It Didn't Seem Likely

Genesis 45:3-11, 15

Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence. Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. I will provide for you there—since there are five more years of famine to come—so that you and your household, and all that you have, will not come to poverty.’ And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.

Luke 6:27-38

“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse 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 begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

Joseph was the second to the youngest but he was dad’s favorite and dad never made any effort to hide it. As if the coat of many colors wasn’t too much already, there were his annoying dreams as well. Joseph dreamed he would be in charge, that he had all the power, that his whole family would bow down to him. The coat, the dreams, the favoritism… it all came to an end one day with Joseph staring up at his brothers from the bottom of a well. Would the dream make it out of that well? It didn’t seem likely.  

But the brothers had a second thought. Slavery would be just as good at getting rid of Joseph as the well was, AND they’d get some cash, so they hauled him out of the well and sold him into slavery in Egypt. Would the dream make it out of slavery? It didn’t seem likely.  

In Egypt he worked for the captain of the guards… in charge of his whole house. Everything he touched was successful until the Captain’s wife put the moves on him.  When Joseph rejected her, she got mad, told some lies and Joseph got thrown in jail. Would the dream make it out of jail? It didn’t seem likely.

In jail a couple of Pharaoh’s men got thrown in with Joseph and they had some dreams. Joseph told them the meanings of their dreams and what Joseph told them came true. “Don’t forget me,” Joseph asked. But would the dream be remembered? It didn’t seem likely. 

Then one day Pharaoh had a dream. No one could figure out it’s meaning until that guy from jail remembered Joseph. Joseph told Pharaoh what his dream meant. He told Pharaoh there would be seven good years for farming and then seven years of famine. Joseph told Pharaoh he should get someone to manage the country and save up for the next seven years and prepare for the famine to come. Pharaoh told Joseph the job was his. Would the dream ever be free? It didn’t seem likely.  

But life is strange and things that go around seem to come around again, so when the famine hit, it hit everywhere and not just in Egypt, but only Egypt was prepared. Joseph’s dad sent his older brothers down to Egypt to get some food and when they arrived they ended up buying grain from none other than Joseph himself. They didn’t recognize him. After all, who would have thought that the little brother they threw down a well and sold into slavery all those years ago would be running Egypt? Joseph gave the brothers the grain but said they better bring their younger brother back with them if they came back wanting more.  

And OF COURSE they needed more! It was a seven year famine! So they brought back Ben which almost killed their father. Then Joseph told them to leave Ben and go get their dad. The brothers knew that returning home without Ben really would kill their dad and they pleaded with Joseph. In the end Joseph couldn’t take it any more and he told them who he was. Their jaws bounced off the floor. Here was the brother they had put in a well and sold into slavery, running Egypt and in complete control of their lives, just as his annoying dreams had predicted all those years before. So what did Joseph do? Throw them down a well? Sell them into slavery? Toss them into jail? Send them away hungry? Have them killed? The answer to this question doesn’t seem likely, but Joseph chose grace.  

That’s been God’s answer from the beginning. Grace!  That’s the way to care for people. Grace… a way that escaped a well, and slavery and prison… a way of living that made it’s way through jealousy, lies and deception. A way of loving that found it’s way through pain, power plays, and prison. God, it seems, will have Grace survive, and actually, it seems, God INSISTS that Grace WILL not just survive… But THRIVE! Even when it doesn’t seem likely at all!

Grace, is the middle way and God insists on it even to this day! Grace insists we BOTH… not turn our back on, or give in to evil AND at the same time, Grace ALSO insists we not return violence for violence or plot our revenge or try to get even.  Grace, is the “Third Way” a way in-between denial and avoidance on the one hand and getting mired and hopelessly ensnared on the other. Grace is the way to confront the hard, the difficult, the troubled and even the evil of our world without getting drawn into it and becoming difficult, troubled and evil ourselves. Grace is the way to move both the one who is attacking and the one who is being attacked BOTH to a shared place of peace… neither becoming a “winner” or a “loser”… but BOTH ending up in a shared place of peace. 

Grace never seems “likely” to make it out into our world and yet it made it out of a well, out of slavery, out of jail and out of a famine to bring to a place of peace, a terribly divided family. Giving up your shirt as well as your coat, doing good to those who hate you, blessing those who curse you… the world never sees those teachings of Jesus as very “likely” solutions for the real evils of our world and yet Jesus himself made it off of a cross and out of a tomb to bring to a place of real peace, the terribly broken people of our painfully divided island home. 

We will all have times… as individuals, communities, countries or as a whole world… where life feels as if we’ve been thrown to the bottom of a well, like we are have no control of our own future… like we are cursed, abused or condemned… as if we are suffering an endless assault of lies and deceit and treachery… trapped in a place where for all the world, God’s Grace seems unlikely at best, to make it out into the world where we need it most of all. In those times remember this story… Remember that God’s Grace ALWAYS makes it out through that often ignored and always undervalued and perpetually forgotten middle way. Every. Single. Time. Amen.

It's No Great Honor Either!

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 in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to 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 what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse 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 begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Teviah, in Fiddler on the Roof says, “Dear God, you made many, many poor people. I realize there's no shame in being poor ... but it's no great honor either.” From my own personal brushes with not having enough money to buy the basics for my family, I have to say, I’m in full agreement with Teviah! 

But here in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus seems to have a completely different perspective. Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor.” Not, blessed are the poor in SPIRIT, like in Matthew’s Gospel.  Nope! In Luke’s Gospel it’s blessed are the poor in wallet! But Jesus isn’t done.  Blessed are you who are hungry, he says.  Not, blessed are you who hunger and thirst for righteousness like in Matthew’s Gospel.  This isn’t any sort of spiritualized poverty or hunger Jesus is talking about here.  This is straight up, not-enough-money-to-pay-the-rent, poverty.  This is a growling-stomach-that-doesn’t-know-where-to-find-a-meal kind of hunger. THAT is what Jesus is calls blessed. 

How is THAT a blessing? People see being poor and hungry as a pity or a challenge, or, with a cold, hard, heart, as something that is deserved… but a blessing? Not so much! Yet here we are with Jesus telling his disciples clearly, calmly and without stuttering at all, “Blessed are the poor and hungry” and as if THAT wasn’t already too much to make sense of, he takes it one step further and proclaims, “Woe to the rich and the full!”  

Most folks like Matthew’s version better because Matthew’s version allows us to SPIRITUALIZE the poverty and the hunger. That allows you and me and the TV preachers to still feel blessed by Jesus and still keep our private jets! But Luke’s version isn’t so easily manipulated. Luke’s version INSISTS that it is precisely those who KNOW that real, don’t-have-money-for-diapers poverty… those who KNOW through their own, deeply felt pain… their own terribly felt shame…. their own cruelly hard knocks and devastatingly broken life… THOSE are the ones who are blessed!  Jesus is saying that it is the broken, the hungry, the poor, the weeping, the ones who have slammed into the rock hard bottom of the deepest, darkest hole with the smoothest, most slippery sides… THOSE are the ones who are blessed, BECAUSE they are the ones who have come to the point where they understand that there is NOTHING… NOT ONE THING they can do, apart from God.  

The poor, broken, hungry and lost… THOSE are the ones who KNOW… who REALLY KNOW… that it’s ONLY through an unearned, totally free, completely unexpected, bring tears to your eyes, gift from God that they have any life at all. They KNOW it was ONLY through a Divine rocking of their world that they were able to find a bed, have a meal, and make it through that first day of sobriety.  They KNOW the truth… while the rest of us can still go on fooling ourselves into thinking we’re doing life all on our own.  The genuinely poor and hungry KNOW that in one way or another, no matter how well WE fool ourselves, we are ALL hungry, homeless, bankrupt and addicted, refugees without God’s infinite and unconditional love and grace poured out freely upon each and every one of us, long before we even begin thinking to ask God for it.  

Being poor, being hungry, being broken, being a loser are all held up by our world as the most horrible things you could ever be and from my personal bushes with those things, I STILL have to agree with Teviah… I may have been blessed by those times, but they sure didn’t feel like any great honor either! 

Yet, in what has thankfully become hindsight, (and will hopefully REMAIN hindsight!) I think I understand a little of what Jesus was trying to tell his disciples. Jesus was saying that when we find our lives inevitably broken, (and we all do, at some point, in one way or another) even though it’s horribly painful and frightening and terrible… it is those cracks in our lives that become a window through which we see the light of the Kingdom of God shining deeply and powerfully into our lives. 

In Japan, there is an art form called Kintsugi.  The artisan takes a ceramic bowl that has become broken and repairs it. You might expect them to hide the cracks but instead they do the exact opposite. The artist repairs the cracks with gold and that bowl, with the cracks now highlighted with that precious metal, becomes more beautiful and more valuable than before it was broken. Jesus tells us… that we are blessed when life drops us to the ground and we shatter like a ceramic bowl. Jesus insists that we are BLESSED by those experiences because it allows us to see more clearly the Divine Artist who is ALWAYS at work, filling the cracks of our broken lives with love... a substance more precious than gold, and through that experience we are made more beautiful and more precious than we had ever been before and then, because of our experience, we are better able to pass on God’s love to the rest of this broken world.

I think all of this is true and I also think all of this is very hard.  I still don’t like that seeing God at work in my life is best done through the painful cracks that come from being broken.  Now, I DON’T think Jesus asks us to go out and break ourselves and he certainly doesn’t ask us to break others so that they can discover this truth.  Jesus simply knew, that with enough years on this planet we each will eventually know what it is to be broken.  And because that is inevitable, Jesus wanted each of us to know that God, will take even that experience of being broken and fill in our cracks with a Divine love more precious than gold and continue to make each of us more beautiful and more valuable even through the pain of being broken.  So, as the Leonard Cohen song says, “Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” Amen.  

Too Early for Propheting!

Isaiah 6:1-8

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”

Isaiah’s alarm clock turned over to 6 a.m. with an unwelcome and deafening clunk as the radio crackled to life. The DJ was telling Jerusalem that today would apparently be another scorcher. Isaiah slowly reached over and with the full force of gravity pounded the snooze bar. Isaiah was NOT a morning person. For a moment he was tempted to skip work and head for the mountains. But while Isaiah had always been good at preaching about the need for selfcare and Sabbath he wasn’t that great at following his own advise so, when the radio kicked back on after the world’s shortest five minutes ever, Isaiah rolled out of bed. He looked in the mirror and not really recognizing the THING looking back at him, he continued on to the shower. That did something toward waking him up but not anywhere near enough. He got dressed, remembered deodorant at the last minute, got in the car and headed out for the Temple. On the way he drove through Dunkin’ for a large cup of high-test… Jerusalem runs on Dunkin’ you know and if THAT didn’t get him running… he couldn’t imagine what would.

Isaiah pulled his car into the Temple parking lot and parked in the spot with the sign that declared, “If you park here, you preach!” As he got out of the car and turned to walk to the Temple he heard music. “GREAT!” he yelled at no one in particular, “those kids are messing with the organ again!” But then as he swung the door to the Temple open and his eyes began to adjust from the bright Middle Eastern sunshine outside to the dim, candlelit Temple inside… Isaiah saw the absolutely LAST thing he ever expected to find in the Temple on that hot, boring, regular day… Isaiah saw God.  

There’s nothing like slipping into the office a few minutes late, still rubbing sleep from your eyes, holding a half drunk cup of Dunkin’ and finding the Big Kahuna, the Big Cheese, the Head Honcho, the Queen Bee, the Boss, the Creator of all that was, and is, and ever will be sitting there waiting for you. Ironically this was indeed, “the Temple of the Most High”, but the “The Most High” was literally the LAST one Isaiah expected to see there.  On that painfully regular day, Isaiah expected to find the painfully regular things he always took for granted would be there. Things like paraments, pews and prayer books. But not in a million, zillion years did Isaiah expect to walk in and find himself staring at the Divine’s pedicure with the hem of God’s flowing robes filling the entire place to overflowing!

Isaiah began to sing, Holy, Holy, Holy... “something” I’m sure, as the remains of his large Dunkin’ dropped to the floor. One of the Seraphim came down and gave Isaiah a hot-coal-kiss and told him that his sins were now forgiven, blotted out forever and the minute that happened the Lord spoke, asking for “someone” to volunteer for an assignment. Not seeing anyone else around and happy not to be dead… or worse, Isaiah volunteered. 

God’s presence that morning changed Isaiah. It didn’t fix his life to be magically forever filled with rainbows and puppy dogs from then on out. He still had plenty of troubles ahead. But standing there in the Divine presence… with all of the distance from God in body, mind and spirit removed… with his relationship with God perfectly repaired… not by anything Isaiah had done, but by God making it right with that hot-coal kiss… Isaiah was changed. Now, that’s all wonderful for Isaiah of course. He goes on from here to get a huge three volume Biblical book deal. But the question you and I have to ask ourselves today is what does Isaiah’s experience with the Creator of the Universe meeting him at the office have to do with you and me, here today? 

Now, I can’t speak for you, of course, but maybe you can relate a little to my experience, because you see, I’m a lot like Isaiah. I preach about Sabbath and don’t do it very well. I appreciate the benefits of coffee in the morning and while I walk to work instead of drive, beyond those few, very superficial differences, I walk in here in the EXACT same way Isaiah walked into the Temple. I walk in here NOT expecting to see God’s toes up close and personal. I expect to see just what I always see… things like the paraments, pews and prayer books. I NEVER expect to see seraphim with a burning hot coal heading for my face. Like I said, I can’t speak for you, but perhaps part of that is true for you as well.

And because of that, I think maybe what this lesson is trying to suggest to us, is something Richard Rohr is fond of saying. And that is, that it’s not God’s PRESENCE that is missing from our lives, but the AWARENESS of God’s presence that is missing from our lives. So, could it be that wasn’t the one morning God was present in the Temple for Isaiah, but for whatever reason, THAT was the one morning Isaiah DIDN’T look past God like he had done a hundred times before? Because the truth is… GOD IS ALWAYS PRESENT. Right where we are. All the time and not just in churches and Temples. But most of the time we simply look past the ever-present Divine presence in the same way we look past the ever present paraments, pews and prayer books and so many other things that just fade into the background of our everyday lives.

I think that this lesson is asking US to stop and REALLY SEE, even if like Isaiah, it’s for the very first time, that God is ALWAYS… ALWAYS… RIGHT our midst. And while we might not have hot coals crossing our lips in church today, we DO have the Body and Blood of Christ crossing our lips, doing the same thing that the Seraphim’s coal did for Isaiah… erasing the distance between us and God and repairing our relationship with God and each other, through Christ, forever. 

I think the take-home for today is that God is here! Emmanuel, as we say at Christmas… God with us! God is here… with us… right here in THIS awesome little boat we call Christ Trinity, asking you and me to row out just a little further and cast our nets of unconditional love and radical inclusion right out there into our little corner of the world, casting just a little further every day until God’s will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. So, take an energizing shower, rub the sleep out of your eyes, don’t forget deodorant, grab an extra large coffee and really, REALLY SEE!  God is with us.  And God is looking for “someone” to volunteer.  Amen.