All Parable-y and Junk

 Luke 14: 1, 7-14

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. 

When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, 'Give this person your place,' and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher'; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

He said also to the one who had invited him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Well, that’s just great!  He told them a parable.  He just HAD to go and make it a parable, didn’t he!  Because if it wasn’t a parable, this whole lesson would just be about having good manners.  But no, Jesus went and made it a parable which means the lunch isn’t about lunch and the wedding banquet in the parable isn’t about chicken or fish.

Because he went and made it a parable we know he was trying to tell the people something they would find hard to hear.  His parables always started with something easy and familiar, like lunch, to draw people in but then always took a turn into something much more challenging.  Jesus starts this parable with a light, friendly, luncheon, set out in the shade of a backyard tree.  Sounds lovely!  But then Jesus turns it so the guests at this lunch aren't your comfortable friends, but people the world is often uncomfortable with... the poor, crippled, lame, and blind.

  

But that’s just Jesus getting warmed up because he isn’t asking us to find “A” person and invite them to a one-off meal, Jesus is calling us all into deeper, forever relationships with all people, starting (as he always does) with the least, the lost, and the last.  Where the world says NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) Jesus insists on LIMBY (Lunch in My Back Yard)!  Jesus is challenging us to build a deep, thriving community, right here and right now that includes ALL people.  And suddenly we find that Jesus has taken us from talking about a comfortable backyard luncheon with friends to talking about the Kingdom of God.

So lunch wasn’t just about lunch and as you might suspect, dinner isn’t just any dinner.  It’s a banquet.  But not just any banquet… it’s a wedding banquet!  And when Jesus starts talking about Wedding Banquets he’s absolutely talking about nothing less than the Kingdom of God.  And when Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God, he’s not talking about the sweet by and by either.  He’s talking about this, day in day out, figure out dinner, commute to work, pick up a refill at the CVS, and do your homework world.  And as Michael Curry always says, he’s talking about changing THAT everyday world from the nightmare it is for so many into the dream God has for it. 

While the world’s way leads much too often to great disparities, with a few having much and many not having nearly enough, God’s Kingdom is the vision of our world transformed so that it works as an all inclusive banquet that never runs out.  Like the prophet Isaiah describes, it’s a feast with meats rich with marrow and well aged wines strained clear... a world where everyone has enough.

But even with all of that, Jesus still isn’t quite finished making things all parable-ly and difficult.  Because now Jesus says, “When YOU give a banquet.”  Yup, it gets harder, because this is OUR banquet to give... our world to change.  Not alone, thank God!  Not without God… but together, as God’s people we are called, as Martin Luther King said, to bend the arc of the moral universe slowly toward justice.  

Over these most recent years bending that arc toward justice has felt particularly difficult.  It’s easy in these times to get knocked down doing that work and think, “How is it that I… or even us at Christ Trinity Church is supposed to do THAT kind of impossibly heavy lift?”  But when that happens to me… and it does on a regular basis… I lean on a quote from our Jewish friends that says, “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now.  Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”  

Jesus is telling US a parable.  Which means we are being called to host much more than just a jaunty backyard lunch for friends or a happy summer dinner party.  Jesus is calling us to continue to create and grow those things we’ve taken to calling Corners of Kindness… micro examples of what the Kingdom of God is all about… places that welcome ALL people into our community.  Then, together, continue to work together to grow those Corners of Kindness bigger and bigger so that each day the world around us looks just a little bit more like the Kingdom of God.  Amen.  

In Buechner's Honor

Luke 13:10-17

Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

A cross has two parts.  There’s the… sorry for the theologically technical lingo here… the uppy-downy part and there’s the crossy-crossy part.  The thing is, without BOTH parts, it’s not a cross.  Without the uppy-downy part it’s just a board.  Without the crossy-crossy part it’s just a post.  You need BOTH to make it complete.  THAT is the essence of these lessons for today.  We need BOTH… our relationship with God (the uppy-downy part) and our relationship with our neighbors (the crossy-crossy part) to make this life we’ve been given full and complete.

Today’s first lesson has Isaiah upset with the folks at the Temple.  They all thought they could get away with faking a relationship with God by just putting in an hour at the Temple and throwing some loose change in the plate.  They believed they could just go through the motions… treat God like a vending machine.  Feed God a few coins and BOOM a blessing for the week would plop out the bottom.  Isaiah told them you can’t fake a relationship with God and have a full life.  

Isaiah also let them know that you also can’t abuse your relationships with the people around you and have a full life either.  Treating God like a vending machine one day a week and taking advantage of the poor and ignoring the needs of your neighbors the other six days of the week doesn’t care for your relationships in either the uppy-downy OR the crossy-crossy parts of our lives.  Living that way leaves a person hollow, rather than full of abundant life.

It’s the same trouble Jesus confronts in the Gospel.  Jesus is told he’s doing it WRONG by healing a woman on the Sabbath.  But Jesus insists that caring for our neighbors… being faithful to the crossy-crossy part… is JUST as important as being connected to God in the uppy-downy part of our lives every single day of the week and caring for both is not at all wrong. 

It’s a good check in for all of us, even 2000 years later.  It’s still easy today to have these two parts get out of balance.  It’s easy to fall into the thinking that church on Sunday is just for us to focus solely on our own personal uppy-downy relationship with God.  But the truth is, our coming to church… our showing up in person… is also meant to be something we do for that crossy-crossy part of our lives as well.  Each Sunday, someone just a couple of pews over needs to connect with you.  And for your life to be full, you invariably need to connect… in person, in the flesh… just as much.  These lessons remind us that it is just as important that we show up here on Sunday for the people around us as it is to show up here on Sunday for God. 

In everything we do here on Sunday, and everything we do the other six days of the week we are called to care for and build our relationships with BOTH God AND our neighbor.  This past week, theologian and author Fredrick Buechner died at the age of 96.  He said and wrote so many brilliant and beautiful things throughout his life that it’s not surprising two of my favorite Buechner quotes speak to these two dimensions of our faith.  About our relationship with God the quote I like best goes like this:  The grace of God means something like: "Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are, because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you.”  There's only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you'll reach out and take it.  Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.  And, about our relationships with one another he said, Our “Vocation is the place where your deep gladness meets the world's deep need.”

May we all strive each day to take hold of the gift of God’s grace that each of us has been given.  May we take hold of that gift using the power we have been given by the Holy Spirit.  And with those gifts of power and grace, may we each find the place in our neighbor’s lives where our deep gladness meets our neighbors' deep needs.  Amen.  

Whose Story is Your Story?

Luke 12:32-40

Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 

Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 

Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. 

But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

Right before church last week I saw an ad from a Congress-person selling t-shirts that say “Proud Christian Nationalist.” In the picture there was the shirt, the congress-person with their fists up like a boxer, and a caption that said, “STAND AGAINST THE GODLESS LEFT” outlined in red.  But this ad isn’t primarily selling a t-shirt with a political label.  This person is selling first and foremost a story.  A very, old story.  In fact, it’s the second oldest story ever told.  Sure, it’s wearing a brand new t-shirt but it’s the same old story.  

That old story says that our world is a VERY frightening place.  Terrifying, in fact.  Because of THEM!  Because of “THEM” we need to barricade “US” inside and lock “THEM” out!  Those on the inside are the good guys, the patriots, the faithful, and the righteous.  Those on the outside are the godless left, liberal terrorists, and out to get your children.  

This old story wants you to believe that EVERYTHING of worth and value in our world is in very, very short supply and “THEY” are coming for the little bit you have!  So if you don’t have any, then you better get some!  If you’ve got some, then you better stock up more!  And that’s not greed, mind you… it’s not fear, the old story assures the listener… it’s smart.  What is it that is in such short supply you ask?  

EVERYTHING!  Safety, security, freedom, jobs, food, gas, wealth, power, health, our culture, our way of life… EVERYTHING is in desperately, horribly short supply and “THEY” are coming to get the last little bit you have… so you better get your fists out and get ready!  Anyone who questions this story is clearly part of the godless left so the story must be swallowed hook, line, and sinker… no ifs, ands, or buts.  THEY are not part of US and THEY are not fully human, so anything goes… there are no means that go too far to achieve these ends.

THAT, is the very old story now sporting a brand new t-shirt and I, for one, am thankful that the people telling that old story this time around have decided to call themselves “Proud Christian Nationalists.”  I’m thankful… because by claiming that label for themselves, they’ve made it much easier to talk about how Christianity is different than Christian Nationalism.  Because people need to know, that even though it’s wearing a new t-shirt, it’s a story first told long, long ago by a snake in a garden.  “You don’t have enough!” said the snake to the people.  “But God has given us everything we need here in abundance,” the people replied.  “But you aren’t equal with God” said the snake.  “Are you?”  “The snake’s right” the people agreed, “we’ve been short changed!  God is keeping what is ours from us!  We want it all!  We want to be gods!  It’s our right!”  Like I told you it’s a very, very old story… the second oldest story in fact.  But hear now, what the preacher is saying to God’s people:  IT… IS… NOT… OUR… STORY. 

OUR story… the Christian story… tells us and shows us over and over again exactly what the first of today’s Gospel told us…… BE NOT AFRAID, little flock, for it is your Father’s GOOD PLEASURE to GIVE you the Kingdom!  In OUR story, scarcity, fear, and violence are not commodities traded in our land!  In OUR story we trade in ABUNDANCE, LOVE and HOPE!  In our story scarcity is an illusion… a horrible, awful lie!  Because we KNOW from our story it is God’s GOOD PLEASURE to give us the Kingdom… the WHOLE, EXPANSIVE, NEVER ENDING, INEXHAUSTIBLE, ABUNDANT KINGDOM… and to give it to us all as a GIFT!

In OUR story, the Christian story, God doesn’t just give the Kingdom to those on one side of the wall.  In our story the Kingdom has no walls!  Everyone is given the Kingdom in abundance!  Saints and sinners, jews and gentiles, tax collectors and trash collectors, warriors and widows, cis and trans, campers and kings, black and white, curmudgeon and hipster, politicians and prophets and even to the likes of you and believe it or not… even me!  

  

In OUR story, love is stronger than hate, hope more powerful than fear, humility more enviable than hubris, and generosity more admired than greed.  In OUR story, the story told in Christianity, we are ALL God's little flock… where “little” is a term of endearment, not any sort of limit to who’s included, because God’s flock embraces all of humanity and all of creation without exception.  Which is why, little flock, there is no need to live in fear.  The God who loved all of it… ALL OF IT into being in the first place (which, by the way, IS the oldest story) is not just pleased, but is in fact WELL pleased, to CONTINUE to shower you and all of creation with that same unlimited, unbounded, fearless love until the day that ALL of creation opens their eyes and sees that God’s story, the Christian story… OUR story… is the WAY to LIFE… and that’s the TRUTH.   

So do NOT be afraid, little flock, for it is God’s GOOD PLEASURE to have already given you the entirety of the Kingdom, and it is God’s Good Pleasure to continue to shower you with that Kingdom in love and grace, not for anything you have done or not done, but simply because God LOVES giving it to you… it brings the Divine GOOD PLEASURE to do that, both now and forever.  Amen.