Out of Fear Into Dreams

Matthew 2:13-23

Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared
to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”

When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.”

We don’t often read this Gospel text.  It comes up in the lectionary, but when that happens we usually opt for something… well, less slaughtery instead.  We do the Name of Jesus where Jesus gets his name… which turns out to be… you guessed it… Jesus or we move Epiphany to a Sunday.  We do almost anything really, because, well, this Gospel story is not filled with the “peace on earth” vibe we would all like to hold onto in the holiday season.  None of us wants to add a violent, fear-filled, Herod figurine or a set of ceramic murderous brutes to our Nativity sets in the middle of our cattle peacefully lowing!

And yet, here he is… both Herod and his murderous goons, a real and not to be forgotten part of the Christmas story, even if we’d like it to be forgotten.  It reminds us that this dark, fear driven Herod side of Christmas still plays out in our world today.  Just last week on Christmas Eve, three more busloads of South and Central American migrants were sent by Gov. Abbott from Texas to the Vice President’s house in Washington where they were left outside on a night with freezing temperatures. Ten years ago this December, just before Christmas, 6 adults and 20 children were slaughtered in Sandy Hook, about the same number of children they estimate were killed in Bethlehem by Herod.  Families from Central and South American… families from Ukraine, South Sudan, and Afghanistan… they will all leave their homes this very day for exactly same reason the Holy Family fled to Egypt all those years ago, because powerful men, acting out of fear, continue to bring darkness and death into the lives of vulnerable people everywhere.

But this Gospel insists, even with Herod on the prowl, that acting out of fear is not the Way, the Truth, or the Life.  Fear is not the path to follow into the abundant life God created us to live.  This Gospel is here to remind us that regardless of what happens around us, you and I were created to live our lives, not out of fear but into the dreams God has for us.  It was by living into God’s dreams that Jospeh went through with the wedding.  It was by living into God’s dream that Joseph gave Jesus his name.  It was walking into God’s dreams that brought them to safety and the way they knew it was safe to come back home.  

To live into fear as Herod did or to live into God’s dreams as Joseph did… these are our choices too.  Our choice may not lead to Herod or Abbott level horrors, but whether we live into our fears or into God’s dreams... even for us… it does make a difference.  That difference then ripples out into the world in ways we may never know.  That choice, though, choosing dreams over fear, isn’t simple by any means.  We humans are hard wired to first react out of fear.  When you meet a tiger in the woods, reacting out of fear without thinking is what will save your life.  That's why to choose to live out of God’s dreams instead of fear requires us to somehow mentally and emotionally swim up through our fears and into the human parts of our brain.  It’s only there, on the other side of fear, that we can even begin to consider living into God’s dreams.

Hopefully you’re better at that than I am.  I typically KNOW what I need to do… I need to swim through my fear… but it’s almost always impossible to do on my own.  I don’t think that makes me a failure though… I think that makes me human, which is just one of the many reasons we humans need each other.  This story shows us that too.  The wise men had each other to swim up through their fears together and live into God’s dream for them to go home by another way.  The shepherds had each other.  Mary and Joseph had each other.  The only one who was doing all of this all alone was Herod.   

Woody Allen once said that , “Eighty percent of life is showing up.”  I’d tweak that a bit and say that 80% of what it takes to swim up through our fears and into God’s dreams is showing up… here.  Sure the music is great, the eucharist is a gift and the people up front all wear dresses!  But it’s showing up to be community with one another… that’s the piece that we so often miss these days.  So for this New Year I commend to you the Spiritual discipline of showing up.  Showing up and hanging out.  Showing up and being vulnerable with one another.  Showing up for one anotehr and helping each other swim up through the fears and walking with one another into the bold and beautiful dream that God has for you and all of creation.  Amen. 

A Christmas Boost

 Luke 2:1-14

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

Since you’re here tonight, I suspect you all know this story… at least the basics… the ground floor version… right?  Mary and Joseph head to Bethlehem.  An angel, then a heavenly host!  Shepherds.  The Messiah born, wrapped up in a Biblical style onesie and lying in the sheep’s supper.  It’s a great story just like that.  But… if you’re willing… I’d like to offer you a tiny little boost tonight.  A boost, to see this same story from a slightly different perspective because with a boost, this story also gives us a peek at how God chooses to work in our world.  So, up you go and take a new look! 

The first thing you’ll see from this angle is God’s overwhelming preference for working through people the world routinely labels as the least, the lost, and the last.  God chooses to work through Mary.  She’s not a royal, not rich, not well connected, not married, and in that time and culture that meant she wasn’t even a legal person.  It’s not that God didn’t have movers and shakers to choose from that night in Bethlehem.  Bethlehem was jam packed with people like that.  It was like Great Barrington on the fourth of July weekend!  Every suite, room, and Air BnB… had been snatched up.  Every restaurant table, for every time, from five to nine thirty, was completely booked and the line at the Bistro Box stretched way down almost to the senior center!  So, God COULD have chosen to work though literally anybody.  But God didn’t.  God chose to work though Mary… for a reason.

God, it turns out, doesn’t work from the top down.  Wealth and fame are NOT signs of Divine favor in spite of what the jet setting televangelists would like you to believe.  God doesn’t believe in trickle down.  God works from the very, very bottom and then on up from there.  God works through the people the world yells at, and bullies, and legislates, scams and threatens… all to send the message that there’s no room here for the likes of YOU in the inn or anywhere else for that matter.  God chooses to work through the people who the rich and powerful tell both literally and figuratively to move to the back of the inn.  No, to the VERY back of the inn.  No, to out back BEHIND the back of the inn… OUT there with the other… animals.  

God chooses, on purpose, to work through the least, the lost, and the last to heal the world… the whole world… from the bottom up.  That’s how God works and for those who choose to follow in God’s Divine footsteps, we too are called to work in this world in that very same way… to change the world into the vision God had for it from the beginning… a world where everyone has neither too much nor too little but everyone has enough… enough food and shelter, enough love and dignity, enough hope and equity, enough purpose and joy.     

The other thing I want to show you with this Christmas boost... the thing I REALLY want you to see, is that on Christmas it’s not JUST that a Savior was born…  But I want to you see that it’s very, very specific here, that this Savior has been born TO YOU!  I want you to see that the baby in the manger... that sign that God’s unconditional, unlimited, unbreakable love... has been given tonight and every night… specifically TO YOU!  Yeah.  You.  TO YOU this child has been born.  TO YOU this child is given.  This child… the physical flesh and blood embodiment of God’s immeasurable, unconditional, unlimited love… has been sent specifically TO YOU.  All of it.  Why?  Well, it turns out that unconditional, unlimited, unbridled LOVE is the way God chooses to work in this world in spite of anything you might hear to the contrary from the loud, hateful, and angry people of our world.  LOVE is how God works!  And for those who choose to walk in God’s Divine footsteps as a way of life, we are called… you and me… we’re called to do absolutely everything we do in this world… with LOVE as well.

That’s Christmas!  YOU have been given the entirety of God’s love as an unconditional Christmas gift from God tonight.  It’s yours!  God does love... not take-backsies!  It’s all wrapped up and ready to go with you when you leave tonight.  So take it with you!  Unwrap it, put it on and wear it throughout the year to come.  And when you're ready… go ahead and share it with the world... there is more than enough of God's love to go around... so share it beginning with the least and the lost and the last and join with God in changing the world... with love. Amen.

Tiny Package. Big Prayer.

 Matthew 1:18-25

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this
way.  When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.  Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.  But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”  All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

“Look, the virgin shall conceive

and bear a son,

and they shall name him

Emmanuel,”

Which means, “God is with us.”  When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

Joe's clothes smelled like oak.  It was from the custom front door he had been working on all day.  He had saved this bit of the remodel for the very end.  He would not have handled some careless sub-contractor putting a gouge in it very well, especially with the other stuff going on in his life right now.  It was work that required his full concentration and that’s exactly what he needed.  Not just to finish the door without messing it up in the home stretch but also because of that other thing.  It turned out, you see, that his soon-to-be wife was pregnant.  It also turned out that his soon-to-be wife was pregnant and he hadn’t been a part of making that happen!

Joe was generally a relaxed guy.  Mostly go with the flow.  Weather the stormy times and enjoy the sunny days just the same.  People were used to seeing him brush off the sawdust every evening as he went into the grocery store to figure out his dinner.  The fact that sawdust always ended up under his hat as well was a mystery he had not yet solved.  But in spite of his usual easy going nature, this news about Mary had thrown him… and thrown him hard!  

But now, as he put a piece of meat in the cart with a yellow sale sticker for dinner, he settled finally on what he would do.  He’d call the wedding off and move on.  It was an impossible decision.  He loved her.  Even after she had gone and gotten pregnant without him.  He still somehow loved her.  But a decision had to be made and he had made it.  It was done.  When he got home he grilled the sale meat, cooked up a summer squash and some onions to go with it, ate dinner, showered, and climbed into bed… still firm in his decision.  

THEN, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “you know that decision you just made after agonizing over it for a week?  Yeah, we’re changing that!”  Isn’t this just the way it goes?  Not just for Joe but for all of  us too?  We agonize, worry, and fret for days or weeks or even years and then when we’ve finally come to a solution, THAT’S when God lets us know what would be best!  It’s never before all the worry and sleepless nights begin.  It’s always after!  Where was that angel of the Lord last week when Mary first told Joe she was pregnant?  Couldn’t he have popped by then?  Cleared it up before all the worry and pain?  Where was God then? 

That’s not just a Joe question either.  That’s an everybody question.  Where is God!?  Where is God now, when we could use Him the most?  It’s actually a faithful question.  If you didn’t believe in God you wouldn’t be wondering where God was, would you?

Anyway, back to the story.  This angel, apart from scaring the bejeebers out of Joe, told him that he should not be afraid (which he found hard to do since there was a  %&*@%! angel of the Lord in his bedroom).  Then the angel said he should marry Mary because she is pregnant from the Holy Spirit (which makes it okay, I guess?)…  and, “by the way… while I’m here,” says the angel, “You should name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.”  FINALLY!  Here was the answer to the question Joe had been agonizing over for a week, “Where is God when I need God the most.”  The answer, it turns out is that God was right there all along.  Right there, between Mary and Joe, bulging out from Mary’s maternity cloths.  God with us.  

You see, this story isn’t just a set up for Christmas.  This story is the set up for the whole of Matthew’s Gospel and it sets all of us up as well, for our entire lives.  This story is trying to get us to hear that no matter what happens, God is with us.  God with us, is the promise that embraces us, shelters and shields us, holds us through anything we could imagine and even through the unimaginable.  It is the promise so important we find it here at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel AND at the very end of this Gospel when Jesus says, “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” 

A long time ago I had a friend who used “God with us” as a prayer.  For her it was a prayer of gratitude for the promise given, a prayer of hope that the promise would always be there and a confession of faith, that even when it didn’t feel at all like it in her life, the truth remained… God is with us.  Big prayer.  Tiny Package.   Feel free to use it yourself.  It’s good through Advent, Christmas… well and pretty much every time and every place so you’ll remember, no matter what’s going on,  God is with you… Always.  Amen.

The Unreasonableness of Hope

Matthew 3:1-12

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the
wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Having hope for our world seems all too often to be an unreasonable expectation.  And yet, having Hope for our world, particularly when hope seems entirely unreasonable, is what Advent is all about.

  

Hope often seems unreasonable because… well… have you seen this world?  It feels like the brood of vipers is bigger than ever!  It all too often feels like that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones and Marion are at the bottom of the Egyptian tomb surrounded by snakes with just a torch… the torch is going out… and Nazis are sealing them inside.  There is so much slithering and venom spewing around us these days, and frankly, that would be enough… but we've even got Nazis again!

Hope seemed unreasonable in John the Baptist's time too.  He stood in the desert and called out the snakes that had locked the world in hopelessness.  Some came out and committed to doing their best to NOT live that snake-like way any longer.  Others denied there even was a snake problem at all!  John the Baptist preferred it when people saw how they contributed to the hopelessness of the world and committed to live differently.  But John the Baptist also KNEW that no matter how they would try... a permanent fix for hopelessness was beyond them. 

He told them, "Look, we all are like little orchards, not individual trees.  No one is made up entirely of trees that make bitter, mushy fruit and no one has trees that only make sweet and crispy fruit either.  My advise to you",  John the Baptist told them "is to feed the trees that make the good fruit and not the ones that make the garbage fruit.  But remember, a permanent fix will only arrive with the ONE who is coming with an axe. It's only that ONE who can change the mix of trees in your orchard for good.  We are now both Saints and Sinners, Hopeful and Hopeless.  Both impossibly entangled together like chaff around the grain."  

John the Baptist KNEW that for us to be fully transformed we needed “One more powerful” than even the bug and honey fueled John the Baptist.  For us to be able to hold onto Hope even in the pitch black darkness of the world surrounded by snakes and Nazis, we needed the One who’s sandals John was not worthy to even carry.  For Hope to live and Hopelessness to die we needed the One who would Baptize, not with water, but with the Holy Spirit and with fire!  

"The Good News" John told them is "THAT one is coming!  THAT one will cut the dead wood out of our orchards.  That one, with his own death, will pull hopelessness down and lock it away in hell, and rise to new life with an unconquerable hopefulness!  It is an absolutely unreasonable expectation to have Hope for this world, when we look around us and see no further than the darkness and the vipers.  Hope, however, becomes more than just possible... it becomes a forgone conclusion when we look to the One who has so many times before before, is now, and will continue to do the unreasonable, the unlikely, the impossible, the improbable, and the unbelievable work of changing the world from what it is, into what God envisions it to be.  

Advent reminds us to look beyond the end of our noses.  To look beyond the endless darkness.  To look beyond what all the snakes of the world say is inevitable and see the God who has always been there… the God of love, the God of life, the God who makes the unreasonable and impossible happen in truly the most unbelievable and unlikely ways.  Advent calls us to look beyond hopelessness and see the hope for all of creation in what God has done, is doing, and promises yet to do.  Amen. 

AAAAAAWWWWWW YYYYEEEEEAAAAA

 Matthew 24: 36-44

“But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

When you hear this Gospel, what springs to mind?  Confusion maybe?  Fear?  Do you imagine Jesus with a giant old hoover, vacuuming up the faithful while the rest of us “left behind”?  A very large group of very loud people have laid all of that onto this Gospel for a very long time.  It’s been done so completely and so relentlessly that there are countless stories of kids coming home from school to an empty house and immediately assuming their family had been raptured and they had been left behind. 

It should be “needless to say” but I’ve found over the years it is “absolutely necessary to say.”  The Rapture is not Biblical.  Jesus did NOT say this to frighten ANY of God’s children into being “good.”  The idea that God is a manipulative, emotionally abusive, overseer waiting for us to mess up and leave us behind turns God into an abusive, rather than loving parent.  It’s an evil idea used by those in power to keep the powerless from seeing this passage as it was intended… as a message of hope in the midst of hopelessness.  A hope, grounded in God’s steadfast love for ALL of creation.  ALL of it.  ALL.

  

The people who first heard this were living in the shadow of the destruction of the Temple.  They had been completely beaten for a long time by Rome, but when Matthew’s Gospel was written, they had been beaten to a new level that made the former beating feel like a day at the spa.  So this was then, and still is today, meant to be a message of hope for the hopelessly oppressed… a message that God will NOT accept that status quo.

But how does this same message sound to those on the other side?  How does this sound to the powerful or to the folks who at least do pretty well, just as things are?  How does this sound to the people of privilege?  How does it sound… well… to us?  We very often have more in common with the owner of the house in this passage who had gathered around themselves power, privilege and possessions, than we do with those who work in fields or at grinding meal who can’t afford an apartment let alone own a house.  What are we… the faithful… but also the privileged to do with this lesson?

The faithful, whether born into privilege or poverty are called to do exactly the same thing… embrace God’s vision of radical and revolutionary hope for the world and then get on the bus and drive the world toward the finish line where there is no longer Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female, brown nor white, gay nor straight, us nor them, but all are as God created us to be… ONE.  

The first step on that path is to grieve the loss of what was.  Walter Bruggemann recently wrote in an article that “There is so much to lament when we think of the “good old days” that were “good” only for some among us.”  It is hard to let go of the past.  It’s hard for those of privilege and it is also hard for those who often find the known oppression to be less frightening that the unknown of what might be next.  Either way though, Bruggemann reminds us that as humans we need to grieve what has been… the good, bad, and indifferent.  The alternative to grieving is to live in denial, doing anything and everything imaginable and unimaginable to return to and hold onto the past.  Seven mass shooting this past week is just a tiny peek at what happens when people demand to live in denial that the past is gone rather than recognize that the world has already changed.   

Bruggemann tells us that lament is the absolutely required first step humans must take if they are ever to be able to move beyond grief and walk into God’s Hope for something new and wonderful for ALL people.  He goes on to tell us that when we keep walking in that direction, that it is in the GOING that we will discover we really do have the power to be a part of bringing that vision to reality.  That’s what Advent is about.  Not so much a countdown to Christmas, but a reminder that God is on the move... GOING and is inviting us to Go too.  We’ll be reminded of it over and over again in Advent.  An angel GOES to see Mary.  Another GOES to see Joseph.  A pregnant Mary GOES to see her cousin.  The whole family GOES to Bethlehem.  Shepherds GO into town, Sages GO from East to West, the family GOES as refugees to Egypt.  Each time in Advent someone GOES, it is more than just a story from long ago.  It is an invitation from God for you and I to go along.  To give up and lament the “good old days” that were “good” only for some among us, to step deeply into God’s vision of revolutionary hope for the future and then take one more step and GO into a world where all are truly ONE.  Amen.

It Was Alive When You Bought It

Jeremiah 23:1-6

Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the
sheep of my pasture! says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord. The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”

Luke 23:33-43

When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

The usual place we expect to see today’s Gospel lesson is in Holy Week.  There, it takes its place in the center of Christianity… the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus.  When we hear it in Holy Week it is fairly impossible to see it any other way.  BUT this isn’t Holy Week, and that gives us a chance to see it in a different way... as a parable.  To see it as a parable rather than as we're used to seeing it in Holy Week is a fairly big leap, so I think it would help to circle back to the first lesson and sort of get a running start as we jump into that new perspective.  

In that first lesson God, through the voice of the prophet Jeremiah, makes it VERY clear that the leaders of God’s people were not just inept, but doing evil.  They had scattered their people.  Driven them away.  They were indifferent and uncaring.  They had torn apart and divided the community.  Unfortunately that sort of leadership is not just a one-off here in Jeremiah.  It's a story repeated over and over again in history, in fiction, and even in yesterday’s news.  Scattering the flock, dividing the people… dis-membering the community… It all is sadly nothing new under the sun.     

While Kelly was gone I binged The Hobbit trilogy again.  Thorin, the dwarf king, when he fell victim to Dragon Fever did this same thing.  He scattered his company, drove off his allies and isolated himself amongst his vast piles of gold.  We are all, right now, watching Elon Musk… another sad victim of Dragon Fever do the same.  He bought Twitter, angry because they were not managing speech on that platform the way HE thought it should be done.  Then, finally seated atop his enormous pile of social media gold, is even now proceeding to alienate the employees (the only people who actually know how it works), drive off users and advertisers and isolate himself in his crumbling kingdom.  

The shepherds of the people in Jeremiah, the Dwarf King, and the billionaire Elon Musk… three good examples of leaders who have walked down a path lined with “evil doings” of tearing apart the communities, nations, and the people around them.  They have driven wedges, increased divisions, EVEN between themselves and the very people who could help them.  They all, in fear and desperation, restored to sowing seeds of conspiracy and hatred.  In their fear filled evil doings they have fallen to divide and conquer and dismembering person from person, nation from nation, race from race, and walking that path inevitably ends with them dismembering themselves from humanity as well.  

Dismemberment is not the way, God cries out!  I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. I myself will gather my flock, I will bring them back to their fold.  I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord.  God’s way, and I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that because it's "God's Way" it's the best way, is NEVER about scattering, alienating, dividing, and sewing fear!  God attends… God gathers! God brings back… God raises up!  God makes it so they shall NOT fear, NOT be dismayed, and NOT torn apart and THAT is the running start we needed to jump into this familiar Gospel from a new direction.  Because even on the cross, in the midst of agonizing pain, growing closer to death every moment… himself a victim of kings who traffic in scattering, dividing, and sewing seeds of fear and hatred... what is it that Jesus does?  He RE-MEMBERS.  Whatever brokenness that had dis-membered that man from his community… Jesus RE-MEMBERED him.  The death that was about to dis-member that man from his life, would be RE-MEMBERED that day in Paradise.  

Taken out of the context of Holy Week, we have a chance to see this scene as one of Jesus’ parables.  We can see Jesus once again, not telling us as much as SHOWING us the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  There is the way of shepherd kings, dwarf kings, and billionaire kings.  And then there is the way of God and Christ the King.  There is the way of division, scattering, alienating, fear mongering and dis-membering.  Then there is the way of gathering, bringing together, raising up and re-membering.  

As a parable, this passage asks us a question.  Not just a question for kings… but a question for all of us.  Will we today, in all that we do, partner ourselves with the powers of greed and division?  Will we isolate ourselves and spend our day scattering and dismembering?  OR… Or… will we do as Jesus did… even as Jesus did on his very worst day… and genuinely SEE the people we meet, GATHER our community together with kindness and hospitality, help to RETURN those around us to a wholeness they have lost… COMFORT them?  Will we RE-MEMBER them?  This parable shows us two paths.  One of DIS-MEMBERING and the other of RE-MEMBERING.  May each of us help one another… to be about the holy work of REMEMBERING.  Amen. 

Doomsday Checklist

Luke 21:5-19

When some were speaking about the temple, how it
was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them. “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. “But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.

Well, that seemed a bit grim.  But that was then, right?  Maybe that stuff is just olden days stuff?  I think we should probably test it just to make sure.  Okay, let’s see here… Got the clip board… got the Doomsday check list securely fastened… got a pen… Alright… so here we go.  Are there any Wars around?  Well, there’s Ukraine, so… check.  Insurrections?  Ew, yeah, January 6, big ol’ ugly check.  Nation rising against nation, check.  Kingdom against Kingdom, yup, got that.  Earthquakes, famines and plagues… check, check, and a big ol’ COVID positive check!  Dreadful portents… that’s called “the news” since 2016, check.  Great signs in the heavens… what do you think… do the dueling billionaire rockets count for that… Yeah, I think so… especially THAT one!  So check!  Great!  We’ve checked off all the signs, everything looks to be in good order and so according to my checklist here it looks like we’re all lined up for the end of the world!  Great!

 

Or not.  I mean, it was a funny bit, but not at all responsible Biblical interpretation.  Look at what Jesus and the Disciples are actually talking about.  They weren’t talking about the end of the world.  They were talking about the destruction of the Temple.  Something that would no doubt be catastrophically bad, on the real good, to catastrophically bad, scale.  BUT it’s not the end of the world.  And they weren’t at all talking about OUR times today.  They were talking about their times back then, when in the year 70, the Temple was indeed destroyed by the Romans.   

So if predicting the end of the world is not what this lesson is all about (something that Jesus says even HE can't do as God’s SON) then what is this all about?  For that, I believe we must turn to one of the great theological minds of all times… and I'm sure with that introduction you've already guessed I'm talking about Dory, from Finding Nemo.  

Dory who, by the way is not a Dory, but a Blue Tang… but I digress.  What Jesus is trying to tell his disciples in this story, is the same philosophy that Dory expresses in her seminal and memorable work… “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”   

Now Jesus wasn’t inviting his disciples to swim toward P. Sherman’s house at 42 Wallaby Way, Sidney.  Jesus was telling the disciples to just keep swimming toward God’s vision for all of creation.  That vision gets laid out in a bunch of places in Scripture but, conveniently for today, it’s right there in the first lesson.  Life will be a delight.  No weeping.  People living long, full lives.  Everyone will have a roof over their heads and an abundance of food on the table.  There will be an unbelievable peace covering the lands… we’re talkin'... lamb and wolf eating together... kind of crazy peace!  Jesus was inviting his disciples to “just keep swimming, just keep swimming” toward THAT vision no matter what went on around them.  He told them that when the hard times came (and they inevitably do, over and over and over again) we disciples are to shout this vision into the darkness and just keep swimming.  

THAT, my friends, is what Christ Trinity Church is here to do!  We are here to shout that vision into our town’s, our country’s, and our world’s darkness du jour!  We are here to be those unusual people who do kindness for no other reason that the world needs a bunch of it!  We are here, based at 180 Main St. in the heart of the Sheffield Metroplex to paint pictures of God’s overwhelming abundance when the world cries constantly of its catastrophic scarcity.  We are here to model living overtly generous lives, giving beyond what fear tells us is a safe and comfortable amount.  We are here at Christ Trinity in every season and in every level of darkness and light to make a joyful noise, to break forth into joyous song and sing praises!  Christ Trinity is here, on the frontier of the rest of the world to be an outpost of Hope, inspiring those around us, regardless of every obstacle put in their way, to "Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming" toward God’s vision for all of creation until God’s sunrise fully shines and we and all of creation walk fully into God’s light without a shadow to be found... Walk into the day where all the wars, and plagues, insurrections, and dreadful portents and all of the other slithery-serpent-stuff we live with now is completely and totally and forever… left in the dust.

THAT is what this church is about.  THAT is the calling to which we are called.  THAT is the mission that together we support with our singing and our caring and our laughing and our generous giving.  THAT is WHO and WHOSE we are!  Amen.  

Blessed are the Crack Pots

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.

For this All Saint’s Sunday, we have Luke’s version of the “Blessed Ares”… the Beatitudes.  Luke is usually nicer and gentler while Matthew is normally the “weeping and gnashing of teeth” guy.  But with the Beatitudes they seem to have done a role reversal.  Luke has, blessed are you who are poor!  Not, blessed are you who are poor in SPIRIT, like in Matthew’s Gospel.  Just straight up POOR!  Blessed are you who are hungry.  Not, blessed are you who hunger and thirst for righteousness like in Matthew’s Gospel.  No, this isn’t some kind of spiritual poverty, this is not-enough-money-to-pay-the-rent, poverty!  This isn’t a spiritual hunger Jesus is calling blessed.  This is a growling-stomach-that-doesn’t-know-where-to-find-a-meal kind of hunger that Jesus is calling blessed.  

I think I probably like Matthew’s version of these beatitudes better because I can be blessed… because I’m poor “in spirit” but don’t have to be poor in wallet.  In Matthew I can be blessed as someone who hungers and thirsts "for righteousness" and not have to actually do without a meal.  Luke’s version doesn’t allow us to play that way.  Luke’s version INSISTS that it isn’t spiritual poverty or spiritual hunger.  This is “nothing in the bank and two weeks ’til payday” poverty and hunger!  This is a “without help from beyond me, myself, and I… me, myself, and I will be homeless and hungry” situation.  Luke’s version demands that we listen to Jesus and really, really hear that it is the broken, the hungry, the addicted, the poor, the weeping, the losers who have, through the terrible circumstances of live… who are BLESSED… not to be poor or hungry, (that's no blessing) but BLESSED in their hard learned understand that there is NOTHING any of us can accomplish on our own, apart from God.  

It is those life-cracking experiences that allow us to see  what Luther wrote in his explanation of the Third Article of the Apostle’s Creed, that “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”  The blessing is in the letting go of the notion we have to do it all ourselves.  The blessing is in the understanding that it’s ONLY through a gift from God that they have life, find a bed, have a meal to eat, and all the rest.

Being poor, being hungry, being broken, being an addict, being a loser and all the rest, are all held up by our world as the most horrible things you could ever be.  None of that is any fun, for sure!  But Jesus knew that being broken, even as genuinely painful and terrible as it is… turns out to ALSO form the cracks through which we are able to see God the most clearly at work in our lives.  

Now, neither Father, Son, nor Holy Spirit WISHES poverty, hunger, grief, or brokenness on any of us.  It’s just that Jesus knew that WHEN those things came into our lives… and because we're human, they always come in one way or another… we would be blessed with an opportunity to see God’s love at work in our lives in ways that the rich, the full, and the winners never would.  Woe, to them.  

In Japan, there is an art form called Kintsugi.  In this art form, ceramic bowls that have become broken are repaired in a unique way.  The artist doesn’t attempt to hide the cracks, but instead draws the eye to them by repairing them with gold.  The repaired bowls are then even more valuable than when they were unbroken.  Both the expense of the gold, but also the new beauty of the bowl, contribute to the bowl’s greater value.  

Jesus says, “Blessed are the cracked bowls.”  “Blessed are those who are broken.”  “Blessed are the losers.”  “Blessed are all the saints.”  Because it is THROUGH the cracks and brokenness of the saints around us AS WELL AS our own cracks and brokenness, that we see the shining gold of God's precious love and compassion filling our broken places and making us whole… Giving us even greater value than before… preparing each and every one of us, to then respond to God’s incredibly generous gift by being present for one another, being compassionate with one another, sharing our gifts and our wealth with one another.  It is through those ever growing acts of generosity, given in thanks for what God has first given us, that we together as the church move step by step… one day at a time… to do nothing less than change the world.  Amen.