awake is challenging to say the
least because we cannot skip easily over verse 5. “As the bridegroom was
delayed.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">The
bridegroom was delayed. They were waiting. Matthew’s gospel was written for a
people who were waiting. None of the gospels were written at the exact moment
of Jesus’ life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were written after
his life, his death, and his resurrection. They were written by people for
people who were waiting. The first letter to the Thessalonians, which was part
of the lectionary choices for this morning, is considered the earliest of all
the epistles. Paul was also writing to people who were waiting. Matthew’s gospel
was written approximately 30 years after that letter. The people who believed
in Jesus, who believed he was the Son of God, who believed in his resurrection,
also believed that he would return to them soon; maybe not immediately, but
soon. Yet here they were, generations after the resurrection and they were
still waiting. You can’t really fault the bridesmaids for falling asleep. The
bridegroom was delayed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Here
we are, some 2000 years after the resurrection and we’re still waiting. If you
think about it, our faith is based on waiting. We are people living in the
interim. We are living in the time between the times, waiting for the promises
of God that were embodied in Jesus to come to fruition. I am not shy about
saying that I’m not generally an apocalyptic preacher. I don’t focus on the end
times to scare people into faith. I disagree with the popular interpretation of
the rapture because I think that what passes for rapture theology is iffy
theology at best. I often think that we get so caught up in looking for signs
of the end times that we forget to be the people God calls us to be right now,
here, in the present. But the promise is that Jesus will come again. Again, to
reference Debi Thomas, if we dismiss, minimize, or deny that, then we make
Jesus a liar. We are almost to the season of Advent, and that season begins not
with the story of a baby but of the time when Jesus will come again, and that
the world as we know it will be transformed. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">So,
if Jesus is coming again, and we are called to be watchful and wakeful and to
keep our lamps trimmed, than it seems to me that this parable challenges us to
think about how we wait. It challenges us to consider how our daily lives
connect with what we proclaim to believe. Waiting for the bridegroom is not a
mindless state of being. Waiting for the bridegroom calls us to be
intentional.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It calls us to be
thoughtful about what we do and how we live. Waiting is not passive. It is
active. No one knows when the bridegroom will finally arrive, so let’s assume
that we are in it for the long haul. Let us wait with intention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">What
does this waiting with intention look like?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In our parable, it’s about being ready.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Amos chastises the people listening to him that they are more worried
about correct ritual, then about caring for the least of God’s people. They
worship in name only, but their hearts are not involved. It seems to me that
waiting with intention is about trying to make our daily lives match up to the
faith we profess. I’m not leveling criticism at any one of us. It is easy to
say that those two things should match; it’s another thing to do it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that doesn’t exempt us from trying, from
striving to make our waiting and our living sync.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Waiting
with intention means that we live with hope. We live with hope that the kingdom
of God will come to fruition right here and right now. We live with hope that
God truly is doing a new thing, in our midst in this moment, and what was flat
will be lifted high, and what was high will be made low. We live with the hope
that there will be streams in the desert and a way made in the wilderness. Hope
may feel in short supply these days with wars raging around the world, and with
violence here at home. Hope may even feel foolish in the face of so much hatred
and death. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">But
hope, like waiting, is active not passive. Hope is intentional, and a reminder
that our trust is not in ourselves or what we can do or not do. We hope because
we trust the One who is the light of the world, and who promised to come again
to finally and forever make us and all of creation whole. Therefore, we wait
with hopeful intention, living as Jesus taught us to live, siding with the
poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized, doing justice and walking in
righteousness, and never taking for granted each day that we are given, keeping
our lamps trimmed. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Let
all of God’s children say, “Alleluia!” Amen.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-35460959285219367432023-11-01T08:25:00.001-07:002023-11-01T08:25:03.531-07:00As Yourself -- Reformation Sunday<p><b style="text-align: center;">Matthew 22:34-46</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">October 29, 2023</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>At the beginning of January, I
encouraged all of us to take a Star Word. Star Words are an Epiphany practice
that our congregation began a couple of years ago, and the word we pick is
really the word that picks us. For whatever reason, whether it’s clear to us or
not, our Star Word is a word that we need to live with and live into over the
course of the coming year. If you didn’t take a Star Word last January, you’ll
get your chance again in just a few months. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Star Word that I chose last
January – or the one that chose me – was “tenderness.” When I got it, I
thought, “Hmm. I guess this means I need to be mindful of how tender I am with
people this year. Maybe there will be particular people I need to be tender
with.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Within just a couple of weeks of
receiving my word, my mom died. Five days later, I fell and broke my wrist.
Without warning, I went from days that seemed fairly normal and typical to
grieving and to hurting both physically and emotionally. And I went from
feeling relatively in control to feeling helpless, needing assistance with the
small, everyday things I generally take for granted, like taking a shower,
opening a bottle, and tying my own shoes. And because so much seemed to be
happening at the same time, it took me a little while to realize that the
person I needed to show tenderness to was me. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It should seem obvious, I guess,
that I needed to show myself some tenderness during that time. I don’t think
anyone would have argued that with me, but I discovered that I’m not very good
at being tender with myself. I think I should just push through pain or grief
or both. I’m more than happy to help someone else. If someone else in my
circumstance had come to me needing help with a small task, I would have done
it gladly. I’m sure you would have too. But when it was me needing the help, I
was embarrassed and even ashamed that I couldn’t do for myself. But life can be
so hard and sometimes we can’t help ourselves, so a little tenderness toward
self is necessary. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I know that I’m not alone in this,
in struggling with tenderness toward myself. I think our struggle with is
connected to our culture’s equating self-compassion, self-tenderness, and
self-love with self-centeredness and self-obsession. And certainly there are
self-centered people out there, plenty of them, who take it to the extreme of
narcissism. But that’s a whole other sermon. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The thing is, showing yourself some
tenderness, some compassion does not mean that you are self- centered. However,
being filled with self-hatred or toxic shame or guilt can make you
self-obsessed without even realizing it. Brent and I are big fans of the public
radio show, <i>The Hidden Brain</i>. If you don’t catch it live, you can listen
to the podcast. About a month ago, Brent told me about an episode that focused
on self-compassion and how necessary it is. The guest was a psychologist who
told a difficult story about herself from her days as a graduate assistant. I
won’t go into the details, but she messed up big time. She made bad decisions,
life-changing errors in judgment, and she suffered overwhelming shame, guilt,
and self-loathing because of them. In her words, she was a mess. And the more
she focused on her shame and guilt and self-hatred, the more inward she turned.
The more self-centered she became. Amid this inner chaos and with her outer
life in tatters, she was invited to attend a meditation group. She went reluctantly,
but through the process of sitting quietly and mindfully, she began to grasp just
how self-centered her shame and guilt had made her. It had become all about
her, even though it was negative, it was still all about her. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it wasn’t self-love that did it. It was the
lack thereof. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This changed her life. This changed
her research. She quoted studies that have been done that show that people who
are constantly berating themselves, beating themselves up, who refuse to cut
themselves some slack are more self-centered than those who do. She stated that
self-compassion is not about letting ourselves off the hook for our mistakes or
not being accountable. It’s about recognizing that we are all a mess. And the
people who acknowledge that, who show themselves compassion and tenderness and
love, are much better at loving others. To show yourself compassion opens you
up to the needs of other people. If you can be compassionate to yourself, you
are better at being compassionate to others. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In this passage where Jesus states
what we know as The Greatest Commandment – and it really is – we most often
focus on only two tenets of it. We are to love God and to love our neighbor.
But as we read this morning, that is not the end of the sentence. We are to
love God and love our neighbor <b><i>as ourselves</i></b>. I think we overlook
this last part to our detriment. And I think Jesus knew this. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>At this point in Matthew’s gospel,
Jesus knows that he is in the last days of his life. He knows that those in
power are plotting against him, plotting to have him killed. And as scholar
Debi Thomas pointed out, it is interesting that when he is asked this question
about which commandment is the greatest, he doesn’t quote doctrine to them. He
doesn’t tell them to adhere to dogma. No, he tells them to love God with all
your heart, your soul, and your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. And
Jesus isn’t calling them to participate in a feeling or an emotion, he is
calling them to a way of living. Love God with everything you are, your whole
being, and love your neighbor as yourself. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And how did Jesus show this kind of love?
How was he a role model and an example of this kind of love? Jesus had
compassion for those who suffered. He had compassion for the crowds who were
hungry and who were like lost sheep without a shepherd. He had compassion for
the blind, the lame, the voiceless, the ignored, and the marginalized. He had
compassion for those who were labeled as sinners and therefore less than by
others. And he had compassion for those who did the labeling in the first
place. He spoke truth to them, but he still did it with love. Jesus’ compassion
was not just a feeling. He demonstrated it. He acted on it and lived it. In
Greek, the word for compassion relates to the gut. When you have compassion for
someone, you feel it in your gut. Your gut twists in compassion for others.
When you see the suffering of others, whoever they may be, your stomach
clenches in empathy and compassion for them. And you act on that compassion. You
act on that twisting of your gut for someone else’s suffering. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When reading this passage in the
past, I’ve thought of Jesus’ words as linear. You love God first, then you love
your neighbor, and if you have time, throw in a little love for yourself. But I
think that this is far more cyclical than it is linear. Loving God with
everything we have, we everything we are opens us up to loving our neighbors,
and loving our neighbors opens us up to loving God <b><i>even more</i></b>. And
loving ourselves makes us more loving of our neighbors, and when we do both, we
love God <b><i>even more</i></b>. And when we love God even more, we love
ourselves and our neighbors <b><i>even more</i></b>. It goes around and around
and around. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To love God, to love our neighbor,
and to love ourselves is not just an intellectual exercise. It is a physical,
physiological, emotional, mindful, active response. To love God, to love our
neighbor, to love ourselves is to see suffering and pain and hurt, no matter
who is experiencing it, and respond with love, compassion, and tenderness. And
to love God, neighbor, and ourselves, is to act on all of the above. Our
neighbors here and around the world are suffering. Humanity is suffering. No
matter what side you have chosen in this terrible war in Israel- Palestine,
humanity is suffering. Humanity is suffering in Ukraine and in Russia. Humanity
is suffering in the Sudan. Humanity is suffering in Mexico. Humanity is
suffering in Lewiston, Maine and in Nashville and Uvalde and Baltimore and
Buffalo. Humanity is suffering, and I’m not saying that all of this suffering
would be alleviated or ended altogether if we just knew how to show ourselves a
little more compassion, if we took the words “as yourself” a little more seriously.
But if we can be compassionate to ourselves, more tender and forgiving to the
mess we sometimes are, then maybe we could be more compassionate, tender, and
forgiving of the mess in others. Maybe self-compassion helps to widen the
circle of love that Jesus called us to follow. Maybe if we could allow
ourselves to be human, then we could remember that even those we might consider
enemies are also human and worthy of the same dignity and respect that we are,
and vice versa. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One final note, when we love God,
we’re not just loving an idea or a concept or even some being in the sky. We’re
loving the One who became like us, who took on our skin and our blood and our
bones, who took on our frailties and our limits, so we could finally figure out
what it means to really be human. And thanks be to God for this, because when
it comes down to it, it is the incarnation, the belief that God became like us,
that keeps me going. It gets me up in the morning. It gets me in this pulpit, even
when I feel that I have nothing to offer, even when I feel as though my faith
has shriveled in the face of humanity’s suffering. God became us because of
love for us so we could finally learn how to love God and love one another and
ourselves. Humanity is suffering, and the Greatest Commandment is needed now
more than ever before. Indeed, it is the only thing that will save us. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Let all of God’s children, all of
humanity, say, “Alleluia.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Amen.<o:p></o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-21720304631504530562023-11-01T08:22:00.004-07:002023-11-01T08:22:33.073-07:00The Things That Are God's<p><b style="text-align: center;">Matthew 22:15-22</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">October 22, 2023</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Way back when in the 1980’s a movie
called <i>The Gods Must Be Crazy</i> was released. It wasn’t widely known in
this country, and I don’t remember even hearing about it until I was in
college. It was very funny movie, although looking back on it, there were a lot
of stereotypes that wouldn’t and shouldn’t play so well anymore. But its
premise and plot has remained with me all these years. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A man name Xi, a member of a remote
tribe who had never encountered industrialized western civilization before, was
out walking one day when a small plane flies overhead. The pilot throws out a
glass coke bottle – clearly the ideas of recycling and not littering were not
part of the movie’s consciousness. The bottle lands, unbroken, near Xi who had
never seen anything like it before. It seems to Xi that this strange bottle had
fallen from the heavens, from the gods. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He picks it up and brings it back to
his people. This small glass object is treated with wonder and amazement. The
people discover that the bottle has multiple uses. It can be used to break open
large fruit. It can be used to roll out dough for baking. The bottle’s mouth
can be dipped in dye and used to decorate cloth. Everyone in the village finds
many ways to use this bottle, this gift from the gods, and with each new use
the popularity of the bottle grows. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Here is the problem. There is only
one bottle. And the people of Xi’s clan begin to fight with one another over
who gets to use this supposed gift from the gods. The desire to use the bottle
leads two women to fight over it, and one woman grabs it and hits the other
woman on the head with it. What had been a gift of great utility has now become
a weapon. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The woman who hit the other is
distraught at what she has done. The whole village is in turmoil. Nothing like
this has ever happened between them before. It’s clear that they don’t have a
mine versus yours mentality, just what is ours is ours. But the introduction of
this bottle changes that. The people realize that the bottle must go. It must
be returned to the gods, even if that means taking it to the edge of the world.
So, Xi, who brought the bottle to them, takes on the task of returning it. He
takes the bottle, and he walks out into a big world, much of which he has never
seen before, and encounters the civilization that we take for granted.
Misadventure ensues. At one point in the movie, Xi is giving paper money as
payment for his help. Money means nothing to him. Just as the bottle turned out
to be a problematic gift, this paper stuff is useless, and he leaves it on the
ground. And watching this, you realize that so much of what we place value on –
things, money – is just made up, artificial. Xi, who had never known anything
but his family and tribe, the land, the earth, the sky, the trees, the animals,
can’t see the value in the money paid to him because in his world it has none.
And the one object that he thought came from the gods caused more trouble and
strife than good for his people. If this was a gift from the gods, clearly the
gods must be crazy. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But unlike Xi, we have lived our
entire lives in a world where money and objects do hold value, where money is
necessary to live. And although economics may play out differently today than
they did in the time of the gospels, economics is economics. Economics and
politics were the underpinning of the society that Jesus lived and ministered
in as well. And that brings us to our passage from Matthew’s gospel this
morning. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">For
the first time in a while, our passage is not centered on Jesus responding to
his questioners with a parable. But our story does involve a confrontation with
the Pharisees. The Pharisees have been confronting Jesus since he came into
Jerusalem and into the temple. But this confrontation is different. Not only
are the Pharisees trying to trap Jesus, the Herodians have joined them. We do
not read about the Herodians very often. In fact, I think this story is maybe
one of two where they are mentioned at all. In a casual reading of this story,
we might just accept their presence without question, but it is significant
that this group we know little about are siding with the Pharisees against
Jesus. Consider the name; Herodians suggests Herod.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Herodians were Jewish leaders who allied
themselves with Herod and the Roman Empire. The Romans were the occupiers, the
alien force who held them and their land under the empirical thumb. Just as tax
collectors were despised and given their own special category for sinfulness
because they collected the taxes demanded by the Roman government, the
Herodians would not have been popular or loved by the common folks. Certainly,
the Pharisees, the religious leaders and authorities of their day, would not
have cared for them. But here they stand together trying to trap Jesus. Their
collaboration gives new meaning to the phrase, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“The
enemy of my enemy is my friend.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Both the Pharisees and the Herodians
hated Jesus. Both were threatened by him. He had been stirring people up for a
long time, but at first, he was just a nuisance, an annoying thorn in their
collective side. Now this itinerant rabbi has become dangerous. So, as Matthew
tells it, they schemed to entrap him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“‘Teacher, we know that you are
sincere and teach the way of God in accordance with truth and show deference to
no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you
think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?’”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus knows what they are trying to
do. The text says that he is “aware of their malice.” Jesus turns the question
back on them. As one commentator pointed out; the question Jesus was asked was
extraordinarily clever, but his response was ingenious. Jesus asks them to show
him the coin that they used to pay the tax to the emperor. They produce a
denarius, and he asks them to tell him whose head and whose title is stamped on
the coin. The emperor’s. Then, Jesus says perhaps some of his most well-known
words. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“Give
therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the
things that are God’s.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Render
unto Caesar what is Caesar’s. Some interpreters have used Jesus’ words to
justify the separation of church and state. That is not a debate that needs to
be waded into in this sermon, but I do think that that kind of political and
religious separation is our modern understanding. Given the context and the
culture of the time, I doubt that anyone listening to Jesus or even the first
hearers and readers of Matthew’s gospel would have thought in those terms.
Religious law was the law. There would have been no separation between the two.
But that is also why the empirical tax was so odious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">This
tax was the Roman census or the “head tax” that was instituted when Judea
became a Roman province. The tax was not only considered unfair, but it also
went against Torah. The land of Israel belonged to God alone. Since Caesar was
a usurper, paying the tax was considered an act of disobedience to God. Not
only would Caesar’s image have been on the denarius, but the inscription would
also have read something like, “In Caesar we trust.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">The
common understanding of Caesar was not just that he was the governing ruler; as
emperor, he was, for all intents and purposes, a god. Paying the Roman head tax
meant that the Jewish people consistently broke the first two commandments.
They put another god before the Lord God, and they used a coin that bore a
graven image. I expect that Jesus fully recognized the irony of the religious
leaders being able to produce this coin which went against the Law, while he could
not. I’m sure that the hypocrisy of the religious leaders having a coin like in
this in the holiest of places, was not lost on Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Yet
even when this passage isn’t interpreted as a reason for separation of church
and state, it is used as a way for believers to find their way through a
complex world that is driven by money. Just give to Caesar what is Caesar’s,
and the rest goes to God. Sounds simple, doesn’t it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But real life is a different beast
altogether. We are, like it or not, driven by money. It is a reality of our
lives. You need a certain amount of money just to survive. If you don’t have
it, survival can be tough to say the least. People come in and out of our
church office on a regular basis needing help with money to pay gas bills and
water bills and electric bills so they too can survive. To be without money is
to know firsthand money’s necessity. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>While I think that money is one critical
element of this confrontation, I also think that what is being called into
question is allegiance. Perhaps when Jesus questioned the Pharisees and the
Herodians about the coin, he was also questioning their allegiance. Who do you
belong to, God or the emperor? What are the things that are Gods? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus was the master at turning trick
questions meant to trap him back onto those doing the questioning. But the
question of allegiance, the question of priorities is also asked of us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who do we belong to? Where does our
allegiance lie? What do we consider to be the things that belong to God? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We might glibly answer that we, of
course, belong to God. Along with that everything we have, everything we are,
everything in God’s creation are the things that belong to God. Yet how does
our answer play out in our daily lives?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I must be honest, when it comes to
my daily life the idea that I belong to God, that everything I am and
everything that I hold dear belongs to God, does not always factor in. When I
make a decision, whether it is about a purchase or what to have for lunch, am I
thinking, “what does this mean considering the fact that all I am belongs to
God?” No. Do I think on a regular basis about how what I do and say reflects my
allegiances? No. As much as I want to live mindfully and intentionally, I know
that I fall short of this repeatedly. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">What
are the things that belong to God? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">What
I’ve come to realize is that this doesn’t stop just with me being mindful of
the things that belong to God. Where the rubber hits the road is what I do with
that mindfulness. If I believe that the things that belong to God are all
things and all people, how do I live that out? How is it reflected in my
actions, my purchases, my consumption? And even more importantly, how is it
reflected in my interactions with others? If I believe that all things are
God’s, than does that include all people? Doesn’t that mean all life holds
value, that all people should be treated humanely and with dignity? Even the
people who have hurt me. Even the people with whom I vehemently disagree. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">The
coin that the religious leaders produced to show Jesus bore the image of Ceasar
on it. But the hands that held the coin bore the image of the One who created
them. We bear the image of the One who created us. And I’ve realized that we
don’t get to choose who bears the divine image and who does not. So, if our
allegiance is to God, than our allegiance must also be to all God has created. What
are the things that belong to God? <b><i>We</i></b> are all the things that
belong to God. Thanks be to God and may it be so. And may it be so. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Let
all of God’s children say, “Alleluia.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Amen.<o:p></o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-48212793905190814002023-10-17T12:35:00.005-07:002023-10-17T12:35:30.619-07:00The Banquet<p><b style="text-align: center;">Matthew 22:1-14</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">October 15, 2023</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Normally I try to begin my sermons
with a clever or pointed illustration that leads us into the passage before us.
But this has been a hard, sad, and frightening week. Too many weeks feels this
way because the news here at home and from around the world is often bad news.
But the terrible news coming out of Israel and Gaza, of the catastrophic loss
of life of both Israelis and Palestinians is horrific. Although it has been
many years since I was there, I vividly remember the people I met and the
places I saw so it feels personal in a way other conflicts have not. Sadly, I
believe the worst is still to come. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So, when I tried to think of a story
or illustration that would move us into this passage from Matthew’s gospel,
nothing seemed appropriate or helpful. It has been a disturbing week, and we
have a disturbing passage before us. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Last week I said that sometimes
there should be a warning label on scripture because scripture can both
challenge and change us. It can also disturb and unsettle us, sometimes making
me as a preacher want to skip the hard stories altogether and preach on
something “nice” instead. But I am convinced we need the hard stories, the
challenging stories, even the painful stories as much as we do the comforting
ones. So, we dig into this parable duly warned.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Matthew’s parables are getting
darker, but the times in which Jesus is telling them are getting darker as
well. The plots to have Jesus killed are fomenting. He is angering the
religious authorities. He speaks truth to those in power, and therefore he is a
threat to those in power. This parable, which is dark and hard to hear, is
right in line with what is happening in the world around Jesus. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The kingdom of heaven may be
compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. <b><sup> </sup></b>He
sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but
they would not come. <b><sup> </sup></b>Again he sent other slaves,
saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my
oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to
the wedding banquet.’ <b><sup> </sup></b>But they made light of it
and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest
seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged.
He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then
he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not
worthy. Go therefore into the main streets and invite everyone you find to
the wedding banquet.’ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered
all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with
guests.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The context in which Jesus is
speaking this parable and the others that we have read is dark. As much as the
crowds around him have lauded him, followed him, sought after him, and
beseeched him, Jesus knows that his ultimate rejection by the world is fast
approaching. As I said earlier, he is angering the powers-that-be. He is making
enemies, and those enemies are plotting to seek their revenge. That is the context
in which Jesus is speaking these parables. But we are dealing with a larger
context as well because Matthew is writing his gospel account to a particular
audience in a particular context too. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Biblical
scholars believe that Matthew is writing to a community in conflict. In his
community, his church if you will, a split is happening. His community is
splintering and dividing. Matthew and those others who have heard the good news
of Jesus and believed are most likely the minority. It seems that the majority
are unwilling or unable to hear or believe the good news, and the result is a
theological and emotional battle for the soul of the community. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Although a similar parable to this
one is found in the gospel of Luke, Matthew takes this parable and makes it a
grave, even sinister, warning. If you do not accept the invitation to the
king’s feast, if you decline, even though you were supposed to be on the guest
list, you will not only be replaced by someone else, but you will also be
destroyed. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And, just as in last week’s parable
of the vineyard, the emissaries of the king who brought the invitations were
not only dismissed, but some of them were also abused, mistreated, and killed.
So it is understandable, sort of, why the king would be angry, but it is still
a struggle – at least for me – as to how to grasp the terrible turn that takes
place in the parable. The king is not only angry. The king sends out his troops
and destroys those who declined, those who murdered the emissaries and burns
down their city. Then, while the city is on fire, others are invited. The party
doors are thrown open to a brand-new guest list. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But as I said, Matthew is writing to
a community that is splintering over who believes and who does not. Matthew
Skinner, a professor at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, and one of the
contributors to WorkingPreacher.org. said that we must read this parable and
indeed this gospel with empathy. We must have empathy for what the community
Matthew is writing to is going through. We must have empathy because in moments
of division and polarization, do we not also wish that those on the other side
of the line might suffer consequences for what we feel are their wrong beliefs
or lack of belief entirely?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">And
while it might be hard for us to consider the possibility that Matthew would be
manipulating this parable to awaken the collective conscious of those in his
community who have turned away from the gospel, that may be some of what is
happening here. Does this mean that Matthew is putting words into Jesus’ mouth
to evoke a particular response from his community? No. But I think Matthew is
putting into words what the minority group of believers in his community must
have felt. We have told you the truth, and you won’t believe, so here are the
consequences … the kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet
for his son …<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">But
while I can by empathetic with Matthew’s community because I know that I have
also been guilty of wishing dire consequences for people I think have distorted
the truth, especially what I believe to be the truth of the gospel, the
violence of this passage is hard to take. That’s an understatement. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When I think about the kingdom of
heaven being like a banquet, I think more in terms of Isaiah’s poetry than I do
Matthew’s stark and violent depiction. I relate more to the imagery of people
from every nation gathered on the Lord’s holy mountain for a wonderful feast, a
feast of celebration and thanksgiving. I have had dreams of feasts like this,
where we sit at the table with friends and family, with neighbors and strangers
who we realize were our neighbors all along, with those who are living and
those who are living in God, and it is the most beautiful and wonderful dream.
But the stuff of my dreams is far from the reality that we are living in the
world today. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>You see as hard as this parable is,
to hear, to read, to understand, to contend with, we also hold it in tension
with what we believe and know about God. What we believe and know is that God
is a God of grace. God is a God of love and mercy, and yes, judgment too. But
judgment in Matthew’s gospel is not so much about punishment as it is on opening
the eyes and heart and mind of the one being judged so that person can change
course and can turn back to God. That does not make this parable any easier to
hear or understand, but it helps – at least a little. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But there is one more piece of this
parable that we have not dealt with yet, and that is this poor, underdressed
wedding guest at the end. What about him and his fate? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This seems to take the parable from
difficult to downright impossible. In my study of this passage, I have heard a
few theories. One is that if we accept the invitation, then we must be prepared
to follow through in every way. Being a disciple of Christ is not just about
saying, “yes,” then sitting back and resting on our laurels. Being a disciple
means striving to live the life we have been called to live, in our words and
in our deeds. If we are going to show up to the banquet, then we must really
show up. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A second possibility is that the
idea of the king representing God is wrong. When it comes to the guest who is
thrown out of the banquet, we must consider that the party goers are us and the
man banished from our communion is Jesus himself. If Jesus, a Middle-Eastern
itinerant, hard truth speaking, temple cleansing, parable telling, welcomer of
society’s outcasts, misfits, and rogues preacher were to show up at our doors,
would we welcome him in? Would we make room at the table for him especially
since he would not look like us or sound like us or think like us? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And if this guest was Jesus, was his
banishment about being underdressed or was it that he refused to clothe himself
in the same violence and vengefulness as all the rest? Maybe it wasn’t so much
that he was underdressed but that he was wearing different clothes altogether? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I don’t know which of these ideas is
technically “correct.” I suppose there is a measure of truth in all of it. But
I do know that when it comes violence – whether in this parable or the violence
that we witness in our world – I want to put on different clothes. I want to
dress myself, head to toe, heart and mind, in the clothing of peace and
peacemaking. To paraphrase Dr. King, violence begets nothing but more violence.
The only way forward is to stop, even if that means I am banished from the
party altogether. The only way forward is to stop and trust that this banquet
of violence is not what God wants for us, for <b>all</b> of us, for <b>all</b>
of God’s children. The banquet God wants for us is the one described in Isaiah
– a rich feast where all people gather at the table on the Lord’s holy mountain
and God destroys death which hangs over all of us like a shroud. It is a feast
where every tear is wiped away, every disgrace is taken away, and we sit at
table together and give our God our thanks and praise. That is the banquet I
long to attend. That is the banquet we all must work for and live for, even die
for. May it be so. May it be so.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Let all of God’s children say,
“Alleluia.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Amen.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-24314761755978758042023-10-11T13:35:00.005-07:002023-10-11T13:35:58.628-07:00The Stone <p><b style="text-align: center;">Matthew 21:33-46</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">October 8, 2023</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Warning
labels are an inherent part of our modern society. It seems that just about
everything we use or consume or touch or even smell has a warning attached to
it. We’ve all seen the pharmaceutical ads where the first 50 seconds of a 60
second spot touts a new medication’s amazing, miraculous, curative benefits, and
then the last 10 seconds are used to list every conceivable side effect. Often,
the side effects sound worse than the illness that warrants the medication. But
if the warnings were not given, whether it’s on a new medication or something
else, there would be a public outcry. It is in the best interest of everyone to
be warned about something potentially dangerous or threatening to our health or
well-being, even when the dangers come with something that may help us in the
long run.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I sometimes think the same should be
true for scripture. A warning label should be pasted both on the outside and
inside cover of every Bible. Before we turn one page of our Bible, whatever the
translation, there should be a warning label. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“Warning
to all readers! You enter these pages at your own risk. Reading may change you.”
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I don’t say this to be irreverent. I
say this because I believe that being faithful means that we must read
scripture on its terms, not ours. It is not easy to do. I would much rather
read the passages and stories in the Bible that confirm my understanding of God
and skip the ones that challenge my preconceptions and firmly held notions. Yet
if I want to be faithful in reading scripture, then I must also read the
passages and stories and parables that challenge me, that push back at me, that
make me struggle. I must read scripture on its own terms, not mine. That is
where the warning label comes in. Reading scripture on its own terms may force
us to not only see God differently, but to see ourselves differently as well.
This passage from Matthew has the power to do both, so you have been warned. We
read it at our own risk. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As I studied this passage, what I
repeatedly read in commentaries is that this parable has been used to justify
anti-Semitism. If we read this story as pure allegory, it is easy to see how
that interpretation has been reached. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">To
better understand the parable itself, we need to understand the scene in which
it is set. Jesus is in the final days before his arrest and crucifixion. He is
in the temple. He is in a confrontation with the Pharisees and scribes, the
religious authorities. They want to stop him, silence him, at any cost. They
have been challenging his authority. Jesus has responded to their challenges
with parables. Our parable today, like another we’ve read in recent weeks, takes
place in a vineyard. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">The
vineyard would have been a relatable, familiar example to the people listening
to Jesus. In this story a vineyard was planted by a landowner. The landowner
plants it, puts a fence around it, digs a wine press, and builds a watchtower.
This was what any responsible landowner, any good landowner, would have done.
He leaves the vineyard in the hands of his tenants and goes to another country.
When harvest time rolls around, he sends his servants to the tenants to collect
his share of the harvest. Again, this would have been standard practice. But
the tenants turn on the servants. They beat one, they kill another, and they
stone a third. Yet the landowner does not retaliate. Instead he sends more
slaves to them, and those slaves are treated the same way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I suspect that everyone who heard
Jesus tell this was thinking that surely the landowner would now rain down
vengeance on the heads of the tenants. It was bad enough that they beat and
killed the first slaves sent to them, but to do that a second time? No
landowner would put up with that. But here’s the twist; not only did the
landowner not retaliate, but he also decided to send one more emissary: his
son. Surely, he thinks, his son will be respected. They won’t harm the
landowner’s own flesh and blood. But when the tenants see the son approaching,
they hatch a plot. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“Let’s
kill the son, and then we’ll receive the inheritance.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">They
seize the son, throw him out of the vineyard, and kill him too. When Jesus
finishes his story, he asks the Pharisees, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“Now
when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">The Pharisees
respond, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“He
will put those wretches to death and lease the vineyard to other tenants who
will give him the produce at the harvest time.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Just as Jesus did in the previous
parables, the question that Jesus asks of the Pharisees puts them in a position
to condemn themselves. The ones who refuse to give the share of the harvest to
the landowner, the ones who kill the slaves and son of the landowner, then have
the audacity and sense of entitlement to believe that the inheritance will
still come to them, are the ones who will be put to a miserable death. They are
the ones who will lose their place in the vineyard to others. The point of the
parable seems obvious. Jesus says it. The Pharisees are the wicked
tenants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If the Pharisees are the wicked
tenants who kill not only the slaves, but the son, then we can see how some
interpreters have made the leap that the Jews are the ones who are sent out of
the vineyard, and the Christians are the new tenants who “produce at the
harvest time.” Reading the parable this way makes it an “us versus them”
scenario. But here is where the warning label is needed. What makes us think
that we – Christians, good church goers, etc. – are always the good guys? What
makes us assume that we are the “good guys” in every story or parable? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Even
more importantly, Matthew was writing to a congregation that was Jewish. Would
he have been preaching their own replacement to them, to his people? I’m not
convinced this parable is about one religious group replacing another, but
about those who are called to be stewards of the vineyard – caretakers and
cultivators – forgetting that call and grasping for power and ownership
instead. The tenants seemed to have been confused as to who exactly owned that
vineyard. The text makes it clear – it wasn’t them. But they were determined to
live as though they owned it, as though they held power over it, and they made
ghastly, terrible, deadly decisions to hold onto that power. And the
repercussions of their decisions would not only haunt them but haunt future
generations as well. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">It
seems to me that Jesus was calling out the Pharisees for forgetting the One to
whom they and everyone else belonged. He called them out for forgetting that
they were called to be stewards, not only of the Law, but of people. They were
not the owners of the Law, but they thought they were. They believed it gave them
power and they abused that power and they hurt God’s children, and that
includes themselves. Jesus challenged the Pharisees and the religious leaders
and all those who thought they knew God’s will and possessed power that only
belongs to God to realize that God was and is doing a new thing. God would not
be limited by their dogma. And God will not tolerate their abuse. Jesus goes on
to quote, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“The
stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus also said, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“The
one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone
on whom it falls.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I have always heard those words as a
terrible and violent punishment, a terrible, violent judgment. Yet maybe it
isn’t a literal judgment. Maybe falling on that stone, the stone, is exactly
what must happen for us to see the truth about ourselves, to see the truth of
bad decisions we make, to see the truth about our own lives and the struggles
that we wage in our own hearts. Perhaps falling on the stone is what must
happen to break open our hardened hearts and closed minds and blinded eyes and
tightly clenched hands. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The stone that the builders
rejected has become the cornerstone.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This isn’t a parable about
destruction for destruction’s sake. This is a parable about God building
something new, using the stone that was rejected by some to be the cornerstone,
the building block for the new thing God is doing. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Yes, this is a hard, hard parable to
read, to hear, to understand. But hearing the truth about us is never easy.
Hearing the truth about our actions, our past, our history is painful. But it’s
also necessary. Jesus was telling the Pharisees the truth about themselves,
about their leadership, about their abuses. He was telling them that he was the
stone upon which they would fall. They didn’t want to hear it. But maybe in
doing this he was also offering them grace. Maybe he was also offering them
mercy, a chance to repent, to turn around, to reorient themselves in the path
God called them to follow. Maybe Jesus knew that he was the stone they must
fall upon for their hearts to be broken wide open. Maybe he didn’t want the
Pharisees, even them, to be destroyed as much as he wanted them to be made
whole. Maybe that’s what we need from this parable as well: a moment of
truth-telling that breaks our hearts wide open and God’s grace that makes us
whole. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Warning to all who would hear these
words. They just might change us. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Let all of God’s children say,
“Alleluia.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Amen.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-70917373892742384272023-10-04T15:34:00.002-07:002023-10-04T15:34:38.812-07:00Make My Joy Complete -- World Communion Sunday<p><b style="text-align: center;">Philippians 2:1-13</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">October 1, 2023</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A Canadian public service
announcement with the hashtag <i>EatTogether </i>came out a few years ago. It
was obviously pre-Covid, that time which feels like a very, very long time ago
when we knew nothing of social distancing. But I remember when I first watched
it thinking, “This is good stuff right here. This is kingdom stuff.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I hadn’t thought about this PSA for
a long time, but for some reason it rolled across my social media this week,
and I watched it again. As I was preparing for this sermon, I looked for it on
YouTube and watched it again, then I watched it a few more times just for good
measure. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is one of the few times when I
wish we had access to a screen, so I could show you this rather than try to
describe it, but I’ll do my best. And if you have access to YouTube, I highly
recommend that you watch this when you can. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The PSA opens with a young woman
coming home from work. She walks into her apartment building with other
residents and everyone except her is staring at their phones, oblivious to
everything and everyone around them. Many people have headphones on or earbuds
in so they can tune out the world even more completely. The doorman sitting
behind his desk is staring into his phone, not paying attention to who is
coming and going. She gets onto the elevator to go to her apartment and it’s
the same thing. There is no interaction, no smiling, no casual chatting as the
elevator makes it journey upwards. The people are only aware of when the
elevator reaches their floor and then they move off, still staring at their
phones. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The woman is clearly bothered by
this. She looks at the people around her in dismay. And when she walks into her
apartment, she finds her roommate, headphones on, staring at her laptop with
her tablet also open beside her. The young woman is frustrated and drums her
fingers on a small table beside the door. That’s when she gets an idea. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The next scene is of this young
woman and her roommate, bringing that table and another small table out into
the hallway. They bring out chairs, and they set the tables with tablecloths
and dishes and utensils and even some candles. They bring out their dinner, and
they sit down and wait. In the next minute the elevator door opens, and a
family – a mother, father, and daughter – step off. The little girl pulls her
mother toward the two women, and they join them at the table, bringing out
their own table and chairs and adding their own dishes of food to the meal.
After this, some guys poke their head out their door, see what’s happening and
join them, doing the same as the earlier family helping the collective table and
meal grow by adding theirs. And so it goes. Neighbors up and down the floor do
the same. People are talking and laughing, shaking hands, sharing food. It is
all lovely. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Then
the little girl crawls underneath the conglomeration of tables and goes to a
door at the far end of the hallway. All talk at the table stops, and all heads
turn her way, wondering what will happen. The little girl knocks on the door
and when it is opened by an older gentleman, she beckons him to come join them.
He looks at the people gathered in the hallway, then closes his door. In a
second it is opened again, and he brings out a bottle of wine and a smoked
sausage and walks with the little girl to join the others at the table.
Everyone cheers and makes him welcome. There is no narration to any of this,
other than a fabulous version of the song, <i>What the World Needs Now</i>. You
don’t hear the conversations. There is no deep voice over explaining what is
happening, but in a PSA that lasts less than two minutes, you watch as
strangers become neighbors, and neighbors become friends, and bonds are made, and
a meal is shared, and one table is created out of many, and all are welcomed. <i>#EatTogether.
</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">No
matter how many times I watch this PSA, it never fails to bring tears to my
eyes. It reminds me of family meals growing up, meals where we could slow down
a little, and enjoy one another’s company, and when – especially after a
celebratory meal – we would relax, and stories would be told and memories
shared even as they were being created. If there was one blessing from Covid
and being in lockdown, its that our family gathered around the table on a
regular basis, and once a week, other members of our family, still within our
bubble, would join us and we would eat together and laugh and love – all around
the table. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">I
doubt that Paul was thinking about a table in his letter to the Philippians,
although food and eating together was certainly part of his theology. But in
this letter, Paul is writing from prison. It may be that his life will soon
come to an end. But Paul does not bemoan his situation. Instead he sees it as
another opportunity to advance the gospel. Yet Paul must have realized that
this might be his last opportunity to write to the church in Philippi, to
encourage and exhort the people there, so he writes this letter, and he
encourages the Philippians to remember that being disciples of Jesus the Christ
goes against the grain of the world. The values to which disciples ascribe are
often countercultural to the values proclaimed by the world. What the Roman Empire
states as being important – getting ahead, keeping up with the Joneses, or the
Caesars as the case may be, individualism and isolationism – are not the values
that are important to those who would follow Christ. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">To
underscore all of this, he uses in our verses today what is believed by
scholars to have been an ancient hymn, what is often referred to as the Christ
Hymn. Paul begins this part of the letter by writing, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">“If
then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any
sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of
the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do
nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as
better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to
the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">And
then Paul weaves in the words from what must have been the hymn. Words that
affirm that even though Jesus was the human incarnation of God, he didn’t
believe that his divinity was something to be used or exploited. Instead he
humbled himself. He emptied himself. He took on the role of slave and became
obedient to the point of death, even a criminal’s execution on a cross. So,
those who would follow Jesus the Christ, those who would seek to be his
disciples in the world must be willing to do the same. We must be willing to
humble ourselves, to not think that we are better than others or above others
regardless of our worldly situation. We are to approach life and each other
with humility. We are to have the same mind as Christ and share that same mind
with each other. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Now
these words are beautiful, but they can also be tricky to interpret. They have sometimes
been interpreted to mean that every Christian must think exactly alike. And if
we don’t, if we think differently from one another, then somebody must be
wrong. When it comes to interpreting these words about humility, we must be
careful as well. There are people who have been humiliated by life, by unjust
circumstances and oppression by others. To ask them for humility seems false
and wrong. Paul’s urging for humility as also been interpreted as meaning that
a “good Christian” should never think about themselves, their own needs, or their
own welfare. Instead they should be a doormat for the world, and the truth is
that when it comes to this interpretation, it has often been used against
people who are already treated like doormats by others. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">I’m
not convinced that Paul meant for his words to be interpreted in this way. I
don’t think he expected every disciple to think the same way. That would be
uniformity, not unity. I don’t think he wanted people to be humiliated or to be
treated like dirt for the sake of Christ. Instead, I think Paul wanted disciples
to recognize that true humility is not about self-degradation but about seeing
that God’s world is much bigger than our one, limited perspective can grasp.
Maybe true humility is not about telling ourselves that we’re losers and others
aren’t, that we are low and they are high, but about reminding ourselves that
we could be wrong. Someone we may wholeheartedly disagree with could have a
truth to share. Humility is understanding that there is no work too low for us
to do, and that we are all on the same road together, trying to walk the same
walk. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">And
that brings me back to the table. You see what I love about World Communion
Sunday is the image I have of people all around the globe gathering at a table
and sharing some form of the bread and drinking some version of the cup, and
repeating the words that we will hear in just a few minutes: that when Jesus
took the bread and the cup of wine, he infused these common, everyday elements
with a deeper meaning and asked those at table with him to remember him. When
we gather at this table, we too are called to remember him; to remember how he
lived his life and how he approached his death and how God pulled him from the
grave to new life, and in doing so, did the same for us. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">And
today, whatever the time zone, whatever the style of church or sanctuary, whatever
the style of table – grand or simple, however the elements are presented,
people around the world are remembering, and they’re recommitting to the walk,
to this shared journey, to imitating the mind of Christ, the humility of
Christ, so that the good news continues to be shared and so this world can be
better for all of us and all creation. That is the power of the Lord’s Supper
and what we do this day. And that is the power of this table. If we can see one
another through this table, not just today but every day, and if we can
remember what Jesus did and does and will do, than we come closer to sharing
the mind of Christ. Then we will truly live lives of humility and obedience and
love. When we come to this table, may we remember, may we grow in faith and
love, and then may we leave this table and go out, living and loving likewise, making
God’s joy complete. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Let
all of God’s children say, “Alleluia.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Amen.<o:p></o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3898190691200856938.post-55639664354951201672023-09-07T08:30:00.003-07:002023-09-07T08:30:15.341-07:00Stumbling Block<p><b style="text-align: center;">Matthew 16:21-28</b></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">September 3, 2023</b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is late in the second half of the
musical, <i>Hamilton,</i> and the tension on the stage and in those of us
watching is sky high. A song begins. What has happened before this moment has
broken the hearts of Alexander and Eliza Hamilton. It has broken the hearts of
those of us watching. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The song is <i>It’s Quiet Uptown</i>.
The Hamilton’s have moved uptown where it is, according to the song, quieter,
maybe a little more peaceful. They have relocated because Alexander Hamilton
has revealed publicly that he has been unfaithful to his wife, Eliza. That was
heartbreaking enough, but their oldest son, Philip, has just been killed in a
duel defending his father’s honor. And it is in this song that we feel the
fullness of this grief. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">“There are moments that the words don’t reach. There is
suffering too terrible to name.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">You hold your child as tight as you can and push away the
unimaginable. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">The moments when you’re in so deep It feels easier to just
swim down. The Hamiltons move uptown and learn to live with the unimaginable.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is a beautiful and heartbreaking
song. I suspect all of us could name some loss that seems unimaginable, even a
fear of loss that we think we cannot wrap our imaginations around. We claim our
feared loss is unimaginable, not because we can’t actually imagine it, but
because we don’t want to. It is unimaginable because imagining it is too much
to bear. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I wonder if this is how Peter felt
when he heard Jesus speak of what it meant to be Messiah. I wonder if Peter
could imagine Jesus’ words being true. Maybe he could imagine them too well,
too vividly. And that’s the reason he began rebuke Jesus for what Jesus was
saying. He could imagine the Messiah going through what Jesus was telling them
the Messiah must go through. But Peter didn’t want to imagine it. He couldn’t
bear to imagine it. To imagine what Jesus was telling them was true was to
overturn his every belief in what the Messiah should be and do. Maybe Peter
could imagine it, but he didn’t want to, he couldn’t bear to, he refused to
imagine. He refused to hear Jesus, believe Jesus. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>From building rock to stumbling
block, Peter traverses at lightning speed the distance between being praised
for his confession of Jesus’ true identity as Messiah to being rebuked by Jesus
as the embodiment of Satan when he failed or refused to grasp what Jesus was
telling him about the true meaning of Messiah. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Surely, it wouldn’t take much
imagination to understand what Jesus is saying. Jesus is not just hinting at
what may happen, possibly, if he continues his current trajectory. Jesus is not
speaking in riddles. Jesus is not giving the disciples clues to a word puzzle
they must decipher. No, Jesus tells them plainly, from that time on that he
must go to Jerusalem. Once in Jerusalem, he must undergo great suffering at the
hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and that suffering will lead
to him being killed, and on the third day after he is killed, he will be
raised. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Say what?!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Peter cannot believe what he is
hearing! He has just told Jesus that he is the Messiah, the Son of the Living
God, and Jesus told him that he was correct. Jesus told him that God worked
through Peter to reveal that truth. Jesus told him that he will be the rock on
which his church will be built. But now Jesus is saying terrible things about
going to Jerusalem and suffering and dying and something about rising again,
which makes no sense, because dead is dead. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I can imagine how Peter must have
looked at hearing these words. He must have become agitated, shaking his head,
clenching his fists. Maybe he squeezed his eyes tightly shut, as though he
could force the words Jesus spoke <b>not</b> to take shape in his mind if he
didn’t see Jesus with his eyes. I imagine there was something like a roaring
sound in Peter’s ears; wave after wave of denial. It’s not true,
nottruenottruenottruenottrue. Then an even greater wave of anger and fury
rushes over him. What Jesus is telling us cannot be true. What Jesus is telling
us will not be true!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>No! No, Jesus! No, no, no, no, no!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Stop saying these things. Stop
saying these words. You are the Messiah. I just said it. I just confessed it.
You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. I said living God? Living not
dying, not dead. The Messiah is not supposed to suffer. The Messiah is supposed
to make our enemies suffer. The Messiah is not supposed to die. The Messiah is
supposed to put our enemies, the ones who have oppressed us for so long, to the
sword. No, Jesus, no!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“God forbid it, Lord! This must
never happen to you.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But Jesus is not messing around, He
is not playing games. He is not trying to make them guess what will happen
next. He is trying to make them understand, to see, to imagine the full truth
of what it means to really be the Messiah. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Get behind me, Satan! You are a
stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things, but
on human things.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>From building rock to stumbling
block. The Greek word for stumbling block is <i>skandalon</i>. It is a deadly
snare, a moral trap. Can you hear the word in English that we get from this?
Scandal. What Peter said was scandalous. Jesus rebukes Peter just as Peter
rebuked him, and he calls him a <i>skandalon</i>. By refusing to imagine, by
seeing what the Messiah must be as unimaginable, Peter is not only something
that will trip up others, but he will also serve as a deadly snare that will
misdirect others to his wrong way of thinking. Peter can only see human things.
He cannot see divine things. And in this instance, the divine things are what
we as humans most dread: suffering and death. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But this was not the end of Jesus’
rebuke. Listen, he told the disciples, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“If any want to become my followers,
let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who
want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake
will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but
forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is finally where the rubber
hits the road. This is finally where the disciples must come to grips with the
fact that if they truly want to follow Jesus, if they truly want to learn from
him and walk in his steps and witness to his message of the kingdom of God,
then their fates are inextricably bound with his own. He will go to the cross
and sacrifice his life for the children of God, and they are going to have to
deny themselves and pick up their own crosses and do the same. You want to save
your life, Jesus tells them, then you’ll end up losing it. But if you are willing
to lose your life, you will end up having more life than you could have ever
dreamed of. You could turn away from me now and gain the whole world, but in
the end, you will forfeit <b><i>your everything.</i></b> Can you imagine it?
Can you imagine that these are the divine things I am speaking of? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Peter,
the building rock, was focusing only on human things. He could not grasp that
the Messiah had finally come, only to be told that the Messiah would ultimately
die. He could not, would not imagine that life would come from death, that
resurrection would come from a cross. He could not, would not imagine that in
denying himself and picking up his cross, he would gain everything. Jesus may
have predicted that Peter would be a stumbling block, a <i>skandalon</i>, to
others, but in this moment, he was equally a stumbling block to himself. My
question is, are we our own worst stumbling blocks as well? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Like
Peter, I don’t want to hear words about death or denial or suffering. I don’t
want to be reminded that to truly follow Jesus, I have to pick up my own cross
and bear its weight. I just don’t. I want to hear about happy things and words
that are filled with sweetness and light. I can imagine the other, I just don’t
want to. That is a <i>skandalon.</i> That is a stumbling block. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">This
dramatic scene between Jesus and Peter and the other disciples is not the first
time that Jesus has shown his true self. Jesus has been showing them his true
nature all along. They have seen it in his healing of so many people, in his
teaching and preaching, in his willingness to sit at table with people no
respectable rabbi would ever dine with. They have seen it in his willingness to
speak truth to power, and to buck the letter of the Law so that the spirit of
the Law can be fulfilled. They have seen Jesus walk on water and still storms.
These were not parlor tricks. These were not done just to get their attention.
Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. And because Jesus is the
Messiah, that means that everything he has said and everything he has done, and
everything he will say and do, is about revealing what the divine things truly
are. He has been stretching the disciples’ imagination all along. The kingdom
is already here, in your midst, he’s told them. Can you imagine it? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">The
kingdom of God is not based on human values of success, it is based on love,
God’s love. Love that is a verb not a noun. Love that does the hard work of
truly loving others, even the ones who are the most other of all others
possible. God’s kingdom is based on compassion and mindfulness and making sure
that everyone is fed, and everyone has enough. God’s kingdom is where the meek
and the poor and the mourning are blessed and loved and comforted. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Can
you imagine it? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">The
kingdom of God is where both justice and mercy reign. It is where
righteousness, not self-righteousness, abides. The kingdom of God is not where
the oppressors finally make room at the table for the oppressed, but where a
whole new table is created for everyone. The kingdom of God is where the
abundance of God and God’s love and grace and mercy is finally understood and
realized. Can you imagine it? Can we imagine it? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">Jesus’
words are good news. Because they call us to imagine what the world might look
like if we did what he said we must do: deny ourselves and pick up our crosses.
Jesus calls us to imagine beyond the suffering and death, beyond our belief
that the kingdom is only found on another plane of existence, and to see it
right here and right now. Can we finally imagine these divine things? Can we
imagine? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">There
is a final verse to the song, <i>Its Quiet Uptown</i>, that does not erase the
heartbreak of the unimaginable, but that offers hope in the midst of it. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">“There are moments that the words don’t reach, there’s a
grace too powerful to name. We push away what we can never understand. We push
away the unimaginable. They are standing in the garden, Alexander by Eliza’s
side. She takes his hand. It’s quiet uptown. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Forgiveness. Can you imagine? Forgiveness. Can you imagine?” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Can we imagine? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Let all of God’s children say,
“Alleluia.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Amen.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Amy Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06216980604765946039noreply@blogger.com0