This is Fine

Matthew 24:36-44

“But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

I KNOW that none of you would ever do this, but I worry.  Even while I know that God has the whole world in those infinitely capable Divine hands, I still tend to take on all of the world’s, the church’s, and life’s worries and carry them around with me, being crushed all the while into a depressed pulpy mess.  In the churchy world, doing that is called… SIN… because it’s not trusting God to be God.  In the secular world, trying to carry around all of the world’s, the church’s, and life’s worries is called… well, DUMB… because worrying about things beyond our control is a waste of time and energy. 

It appears, however, that I’m not alone in my IN-ability to resist doing this.  A lot earlier in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus tells us we shouldn’t worry any more than the wildflowers worry.  Then, here in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that NO ONE, not even Jesus, can know about Jesus’ return.  Jesus reminds his disciples and you and me that when it comes to the universe and all of creation, God really is in control… and that God, believe it or not, can, AND DOES take care of ALL things AND because of that, we really don’t have to worry.  

God really does, like the old Sunday School song says, have the whole world in those divine hands.  So us trying to do God’s job and carry the weight of the world isn’t a faithful way to live.  BUT… there’s alway a “but” isn’t there… us completely checking out from the needs of those around us and sticking our fingers in our ears and shouting lalalalalalala while our neighbors are in pain… that isn’t a faithful way to live either.  

There is, it turns out, a faithful middle way between pointless worry and irresponsible escapism.  Working toward that balance is actually one of the goals of the season of Advent.  It’s a time to focus and practice living in a way that holds the pains of the world around us in one hand, but balances all of that by holding the infinite power of God’s promise to make all things new, firmly in the other.  

THAT’S what it means to KEEP AWAKE.  Being AWAKE, is walking that middle path between worrying so much you are crushed into inaction by the weight of the world’s troubles and pretending the world is completely trouble free.  Being AWAKE is BOTH being honestly aware of the world around you… aware that there are things like injustice, systemic racism, misogyny, and hate AND ALSO not allowing that reality to crush you to a point where you can no longer allow Christ’s light to shine through you and make a difference in places where you can actually make a difference… in the lives of people you encounter each day.  

Advent is a time in the church year set aside to focus on and practice that balance.  On this early end of Advent we hear stories that make us AWAKE again to the realities that life is unpredictable, often unfair, and much too often, painful as well.  On this end of Advent we are made AWAKE to the realities that you can be at work one day with your friend and in the blink of an eye that friend has died and your everyday reality has been instantly changed forever.  But then, on the other end of Advent, we hear stories of Immanuel… God with Us.  Stories that remind us that God's Light shines in the darkness and there is NO sort of darkness that can ever overcome it!  Advent reminds us that you and I… we are called to live in that balance.  

So, each week in Advent we receive the Light of the World in, with and under the bread and the wine.  Then each week we are called to bring the light we have received here, out into the world and let it shine through the cracks of our imperfect lives, and into the lives of those who cross our paths.  We practice not allowing ourselves to be crushed by the weight of the world’s troubles by not trying to do life alone and resisting the temptation to just pull the covers up over our heads and hide away... both of which make it equally difficult for the light we’ve received to shine out into the world.  

So in Advent we practice being AWAKE… by taking intentional time to pause, notice and discern if the pain and difficulties and randomness of life we are encountering in each moment of our day is something we can address with love and generosity OR if it is of a size and shape that just needs to be turned over to God who is always present and always at work.  By intentionally deciding to practice the art of being AWAKE in these four weeks, we can hone our skills at seeing where we can genuinely make a difference in the world around us AND where we just need to let go of things that are beyond our control. 

Like any other skill, being AWAKE, becomes easier with practice.  The more we practice, the more second nature being AWAKE becomes and the more we will find we are living in that sort of peace which passing all understanding.  This Advent, practice being AWAKE because honestly, even pros still practice, and really, who couldn’t use just a little more peace in their lives these days?  I know I sure could!  Amen. 

Christ the King - The Antifa Feast

Luke 23:33-43

When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. [[ Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’]] And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!’ The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’ There was also an inscription over him, ‘This is the King of the Jews.’

One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’

In 1922 Benito Mussolini Marched on Rome and was appointed Prime Minister by King Victor Emmanuel III.  In 1923 The Acerbo Law was passed which manipulated election results to favor the Fascist Party.  In 1924 the Fascists, unsurprisingly, won the general election.  In January of 1925, Mussolini declared himself dictator and then, in December of that same year, Pope Pious XI published the encyclical Quas Primas which is Latin for “In the First” which introduced the Feast of The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.  Also known by it’s nickname… Christ the King Sunday.  

Coincidence?  No way!  Check out what Pope Pious wrote, “as long as individuals and states refuse to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations.”  He argued that “we must look for the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ” if the world was to have real peace.

Now at this point we could get really irritated with Pope Pious’ Christian exclusivism.  We could roll our eyes at the irony of a Pope who sits on a throne attempting to lead a 1920’s version of a No King’s Rally.  We could also be irritated by the very “male” baggage that comes with the word “king” and the fact that many still justify their rabid misogyny by pointing to “Christ the King”. 

However, since the primary thing Pope Pious XI saw and reacted to in his day looks FRIGHTENINGLY like what we’re seeing in our country a century later, I’m inclined instead to note that Pope Pious XI was firmly rooted in his particular time and culture and not exactly the Interfaith minded Feminist I would have liked him to be, AND… and… he also wrote in this encyclical that, “bitter enmities and rivalries… hinder the cause of peace” and that “insatiable greed” hides under the “pretense of public spirit and patriotism.”  That patriotism, a thing he said was of “noble virtues and so many acts of heroism” could be perverted into an “extreme nationalism” and lead us to forget that we are all part of “one human family” and that nationalism could lead us to dismiss the idea that “all people have the right to life and prosperity.”

Which is why I'm not in favor of just throwing this Pope, his encyclical, and this Feast Day out with the century old bathwater.  Because, as I look out the front window of the Rectory I see dozens of American flags planted in the park across the street and grow increasingly concerned that our American Patriotism which was indeed “of noble virtue and acts of heroism” has turned into malignant nationalism.  I see our country’s own secret police sowing fear and terror and am forced to conclude, as Pope Pious did in his time, that our extreme and growing nationalism has led this country to forget that all other human beings are our siblings.  I see the bitter enmities and rivalries hindering peace in our congress and in our communities.  I can’t help but see an insatiable greed among the obscenely wealthy and their political enablers hiding under a pretense of patriotism.  

Pope Pious, 100 years ago, was not where I find myself today when it comes to Ecumenism, Interfaith-ism, or Feminism and, I imagine, we'd likely disagree on a number of other “isms” as well!  In spite of that, he had some real wisdom we would do well to hear today.  He taught that it is not our loyalty to earthly kings, emperors, kaisers, presidents, political parties or doctrines that will lead the world to peace, but it is walking a path of sacrificial love as Jesus did from the seemingly power-less position of hanging on a cross that will guide the world to a genuine and lasting peace.  

While I suspect Pope Pious would have said that WAY of walking was a “Jesus exclusive” and must include the confession that “Jesus is Lord” I would argue that it is the DOING of what Jesus did and the LIVING as Jesus lived that makes the actual, world changing difference, regardless of how it gets labeled!  So, if confessing “Christ is King and Jesus is Lord” helps you stand up against fascists and tyrants and search out the lost, feed the hungry, embrace the foreigner, lift up the maligned and shelter the demonized, then by all means confess it!  If you search out the lost, feed the hungry, embrace the foreigner, lift up the maligned and shelter the demonized but don’t want to make that confession… Okay!  Because whatever it is that you need to say or not say, confess or not confess that leads you to speak truth to power, put a candle on a candle stand in defiance of the stormy darkness, advocate for justice, lift up the trampled, heal the sick, reunite the estranged and raise the dead… I say… YES PLEASE!  DO THAT!

For me, proclaiming Jesus as Lord and Christ as King helps me push back on the pressures of a nation that demands that I succumb to living in bitter rivalry, embrace a malignant nationalism, abandon civility and honor, and forget that all of humanity is my neighbor.  At it’s core, I believe THAT is what Pope Pious meant for the Feast of The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe to do for us.  SO, may we take the parts of this Feast that help us resist Fascism’s siren song and embrace radical love and justice… and then… just let the rest of the language that doesn't work for you go.  Because in the end, it will not be the words we use, but the lives we live in love for our neighbor that will ultimately change the world.  Amen. 

Holy Heavenly Air Fryer of Justice

Luke 21:5-19

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, Jesus said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them. “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. “But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.

What do you WANT these lessons to be about?  Here’s what I WANT them to be about.  I WANT them to be about God showing up like Rowdy Roddy Piper did in the 1988 film “They Live” and I want God to live out the famous line from that movie: “I’m here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I’m all out of bubblegum.”  I WANT these lessons to be signaling God’s coming with the Holy Heavenly Air Fryer of Justice to crisp-ify the arrogant and the evildoers!  THAT is what I WANT these lessons to be about!  

There’s only one problem with that.  That is absolutely NOT what these lessons are about!  I know… Dang it!  It turns out what they ARE actually trying to tell us is that when we inevitably encounter arrogant evildoers (who happen along in every generation) and when, throughout history, we see people creating famine, and when natural disasters invariable happen, and when the powerful in every age perpetuate war just to stay in power… What these lessons are REALLY telling us is that NONE OF THAT is signaling God’s Coming with a Cosmic Toaster Oven or any other sort of Divine Kitchen Appliance of Smite, to broil, bake, blend, julienne, or fry anybody.  

But wait… it gets worse!  Because what these lessons ARE telling us, is that the way to deal with all of that horror… is to wait with endurance.  I know!  Not at ALL as satisfying as God sending “arrogant evildoers” for a spin in the Cosmic Cuisinart!Less satisfying.  But honest.  Now, the danger in hearing that we are called every day to wait, even while the world around us is falling apart or worse, being torn apart, is that we will make the mistake of confusing “waiting” with “inaction.”  That’s the mistake that some of the people in the second lesson were making.  You see, Paul believed that Jesus would return… and Paul believed it would happen before dinner THAT day!  Every day he woke up and HONESTLY expected Jesus to be standing there with a cup of coffee and a smile!  So, Paul passed that “its gonna happen literally any minute” expectation on to the people in Thessaloniki and some of those people took that so much to heart that they stopped EVERYTHING they were doing… they stopped working, stopped caring for their families, stopped caring for their neighbors… they stopped LIVING!  All they did was lay on the church lawn, look up at the sky, and wait for Jesus.  They honestly thought, THAT was faithful waiting.   

The second lesson was Paul’s correction of that particular misunderstanding and instructions on how we ARE supposed to wait.  We are called to wait in a way that gets you called before governors and kings.  You don’t get called before governors or kings for just lying on the lawn, dreaming about Jesus returning.  You get called before governors and kings because you’ve been waiting for Jesus by ACTIVELY and insistently living the Jesus Way out in the world!  It’s the ACTIVE loving of God… It’s the ACTIVE insisting on the dignity of the least, lost and last in our community… It’s the ACTIVE loving of our neighbors, feeding the hungry and giving the cold a warm place to stay… It’s THAT kind of ACTIVE waiting that gives governors and kings fits.  

Waiting as Jesus and Paul have called us to wait means living as Jesus lived, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, housing the homeless, caring for the widow and orphan and it is doing that work with endurance… doing what we can in a way that we will be able to do it today, and tomorrow, and the next day and the next… making what often feels like only a tiny, and often almost imperceptible difference, with an endurance that spans a lifetime.  It means working on justice like the Colorado River works on the Grand Canyon.  The Jesus Way is not a sprint.  It’s a relay race of back to back marathons, run by a multitude of runners over decades, centuries, even millennia…  each handing the baton off to the next one running the race.  

Nobody knows what’s going to happen next.  If someone tells you they do, they’re trying to sell you something you don’t need!  All we CAN know is that our hunger and thirst for justice is God’s own desire, and we are to wait for that justice by living the Jesus Way… actively doing what we can to share God’s love with the folks we run into each day right here in our everyday lives.  We are called to wait the Jesus Way… seeing Christ in our neighbors when others see our neighbors as “foreigners” or “enemies” “threats” or “terrorists”.  We are called to wait the Jesus Way, not sprinting a marathon but as Bishop Tutu said, “Doing our little bits of good where we are; because it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”

Malachi did not say God would swoop down and chuck all the arrogant and evildoers in an oven.  Malachi said the day is coming, burning like an oven, when the arrogant and evildoers will be stubble.  The way we get to that promised day is by waiting the Jesus Way, doing the little bits of justice and kindness we can wherever we find our feet walking humbly on each particular day… DOING THAT, we have been promised, will do nothing less than change the world into the world God desires, and THAT is what we are called to do.  Amen.    

Ideas vs. Beliefs

Luke 20: 27-38

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.” Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”

The Sadducees were a sect of Judaism which only accepted the first five books of Moses.  They didn’t believe anything anybody had tacked onto those five books: no prophets, no history, no psalms, no angels, no resurrection of the dead, no nothin’.  They were very conservative, very wealthy, very powerful, and very faithful folks who didn’t want to hear about any “new” ideas because everything they did was correct and right just the way it was.  Thank you very much!

 

Which is why the question they had for Jesus in the Gospel today wasn’t a genuine question, but bait for a trap.  They weren’t looking for an answer.  They HAD the answer… the right answer… the only answer… and that answer was that this new fangled idea about there being a “resurrection of the dead” was just plain nonsense.  It was nonsense to them just like Jesus’ other wack-a-do ideas about justice, the poor being lifted up and the rich being cast down, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and caring for the outcast and foreigner.  The Sadducees, with a genuine belief as strong as anyone’s, thought it was all new fangled, human invented nonsense! 

Now, if that’s how they wanted to do religion… if that’s the way that worked for them… honestly… I’d just say go for it!  It’s not MY way!  I personally like those new fangled ideas like “the prophets” and “psalms” and “resurrection”, but I’d be fine letting it be THEIR way if we could all just leave it right there.  The trouble came because they couldn’t just leave it right there, could they?  They weren’t content saying “This is the way for ME.  You’re welcome to join in… or not… your choice, but I’m sticking with MY way.”  Instead they insisted that THEIR WAY be everybody’s way and if you couldn’t be converted you needed to be eliminated.

The Chief Priests and Scribes just a few verses earlier had tried to trap Jesus with a question as well.  “Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to the Emperor or not?”  If Jesus had said “no, don’t pay taxes” they would have turned him into the Romans as a rebel.  If he had said “yes, pay taxes,” they would have turned him over to the people as a traitor.  Again, they were simply baiting Jesus because his ideas challenged their beliefs, and they, like the Sadducees, simply wouldn’t be content doing their thing while someone else did something different.  They too insisted that THEIR WAY must be everybody’s way and if you couldn’t be converted you needed to be eliminated.

   

The Pharisees were yet another group who knew what they believed was right.  They KNEW the coming Messiah would think like them, talk like them, and live like them.  When Jesus showed up and didn’t think, talk, or live like them, they could have just said, “Hey, we don’t think you’re the Messiah, but you do you and we’ll just keep looking for our Messiah over here.”  They could have done that.  But they didn’t.  They too insisted that THEIR WAY be everybody’s way and if you couldn’t be converted you needed to be eliminated.

You see the REAL problem these stories reveal, right?  The real problem was never what the Sadducees, Chief Priests, Scribes, or Pharisees believed OR didn’t believe.  The real problem isn’t what the Roman Catholics, other Protestants, Jews, Shiites or Sunnis believe… The real problem isn’t what Buddhists, Sikhs, or even Zoroastrians believe or don’t believe!  This Parable is here to tell us that the REAL problem is NOT what people believe or don’t believe.  The REAL problem is insisting that MY belief must be your belief and if someone won’t be converted, then they need to be eliminated!  THAT, I think, is what Jesus wanted the people to take home with them.  Historically speaking, things like the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, and the 100 Year’s War are pretty good evidence that people DIDN’T take that message home, but I think that’s what Jesus WANTED them to take home.  

So, Pastor Erik, does that mean you believe anything goes?  Okay, so everyone’s clear and I don’t have to deal with being brought up on charges of heresy on top of all the other things going on in my life right now, let me say this:  I, William Erik Karas, am a full fledged Jesus guy.  FOR ME… Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  FOR ME… the Trinity… in particular the irony that the Trinity is a mystery I can’t fully wrap my brain around… hits right for me.  Is the Jesus Way the ONLY Way?  Well, since I just told you I can’t even fully wrap my brain fully around the mystery of what I BELIEVE, I don’t think there’s any chance I could say one way or another if there might be other ways for other people!  

All I am able to say, is that FOR ME… the idea of the Jesus WAY hits ME as TRUTH and I’ve found that the better I manage to follow in Jesus’ footsteps as I walk through this thing called life, the more abundant this thing called life seems to be for me.  So, if folks want to walk along this WAY with me for a bit and see if that idea hits right for them too… Great!  If folks want to do something else… Rock on!  Because the way I figure it… If God didn’t send Jesus into the world to condemn the world… and I’m trying to follow Jesus… it’s a pretty sure bet I haven’t been sent into the world to condemn it either.  Amen. 

Attempted Murder

Luke 6:20-31

Then Jesus looked up at his disciples and said:

 “Blessed are you who are poor,

  for yours is the kingdom of God.

“Blessed are you who are hungry now,

  for you will be filled.

 “Blessed are you who weep now,

  for you will laugh.

“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

 “But woe to you who are rich,

  for you have received your consolation.

 “Woe to you who are full now,

  for you will be hungry.

 “Woe to you who are laughing now,

  for you will mourn and weep.

  “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

“But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

A group of cows is?… a herd.  A group of fish?… a school.  A group of flamingos? … a flamboyance.  A group of three or more crows?… a murder.  A group of two crows?…  an attempted murder.  A group of Lutheran pastors?… that’s a Conference.  A group of Episcopal Priests?… a Clericus.  At my last Clericus I had a revelation.  It wasn’t mystical… more mathematical.  I realized I’m now the oldest, active, Episcopal Priest and Lutheran Pastor in Berkshire County… ordained in the last century!  Now, I’ve still got a lot to learn, but I’ve also picked up a couple things since I started this work way back in the late 1900’s!   

In this “Clericus” the other clergy were rightly angry over the federal government’s treatment of the poor.  They knew that when Jesus said, “Blessed are the Poor” it wasn’t a spiritual poverty he was talking about… it was a “not enough money to live” kind of poverty.  They knew too, that when Jesus said “Woe” that the word “Woe” in Jesus’ day was used then in the same way the middle finger is used in our day.  In Luke’s Beatitudes… Jesus was NOT messing around!  God has a distinct preference for blessing the poor, the foreigner, the widow, the orphan, the hungry, the persecuted, and those who weep… and God’s preference is to bless them OUT of those terrible situations!  Those who work with the Divine to lift people OUT of their troubles are doing Holy work.  Those who throw people into poverty, hunger, and terror… are doing evil.  Jesus could not have been more clear.

My colleagues knew that’s what Jesus was about in these Beatitudes and were ready to charge into battle with an all out frontal assault.  But what the old guy in the room wanted them to do was to ALSO look at the piece of scripture we get with the Beatitudes here for All Saints Sunday that we DIDN’T get when we had Luke's Beatitudes back in February.  Both times we get the full list of blessings and woes but here in November, we get them with an added How-To Manual.  It’s that How-To Manual I wanted my colleagues to consider, because the world these days is different.  The evil these days is different and in that How-To Manual Jesus recommends confronting evil, in times such as these, in ways that are different.  Ways that are cunning… sly… even a bit tricksy.  In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus sends the disciples out in times like these as “Lambs into the midst of wolves” and tells them to be “as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves.”

Here in Luke’s Gospel.  Jesus tells them that if anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.  But this isn’t Jesus calling us to ask for more abuse.  In Jesus day, a person of status would strike their “inferior” with the back of their right hand.  To “offer the other cheek” was to sarcastically invite that person to hit them with the palm of their hand, and in doing so, elevate them to the status of an equal.  In Jesus day, the only clothes people wore were a shirt and a coat.  When a person came to collect a debt and all the person had was a coat and a shirt to their name, the debt collector would take their coat, but if you gave them your shirt as well that would leave you naked!  To us in our culture that would be shameful.  But in THAT culture it was MORE shameful to CAUSE someone to become naked in public than it was to BE the one who was naked in public.

What I wanted my colleagues to see… what I want us all to see… what I think Jesus wants us to see… is that we are being called not ONLY to join with the Divine in blessing the poor, the foreigner, the widow, the orphan, the hungry, the persecuted, and those who weep… OUT of the evil they have been cast into!  But ALSO, in times like these, we are called to do that work in ways that are smart, strategic, crafty, and even a bit sneaky.

 

You see, in these increasingly horrible times I don’t think we have the luxury of doing that work with a brand new frontal assault born out of white hot rage and blind passion each time we encounter injustice.  In times like these we need to think strategically and if we are, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, but to drive a spoke into the wheel itself” we need to be cunning in the use of our time, tactics, and resources.  We need to lend our support to people and organizations who are experts in Blessing people out of evil rather than reinventing something someone else has already perfected.  The evil we face these days is Legion.  You and I are called to bless our neighbors out of that evil but always while “doing to others as we would have the do to us” so we never fall into the temptation of doing evil to fight evil.  Instead we must bring blessings and proclaim “woes” with the cheekiness of turning the other cheek and the shamelessness of whipping of our shirt when asked for our coat.  

Bishop Desmond Tutu once said, “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”  Milton Berle said, “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”  I think what Jesus is saying in this Gospel is, “If someone is knocking on the door with bits of good, don’t waste your energy building a new door!  Just open the door they're knocking on!”  May we all be strengthened to continually do those little bits of good, and may we do them with all the cheekiness and shamelessness these times demand.   Amen.   

A Friend in Low Places

Psalm 46

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.

God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns.  The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.

The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Come, behold the works of the Lord; see what desolations he has brought on the earth.  He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.

“Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.”

The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Very little feels like solid ground these days.  Rock solid things have been shaken right down to their roots.  The usual ebb and flow of good times and hard times, now seems stuck in relentless-raging-storm mode.  Black masked secret police are in our streets.  People think about the Ann Frank House, not as a historical place to visit in Amsterdam, but as model for remodeling their basement here in Sheffield.  I can’t remember a time where more people felt so tossed and battered by the world.  The storms are deadly.  They feel unending.  The earth changes, the mountains in the seas shake, the chaos of the sea rages and the solid earth that you thought you could always count on is shaking.  But today’s Psalm contains a promise from God for times such as these:  The God of Jacob (that’s the God that wrestled with Jacob in the river and gave Jacob the new name of Israel) THAT God, is with us, through it all.    

Julian of Norwich, a nun back in the 1300’s was tormented by the raging storms in her world.  Why was there sin, brokenness, tumult, and all the horrors rampaging though the world?  In a vision, Jesus spoke to her saying:  "It was necessary that there should be sin; but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well".  This was Jesus reminding Julian of the truth of today’s Psalm, that there is no storm… no amount of unbelievable brokenness… up to and including even death itself that will keep us from ending up right where God wants us to end up… in joy and peace, light and life.  

The hard part is remembering to keep your eye, not on the storm, but on Christ.  I have trouble with that, but to be fair, even the disciples had trouble with that!  Do you remember the story of Peter wanting to walk on water?  He wanted to walk to Jesus across the water, so Jesus told him to come on!  The chaos of the sea was kept firmly under Peter’s feet when he kept his eye on Jesus.  But when his focus moved onto the chaos… when the storm became his focus, rather than Jesus… that’s when he was sunk.  

We’re living in a time where people work very hard to move our focus onto the chaos.  Media these days is built and finely tuned for the purpose of turning our focus onto the chaos… to sink our heads in the raging storm.  We try to simply to stay informed but end up doom scrolling in worry, hate, and vitriol.  Inevitably, like Peter, we end up drowning in it.  Which is one more reason why we ALL need reminding that the shaking mountains, raging seas, and even drowning in the sea is NOT the end of the story!  Even after Peter sank into the chaos of the ocean, he got pulled out.  The Lord of Hosts was with him.  The God of Jacob was his refuge.  Jesus pulled him out… Jesus ALWAYS pulls us out, no matter how deep into the world’s STUFF we might have sunk.  So, as Julian was reminded by Jesus, all will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.

All WILL be well… BUT… there’s always a but, isn't there?  Even though all WILL be well… and it really WILL be well… that doesn’t mean the raging seas and the shaking mountains are set to all magically disappear.  Jesus didn’t dry up the ocean with magic to rescue Peter.  He reached right INTO the depths of it and pulled him out THROUGH it!  All WILL be well.  That is true.  The God of Jacob IS with us.  That is true.  But it is also true that the noise of the shaking mountains and raging storms in our world is not going to magically disappear over night.  

Julian of Norwich, after her vision of Jesus reminding her that all will be well, had another vision.  It was a vision of the devil attacking her… trying to take away the hope she saw in Christ.  I know, I’m not a big fan of a personified devil either, BUT sometimes, giving a NAME to hard-to-pin-down things like, chaos, fear, doubt, and insecurity can be a very powerful way to fight against those shadowy forces.  The finite name of “The Devil” can remind us that everything that brings darkness, chaos, and storms into our lives is finite as well!  All of it has limits.  All of it has an end…  and no matter how the chaos and darkness rages, the God of Jacob IS our refuge AND all will be well, AND all will be well AND all manner of things will be well. 

Martin Luther’s own struggles with the storms that raged around him in his world plagued by chaos inspired him to set this same Psalm to the tune of a popular beer drinking song.  He knew his people needed an easy way to remember that the God of Jacob was their refuge.  I wonder every year at this time what beer drinking song of our time I should set this Psalm to so that we might be easily reminded of that very same thing.  Tom T. Hall’s “I Like Beer” or maybe Garth Brooks’ “Friends in Low Places”…  can you imagine?  But honestly, if it would help us remember the truth… that no matter how much the world rages, God’s got me.  God's got you.  God's got US…  If it would help us remember that all WILL be well, and all will be well and all manner of things will be well!  That the Lord of hosts is with us.  That the God of Jacob IS our refuge.  If it helped us remember THAT… well, a new tune for Psalm 46 might just be in order.  Amen.