I'm Awake!

 Mark 13:24-37

But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

When Jesus spoke these words, he was talking to a people living in political chaos, surrounded by death and violence, trapped in an economic system that made the wealthy, ridiculously more wealth on the backs of those who wondered how they were even going to make it through tomorrow, and to all of that there seemed to be no end in sight.  I know, it’s hard to relate to Bible times!  To people in those sorts of times, Jesus says, “Keep Awake.”  But Jesus is NOT saying “tough it out.”  Instead, when Jesus tells us to “Keep Awake” what he’s trying to do is to teach us two techniques so that can equip us to live hopefully, through even the most trying of times.  

Brain research has since backed up what Jesus taught.  When we are living in easier, more hopeful times, (you remember those, right?) our brains release chemicals that make us more confident… more positive.  And when our brains are made more chemically confident and positive, we naturally DO more positive and hopeful things out there in the world.  That’s not surprising.  BUT, what Jesus knew then, and science has born out since, is that it works the other way round as well!  When we DO those positive and hopeful things in the difficult times, our brains release those same chemicals and those chemicals give us the feelings of confidence and hope, even during the darkest of times.  Author Amy Cuddy calls it, “Fake it until you become it!”  

 

Jesus used the image of the slaves and the doorman to illustrate this technique.  If we continue to do the Master’s work… even through the darkness… even while the Master is gone and even though we have no idea when they might get back… if we keep doing the work Jesus has given us to do… acts of generosity, gestures of compassion, care and healing and justice for the least and the lost and the last… if we keep doing the Jesus’s work, we’ll find that the work ITSELF transforms our minds, giving us more positivity, confidence and hope… even in this thing called 2020!

The second technique Jesus gives us comes from the power of NOTICING.  Jesus knew in difficult times, we would be tempted to pull up the covers and wait for it to pass… put our heads down, grit our teeth, and wait for the darkness to pass.  But Jesus also knew that covered up and hunched over we’d inevitably miss the good stuff… the blessings… the gifts that God sends to us EVEN in the midst of the darkest of times.  With the covers pulled up over our heads, we’d likely miss even really BIG stuff, like stars falling from the sky!  So Jesus advises us to PRACTICE our noticing on the little things.  Notice little things like a tiny bud on a branch waiting hopefully for Spring.  A single leaf hanging onto a tree.  A new bird coming to your feeder.

Again, Jesus knew then, what brain science has since shown to be true.  When we NOTICE things, our brains become measurable more flexible, more creative, more collaborative… more AWAKE!  The science has even found that it doesn’t actually matter WHAT you notice!  It’s the act of NOTICING itself that builds our psychological flexibility, which then allows us to see new possibilities, which then helps us find new solutions and then see a way through even the longest times of darkness. 

Today is the beginning of Advent.  A season that in “normal” years calls us to these Spiritual practices of NOTICING and SERVING.  Because this year is anything but “normal”, I know the temptation is out there to just chuck out Advent and just get straight on to Christmas!  But I think this year, precisely because it ISN’T A NORMAL year, we need these practices Jesus has to teach us more perhaps, that in any other year.

This Advent, we’re not learning something for the future from Jesus.  This Advent, learning from Jesus how to “Stay Awake!” is EXACTLY what we need to get through life for the next six months!  So, this Advent let us take up the PRACTICE of noticing!    Start by noticing the small things.  Buds on a tree, the colors in the sunset, the song in the background and the stars in the night sky.  Noticing those small things will limber up your Noticing Skills  so that you can better notice the bigger things… the joys, generosity, compassion and love that are always there but in times like these, seem hidden and overwhelmed by darkness.  

This Advent, let us take up the practice of doing the Master’s work even when the Divine feels very far away.  Take up those acts of service, compassion, love and generosity, not out of some lofty spiritual pursuit, but because doing those things literally have the power to transform our minds, making it possible for us to SEE light, even in the deepest, longest, sort of darkness.

This Advent, perhaps more than any other Advent, is an Advent where “Keeping Awake” by using these techniques that Jesus teaches can have a real and immediate effect on our lives right now!  So my fellow travelers through the darkness of political chaos and pandemic, I invite you to join me this Advent, to “Keep Awake.”  Amen.  

Try Not Getting Turned Around

 Matthew 25:31-46

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

We’ve all driven in Boston.  We know traffic signals are only timid suggestions and that turn signals are signs of weakness.  We also all know that even with a GPS you can easily get turned around and end up in the right place but on the wrong level of a stack of roads headed toward Salem when you meant to be going to the Cape!  

This parable can be like driving in Boston.  It's easy to get turned around inside of it and headed in the wrong direction if we’re not careful.  So to keep from heading off in the wrong direction NOTICE first, before anything else, that ALL the sheep and ALL the goats… all the nations… all the people... in all the world… ALL are gathered together by the Good Shepherd. NOTICE, this parable says, “You HAVE ALREADY BEEN gathered together and wrapped up eternally in God’s infinite, unconditional love!"  It does NOT say, “Do good stuff and that will make God love you.”  It does NOT say, “Do bad stuff and you’ll burn.”  

So now that we’re all starting off on the right road with this thing, let's see it is really all about. The first group of people in this parable were so enamored by this gift of love, that they just followed along with the one who first loved them.  They fed the hungry, gave the thirsty something to drink, clothed the naked, welcomed the stranger and visited the prisoner. But they didn’t do all that to EARN anything.  They did all that simply because the One who loved them first was doing all those things and they just wanted to tag along! “When did we do THAT?” they all said!

In their minds, ALL they were doing was following the ONE who loved them first and loved them without condition!  They did "Jesus sorts of things" simply because those were the things the one who loved them was doing!  Again, the direction Jesus is driving this parable is really important to notice.  FIRST, Jesus loved them. THEN, they followed because they wanted to be with the One who loved them first. THEN, because they were following him they naturally fell into doing the things Jesus was doing… like feeding the hungry and healing the sick and all that.

This parable is telling us that our lives are lived out as a RESPONSE to the love we have ALL, ALREADY been given. A love given up-front by God without conditions.  God doesn’t wait for us to put a “good deed” in the vending machine and only then drop some divine love down the chute!  NO!  God scoops us all up, sheep and goats alike, and loves us beyond measure and never ever stops.    

The question for us in this parable then, is how will we RESPOND to that gift of love?  We can either believe God’s love for us and tag along with Jesus, living our lives in the footsteps of the one who did the scooping and the loving… or we can choose not to.  We can either go to the sorts of places Jesus went, hang out with the sort of people Jesus hung out with, and do the things Jesus did… or we can choose not to.   

But regardless of how anyone chooses to respond to God’s love for them, God’s love for them NEVER changes… REALLY!  Now, that doesn't mean there aren't any consequences for the response they choose.  It just means that God's love for them isn't one of them. But the simple truth is, that when you choose to live your life diving deeper and deeper every day into God’s infinite love for you, you will inevitably have a VERY different life experience than if you live your life on the run, constantly fighting off the truth of God's love for you.  

It’s sort of like a mother’s love for their toddler.  Her love for her child is solid, both when that child’s little head is nestled peacefully into her chest AND when that same toddler arches his back, screams, and kicks, and tries to throw himself out of her arms.  Mom loves him regardless, through tenderness and tantrum alike.  But one of those child’s responses to his mother’s love is gracious, peaceful, and filled with joy, while the other response, well... feels to both of them pretty much like hell.  

That’s the way God is.  We are fully loved, both when we are acting like sheep and when our goatside is showing.  Both when we’re the angelic child, nesting in to our Divine mother’s arms and when we are arching our backs like demon spawn.  Regardless, we live every moment of our lives, scooped up in God’s loving arms.  There’s simply NO question about that.  The ONLY question is the one we answer new every moment of our lives... “In this moment, knowing I’ve been scooped up in God’s infinite, unconditional, and loving embrace, how will I will I choose to respond to that love in this moment?  Will it be sheep-like or more goat-esque?”  

This is where our choice REALLY DOES make a difference.  Our choice here makes a difference in the lives of the people around us… it makes a difference in the world around us… and it makes a difference in whether each moment we live feels to us, more like eternal punishment or more like eternal life.  Amen.

Return on Investment

Matthew 25:14-30

“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

They were asked to MANAGE the money.  Not hold it.  Manage it.  A Talent in today’s money is half a million dollars!  This wasn’t lunch money.  This was investment portfolio money and they were asked to manage it when the Master was gone, the same way the Master did when he was there.  When he returned, two had doubled their portfolios.  The other one had dug a hole and buried it and the master was furious!

  

But why?  Why was the Master furious?  He didn’t lose money.  He actually made 3.5 million!  So, why?  The answer, is that to THIS Master, the money didn’t matter!  What THIS Master cared about, more than the money, was the relationships.  Did the people he entrusted really KNOW him and trust him at his word?  Two of them did.  They took what they had been given and managed it the way the master had when he was home.  Yeah, they doubled his money and I’m sure he didn’t poo-poo the profits, but for THIS master, the money wasn’t the MOST important thing!  What this master REALLY valued was that when he entrusted them with his wealth... they BELIEVED him and followed in his investing footsteps.  The other slave, though, acted out of FEAR and buried his portfolio.  

Like those slaves, our Master Jesus has entrusted us with God’s portfolio of riches… love, justice, compassion and grace.  And what does the Lord require we do with those riches?  The prophet Micah summed it up nicely: do justice, love kindness, and humbly follow along in God’s footsteps.  So what will we do with this portfolio of God’s immeasurable wealth?  A portfolio of riches filled to overflowing with love, justice, compassion and grace.  It’s a question for us as individuals.  It’s a question for us as Christ Trinity Church and really, particularly at this moment in history, it’s also a question for our nation.  

Some will respond to this challenge out of fear.  Dig a hole and attempt to convince themselves that God is just fine with the way things were… fine with the injustice, immorality, racism, the oppression of the poor and marginalized and that religion and politics shouldn’t mix.  Out of the fear of the hard work required to invest God’s portfolio in the world, some will say that we should just bury the past pains in a hole in the ground along with God’s investment mandate and just move on.  

As tempting as that approach may be, particularly as exhausted and anxious as we all are in this moment of history, that's not what our Master has tasked us to do!  You and I both know that if we just bury the racism, hatred, division, selfishness, and greed it will inevitably come back to the surface again.  Maybe it would take a year or two.  Maybe four or eight.  But in the past it has always come back to the surface when we’ve chosen to bury the hard truths and the pain, instead of investing God’s portfolio of love, justice, compassion and grace into that brokenness.  We all know that if we bury it again, we’ll be right back where we started in no time flat, without having grown God’s riches by even the paltry percentage you get from a savings account!  

But we can chose another way.  We could choose the path that 2 out of 3 parable slaves recommend!  We could instead, courageously accept the portfolio God has given us to manage… the immeasurable wealth of love, justice, compassion, and grace… and we could AGGRESSIVELY invest that into our own lives, the life of our church and community, and into the world.  And if we did THAT… perhaps… just maybe… in one, or two, or four or maybe eight years down the road, we might find that our aggressive investing of God’s portfolio of love, justice, compassion and grace into our world might just have given, not only us, but the whole world a powerful return on investment. 

There are many ways to invest God’s portfolio in the world but here are three hot investment tips for our time.  For those who have been harmed by another, you could choose to invest God’s portfolio in forgiveness.  Forgiveness doesn’t ask you to forget, or pretend the harm done to you never happened.  Nor does forgiveness ask you to put yourself at risk of being hurt in the same way or by the same people again.  But the potential return on investment with forgiveness is tremendous.  For those of you who have been harmed, it will not undo the past, but investing here has the power to set YOU free from the heavy burden of resentment and anger that you have carried since that pain was first inflicted upon you.   

For those who have harmed another, I would recommend investing God’s portfolio of love, justice, compassion and grace in repentance.  Repentance doesn’t ask the ones you harmed to forget, pretend it never happened, or even offer their forgiveness to you!  This is your investment, not theirs!  But the potential return on investment in repentance is enormous for you as well.  Repentance will guide you onto a new path that you may have never known even existed before!  A path that winds through confession, making amends, and then leads you to a new and infinitely more abundant life for yourself!  A life lived on a path of building people up rather than tearing people down. 

And finally, there is atonement… AT-ONE-MENT.  This is advanced investing for those who have previously invested in forgiveness and those who have previously invested in repentance.  Having done the investing that each needed to do on their own, they can now together begin to invest God’s rich portfolio of love, justice, compassion and grace into creating a shared new beginning, a shared a new future… a shared new life.  The return on investment for Atonement is literally limitless.  It can change the world. 

May each of us with courage and boldness, stop burying the portfolio we've been entrusted with! Instead may we each invest the riches of God into ourselves, our neighbors and the entire world around us… and perhaps, if we can do that, when our Master returns we too will be called Good and Faithful.  Amen.  

Bridesmaids

 Matthew 25:1-13

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

This is one of Jesus’ parables of judgement.  It, and others like it, were told by Jesus as he was approaching Jerusalem for the last time.  They’re difficult, and we’d all rather have a passage from Jesus that easily echo’s Bishop Curry’s saying, “If it’s not about love, it’s not about God.”  But here’s the thing… the parables of judgement and Bishop Curry’s saying are NOT incompatible.  They actually complement one another.  Let me show you.  

Think about a wedding… yours or someone else’s… doesn’t matter.  More specifically think about the people in that wedding party.  Who were they?  Were they professional, exquisitely chiseled wedding actors with years of well honed experience… experience built week after week doing 52 weddings every year?  Were they wedding mercenaries hired to create a flawless wedding experience?  NO!  Of course not!  The wedding party has your brother and your sister in it.  It has your best friend and a college frat brother in it!  And why is that?  Why does it have THOSE people in it… a gathering of people you KNOW who are the MOST likely to do something to make the day less than flawless?  You pick them because you KNOW them!  You LOVE them and you want them to be WITH YOU through the whole day!  

So knowing that, what makes those “wise” bridesmaids “wise” in this parable?  Biblically, being greedy, fearful oil hoarders and uncaring of others is not “wise” behavior so it likely wasn't that.  That means there must be something ELSE that makes them “wise.”  And what about the “foolish” Bridesmaids?  Was it just because they didn’t pack enough oil?  That sounds good except that Jesus is FOREVER forgiving people who fall short of the glory of having enough lamp oil, and every other sort of sin as well so I don’t think that’s what makes them foolish.  That means there must be something ELSE that makes them “foolish.”

Well, it turns out the reason the “foolish” are locked out is right there in the text itself!  The Bridegroom never says they are locked out because they ran out of oil, or didn’t plan well or failed to find a 24 hour Standard lamp oil station. The text says they are locked out because, the Bridegroom didn’t know them.  “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.”   

Here’s what I think is going on.  The groom in the story is Jesus and the wedding party is THE wedding party, the Kingdom of God, the Feast of food rich and well aged wines, Heaven, the Sweet By and By, or whatever else you want to call it.  ALSO keep in mind that in first-century Jewish weddings… EVERYONE in town was ALWAYS included in a wedding party… So when Jesus sets this parable at a wedding, Jesus is reminding us that at his eternal wedding party, EVERYONE is invited… all of creation... EVERYONE gets in the door through Jesus’s life, death and resurrection.  The Groom (Jesus) has asked you and me to help light the way for the guests who haven’t arrived yet, which makes us the bridesmaids!  BUT, here’s the KEY to this whole story... Jesus asks you and me to be his bridesmaids and to shine a light into the darkness of this world, NOT because we’ll do it perfectly or flawlessly but for the same reason you asked the people you asked to be in YOUR wedding!  Jesus asks US, simply and ONLY because he LOVES US!  

Jesus, of ALL people, knows exactly who he’s getting in his wedding party!  He knows us!  He knows that he’s getting people who sometimes plan well and sometimes don’t.  Sometimes fear makes us selfish, and other times we’re the most generous people in the world.  The Groom loves us anyway!  With or without enough oil, with or without the shoes that go with your tux (I’m talking about you Andy Ericson!).  But that’s the ONLY reason Jesus wants us in the party.  Would he like us to be helpful and light the path?  Sure!  But that’s completely bonus!  The MOST important thing is that WE ARE WITH HIM at the wedding! 

And THAT’s what made the other bridesmaids truly “foolish.”  They DID NOT BELIEVE the Groom’s love was unconditional.  They somehow, got the FOOLISH notion in their heads that the Groom would ONLY love them if their lamps were full of oil and burning brightly.  So, they FOOLISHLY abandoned the groom to run off and find some oil, which they FOOLISHLY thought was what the Groom cared about and because they did that, it was clear that they really DID NOT KNOW HIM.  They were “foolish” and we are “foolish” when we stop believing that God’s love for us is absolutely unconditional.  We are foolish when we run around in the dark, worrying about the world as if God does not have it all in God's divine hands!  We are foolish when we try to be God or try to MAKE God love us.  No matter what it is, when we think we need to MAKE God love us we are FOOLS, because God has loved us from before we were dust and always will.   

So, my fellow beautiful, blushing, Bridesmaids… Be Wise!  Stick close to the Groom!  Don't leave the party!  Stay confident in God’s love unconditional, unlimited love for you!  Shine your light while you have oil BUT in those times when your oil runs out and life gets really dark out there, remember, it’s not the oil Jesus cares about… it’s YOU.  So stay put, don’t run around like a chicken with it's head cut off.  Just stick with Jesus in those dark times and remember THIS:  The light the groom is carrying… the Light of Christ is more than bright enough to light the path to the wedding banquet for you and for ALL of creation… it is bright enough to see us through any dark and worrisome time of national transition or anything else the world might throw at us.  It is a light that shines in the darkness and there simply is no darkness out there that can overcome it.   Amen.