Look Up, Lean In, and Live!

Luke 21:25-36

“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. 

“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

“Drunkenness” I get. “Worries of this life” I also get… by the bucketful.  But “dissipation”… that one I had to look up. Dissipation, it turns out, is wasting stuff or squandering things. Spending money, time, or resources and getting nothing in return. It’s basically running around like a chicken with your head cut off! It’s spinning your wheels. It’s spending tons of energy but not making any progress. It’s not all bad though, because “dissipation” is also how the brakes on your car work. You push the brake pedal and your brakes change forward momentum into heat which is then lost or “dissipated” into the atmosphere. Now, hold onto that last definition in particular while I tell you something you already know.

  

We live in fairly horrible times. I told you it was something you already knew! We live in a time where I’m daily tempted to say, “The day is surely coming, says the Lord” and I’m not talking about the good stuff coming either!  It’s a time where it feels like watching the news blots the sun out in the sky and there is not shortage of distress among nations! We live in a time where we are overwhelmed by noise. Noise so loud it’s like the roar of the sea! Like a never ending set of waves crashing over us, knocking us off our feet, over and over again with wave after wave of tear gassing children, racism, hatred, mass shootings and all the rest. It makes us faint from fear and foreboding.

One of the ways folks handle this modern, 24 hour news-cycle-apocalypse of horrible-ness, is the same way folks in Jesus’ day tried to handle it… with drunkenness and worry! Even today, folks try to drink it, shop it, medicate it, or eat it away. A friend recently shared a magazine cover that promised  you could even “decorate” the troubles of the world away for the holidays! So living in ways that try to escape the crazy horrible-ness of the world is one way to deal with life out there.  

And it turns out that just like in Jesus’ day, some folks also try to use dissipation. As the crazy train of life barrels down the tracks, folks are tempted at to pull the world’s emergency cord, get the engineer to slam on the brakes, so we can get off in some idealistic bygone era. A time when our far-from-accurate memories remember things were better… when the world wasn’t so frightening… back to a time when things were GREAT. Unfortunately, brakes mean “dissipation” and when folks try to slam on the world’s brakes, all that crazy energy of the world barreling down the tracks on this runaway train we call life, inevitably gets turned into white-hot heat which shows up as hatred, anger, bigotry, racism, violence and rage.

Neither escaping the world nor dissipating the world’s crazy turns out to be the faithful ways Jesus recommends for dealing with a troubling world, either then or now. Neither numbing ourselves NOR trying to grind the world to a halt will bring us the peace we all so desperately desire. Instead, Jesus says the way to deal with a world barreling down the tracks through crazy town after crazy town, is to STAND UP, RAISE YOUR HEADS, LOOK UP and SEE your redemption drawing near… Jesus says, we need to LOOK UP, LEAN IN and LIVE! 

Each alert, headline, and piece of breaking news begs us look down at our phones, look down at the headlines, and look down at this world and fully plumb the depths of it’s  horrible-ness. But with heads constantly down, we end up festering in it… immobilized. Jesus tells us instead to “LOOK up!” Because when we raise our heads and look up, what we’ll see is that Christ is present among us… standing right beside us… even in all this mess!  And in some mysterious way, God in Christ, is making even this crazy, horrible-ness into something new! 

That’s one reason each week some guy in an attention grabbing outfit, stands up there, with a shiny bald head, holding a shiny silver patten, and a shiny silver chalice as high as he can. So that everyone (including the joker holding all that silverware) might be challenged to LOOK UP from the screens and the papers and the worries of the world and SEE that in some mysterious way, Christ really is RIGHT HERE… with us in the bread and wine, making even this insane crazy-train of a world new again with light and love and life.  

It’s also one of the reasons we give each other a sign of God’s peace for so long that it makes some of us introverts itch… because sharing the peace asks us to LEAN IN and see Christ in the eyes of the people we greet. In one another’s eyes, we’re reminded again and again that we are not alone. It’s also one of the reasons we shout, “Thanks be to God, Alleluia, Alleluia!” at the end of our worship. Because when we LOOK UP and see Christ rising in our midst… when we LEAN IN and see Christ alive in the eyes of our neighbors and when we hear one another shout Alleluia! We’re both inspired and empowered, not to ESCAPE the world or try to stop the world and get off, but to jump right INTO THE WORLD… right smack dab into the deep end of the crazy, and SHOW the world what it looks like to really LIVE this life we’ve been given! We shout “Alleluia!” because God has chosen US, to jump into this pond we call our world and let the ripples of our lives lived in kindness, compassion, generosity and love radiate out from this place far beyond where we might ever be able to see or imagine.

The world doesn’t need us hiding in fear. The world doesn’t need us trying to grind it to a stop. The world doesn’t need us looking for signs in the stars or the moon or in headlines or in breaking news. What the world needs… is for each and every one of us to LOOK UP, LEAN IN AND LIVE the life we’ve been given as a gift from God. To jump into the world with an Alleluia cannonball that will soak all of creation from head to toe with the power of God’s love, transforming even this current world’s horrible-ness into a life of abundant joy for ALL of creation. Our call for this Advent is to LOOK UP, LEAN IN, AND LIVE! Amen.

Sing It!

1 Samuel 2:1-10

Hannah prayed and said, “My heart exults in the Lord; my strength is exalted in my God. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in my victory. “There is no Holy One like the Lord, no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry are fat with spoil. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low, he also exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and on them he has set the world. “He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness; for not by might does one prevail. The Lord! His adversaries shall be shattered; the Most High will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king, and exalt the power of his anointed.”

Let me catch you up on the story behind “Hannah’s Song” which we read for the first lesson today.  Elkanah had two wives.  Peninnah had children.  Hannah didn't.  Elkanah loved Hannah though and gave her extra food at the annual Temple meal hoping that would get God to give her a child.  He was actually trying to help… but he’s a guy, and you know guys, so Hannah knew more was needed.  She went to the Temple to pray and promised if she had a son she’d give her son to serve God.  Well, her prayers were answered with the arrival of her son, Samuel.  When Samuel was just a little bit older, she brought him back to the Temple to be a servant of God with the priest Eli.  

As she left the Temple, THIS was the song she sang into the darkness of the world.  You see, the world Hannah lived in sang a different, loud, and obnoxiously insistent song.  A song that told women they had no worth and women without children were worth even less.  A song that demonized the poor and hungry.  A song that demanded that might makes right and those with the might, decides what’s right. The lyrics to the world’s song in Hannah’s day said:  You don’t matter.  You don’t belong.  You’re worthless, hopeless, and meaningless.  THAT was the soundtrack that played through the the lives of the people of Hannah’s day.

But Hannah sang a different song!  And she sang her song right into the face of the world’s song!  And even when the world tried to drown her out… Hannah sang her song even louder, even longer and even stronger… because she sang her song, as a duet with God!  The world’s song was no match for that!  

The soundtrack of Hannah’s day… the lyrics she heard the world sing then… they're all too familiar, even today.  The lyrics of our day still say the poor don’t matter, the hungry should get a job, refugees should go home, and lying is justified if we get what we want in the end.  You know the lyrics to the world’s song.  You can’t help but know them, they’re the most horrible sort of ear-worm.  They're shouted, broadcast, remixed and Tweeted everywhere, everyday in ALL CAPS.  So with the world singing that same old horrible song, we like Hannah, are called to sing OUR SONG into the darkness of OUR world!  So, what song will YOU sing?  What are the lyrics to YOUR song?  What is the song that you will sing louder, longer, and stronger than ANY song the world could ever hope to sing, because you sing it with God!?  

For one of our Canons, Rich Simpson, it’s “Into the Fire” from the prophet Bruce Springsteen:  “May your strength give us strength.  May your faith give us faith.  May your hope give us hope.  May your love give us love.”  Now, just between us, for Rich, it’s not just one song.  It's actually the Boss’ entire body of work!  “Badlands” and “Rocky Ground” and “My City of Ruins” and… well, you get the idea.  But hey, a playlist works!  If you’ve got a playlist… Sing the playlist into the darkness with God!  

For my wife Kelly, her go-to song is “I Shall Be Released” sung by Bette Midler: “I see my light come shining.  From the west down to the east. Any day now, any day now.  I shall be released.” But like Rich she has more of an extended playlist than just one song, but her's leans distinctly in the direction of Broadway!  “You Will Be Found” from Dear Evan Hansen.  “You Are Not Alone” from Into the Woods.  “Defying Gravity” and “For Good” from Wicked… lots of Broadway!  But for her, a Broadway playlist is the perfect thing to sing with God into the darkness!  

For Pam, one of our newer folks here, her song is “No Rain” by Blind Melon:  “I just want someone to say to me, oh.  I’ll always be there when you wake, yeah.  You know I'd like to keep my cheeks dry today.  So stay with me and I'll have it made.”  For Cynthia Wade, who suggested I make a Spotify list of all the suggestions, it’s “Born to be Loved” by Lucinda Williams: “You weren't born to be abandoned.  You weren't born to be forsaken.  You were born to be loved.  You were born to be loved.”  

Others tell me they sing, “What the World Needs Now Is Love Sweet Love” or “All You Need is Love” or “Put a Little Love in Your Heart”… a themed play list is awesome!  Still others sing “Imagine” or “Turning of the World”... “All Good People” or “A Soft Place to Land."  Other play classical tunes by Mozart, Bach or The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughn Williams into their darkness.  For me it’s a Bob Marley tune sung full on with a Jamaica accent, mon!  “Rise up this morning.  Smiled with the rising sun.  Three little birds.  Pitch by my doorstep.  Singing sweet songs.  Of melodies pure and true, saying, ‘this is my message to you.’  Don’t worry about a thing.  Cause every little thing is gonna be alright.”  

So what’s YOUR song?  Any genre, style, tune… a single song or a whole playlist... It all works!  And God is there to sing it all with you!  To help you sing it longer than the long song of injustice the world sings.  To sing it louder than the loudest shouted songs of hatred the world can shout and stronger than the deepest darkness the world can sing.  

What is your song?  What song do you sing to push back the darkness?  Look around you.  You know these folks.  They want to know your song.  They want to know, so when you forget the words, they can help you remember… so when the world is so dark that you lose your voice, they can sing it for you full out into the darkness until your voice returns.  That's who we are here.  We're the Body of Christ, gathered to sing a different song... to sing each other's songs, head on, full force, into the darkness of th world... until the day comes when the dark songs of the world are all drown out, and all that creation will be able to hear are the songs we sing together with God.  Songs of hope, love, peace, joy and abundant life.  Amen.  

Give It All

Mark 12:38-44

As Jesus taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, the War to End All Wars came to an end.  One hundred years ago today, the world made peace.  I don’t think I’ll be giving away any spoilers when I tell you that peace didn’t last.  The idea, that this would be the War to End All Wars was noble, lofty, hopeful… and even still, it didn’t last.  We don’t need to go into the reasons other than to say human beings continue to be involved in the workings of our world.  

But even though it didn’t last, I’m very thankful that the people then… gave it their all.  I’m thankful that they took a step toward that noble, lofty, hopeful goal.  I'm thankful that in that moment they did all that they could do… that they gave peace their very best effort… they gave all that they had, even as imperfect as it turned out to be, they did all they could to give hope to the world.  

The Gospel lesson for this week is about just that… about giving all that we have, even as imperfect as it might be.  I know the gospel SEEMS to be about money AND it’s stewardship season AND we just did a legacy giving event AND were doing something on stewardship every Sunday from now until December 2nd, so everything SEEMS to be about money right now!  But honestly, none of it is PRIMARILY about money.  

Now, I’ll give you that the money part’s hard to look past.  You’ve got the rich, showy folks with their fancy clothes strutting around the temple courtyard, flashing their wallets and pealing off bills into the offering plate making sure everyone will see.  Then, in contrast to all of that, you’ve got the widow.  “Widows” back then had no Social Security, no pension, no nothing… and so here’s this widow in her shabby cloths, trying to be invisible and just put her two cents in the plate.  

Jesus, watching this all play out, says to his disciples, “See, that poor widow?  She just gave WAY more than the rich folks, because for those rich folks, their gift didn’t even pinch a little!  They won’t ever feel it!  They’ll live just as well after they gave as before they gave.  But that widow… she’s done!  There’s no check in the mail.  She’s given it all she had!”

Giving all she had didn’t magically multiply and fund the Temple for the next year.  Giving all she had didn’t twist God’s arm into giving her prosperity and it didn’t buy the chief priest a private jet!  It was just two cents.  BUT it was everything she had.  She gave all she had.

Jesus points to that widow and tells the disciples they should pay attention to her, because she is their (and our) model for discipleship.  But not primarily a model for how to fill out your pledge card or put money in the plate on Sunday.  Jesus points at that widow and tells us disciples, “Do THAT!  Do THAT with your WHOLE life!  That’s what Jesus was in Jerusalem to do himself, when he saw that poor widow across the street at the Temple.  He was about to give his WHOLE LIFE on the cross.  

That’s what this lesson’s really about.  It’s about giving it all.  That poor widow doesn’t hedge the bet.  She hasn’t stashed some cash under the mattress for a rainy day.  She gives it all!  She gives the money that would have kept her alive, at least for a little bit longer.  She gives her life.  She puts her WHOLE life in God’s hands.   

Today’s first lesson drives home that same point with another widow.  She was asked to give the last bit of bread she had to some stranger.  Her plan had been to bake the last, little, pitiful, loaf.  Eat it with her son, and then just wait for both of them to starve to death.  Into that situation a guy shows up and says, “Why don’t you give ME your last bit of food?”  And for whatever reason… whether it was faith, shock or resignation… she gave all she had.  

This way of living… giving it all… it makes no sense to the world.  Whether it’s giving everything we have toward aspirational goals like making a war, the War to End all Wars, or working for the end of hatred, the extinction of bigotry, the elimination of racism, the demise of violence… the world has trouble wrapping it’s mind around that sort of gift.  The idea that people might actually dare to give their all to the ideals of loving God and loving neighbor without condition… the world largely sees that as just as foolish as putting your last two cents into the offering plate, baking your last bit of bread to feed some random foreigner off the street or coming to Jerusalem when Jerusalem is out to have you killed.  

But that’s our call.  As individuals and as a church.  To give it our all!  To give away our last two cents.  To give away our last piece of food to a stranger.  To offer our lives for even a chance of peace.  AND when we inevitably fall short of giving it our all… when inevitably we don’t fully eliminate hatred, bigotry and violence in one fail swoop… when inevitably The War to End all Wars has to be renamed, World War I… we’re called to confess where we fell short, turn around and go at it one more time… trying one more time to give this life we’ve been given, all that we have.

That’s our call.  To give our all, even when in beautiful hindsight our “all” ads up to a half step forward and two steps back.  We are called to give it our all… toward God’s vision of a world without war, a world without hate, a world without hunger, pain or fear.  Our call is to give it our last little cake.  To give it our last two cents.  To give it our whole lives, trusting in God’s love and promise that no matter how far we move forward or how far we fall back, God will always be there to fill our empty jars with meal, our empty jugs with oil, our empty hearts with love and our empty souls with hope as many times as we need.  Amen