Dissipation its Making Me Wait

Luke 21:25-36

“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. 

“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Drunkenness, worries, and dissipation.  Apparently three long-time ways to handle this crazy world.  Dissipation though, I had to look up.  It’s wasting stuff or squandering things.  It’s basically running around like a chicken with your head cut off!  All three are as temping today as in Jesus’ time!  After all you can easily find stories today so dark they blot the sun out in the sky and tell you about distress among nations!  The noise of hatred is deafening.  Noise so loud it’s like the roar of the sea!  Like a never ending set of waves crashing over us, knocking us off our feet, over and over again with wave after wave of horrors in Israel and Gaza, racism, hatred, cruelty and all the rest. It makes us faint from fear and foreboding.

To get a break from it all, folks then and now turn to what the experts call maladaptive coping strategies.  Folks try to drink it, shop it, medicate it, or eat it away.  I saw someone on facebook putting up their Christmas tree before Thanksgiving in an attempt to “decorate” their troubles away!  Escape, in all it’s many forms is one of the ways we try and cope.  

Another method people use for coping is to slam the brakes on the world, trying to convert any forward momentum into heat and try to stop the world in some delusional, idealistic past.  A time when memories radically mis-remember that things were better… the world wasn’t as confusing… back to a time when things were GREAT.  Unfortunately, brakes work by using “dissipation” and when folks slam on the world’s brakes, all that progressive energy, inevitably gets turned into white-hot heat which is then thrown out into the world in the form of hatred, anger, bigotry, racism, violence and rage.

This might surprise you, but neither escaping the world nor dissipating the world’s crazy turn out to be the Jesus Way.  Neither then nor now.  Instead, Jesus says the way to deal with an off the rails world, is to STAND UP, RAISE YOUR HEADS, LOOK UP and SEE your redemption drawing near… We need to… LOOK UP.  We need to LEAN IN.  And we need to LIVE! 

Every alert of breaking news draws our heads down into our phones, drawing us deeper into the depths.  Heads down, diving deeper, we fester in the horribleness… don’t we?  Jesus tells us instead to “LOOK UP!” Because when we raise our heads and look up, what we’ll see is Christ… present among us… standing right beside us in the eyes of our neighbors… even in the midst of all this mess!  And in some mysterious way that I can NOT figure out for the life of me…  when we look up we are promised a glimpse of God in Christ, making something new! 

But LOOKING UP requires practice… training… repetition… exercise.  We get a little bit of just that when we give each other a sign of God’s peace.  We LOOK UP… We LEAN IN and WE SEE Christ in the eyes of the people we greet.  In one another’s eyes, we’re reminded again and again that we are not alone.  

We'll get another bit of practice when some striking bald fellow holds up the chalice and patten at the alter today.  THAT invites us to look up… to get another REP of LOOKING UP practice from the worries of the world so that we can SEE, in some mysterious way, that Christ really is RIGHT HERE… RIGHT HERE with us in the bread and wine, transforming this crazy-train of a world even now with light and love and life.  

It also happens when we shout, “Thanks be to God, Alleluia, Alleluia!” at the end of our worship. Because with that shout we LOOK UP, we see the Body ofChrist rising all around us.  When we LEAN IN we see Christ alive in the eyes of our neighbors and when we hear one another shout Alleluia! We’re both inspired and empowered, not to try and ESCAPE the world or stop the world and get off, but to jump right INTO THE WORLD… right smack dab into the deep end of the crazy, and SHOW the world what it looks like to really LIVE this life we’ve been given!  We shout “Alleluia!” because God has chosen US, and calls US all to cannonball into this pond we call life and let the ripples of kindness, compassion, generosity and love radiate out from this place far beyond where we might ever be able to see or imagine. 

The world doesn’t need us hiding in fear. The world doesn’t need us trying to grind it to a stop. The world doesn’t need us looking for signs in the stars or the moon or in headlines or in breaking news.  What the world needs… is for each and every one of us to LOOK UP, LEAN IN, AND LIVE the life we’ve been given as a gift from God. To jump into the world with an Alleluia cannonball that will soak all of creation from head to toe with the power of God’s love, transforming even this current world’s nut-job caused awful-ness into the life of abundant joy for ALL of creation that God made us to live! Our call for this Advent is to LOOK UP, LEAN IN, AND LIVE! Amen.

Big Dragons and Woud-be Kings

John 18:33-37 

Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

Revelation 1:4b-8

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

Pilate, for all his faults, asked the right question.  It’s the same question we’re being asked today.  That question?  What sort of King is this Jesus guy anyway?  Pilate wanted to know if Jesus was an “overthrow the Roman government” kind of King… or had he just been labeled a “King” by local enemies hoping Pilate would do their dirty work for them… or maybe he was simply a “figurehead King” to a group of nut jobs.  What sort of King was Jesus to Pilate?  What sort of King is Jesus to you?

For Pilate, if Jesus was an “overthrow the Empire” kind of King, that was easy.  Crucify him!  Boom. Done.  On the other hand, if Jesus was being set up by other political powers in town, or had become the figurehead king of a bunch of nut jobs, then Pilate needed to decide what to do with Jesus that would make is life easier.  Pilate didn’t care about what was right or just or fair… just how much aggravation or assistance each options might give him. 

You and I face the very same question about Jesus and all the would-be kings that we encounter.  We are constantly presented with people, ideas, and things that we are told should be our KING.  From Burger King to the King of Beers.  From leaders benevolent, to Book of Revelation Beasties.  From looking after me, myself, and I to loving the least, the lost, and the last.  There are literally a Legion of would-be kings asking, begging, or demanding that we bow down to them and that means that we, like Pilate, need to decide what to do with each and every one.

For us Christians neither the king of burgers nor the king of beers is worthy to be our king.  For us, neither the benevolent earthly ruler nor the dragon of Revelation are worthy to be our king.  For us, only the One… who is, and who was, and who is to come, is worthy to be our King.  Only Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom… all of us… a kingdom of priests serving his God and Father…  ONLY THAT ONE is worthy of having dominion forever and ever… only that ONE is worthy to be OUR King. 

So what does that mean for us?  What that means for us is that Jesus is Lord.  That also means that Caesar… is NOT.  What that means for us is that we follow in Jesus’ footsteps and not in Caesar’s footsteps.  What that means for us is that loving God and loving our neighbor is the Way we are to walk through this life 24/7 because Christ our King has pointed us on that WAY and because Jesus is Lord… and Caesar is NOT we Christians GO where Jesus points.  NOT where Caesar points.  

What that means for us is that loving God and loving our neighbor is the TRUTH.  Love is the true and supreme power in the universe.  Love is what brought all things into being.  Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but it  REJOICES… it REJOICES in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends.  LOVE, says our King, is the TRUTH and everyone who belongs to the TRUTH listens to Jesus’ voice. 

What that means for us is that loving God and loving our neighbor is what gives us LIFE.  Jesus’ Way gives us life… Caesar’s way does NOT.  Jesus TRUTH gives us life… Caesar’s truth does NOT.  Jesus way gives life.  The way of power does not.  The way of greed does not.  The way of manipulation, lies, selfishness, and pride do NOT give us life.  Only the Jesus Way… only the Way of Christ our King… gives us life… and gives us that life as a completely free gift!  Up front.  Without condition.  Only then… with that gift both given and received might we grow to a place where we want to give thanks for that gift.  Christ our King tells us if we are ready to give things, we can do that by passing on the unconditional love we first received to others around us with the same recklessness that God first loved us.  

Both the Gospel lesson for today and today’s reading from Revelation tell us a piece of some of the very darkest times for both Jesus and the early church.  Neither of these lessons pull any punches on that darkness.  Neither lesson sugar coats the realities of those days nor do they attempt to put lipstick on the pig, trying to put a happy face on something that in reality is big, dirty, and just plain nasty!  But neither of these lessons are the end of the story either.  

You and I both know that these stories first get even darker… much, much darker and in every season of our lives we face the possibility of our lives getting much darker as well.  We do people no favors telling them to pretend it isn’t dark when it is!  If it’s dark, it’s dark!  We are people of truth!  It needs to be acknowledged.  It needs to be named… AND once it is acknowledged and named, Jesus tells us that THEN will be the time to turn to our neighbor and say, “Look! He is coming with the clouds; right into the darkness.  Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him… SO IT IS TO BE.  So it is to be.  Amen.

Apocalypse How

Mark 13:1-8

As Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”

When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birthpangs.

Mark put this "little apocalypse" in his Gospel for a people who lived in a time where they felt that only God, physically breaking into their world, could put things right.  God breaking into the world… that, by the way, is the real meaning of an apocalypse and you know what?  I think I understand a bit of what they felt… only God breaking into our world could possibly make things right again.   

I wonder if the people Mark wrote to had a perpetual churning in their bellies.  I’ve still got one.  If you’ve still got one too, well, I can at least tell you you’re not alone.  I wonder if the people Mark wrote to felt profoundly disappointed with people they had counted as family and friends who had decided to abandon doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God in exchange for power, influence, or the promise of lower prices at the store, even when that meant endangering their friends and families' lives?  I still feel profoundly disappointed this Sunday in people I formerly counted as friends and family… so if you still feel that way too.  I get it!  If you are not yet to the point of hope, it’s okay.  The thing about this story though, is that Jesus told the disciples then and is telling us disciples now, “All of THIS is just the birth pangs!”  Which, frankly Jesus, I don’t find very helpful. 

The disciples wanted to know, how long, and to be honest I wouldn’t mind an answer to that one either!  But the disciples then didn’t get an answer, and we won’t be getting one today either.  What Jesus gives, both to the disciples then and to us today, is an invitation to begin really living again… RIGHT NOW… right where we are… right in the middle of what feels like the end of the world… right in the midst of a time where we can’t imagine anything less than God breaking into the world could possibly make things right.  A quote attributed to Martin Luther says, “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”  And one attributed to Winston Churchill says, “If you are going through hell, keep going!”  Those too, are invitations to REALLY LIVE, even in the midst of darkness… even in the depths of feelings of betrayal, worry, and fear.  Today, I’m not ready to do that yet myself, but I see what Jesus is doing here and I know I’ll be ready soon, so it would be good to know.  So, okay Jesus, how do we do that?

Because moving from being devastated to wanting to plant an apple tree isn’t that simple.  God created us to react automatically and unconsciously when we feel threatened!  We’re hard wired to react that way!  It’s a good thing too!  God made us so that our stomachs would automatically relocate into our throats when we get too close to the edge of a cliff!  God did that so we wouldn’t just walk off the edge in blissful ignorance!  Without that stomach churning gift from God, aliens would visit earth just to find a giant pile of caveman bones at the bottom of some chasm and humanity extinct!  It’s a really good gift!  So the real question is … HOW?  How are we to move through those God given, automatic reactions to the threats we now face and beyond our very real sense of profound disappointment and betrayal?

The answer however, does not begin with the “HOW” it begins with the “WHO” and it is that WHO that has shown us HOW.  Jesus’ whole life was a lived-out instruction manual for HOW to live this life into an abundant life, even when that path takes us through hell along the way.  The WHO and the HOW… they MUST be taken together.  To focus only on the WHO creates people who say the right words, create lovely worship, and loudly proclaim their faith but do not live out the HOW of loving God and neighbor that Jesus showed us with his life.  That’s why we have so many people who look and sound like Christians, but live and work and vote for things that are literally anti-Christ.  The WHO and the HOW must be bound together to be genuine Christianity. 

Jesus didn’t lie to the disciples and I’m not going to lie to you either.  It’s dark out there and I’m as certain as Jesus was then, that it’s going to stay dark longer than any of us would like.  So the take home today… is don’t put off living, waiting around for some distant apocalypse to fix it all!  Instead, the way through hell really is to keep going!  The HOW to walk though hell is by following the Jesus Way… walking through life, living, acting, voting, working, and doing everything else the Way Jesus showed us to do life… with generosity, compassion, grace, sacrificial love, justice, and peace.  Walk the Jesus Way through the fascist darkness.  Walk the Jesus Way through climate darkness.  Don’t just talk it.  Walk it!  Walk the Jesus Way through racist, homophobic, transphobic, and xenophobic darkness. Walk the Jesus Way all the way through hell and keep on walking until we find ourselves and all of creation finds itself bathed in the light.

The other HOW Jesus showed us with his life, is in the power of gathering and living and working in Christian community.  Jesus’ community wasn’t big.  Many of them, particularly the guys, weren’t especially quick on the uptake either.  But what they were… was PRESENT.  Yeah, there were a couple of hiccups there at the end, but by and large they were there, together, with Jesus and with each other.  So, find your community.  REALLY dedicate yourself to that community and then follow this mashup advice from St. Paul and Winston Churchill:  “Walk in love, as Christ loved us and when the world feels like hell, for God’s sake, keep walking!  Amen.

Our Last Two Cents

Mark 12:38-44

As Jesus taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

The Gospel lesson for this week SEEMS to be all about money AND with today being our annual stewardship ingathering day AND having had speakers talk about their favorite hymns and how they inspire them to be generous to Christ Trinity… it might SEEM as if all of this was perfectly lined up months ago so that today I could hit you with the money sermon.  There are a few problems with that way of thinking.  First, I have never been good at being sneaky… even good-sneaky.  Isn’t that right Kelly?  Second, these days, although I LOVE planning things ahead, I have found planning ahead almost impossible to do these day for lots of different reasons.  And FINALLY, the reason this really isn’t a giant pre-planned conspiracy designed so that I could preach about money today is… This lesson isn’t about money.  It’s got a couple of pennies in it, but beyond that?  Not about money.

Jesus, watching from across the street, says to his disciples, “See, that widow?  She just gave WAY more than the rich folks, because for those rich folks, what they gave didn’t pinch at all!  They won’t ever feel it!  They’ll live just as well after they gave as before they gave.  But that widow… she’s finished!  Not just finished for this week mind you!  Remember, there’s no check in the mail.  She’s given EVERYTHING she had!  Forever!  She gave HER ALL.

Jesus points to that widow and tells the disciples they should pay attention to her, because what she did there… THAT is to be their model… and our model for how to live into the dark and terrifying times that lie ahead.  She wasn’t to be their model (or our model) for how to fill out your pledge card or put money in the plate on Sunday.  No.  When Jesus points at that widow, and says, “Do THAT!”  What he’s saying is do THAT with your WHOLE life!  THAT… giving all you got, after all, is what Jesus was in Jerusalem to do himself.  He was about to give everything he had on the cross.

That’s what this lesson’s really about today.  It’s about looking right into the darkness that lies ahead and giving our all into that darkness.  That poor widow doesn’t hedge her bet.  She hasn’t stashed some cash under the mattress for a rainy day.  She gives it all!  She gives the money that would have kept her alive, at least for a little bit longer.  She gives her life.  She puts her WHOLE life in God’s hands, trusting that in some unforeseeable way, the God who brought the people out of Egypt through the sea on dry land and brought to life an entire valley of dry bones will give her a light to walk into and through any darkness that she might face.

  

Today’s first lesson drives home that same point with another widow.  She was asked to give the last bit of bread she had to some stranger.  Her plan had been to bake the last, little, pitiful, loaf.  Eat it with her son, and then just wait for both of them to starve to death.  Into that situation a guy shows up with the chutzpah to say, “Why don’t you give ME your last bit of food?”  And for whatever reason… whether it was faith, shock, or she simply had no more… we’ll say “cares” to give… for whatever reason… she gave all she had. 

 

The idea that people might actually dare to give their all to something as insane as loving God and loving neighbor without condition… the majority of the country around us has voted this week to proclaim THAT idea… loving God and loving neighbor… to be JUST as foolish as putting your last two cents into the offering plate or baking your last bit of bread to feed some random foreigner off the street, or coming to Jerusalem when you know Jerusalem is actively working to kill you!  

 

But what the majority of our country has voted as foolish?  That is EXACTLY our call for this time of uncertainty and darkness that lies ahead.  THAT is our call… As individuals and as a church community.  To give God and our neighbor our all!  To give away our last two cents.  To give away our last piece of food to a stranger.  To come here each week… each of us bringing what we have… even if what we have feels as insignificant as a tiny ball of wax.  Because here, we'll gather and mold those insignificant, tiny balls of wax into a candle, and that candle will send a pin prick of light out into the darkness of this world.  AND when we inevitably find that giving it our all one week has not fully eliminated hatred, bigotry and violence in one fail swoop… when inevitably see that the light we crafted last week did not fully end racism, trans & homophobia, misogyny and all the rest.  We won’t throw up our hands and give into despair and hopelessness.  NO!  We'll look at where it fell short, come together and collectively indulge in a few moments of creative language practice, then we come to this altar and fed with the Bread of Life… and then, fueled up for the week to come… we'll figure out together the way we’re going to love God and neighbor in the week ahead and go at it one more time… giving it our all one more time… giving all the life we’ve first been given… giving all that we have.

That’s our call.  To give our all in love… to God through our neighbor.  We are called to give it our all… toward God’s vision of a world without war, a world without hate, a world without hunger, pain, or fear.  Our call is to give it our last little cake.  To give it our last two cents.  To give it our whole lives, trusting in God’s love and promise that God will always be with us… filling our empty jars with meal, our empty jugs with oil, our empty hearts with love, and our empty souls with hope.  Amen