Steadfast Love and Faithfulness

Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

   

A couple of weeks ago we heard the story about God and Abraham standing on the road outside of Sodom while God contemplated what to do with that grotesquely inhospitable city.  There, in the middle of the street, Abraham asked if God would stay true to Their Divine Character, even when dealing with this obscenely inhospitable city.  Would God continue act out of Hesed… out of Steadfast Love and Faithfulness… even when facing something so genuinely awful?  

Both of todays lessons ask of us, the very same question Abraham asked of God.  Will we stay true to reflecting the  Divine Character of Steadfast Love and Faithfulness even in our most challenging times… even when life presents us with things that are heartbreakingly horrible?

It was looking into the rabidly inhospitable city of Sodom that presented this question to God.  It was royal-level wealth, an inheritance worth arguing about, and a billionaire farmer’s bumper crop that presented this question to the characters in today’s stories.  But what asks the question is not meant to be our focus.  The question could have just as easily been asked by the loss of a loved one, a devastating diagnosis, a chronic illness, or even by a spouse’s return to rehab.

The questioner isn’t important.  The question is.  Will we, EVEN in life’s most devastatingly difficult moments, be true and reflect the Divine Character of Steadfast Love and Faithfulness no matter what?  In those horrible times will we continue to move our lives TOWARD our loved ones, our neighbor, toward our community, the stranger, the foreigner, and toward those who the world calls the least, the lost and the last…  Because when we live TOWARD the other, putting their needs before ours… this lesson, this parable, and honestly, a HUGE chunk of Scripture… both Old and New Testaments… all make it clear that when we walk our lives in THAT direction… when we stay true to reflecting the Divine Character of Steadfast Love and Faithfulness… we will find ourselves walking in the fullness and abundance of life even as we encounter the most horrible things imaginable.  When we walk in that direction… when we go with the Divine Flow… when we stay true to our calling to reflect the Divine Character of Steadfast Love and Faithfulness… we find life to be abundant and never ending, no matter what. 

If, however, in those horrible times we are drawn away from reflecting the Divine Character of Steadfast Love and Faithfulness… If we start pushing against the Divine Flow, and walking away from our neighbors, away from our community, away from the stranger, the foreigner, and those the world calls the least, the lost and the last… this lesson and this parable, and honestly a HUGE chunk of Scripture… both Old and New Testaments… all make it clear that when we stop reflecting the Divine Character of Steadfast Love and Faithfulness, when we go against the Divine Flow, when we walk our lives AWAY from our neighbor, we end up with a life that is filled with a fear, shame, defensiveness, hatred and anger that sucks the life we’ve been given right out of us.

The first lesson catches the king in that realization.  It’s not his money, work, or power that are his problem… it’s that his vanity has led him to stop reflecting God’s Steadfast Love and Faithfulness into the world.  His vanity has him swimming against the Divine Flow.  His Vanity has led him to walk deeper into himself and away from his neighbor and THAT is what has left him sliding ever deeper into despair.  

Likewise in the parable, bumper crops aren’t the problem.  Rather its the direction the man is now living as he obsesses about his barns.  His obsession has distracted him from reflecting Steadfast Love and Faithfulness toward his neighbors.  Walking into his worries and AWAY from the other… walking AWAY from his neighbors drains the life right out of him to the point where “that very night”, he walks himself right out of the last bit of the life he’s been given.

You and I are called by God to live our lives reflecting the Divine Character of Steadfast Love and Faithfulness into the world, walking the Jesus Way, or Going with the Divine Flow.  We are called to live that way NOT out of a fear that God will GET US if we don’t.  God doesn’t work that way!  That wouldn’t be true to God’s true character of Steadfast Love and Faithfulness, would it?  No, God calls us to live this way OUT OF God’s true character of Steadfast Love and faithfulness!  God calls us to walk the Jesus Way toward the other, live our lives going with the Divine Flow so that we might live into an abundance of life that no horribleness we could ever encounter could ever take it away.

Honestly, that’s the entire take home message, not just of these lessons but of a whole giant chunk of Scripture.  Put your ego on a shelf, haul down your defenses, open yourself up to God’s unconditional gift of Steadfast Love and Faithfulness and begin to walk this life you’ve been given as a reflection of that same Divine Steadfast Love.  Walk this life you’ve been given the Jesus Way… toward your neighbor… toward the other and the King in Ecclesiastes would tell you, THAT is real wisdom… Walking your life THAT way, Jesus would tell you, is the WAY.  Walking your life THAT way you will experience this life as this life was intended to be lived… filled with abundance, peace, love and joy no matter what horribleness we inevitably encounter along the way.    Amen.  

We Live in Sodom. How do We Live in Sodom?

Genesis 18:20-32

Then the Lord said, “How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin!  I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me, and if not, I will know.”

So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham came near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?  Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it?  Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”  And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.”  Abraham answered, “Let me take it upon myself to speak to my lord, I who am but dust and ashes.  Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”  Again he spoke to him, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.”  Then he said, “Oh, do not let my lord be angry if I speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.”  He said, “Let me take it upon myself to speak to my lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.”  Then he said, “Oh, do not let my lord be angry if I speak just once more. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.”

What did Sodom and Gomorrah do to make God so angry?  It was never homosexuality.  To make it be about homosexuality you have to do some very dishonest, openly prejudiced, and intentionally manipulative Biblical interpretation to get there. The sin of Sodom was NEVER about homosexuality.  The sin of Sodom was ALWAYS about being pathologically inhospitable.  They were unwelcoming and uncaring.  They didn’t care for the least, the lost, or the last… and they provided the OPPOSITE of a generous welcome to the foreigner and stranger.  

THAT was why God was on that road overlooking the city with Abraham.  God had heard the people of Sodom were cruel for cruelty’s sake.  I suspect the people of Sodom believed their cruelty… their being inhospitable… their meanness… I suspect they believed those things made them powerful, made them important, made them GREAT.  If you want to point to the story of the men of Sodom wanting to gang rape Lot’s heavenly visitors as the reason God was ready to destroy Sodom, the only honest way to do that is as yet one more piece of evidence that the people of Sodom were being horribly, violently, inhospitable… which again… was and is the true sin of Sodom. 

So, as God and Abraham stood on the road, overlooking the city of Sodom, Abraham didn’t question God about the sinfulness of Sodom’s being embarrassingly inhospitable and rampantly cruel.  On that point, the two seem to be in total agreement from the get go.  What Abraham asks of God… what Abraham prays for God to do… is to act, even in this horrific situation, faithfully out of God’s true nature.  “You’re still going to be the God you really are, right?” Abraham asks.  “Even as you address the horrors happening in this city, you are still going to be the God of steadfast love and faithfulness… right?”  

Abraham was hoping and praying, that the God he had come to know would not slay the righteous with the wicked.  Would not throw the baby out with the bathwater.  Abraham was praying that God would, for the sake of fifty, then forty five, right on down to ten… Abraham was praying that for the sake of ten people… for the sake of a minyan… for the sake of the smallest possible faith community that could possibly exist in the city… if a minyan existed, Abraham was praying that God would not destroy it.

Abraham had come to know God’s character as something best described by the Hebrew word “Hesed.”  In the Psalm we had today Hesed was translated, as it often is, as Steadfast Love.  Today's Psalm is a prayer of thanksgiving, where the Psalmist is thanking God for doing exactly the same thing Abraham is asking for… the Psalmist is thanking God for acting faithfully out of God’s true character… with Hesed.

 

Hesed is the way Abraham asks God to deal with Sodom because steadfast love, righteousness, kindness and compassion are what Abraham had come to know as God’s genuine character.  Hesed is who God is and Abraham asks God to be true to the Divine self.  As the rest of the Biblical narrative unfolds we continue to be shown God’s true character to be one of Steadfast Love and then we are continually called, as God’s people, to emulate God’s character in the world.  God calls God’s people to reflect the Divine character of Hesed and does so for two reasons.  First, because God knows Steadfast Love is the way for the world to be whole, at peace, full of health and wellbeing, a place of purpose, kindness and hope just as God intended it to be in the beginning… and second, God knows that by living lives of steadfast love, loving kindness, compassion, and mercy we become living witnesses to those around us of God’s true nature.    

We live in a time and in a place that is embarrassingly inhospitable and rampantly cruel.  We live in a country where compassion is seen as weakness, where empathy is called a sin, where people are snatched off the streets by masked secret police, persecuted, reviled, and hated.  Some say those things show the world we are Great!  I say… God says… those things show the world we are living in Sodom.  The question for us today then is, “How do we do it?  How do we live in Sodom?”  

The first answer to that question is “in community”.  It wasn’t ten random, disconnected, individuals Abraham bargained for.  It was a minyan, an intentional, purposeful, regular gathering of the faithful.  The first rule of how to live in Sodom is that we can only survive here if we are part of a community.  The cruelty will simply consume us if we try to go it alone.  Community is essential.

The second rule for living in Sodom is to live each day as an active, intentional witness to the true nature of God.  We must keep living differently.  We must take on God’s true character of Steadfast Love every day and then share it with the world around us all day long.  Living a life of Hesed is the way to live surrounded by cruelty but not be consumed by it.

May we continue to gather in community, partner with other communities gathered by Hesed, care for one another, and welcome others, now more than ever.  May we together, continue to reflect God’s light of Steadfast Love into the darkness of this world through those, small yet powerful corners of kindness, and may we pray, as Abraham did, that because we know the God of Steadfast Love, we… and our world… will be changed for good… and soon!  Amen

Waiting, Watching, and Welcoming the Promise

Genesis 18:1-15

The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. He said, “Oh yes, you did laugh.”

The Lord (singular) appears to Abraham.  Abraham looks up and sees three men (plural) standing near him.  So what did Abraham see?  Did he see ONE or did he see THREE?  Do we have this story this way because the people who first wrote this story down were just terrible at telling a story and keeping their characters straight in a way that made any logical sense, OR… OR… did they include both (The Lord, singular, AND three men, plural) because they were they trying to tell us something important?  

Some would say that Abraham and those original story tellers WERE trying to tell us something important, and that “something important” was the doctrine of the Trinity but that’s not something anyone would even began DREAMING about until several THOUSAND years after Abraham.  So THAT, clearly, was not the important thing Abraham and the original story tellers were trying to tell us.  

Unfortunately, that puts us right back where we began, with the question:  Were Abraham and the writers just super sloppy story tellers who couldn’t keep their characters straight OR were Abraham and those original writers trying to tell us something important.  Honestly, I think if it had been just sloppy story telling some editor along the way would have either picked “The Lord” OR the “Three Men” and done away with the sloppiness.  But… BOTH are still in there.  SO… I don’t think we have a case of sloppy story telling.  I think this strange contradiction was indeed left in, on purpose, to tell us something important.  The question then, is WHAT were Abraham and those original story tellers story trying to tell us?

The most honest answer to that question is, “no one can ever know what was in their minds,” but, for what its worth, here’s what I think they were maybe trying to tell us:  Number 1.  God Shows Up and when God shows up the impossible is made possible and a future opens up where there was no future before.  And Number 2.  When God shows up there is absolutely no telling where or when that will happen, what that might look like, how the Divine might appear, or if our tiny human brains will even begin to process that we are, in some profound new way, in the presence of the Infinite.

The promise of this story is that when GOD SHOWS UP the impossible is made possible, and a future is created where NO possible future existed before.  Sarah was 90 and Abraham was 100 and together they were supposed to have been creating an entire future nation together.  The impossibility they faced however was that at 90 and 100 respectively, their respective nation-creating bits were impossibly well past their best-used-by-dates.  This was the impossibility they faced.

Now I’m guessing that isn’t precisely the impossibility that you are facing today but God’s promise here doesn’t just cover procreative impossibilities.  It covers every personal, relational, national and international impossibility as well.  Is there a genuine, full on, unfixable, impossibility that you are facing today?  Me too.  Are you looking for a future today and seeing nothing but but a complete void of total darkness?  Yeah?  Me too.  This promise then, is also for us.  The promise is that God shows up and when God shows up the impossible is made possible and a future is opened where before there had been none.  The Good News in this story is THAT… is EXACTLY… the promise we have.  

The second important thing this story is trying to tell us is that as we wait for God to show up… and apparently waiting is part of the story… we should keep it in the very front of our minds that the way God will choose to show up is entirely up to God!  Will God show up as One… or Three… or Both… or maybe as a party of seven that needs a highchair?  There is no way to know!  Will God will show up in a way that aligns perfectly with our favorite theology, or in complete alignment with our orthodox doctrine, or championing our preferred dogmas?  There is no way to know!  What will God will look like?  What will be the color of their skin, their eyes, their hair… will God have hair?  There’s no way to know!   How will God identify?  What will be their preferred pronouns?  Will our tiny little human minds be given even the tiniest of clues that THIS ONE standing there right now, is THE ONE?  I Don’t know!

I think THAT was the point of keeping both The Lord and The Three Men in this story.  That contradiction hangs on in this story to remind us that we will NOT know which one we meet along the way will be God, showing up with our desperately longed for promise.  So what do we do?  We do what Abraham and Sarah showed us to do.  WE WELCOME THEM ALL… with the enthusiasm, generosity, graciousness, and the sense of humor we would lavish on the Divine if we were sure it was Them!  WE WELCOME THEM ALL giving each person we meet the very best we have, knowing that we will never be able to tell which one might be God, but also knowing that God WILL be showing up.  So we wait, and we watch, and we WELCOME THEM ALL until the day comes when God DOES show up as promised and makes the impossible, possible and opens up the new future that I, we, our country, and our world… most desperately needs.  Amen.  

Dude is Straight Up Trollin' Jesus

Luke 10:25-37

An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

But wanting to vindicate himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and took off, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came upon him, and when he saw him he was moved with compassion. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, treating them with oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him, and when I come back I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

This man stood up to “own” Jesus.  He wasn’t interested in gaining knowledge, having a conversation, or deepening a relationship.  This man was straight up trollin’.  He ONLY wanted to dominate, defeat, and publicly humiliate Jesus.  He wanted to “own” that hippy, lib, preacher named Jesus.  So he asked the most politically charged question he could think of for his time, in the most incendiary way possible, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

If this encounter happened today the question might well  have been, “what should we do about all these illegal Mexican murderers and rapists?”  People who ask questions this way don’t ACTUALLY want to know what ANYONE else thinks, they aren’t looking for a conversation, common ground, or a solution.  They’re just looking to set up their target to shock them with their cruelty.  For people who ask questions like this, cruelty is the point.  People who act this way and ask questions like this are the smallest, most insecure, most incredibly fearful, tiny little men who inhabit this planet and Jesus was simply not having it!   

THIS is the first lesson for us from the Parable of the Good Samaritan.  When trolls invite you to a fight, YOU DON’T HAVE TO GO!  Really!  You don’t HAVE TO GO to every fight you are invited to!  You are allowed to RSVP and say… Um… NO!  NOT COMING!  THANK YOU… but NO!  When someone trolls you, whether its in person, on the TV, or on a screen and they say, “Come over here and let me clog your Spirit.”  Hear the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and heed the first lesson of this Parable… DON’T GO!  JUST DON’T!  DON’T GO GETTIN’ YOUR SPIRIT CLOGGED!  You don’t have time for your Spirit to be clogged!  The world doesn’t have time for your Spirit to be clogged!  Ain’t nobody got time for that!

Because Jesus chooses NOT to go to the fight he’s being invited to, he instead answers this troll’s question with another question, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?”  Well, says the troll, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.”  Jesus says, “You have given the right answer.  Do that.”

But here again we see trolls aren't interested in solutions or answers.  They aren’t even interested in the right answers they themselves give!  The only thing this troll wanted was to “own this hippy lib preacher” so he asks another trolling question, “And who is it that deserves my help?  Who is it that matters… who counts as a person in this country?  Who is my neighbor?”  Again, all questions asked for the sole purpose of setting up this hippy, lib, preacher to be “OWNED”.

But again, Jesus isn’t having it!  Jesus refuses to fight this troll but instead flips the question from “who is my neighbor” to, “who, in this story, is BEING a neighbor?”  The troll was obsessed with pointing his finger and blaming the “OTHER” insisting we talk about “THOSE” people… but Jesus said, “Nah, let’s talk about the guy your other three fingers are pointing back at instead.”  

This is the second lesson of the Parable of the Good Samaritan.  Jesus knows the troll is obsessed and outraged with how he believes the OTHER is affecting his life.  But Jesus knows the ONLY person this troll has any chance of changing is the one he sees in the mirror each morning.  The person this troll sees in the mirror simply isn’t qualified to answer the question, “Do THEY deserve help?”  The ONLY question the person in the mirror can answer is, “Have I been a helper?”  That person in the mirror can never answer the question, “Is that OTHER person worthy of my help?”  The ONLY question that person in the mirror can answer is, “Have I been a worthy helper?”  That person he sees in his mirror can never answer the question, “Does THAT person’s status qualify?”  The ONLY question the person in the mirror can answer is, “How is my status at being a good neighbor?”  The person he sees in his mirror can never answer the question, “Is THAT person by the side of the road my neighbor?”  The ONLY question the person in the mirror can answer is, “How am I doing at being a neighbor to that person by the side of the road?”

“Who is my neighbor?” is a troll’s question.  It is asked by small, insecure, frail men whose demons demand targets, not truth.  Jesus invites the troll… and along with that troll… Jesus invites you… and me… into different questions… NOT questions focused on the OTHER, but reflective questions for the person in who lives our mirror.  “Has the person in my mirror this evening been a good neighbor today?  Will the person in my mirror this morning be a good neighbor in the day ahead?”  THOSE are questions the faithful ask.  THOSE are questions that help us become the people God created us to be.  THOSE are the questions that help us check to see if we are actually LIVING this life we’ve been given or if our demons have us just trolling our way through it.  Amen.

Shake that Sh!^ Off Your Shoes!

Luke 10:1-11,16-20

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way; I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on that person, but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’

“Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”  The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. Indeed, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

These days we all feel trampled by a herd of stampeding wolves.  I know real wolves don’t stampede, but bad-budget-bill wolves, war wolves, racist wolves, concentration camp creating wolves, science denying wolves and the rest of the whole horrible pack are stampeding these days like crazy!  But even though our country today has more wolves than the New York subway has rats, Jesus IS NOT calling us in this story to fight the wolves.  Jesus is calling us to go out like lambs into a world filled with wolves… and do something else… look for, find, and be with fellow People of Peace.  

 

A friend was invited to a party.  He asked, “Can I bring anything?”  “Sure!  How about dessert?”  Arnie made fudge brownies… from scratch.  Fancy ones with Flakey Sea Salt!  He baked them, topped them with the fancy flakey sea salt, and on Saturday at the appointed hour he rang his friend’s doorbell.  One problem.  The party was on Sunday.  He was exactly 24 hours early.  What do you think happened?  Some laughs?  Yes.  A little poking fun?  Yes.  Then what?  You guessed it, they all sat down together and had a brownie!  Why?  Because SCRATCH MADE FUDGE BROWNIES WITH FLAKY SEA SALT!  That’s WHY!  AND… and… because Arnie had found some fellow people of Shalom… people of hospitality… people of generosity… people of wholeness… People of Peace.

An Appalachian Trail hiker named Jackrabbit wrote in his blog that the last big Trail Magic he had encountered had been a month ago in Virginia.  Because of that, his expectation for Trail Magic in Massachusetts was “low”.  But then he wrote, “After… hiking not even an hour, the Trail Magic drought was over. A sign off a road crossing advertised trail magic a short ways down a field.  I followed the many signs denoting the path, each advertising “burgers and hot dogs”, “smiles” “shade”, and “kindness”.  I was giddy at finally getting to be a pampered hiker again, and was lead to a huge tent with burgers, hot dogs, chips and cookies.  I sat down for a bit, chatted with trail angels and hikers, enjoyed my food and got hiking again.”  And WHY did his Trail Magic drought end?  Because BURGERS AND HOT DOGS, COOKIES AND SNACKS, ALL UNDER A GIANT TENT!  That’s WHY!  AND… and… because Jackrabbit had found, sitting under that tent, people of Shalom… people of hospitality… people of generosity… people of wholeness… People of Peace.

Jesus sends us out into a world he acknowledges is overrun with wolves but NOT primarily to battle the wolves.  Jesus sends us out primarily to make connections like Arnie and Jackrabbit did!  Jesus knows most of us are not equipped to directly control the wolf population.  If you ARE equipped to do that, then by all means DO THAT, but Jesus knows most of us are not.  Most of us ARE, however, in a position to seek out fellow People of Peace in a wolf-ravaged world.  Jesus knows that once we find other People of Peace, if we would just sit down for a bit, not work each other up into a panic, not get into an all-fire hurry, eat a brownie with flaky sea salt, throw a burger on the grill, or crack open a drink, we would find that in that time together we will have given one another something the wolves know nothing about… PEACE.  We’ll have sat together experiencing SHALOM.  We’ll have spent time in each other’s company and when we spend time in the company of other People of Peace we will discover that WHOLENESS is given, received, and even flows out into the world.  In those moments, in the company of other People of Peace, THAT is where we will be able to FEEL and SEE and KNOW that the Kingdom of God, really has come near.  It is in those moments, in the company of other People of Peace, that we become aware that we do NOT actually live in a world overrun with wolves, but it is actually within the Divine, that we mystically live, and move, and have our being.  

Will our search for other People of Peace always turn out as well as it did for Arnie or Jackrabbit?  Jesus says… IT WILL NOT.  In spite of Burgers, Big Shade, and Brownies (even brownies with Flaky Sea Salt), Jesus tells us we will inevitably run into the wolves who are NOT predisposed to Peace… NOT sympathetic to Shalom… NOT aware of their hunger for Wholeness.  Jesus’ advise for those times is for us to NOT let those wolves poop on our Peace or (pardon my French) shit on our Shalom!  AND Jesus says, we are absolutely, positively, NOT, under any circumstance, to carry their crap with us down the road, stuck to the bottom of our shoes!  We are to shake that shit off our sandals immediately!  Hose that crap off our shoes!  Rinse all of that wolf dirt and dust and dung off of our souls… and THEN… move on… having let ALL of it fully and completely GO… we are to return to the work we HAVE been called to… searching for and being with fellow People of Peace. 

Our wolf problem is Legion and what do we do?  We worry.  We scroll.  We rant.  We drag wolf poo around on our shoes everywhere we go!  Jesus calls us away from all of that and back to the work that Jesus knows WILL make a difference… finding other People of Peace… gathering with them in community… spending real time together… sitting with others in Shalom… checking each other’s shoes… cooking a burger… sharing a brownie… creating an environment into which hope might fly in and brush against our cheeks.  

Jesus is calling you and me out of our self-destructive wolf-worry and back to the work of finding and being with fellow people of peace, because THAT is where the WHOLENESS WE ALL NEED is waiting for us!  THAT is where we will begin to FEEL and SEE and KNOW that the Kingdom of God, really has come near, and THAT is where we can remind one another that it is the Kingdom of God come near… that is, even now, changing the world from being overrun with wolves, back into the world God created it to be.  Amen.