A Fire Swamp of Lessons

Genesis 2:18-24

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.” Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Mark 10:2-16

Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

When Wesley and Buttercup entered the Fire Swamp, they knew that they faced three well known dangers… Fire spurts, lightning sand, and R.O.U.Ss… Rodents of Unusual Size.  They were certain, however, that True Love would see them through. Today’s lessons are a Fire Swamp of dangers for those in pulpit or pew.  BUT, just like Wesley and Buttercup, I do believe that TRUE LOVE will see us through these lessons!  So into the Fire Swamp we go!  

The first danger is the Fire Spurt of Genesis.  Right off we run into the word “man”.  Except in Hebrew it’s not “man” as in a gender.  It’s A-dam.  As in the Hebrew word for Earth Person.  The A-dam did not have a gender, but what the A-dam did have, was loneliness!  That means God made a mistake!  “It is not good that the A-dam should be alone,” God admitted doing something "not good" and in doing that, modeled for us what to do when we get something wrong.  God doesn’t clutch the Divine pearls or point fingers… God just fixes the mistake and God fixed THIS mistake with Relationship!  Completely equal in “flesh and bone” relationship.  In Hebrew, both Earth People are the exact same.  The English has settled on “rib” for a translation but a better one is “side”… implying that the A-dam was basically split in two!  The baggage of ribs, genders, sexuality and all the rest was read into the story later.  God’s intention though, was to create humanity as an equal, relational, whole.  THAT is still what God intends for all of humanity.  

The next danger of this fire swamp is the lightning sand of the Pharisees.  The Pharisees didn’t care what Jesus thought about Divorce.  They knew that if he answered one way he’d be attacked by one group and if he answered the other way he’d be attacked by a different group.  Either way, someone would do the Pharisee’s dirty work and get rid of this pesky Jesus guy, sinking him forever in the lightning sand of hot-button political issues.  Jesus knew what they were doing and chose NOT to play.  “It is your hardness of heart” that has you asking this question!  He says.  It is you trying to take RELATIONSHIP… God’s fix for humanity… and twist it into a way to divide, conquer, and subjugate the other that has hardened your hearts!   

Then the disciples pulled Jesus aside and we encounter the last hazard of this Fire Swamp.  The G.O.U.Ss… the Gospel of Unusual Severity.  This part really sounds bad.  But we need to understand that in Jesus’ day women had no legal status.  Without a man connected to them as a father, brother, son, or husband they would be literally homeless and destitute.  For a man to FORCE that fate on a woman was what Jesus was forbidding.  He was NOT saying people should stay in abusive marriages of any sort.  He was NOT saying that people should stay in a relationship when, for whatever reason, it no longer brings healing and wholeness to one another as God created relationships to do in the beginning.

What Jesus WAS saying is that, in your current, very broken culture, it’s just NOT okay to throw a human being out to their death on a whim!  We know that’s what Jesus meant, because the divorce part is linked to the kid part of this lesson.  In Jesus’ time, the only ones with less legal status than women were children.  These two bits of scripture together are Jesus, calling the Pharisees, the Disciples, and all the people throughout the ages who have twisted God's intention for relationship, to cut it the heck out!   

RELATIONSHIP is a Divine gift meant to move us toward wholeness and abundant life.  To be what God intended it to be, it must be as God first created it... without any asterisks for gender, age, or sexuality.  It must be relationship equally  shared by ALL… neither Greek nor Jew, slave nor free, male or female are less or more than the other, for ALL in Christ and, like I said at the beginning, the way we return to God's intention for relationship is with TRUE LOVE.  It’s the sort of love that does what is in the other’s best interest.  It is a love that lifts up the other.  It is a love that gives the other what they need to be who God is calling them to be.  It is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  It is the kind of love that God calls us to put into action BOTH as relationships grow AND equally so when they come apart.  

May all of us lean into our good, healthy, equal and loving relationships knowing they are God’s Divine remedy for us.  May we grow the good relationships and part from the harmful or broken ones, BOTH with True Love… always giving the other what we can so they might have abundant life.  True love… in every case... it really is the Way.  Amen. 

Happenings in Watering Hole, Montana

Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29

The rabble among them had a strong craving; and the Israelites also wept again, and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, all at the entrances of their tents. Then the Lord became very angry, and Moses was displeased. So Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a sucking child,’ to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they come weeping to me and say, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me. If this is the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at once—if I have found favor in your sight—and do not let me see my misery.”

So the Lord said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tent of meeting, and have them take their place there with you.

So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord; and he gathered seventy elders of the people, and placed them all around the tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again. Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, “My lord Moses, stop them!” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!”

Drive past a lot of prairie and not much else for an hour on Montana Rt. 254 and you’ll run into the town of Watering Hole.  The sign says there are 305 souls in town, but that was optimistic back in ’53.  More recent additions to the town sign let you know that this is the home to Michelle “Me” Larson, State hurdles champion.  People said she never hit a hurdle because she practiced with barbed wire fences.  Beside that sign was one for Elle Knutson, three time state spelling bee champion.  The town got its name from the muddy spot behind the old Anderson place that fills with an inch or so of water during the thaw.  Downtown consists of the diner, the feed mill, and Frontier Norwegian Lutheran Church founded in 1867.  Frontier Lutheran has never been in danger of being a megachurch and lately, attendance was nearing an all time low.  One Sunday last winter the pastor, who serves Frontier and four other parishes spread over a hundred miles, preached to a congregation made up of only her black lab Lazarus. 

Worries about membership came to a head at the annual meeting when Miss. Esther Tomlinson stood up to speak.  There was a rumor that she had been a member since 1867, but no one dared ask to confirm it.  Founding member or not, Miss. Tomlinson carried a significant amount of weight at Frontier Lutheran, which was evident from the groan the pew gave as she stood up.  

The congregation listened intently.  Not because it was Miss. Esther but because the diner didn’t open until noon.  “What is needed,” Miss. Esther wheezed, “is a couple of good, new, Norwegian members” and she proposed right then and there to give the council and the pastor that very task.  With the diner now open, the vote was quick and without discussion.  It wasn’t that they thought she had a good idea.  They just wanted to get to lunch before the meat loaf special sold out. 

When the council next met, the pastor began with prayer and gave her report.  Three funerals last month and another on Thursday.  Over 800 miles driven, serving the sprawling parish and seeing people in the hospital in Miles City.  She also reported that she had not yet found any new members.  Palmer Knutson, the council president, reminded the pastor they had to be NORWEGIAN members, and besides, they weren’t quite to that item on the agenda.  But once the annual lutefisk and lefsa supper was sorted, attention turned to the next item on the agenda… new “Norwegian” members.  After a painful silence, the pastor prayed, since no one had any other ideas.  “Dear God, we ask that you send us the folks we need to make this place a vital and sustainable church.”  Neils Anderson leaned over and whispered, “Norwegian members” and the pastor added, “And Lord make them Norwegians. Amen” and the meeting adjourned to the diner meetings in Watering Hole always do.  

The last thing the council or the pastor expected that night was that God would be listening to their request, much less giving them exactly what they needed!  But, that night the Spirit moved.  The two men on the receiving end of the Spirit’s movement described the sensation later as something close to getting caught on an electric fence with wet pants.

However it felt.  The Holy Spirit was working and those two set out with a purpose and intensity normally reserved for the opening day of deer season.  One of the guys was “Me’s” dad.  The other one was Elle’s dad.  Neither were on the council and both only showed up to church at the “holly” or “lily” times of the year, but now they were MOVING.  The kindest people called their new drive a work of the Holy Spirit.  Others  suspected a different kind of spirit.  But whatever the spirit they were working on, they were making things happen at Frontier Norwegian Lutheran Church.  A fellowship breakfast shared with the Episcopal church the next town over.  A new food pantry.  Retired folks organized to deliver meals-on-wheels… the church was suddenly alive!  

Elle’s Dad and Me’s Dad were doing ministry!  They were pouring gas on fires lit by the Holy Spirit!  THAT, however, was NOT what Miss. Esther Tomlinson had in mind.  So the very next Sunday at announcement time, she rose from her seat, much to the relief of the pew, and voiced her displeasure.  The young pastor could see the new light in the eyes of her congregation beginning to fade.  Without even thinking, she stood up and told Miss. Esther she really didn’t mind what El’s dad and Me’s dad were doing.  She didn’t care that they weren’t doing things with the council’s blessing.  In fact, she said, I wish God would zap you and all the rest of this congregation in the pants and get the lot of you moving like they are!  They’re not working against us!  They’re working FOR us and for God!  Maybe God didn’t give you exactly what you had in mind, Miss. Esther, but God gave us all just what we needed!  

That very Un-Scandinavian display of emotion pretty much exhausted the pastor and the whole congregation and everyone sat back down in exhausted silence.  Then, after a pause, Miss. Esther sat down too and the groan from her pew ALMOST covered up her final comment…”Well, at least they’re Norwegians!”  Amen.

Gospel In Reverse

Mark 9:30-37

They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

Today we’re throwing this Gospel lesson into reverse and backing into this sermon.  Backing in, you first get Jesus telling the disciples that when they welcome “one such child” they welcome both Jesus and the One who sent him.  In Jesus’ day, children had no status.  They were property at best.  They could be bought, sold and traded… and were.  But here, in this lesson, Jesus wasn’t pointing only to people below the age of adulthood… Jesus was pointing to anyone who was thought of, or treated by those in power as, less than legal, less than important, less than human. 

 

Backing into this lesson challenges us to ask, who in our day, is considered to be, or is treated as, less than legal, as if their life didn’t matter, as if they were less than human?  Who are the weak, vulnerable, and desperate today who are being demonized, terrorized and brutalized by those in power?  We know who they are.  They’re the ones who don’t make a living wage.  The ones used as political footballs. The ones displaced by the consequences of climate change.  The ones desperate to escape our perpetual wars but are told they aren’t wanted here.  Jesus says,“Whoever welcomes one of THESE in my name, welcomes me.”  In them, Jesus tells us, we welcome Jesus himself.

Now, if you keep backing into this lesson, you’ll back right into Jesus asking the disciples, “WHAT were you arguing about on the way?”  Jesus asked like he didn’t know. Jesus knew.  My mom always asked, “whose shoes are these in the middle of the floor?”  They were size 13!  Mom knew!  Jesus knew too.  Jesus KNEW they were arguing about who was first and who was last… who was a winner and who was a looser.  Jesus KNEW.  And THAT’S why he lifted up that child to make his point.  It’s about welcoming the least, the lost and the last… not the full, the found and the first, that is welcoming Christ.  

But WHY were they were arguing about that?  To figure that out you’ve got to keep backing up and eventually you back right into the heart of it… They were arguing because they were afraid.  When people puff themselves up and argue about who is greater and who is not, you can bet THAT is a person living deeply in fear.  Jesus told the disciples what was going to happen but they didn’t understand… they couldn’t understand… they were AFRAID!

Afraid they were loosing control.  Afraid they'd been wrong about Jesus.  Afraid he wouldn’t raise an army, kick out the Romans and become their king.  Afraid that with every step toward Jerusalem they were becoming more like that child… not in control, not on top, and not someone who mattered.  They were afraid that everything Jesus was saying was true!  That the Jesus way of living WASN’T living on the top of the world looking down, but from the very bottom.

What Jesus was saying then WAS true… and it’s still true now… the path to a fulfilling, purpose-filled life begins at the bottom.  It begins by nailing our preferences, privileges and priorities to the cross and letting them die.  The truth is that the tighter we hold on to the things the world says are important, the less able we are to open our hands enough to receive the gift of abundant life God is giving us.  The one prerequisite for resurrection is death.  Easter only happens after Good Friday.  Really living means loosening our grip, our need to control, our need to hold on to what is known and what’s safe… It means letting go of everything the world tells us is important… allowing all that we have, all that we know, all that we are, to fall through our fingers so that all that we are can finally fall into the hands of God to be remolded, reshaped and reformed into the new creation God is calling us to be. 

But HOW?  How do we do that?  The answer is that we do it like a child.  Children don’t study and philosophize about walking… they just take a step, fall down, get up and try again until one day... they’re walking!  They start with nothing other than a parent’s outstretched arms and are transformed into walkers along the way.  Jesus is telling us that’s how it goes with life as well.  We take just one small step toward our Divine Parent’s outstretched arms… letting one bit of the world's way of being fall through our fingers and into God's care and then another.  These aren't just mental steps, but physical steps too and yes, every step we take is certain to be just as uncoordinated and uncertain as a child’s first steps.  But like a child they need to be steps away from a crawling life... away from fear, selfishness and greed and toward toward a walking life of compassion, love, and generosity.

  

We all really are CHILDREN of God, as shaky and unsure as any child learning to walk.  But we are also children of GOD. Children of a Divinely loving Parent whose outstretched arms are ALWAYS reaching out to us with the biggest possible smile, encouraging us each day to take one more step toward becoming the abundantly living creation our Divinely loving Parent KNOWS we are each meant to be.   Amen.

God's Preferences

 Isaiah 35:4-7a

Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. 

For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

When we see wars and Covid and hurricanes and wildfires and along with all of that, so much pointless, unnecessary pain and death, it’s easy to read this bit from Isaiah and focus only on the fear, the blindness, the broken bodies and the burning landscapes.  In doing that we can easily forget that is not God’s preference for creation.   

But God’s preference is NOT that people be afraid.  God’s preference is NOT for wilderness and dry land, whether that’s literal as it was for the people of Israel, or a figurative wilderness of hope in a pandemic, a desert of food and shelter, or the burning of injustice.  God’s preference is NOT that fear, scarcity, anxiety, worry, and dread be how we live these lives we’ve been given.    

God also has a preference for our wellbeing and that is for wholeness in body, mind, and spirit.  God’s preference is for us to leap like deer, have unstopped ears, be able to express ourselves freely… to be able to sing!  And not only to  sing the blues, but to sing for joy as well!  

God’s preference for us is that we NOT struggle with the burning sands of life either.  Those deserts of endless, irritating sand that grind away in our human gears… never quite grinding us to a stop but never letting our mental or physical or spiritual well being run completely smoothly either.  God’s preference is for justice to flow like cool streams washing away that sand.  God’s preference is for pools of still waters… refreshing us, healing us, giving us peace.  

God’s preference is also NOT for people to go without really living in this life… just “getting-by” isn’t it!  God’s preference is for abundant life… not excessive life, but an abundant, eternal life NOW.  NOT just suffering through this life with only the promise of “eternal life” in the sweet by and by!  That’s not Good News!

“But Father O’Karas” you say, “this preference of God’s can’t be for everyone can it?  Surely Not for THOSE people!” And to that I’d say, it not only CAN be for everyone… it IS for everyone, and don’t call me Shirley!  From the daughters of Syrophoenician Gentile women clear over to grown up Jewish men.  And that, my friends, is literally everyone!  

Now you may have noticed that the world does not currently seem to be operating fully according to God’s preferences and THAT, I would say, is excellent noticing!  It most certainly is not!  But if God is God and the world isn’t working as God prefers, God will certainly get God’s way, right?  Absolutely!  But how… and when?  The “how”, both in Isaiah and in the Gospels, happens with the presence of the Divine.  In Isaiah, it happens when “God comes… when God is here”!  In the Gospels it happens in the presence of Jesus, no matter where he goes or who is around him.  In every case it is the presence of the Divine that changes the world from what it is, into what God prefers it to be.  The “when” part is harder.  The “when” is like a train pulling into the station.  God, the engine, is here but the world in tow has not yet come to a full and complete stop so all of creation has clearly not yet gotten  onboard.  

So if it’s God’s presence that creates God’s preferences for creation and not our work, what is our part in all this?  I think our part in all this is first to constantly remind one another of of God’s preferences for creation.  The desert, wilderness, the jackals, the sand, and the world as it currently is, is very loud, and that noise makes those promises hard to remember.  So we need to hear God’s preferences over and over so they aren’t forever drown out by all that noise.  And I think we’re called to do THIS… to come together… physically when it’s possible… because when we are together we ARE the Body of Christ… and somehow, mystically, our presence as the Body of Christ can and does change the world. 

Now I know, and the Apostle Paul knew, and Jesus knew and I’m certain God knows, that while we are fully the Body of Christ, we are also fully human and we will certainly fall short of the glory of God in what we do.  And yet, the Holy Spirit keeps calling us to remind each other of God’s preferences and to do all we can for our neighbors and the world.  And as we do that, the angels will be rooting for us, shouting, “Be strong!  Do not fear!” and reminding us always that our God will come, our God’s will, will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Amen.