The No Matter Whatness of God

John 8:31-36

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

So… “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”  Right!  “Practice, practice, practice!”  It was only when the pandemic locked everything down and Jorge started using our parish hall to practice that I REALLY started to understand the deep truth of that little joke.  Nearly every day, there was Jorge, for hours and hours, practicing the violin.  There weren’t any performances to practice for, but there he was anyway.  Hours of just the basic scales alone!  I was in awe of the commitment.  But it is exactly that level of commitment to the basics that allows him the freedom to fly when it’s time to perform. THAT level of commitment was what God was hoping for from us when God made that covenant on Sinai with God’s people.  “Here are ten of the basics” God said.  Practice, practice, practice them, and in the practicing you will learn to not just live life, but to really fly!  

That was God’s intent, but God is continually more confident in our dedication to practice than we seem able to pull off in real life.  We practice less like Jorge and more like I did in sixth grade and you see the results.  Jorge has played Carnegie Hall, and I... have not!  Clearly our practice of the Law was not going to get all of us living the life God created us to live so God shifted gears and began writing on our hearts!  Now, that doesn’t mean that practicing was no longer important!  It just means that the God of “No matter Whatness” as Gregory Boyle calls it, is simply not content with just “some” of us at God’s Feast!  This God… Our God… is determined to have everyone at the table… no matter what!  

And yet it seems that we continually push away God’s plan of “No Matter Whatness” and dredge back up the god Gregory Boyle calls the God who’s on the lookout for “One False Move”.  That’s what the people gathered before Jesus in today’s Gospel were doing.  Pushing away God.  The God who had brought them out of Egypt NO MATTER WHAT.  That’s what the Church in Luther’s day was doing.  Pushing away God.  The God of grace NO MATTER WHAT.  That’s what Luther himself did.  He pushed away God.  The God in whom all of creation lives and moves and has it’s being… which includes EVEN the Calvinists and Papists!  GASP!  And still to this day… that same thing happens.

This past week a friend posted a picture on Facebook of a sign meant for Halloween trick or treaters.  It said, “Attention Satanic Socialists”  Nice start huh?  Oh it gets better, and by better… I mean horrifically worse! “Attention Satanic Socialists, This is the home of a patriotic christian family.  We work hard and pay taxes.  We do not celebrate satan’s day.  We do not give away free candy to lazy entitled freeloaders.  No Handouts!  Welcome to America!  If you want candy, get a job!  And find Jesus!”

Over and over and throughout the ages, this is what we do!  We cry, “We were never slaves in Egypt!  Jesus never gave away free bread and fish!  God loves us, but could never love YOU!  We push aside the God of “No matter Whatness” and haul back out the god who is always looking for “One False Move.”  And that, my Lutherpalians, is why all of us are always in constant need of reformation.  We needed reformation when we couldn’t seem to practice enough, so God wrote it on our hearts.  We needed reformation when we took God’s Word and skipped over the parts about Grace through Faith.  And we need reformation today and every day as we fail to love our neighbors with the same “No Matter Whatness” with which God has first loved us!  

Recognizing and remembering our need for constant reformation is really what Reformation Sunday is all about.  One Luther’s quotes that I love the most (other than the ones about beer) helps us do just that.  Luther said, “When you wash your face, remember your Baptism.”  It was Luther’s little trick to help us remember our need for daily reformation.  So, when you wake up and wash your face, remember that the shortcomings of yesterday have all been washed away and the wrongs of your past are remembered no more, no matter what.  When you wake up and wash your face, remember that your Baptism has given you everything you need to live into the day ahead with love, compassion, grace, and forgiveness for everyone no matter what.  And when you wake up and wash your face, remember that you… you… just as you are… are fiercely held in the arms of the “No matter whatness” of God’s infinite love and you always, always, always will be.  And then, after you've washed your face take that “No Matter Whatness” that you have first received from God and then pass it on so that they might embrace their own daily reformation too.  Amen.    

Welcome to Kindergarten

Mark 10:35-45

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to Jesus and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

You KNOW James and John tried this same thing on their dad Zebedee back in the day.  “Dad, we want you to say yes.”  “Say yes to what?” replies dad, not having just fallen off the turnip truck.  “Just say yes and then we’ll tell you!”  How do I know they tried it?  Because we’ve ALL tried it!  And how often does it work?  Right!!  It NEVER works!  So why were James and John trying this kindergarten trick on Jesus?

My guess is that’s all they had left!  This little exchange, you see, is happening right after Jesus has told them… not once… not twice… but three times now that the Kingdom of God was not happening the way they expected.  Jesus would NOT be raising an army, kicking out the Romans, and becoming a King like David.  The Kingdom of God was coming in one way, and one way only… by way of death and resurrection.  But no matter how many time Jesus said it, they just stuck their fingers in their ears and said, “LALALA, I can’t hear you.”  The first time Jesus told them he was changing from a “king style” Messiah to a "death and resurrection" style Messiah, Peter spoke for the group and said, “By no means!”  The second time, the disciples just changed the subject and talked about who among them was the greatest.  This last time James and John just started working on the seating chart for the new throne room!  

You see, what Jesus was telling them was NOT how they wanted it to happen!  It wasn’t how they were taught it would happen!  How on earth could this crazy “death and resurrection” idea possibly work!  Jesus!  What are you thinking?  Jesus!  You’re not doing it right!  Jesus!  I don’t LIKE this!  Jesus!  This is scary!  Jesus!  THIS IS REALLY, REALLY, REALLY HARD!  And you know what?  A year and a half into a never ending pandemic, I’ve found a new appreciation for James and John.  Jesus I don’t like pandemic church!  Jesus this isn’t how I was taught church should be.  Jesus, I can’t even plan for next week let alone Christmas!  Jesus, this is HARD!  

And do you know why all of this was so hard for James and John and feels so exhausting and hard for you and me?  Because all of it is really hard and exhausting!  Everything that had been one way, is now tossing and turning and churning in the middle of changing into what it will eventually be!  And it’s been like that for a year and a half now!  Just like James and John had NO IDEA what Jesus was talking about when he went on about being “raised from the dead”… You and I have NO IDEA what church, our town, this country, our world will all look like when this overloaded, off balance, never ending spin cycle of life finally winds down and God pulls us out on the other side.  

But wait!  RIGHT THERE… that’s it isn’t it?  That’s the piece James and John were missing!  That’s the part we too often miss too!   GOD ALWAYS PULLS US OUT!  James and John, you and me, we all tend to forget that when we’re in the middle of the mess.  But GOD’S thing, going WAY back, IS getting God's people through to the other side.  It’s easy to forget that in the midst of it.  And in the middle of this latest spin cycle of life, I want to insist that God tell me HOW it’s going to happen!  But that's just as kindergarten as saying, “Hey Jesus, do whatever I ask!” isn’t it?

The truth is, when James and John where in the middle of it… when you and I are in the middle of it… even when we can’t see a plan or any possible end… God is always at work, for our benefit and not our harm, in ways we can never even begin to wrap our minds around.  When James and John heard “Resurrection”.  REALLY!?  It had never been done!  But then, there it was!  And the same is true for us!  As we continue to tumble, rinse and spin through pandemic cycle after cycle, we get to be (understandably) just like James and John… unable to even begin to image how God will get us through.  

To James and John it seemed impossible!  To you and me… all this seems impossible!  And yet… story after story reminds us that God’s thing is seeing God’s people into the impossible… Abraham and Sarah having a child.  Dry land in the middle of the Red Sea.  Manna in the wilderness.  A Promised Land.  Loaves and Fish.  A Camel through the eye of a needle.  All these stories remind us of God’s remarkable track record of working with the least likely sorts of people in the most impossible situations to accomplish the most wonderful and miraculous things!

  

James and John were looking into an impossible future… a future that included the death of the One they gave up everything to follow… from a present where resurrection was an unheard of fantasy.  They did the best they could in that moment.  It was kindergarten level to be sure, but sometimes, kindergarten is the best we can manage!  On many more days than I’d like, we too look into an impossible seeming future… frightening, unpredictable, exhausting and strange.  Sometimes the best WE can do is kindergarten level stuff, no better than James or John.  And it turns out… that’s okay.  Because it wasn’t James or John that saw to it that Jesus was raised from the dead and it won’t be me or you who ends this endless pandemic.  It always has been and it always will be, the One who splits seas, rains manna, makes the blind see, pulls camels through the eyes of needles and raises the dead who will do THIS impossible thing as well!  

Today it was James and John’s turn to remind us of that.  Tomorrow, if you’re able, take a turn reminding someone else who’s finding it hard to remember… someone whose best has been reduced to only kindergarten moves.  Remind them today and then take a turn yourself tomorrow when you’re having a James and John sort of day… that God’s way is to reach through needles and pull out camels and reach into tombs and pull out abundant life!  Amen.  

I Did My Own Research

Mark 10:17-31

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

One of the newest Halloween decorations you can get for your yard this year is a tombstone that says, “I did my own research.”  My tank, usually filled with charitable Christianity, has run pretty much dry for folks who think their own research is better than the research of the best scientists in the world, but that said, their “research” isn't what landed us in this spot that we're in.  The part that landed us here is the arrogant, individualistic, idolatrous notion of “I.”  I know best.  I am free to do what I want.  I know what’s right.  I have done my own research.  I have the freedom to do whatever I want.  I, I, I, I, I, I, I!  

It was that very same notion of the all powerful “I” that had the man in the Gospel story walking away from Jesus shocked and grieving.  Jesus saw this man's reliance on “I” the moment he came up to him and said, “Good teacher.”  When kids come up to the adult in charge and say, “You’re the best!” you know they're trying to beat the system.  Whether it’s a cookie outside of cookie time, a later bedtime, or a loophole for an off shore tax haven.

What must “I” do to enter the Kingdom of God? He asked.  There it was… he was looking to beat the system by getting into God’s Kingdom ON HIS OWN.  Whether on his merit, his money, his wits, or his strength... it really doesn’t matter.  Because the main problem wasn’t with his merit, money, wits, or strength… It was with his thinking that “I” could make it happen.  He THOUGHT he could do an end run on THIS thing, just like he had with everything else in his life… ON HIS OWN.  THAT was his real problem.  He had made an idol of his individualism.  He made himself into his own god.

But here’s the thing about the Kingdom of the big “G” God.  It’s harder to get into God's Kingdom ON YOUR OWN than it is to get a camel through the eye of a needle.  And that’s no metaphorical camel nor some giant carnival prop needle either.  It is harder to get into God's Kingdom on your own than it is to get a real, 1300 lb. humped back, spitting camel through a normal sized sewing needle with an eye that is just BARELY big enough for a thread to pass through!

Jesus knew that the danger for people with wealth was not the wealth itself.  It was assuming this would work just like every other part of their lives had worked… they would rely on “I” to get it done.  After all he’d paid people, pressured people, charmed people, conned people, and bullied people to make other seemingly impossible things happen before… Why should getting into the Kingdom of God be any different?  But it was different and Jesus told him so.  It really was impossible for his idolatrous “I” to get that very real camel through the eye of that VERY small needle… BUT… but… but… it is NOT impossible for the big “G” God to do it… and THAT is the point.  

The Kingdom of God is not something WE can buy, force, beg, borrow, or bully our way into with the unholy trinity of ME, MYSELF, or I. The ONLY way you and I and everyone else in all of creation can get through to the Kingdom of God, is if God, in God’s mysterious, loving, generous, grace filled way, reaches the divine hand through that terribly tiny eye of that very minuscule needle, grabs hold of us by the wrists on the other side, and then pulls us through!  I can’t do it.  You can’t do it.  All the money of this rich man PLUS Bezos, Zuckerberg, Gates and Buffet's money can’t do it!  

BUT… the Good News is, that God in Christ WANTS to do it FOR us, no strings attached.  That’s the promise we have in Baptism.  Now, God won't pull you into the Kingdom if you don’t want to go that way.  God will let you try as many times as you’d like to get in on your own merit, money, or power.  But in the end, the only way in is by way of a gift from God, and the only part we can play is to graciously receive it. 

For the man in this story he thought “I can get in on my wealth” but that’s not the only thing people focused on “I” try to use to make it in on their own.  Some say “I have guns and that will be my salvation.”  Nope.  Some say “I have the right prayer and that will get me in.”  Nope.  Others say “I’ve been really good and that will get me in.”  Nope again.  Money, Stuff, Weapons, Bravado, Cons, Lies, Connections, Good Deeds, Friends, Family, Smarts and Strength have ALL been used to help convince Me, Myself, and I to falsely believe “I” can make this happen. 

“I” paired with anything else, will neither get us into the Kingdom of God any more that "I" can get a camel through a needle.  For “I” it is impossible.  But God is ready, willing, and maybe most importantly, ABLE to pull us through as a gift.  How long we let “I” get in the way of receiving that gift is up to us, but the promise is that God's gift is already ours so may we all invite our "I" to get out of the way so that we can simply and graciously receive what God is giving us all.  Amen.