Jesus, the OG Putter of the Church into Politics

Luke 4:14-21

Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

You’ll remember that Jesus got baptized a couple of weeks ago and then last week he went to (and saved) a big party.  This week however, Jesus gets to WORK!  He starts in the Synagogue by letting everyone know what he is after and the way for all of us to get there.  Some might say he laid out his “Vision” and his “Mission”, but since I did time in corporate America in the early ’90’s those particular words make me itch, so we’ll just say he laid out his plans and stuck to them all the way to the end.  

What Jesus intended for the world was what he called “The Year of the Lord’s Favor” otherwise known as the year of Jubilee.  The Year of Jubilee was a law laid out in Leviticus that says that after “Seven Sabbaths of years”… in other words after 49 years, the 50th year would be Holy and there should be a country wide economic/justice/political reset.  All debts would be forgiven, family lands that had been lost because of bad harvests, bad deals, bad faith, bad luck or just plain bad ideas would be returned to the original families.  People held captive as indentured servants or slaves as a consequence of similar bad harvests, bad deals, bad faith, bad luck or bad ideas would be set free.

Of course something like that would completely disrupt the current political order, upend generational wealth, give the down and out a fresh start, and eliminate the billionaire class… so of course, the powers-that-be never quite got around to putting THAT part of God’s Law into practice, BUT nevertheless, THAT was Jesus’ plan.  THAT was Jesus’ GOOD NEWS.  THAT was (and still is) the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  

The way he planned to make that happen would be by proclaiming to the world that “The Year of the Lord’s Favor” is what God wanted and from God’s point of view, there was nothing stopping all the world from walking into that new day.  He would tell that to the poor… those who were poor in money, land, and resources… sure, but also to those who were poor in spirit, faith and hope… the people for whom any or all of those things had been lost, crushed, or ripped away from them leaving them to feel like they would NEVER return.  He would also share that Good News with the captives.  Again, not just those in physical captivity but also those trapped by who they were, where they were from, what they looked like, or the socio-economic or political cards they had been dealt.

What Jesus preached in that Synagogue, on his very first official day at the office, was what genuine Christians call… THE GOSPEL… It is the core of the Christian Faith and it IS by it’s very nature, from that very first moment it came out of the Son of God’s mouth, OVERTLY political, OVERTLY revolutionary, and OVERTLY frightening to anyone who makes their living at the expense of others… others held captive by a system of ruthlessness, cruelty, poverty and injustice.

If you want to know who it was who brought the Church into the world of politics, don’t look at Bishop Mariann Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington D.C. who was accused of "bringing her church into politics" this week, or to any other former or contemporary minister of the Church.  If you want to know THE OG PERSON who brought the Church into politics, look no further than to the ONE named Jesus!  HE is the one who brought HIS church right into the heart of politics… and he did it, here in this lesson, on his very first day on the job!  

Those who have brought the Church into politics since then have simply been continuing to do what Jesus showed his disciples to do from his very first day at work until his last… they have proclaimed what Jesus proclaimed… advocated for those whom Jesus advocated for… and held up a mirror to the powerful and unjust so they would be forced to see their sin… Which is exactly what Jesus did to the powerful and unjust of his day.  The word we use for people who continue to do the things that Jesus did in that Synagogue on his first day of work and continued to do through his death and resurrection… the word we use for people like that?  That word is FAITHFUL!  

This past week we saw Bishop Mariann Budde proclaim what Jesus proclaimed, speak for the people Jesus spoke for and hold up a mirror to those who do indeed need to take a hard look at what they have done and what they have said they plan to do.  She did that in EXACTLY the same way Jesus did in that Synagogue on his first day at work.  She did it with calmness, matter of fact-ness, clarity, fearlessness, honesty, and with the accumulated intelligence of countless saints gathered over the last two thousand years of Church History.  And what said was ABSOLUTELY compelling, but not because it was a Bishop of the church who said it, or because of the cathedral in which she said it, or because of who was sitting in the pews that day.  What she said was compelling for no other reason than that IT WAS THE GOSPEL of JESUS CHRIST and for those who didn’t like what she proclaimed… they need to take that up, not with her, but with God’s only begotten Son who said it all first and compelled his disciples to keep saying it until it happened!  

May Jesus’ first day in the office be a model for us to continue to proclaim Good News to the poor and release to the captives of all kinds.  May those faithful disciples stretching back to the Apostle Paul, through saints like Martin Niemoller, and martyrs like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and into today with people like Bishop Mariann Budde continue to inspire us all to proclaim the revolutionary, political POWER of the Gospel of Jesus Christ… and may we, like our faithful foremothers and forefathers continue always to generously comfort the afflicted and overtly afflict the comfortable until all of creation finally accepts the invitation of the God who loved us all into being and we walk together in love into the Year of the Lord’s Favor!  Amen.

More Than a Pallet

 John 2:1-11

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

In John’s Gospel it’s clear… Jesus has a plan.  Every part of Jesus’ life, as John tells the story, is known, mapped out, and understood as “the plan” from before the very beginning.  He knew what tree his next disciple would be sitting under.  He knew he had to say “I am thirsty” on the cross to fulfill scripture.  He knew exactly when his glory was to be revealed… because it was all part of the plan.  

His mom, however, didn’t care about his plan.  Mary saw her friends were in trouble and knew that her Son could help and to Jesus' mom, that mattered infinitely more than any of her son's plans.  Weddings in those days could last for a week.  Running out of wine would have devastated the family’s reputation and labeled the couple the “ran out of wine, loser couple” forever.  So Jesus’ mom did what all moms do with their sons’ important plans.  She changed them.  With a dismissive eye roll at Jesus’ objections and instructions given to the staff, Mary told Jesus, “your plan isn’t as important as the immediate needs of the people around you.”  And here’s the important part… Jesus agreed!

Keep in mind, this wasn’t just ANYONE’S plan, this was the Son of God’s plan, the Savior of the World’s plan, the Prince of Peace and the Lord of Lord’s plan.  It’s one thing for MY mom to change MY plans… but this was the King of King’s plan!  And yet, the first thing we are shown here is that the immediate needs of the people around him were STILL more important than his plans.  So, the first thing this story is teaching us, is that whenever we encounter someone in need, our own plans can wait… the other comes first.  If God’s plan for saving the world could be put on hold to help a neighbor, then we certainly can put our plans aside to lend a hand.  Theological heavy weight Henri Nouwen agrees.  He wrote, “My whole life I have complained that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered that the interruptions WERE my work.”

The second thing I think this story it trying to teach us is that when Jesus put his plans on hold, he didn’t just do the minimum to get mom off his back.  No, he helped out with ABUNDANCE!!  He made between 120 and 180 GALLONS of wine!  That’s between 600 and 900 bottles of wine.  That’s a “get a forklift, this is more than a pallet” of wine!  

The third thing this story it trying to teach us is that when the wine was taken to the steward it wasn’t the cheap stuff… it wasn’t even the good stuff they had served earlier in the day!  This was the very best there was!  So, when Jesus put his important “save the world” plans aside to help someone in need he didn’t just do the bare minimum… he gave with abundance… and he didn’t just make “get by wine” either, he made the very best.  

Now, if I was smart and you were lucky, I’d stop right now.  You have a tidy three point sermon, and we’d all get to coffee hour earlier.  But I’m not smart and you’re not lucky, because there’s one more thing about this story I want you to hear.  You remember those jars that held between 20 - 30 gallons of water?  Those are each basically a 160 - 240 pound bag of water.  You know what else is basically a 160-240 pound bag of water?  You are!  I am.  And if an encounter with the Divine could change those 160-240 bags of water into EXACTLY what was needed in THAT moment… just what might Jesus create when he brushes up against you and me?  I am very confident we will be made into exactly what the people around us need in that particular moment?  That right there is Good News!  

With tomorrow happening tomorrow I think that Jesus has maybe brushed up against us with this story just when we needed it to remind us that… 1. We are not God.  Our worry, no matter how large, does not have the power to fix creation.  2.  We are not Mary.  We do not have the power to make God’s Son fix a problem we think needs fixing and 3.  We are not Jesus with the power to turn water into wine, heal the sick, or raise the dead.  Nope.  This story is here to remind all of us today that each one of us is nothing more (and nothing less) than a 180-240 pound bag of water… and OUR job, as bags of water, is to hang out and wait for Jesus to transform us into what our neighbors will need most in a particular moment yet to be encountered.    

What will that be?  When will that be?  Will it happen just once in a lifetime or more than once each day?  Honestly, I have no idea.  But what I do know is that in the moment you are needed, you WILL BE TRANSFORMED into way, WAY more than enough for the situation at hand, you will be transformed into a solution of the very highest quality, and in that moment you will be part of God’s saving work for all creation.  Oh, and you’ll make Jesus’ mom happy… and when mom’s happy, everyone is happy!  Amen.

Singin' in the Rain

 Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Baptism is like a satellite dish.  Way back at the end of the last century we got our first, little, satellite dish in Wisconsin.  It was either that or no TV.  Some of you here, I know, are made of exceedingly strong stuff and would thrive without TV.  Our family was simply… not that strong.  So, as Harlan Hansen climbed up on roof of the parsonage and then up the pole to attach the dish, I had a revelation.  These signals for half a dozen good channels and three million useless channels had been raining down on me from somewhere out in space ALL THIS TIME!  They had been pouring down on me day and night.  Me just oblivious!  But, when Harlan Hansen came down, all that had previously been obscured, suddenly become digitally clear!  They had been there all along!  It’s just that with a dish… by tuning in… we were able to make sense of what had been raining down on us for so long.  Baptism is like that.

God’s love rains down on us all and has been raining on us all since way before the formless void got any form!  God’s love rains down universally, unconditionally, and ubiquitously!  But it is in Baptism that all that beautiful divine love begins to come into focus, begins to make sense, and begins to become visible.  God’s love was and is always there for everyone, but in Baptism, God makes it so we can see it, embrace it, roll around in it, and share it with the world.  And I say “God makes it so” because Baptism is something that God does, not something we do, not even something we help with.  That truth I believe becomes the most clear when an infant is Baptized and the only contribution the child makes to that precious, sacramental moment is to fill their diaper.  

Another thing Leonard Sweet said Baptism is like is Popcorn.  Lots of people would say that Baptism is like washing, because Baptism involves water.  But real Baptism does more than just make us wet.  A washing in water alone doesn’t really change us.  It’s like running your car through the car wash, it gets wet, but in the end it’s still just your car.  It’s like sending your clothes into the washing machine.  They get wet, but in the end it’s not like you have a brand new outfit.  A washing with water alone doesn’t really CHANGE things; it just gets things wet.  

Real Baptism, on the other hand, changes everything.  It bathes us in the fire of the Holy Spirit.  It’s that fire that transforms us into something wholly different and new… like popcorn.  After all you can wash a kernel of corn in water all day long, but at the end of the day, what do you got?  A wet kernel of corn.  Washing your popcorn doesn’t give you any sizzle.  Washing your popcorn doesn’t draw people into the kitchen from every corner of the house.  Washing your popcorn doesn’t give you that salty, buttery goodness of a completely transformed, warm and fluffy snack!  No!

But give that kernel of popcorn a baptism of fire... AND IT IS TRANSFORMED!  And not quietly either… it is transformed with an explosive force that completely changes that small, hard, dense, flavorless nothing into something large, soft, fluffy, and delicious.

  

John’s Baptism was just a washing… a simple lather, rinse, repeat sort of baptism.  That doesn’t make John a terrible guy… it simply reminds us that John was God’s prophet, not God's Messiah.  Later, rinse, repeat was all he was called to give.  Jesus, on the other hand, was God’s Messiah and Jesus Baptizes with the unquenchable fire of the Holy Spirit.  That's the Baptism that you and I have had.  Our Baptisms had the fiery heat of the Messiah behind them that transformed us dramatically, explosively, and completely.  In that moment we were changed from a collection of minerals worth approximately $576 according to the internet, into a priceless and beloved child of God… from a corpse waiting to happen, to an inheritor of eternal life.  Baptism… Jesus’ Baptism… Baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire is like that.  The Jesus Baptism of unquenchable fire that every one of us has had, has taken each of us rock hard kernels and transformed us through the power of unquenchable fire and the mysterious workings of the Holy Spirit into something wholly new and wonderful!  

So now what?  What will you do?  How will you live, having  stood under the deluge of God’s love from before you were born?  What will you do and how will you live out your Baptisms of FIRE in the days to come?  Certainly not in a life of just lather, rinse, repeat!!  NO!  God has loved you… God has made you… God has transformed you!  There is so much more to this Baptized life than to just slog through each moment of it soaking wet!  So how are we to live this Baptized life?  (Donnie?  You ready for a slow pitch this week?  Here it comes…)  We are to live this Baptized life… like we are all Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain!  Because in this life we will get soaked and splashed and sometimes it will feel like we're nearly drown… but through it all God has made sure that we will ALWAYS be absolutely on fire... singing and dancing in the rain.  Amen.  

Another Way Entirely

Matthew 2:1-12

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’” Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”

When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

 

My psychology guru, Kevin Polk, sends out a very short, daily email.  It’s sort of a thought for the day that gets the reader thinking.  If you’re a regular reader or have been to his trainings or read one of his books, you can easily see how these little daily blurbs utilize his particular psychology school of thought, but they’re written in such a way that everyone can get something out of them, even if you haven’t been to a seminar or read a book.  One this past week went like this:  “Imagine whatever you are struggling with in your mind as a rope.  You have a tight grip on that rope. There’s no way you are letting go.  Go ahead and tighten your hand on that imaginary rope, and notice how long you can keep that tight grip.  That “rope” in your mind is not going anywhere.  How long can you keep that tight grip on it?  Maybe you could let it go.  You can always pick it up later.”

In today’s Gospel we know the Wise Men had a genuine Epiphany, not because we saw a cartoon lightbulb go off over their heads, but because we could see that they suddenly gave up the previous way they HAD BEEN walking in the world and instead started home by ANOTHER WAY.  They saw Jesus.  They grasped, in some way beyond regular human understanding that… THIS WAS GOD.  Then after that, they went home by another way.  

What I wondered about this week is what happened IN-BETWEEN seeing Jesus, the sudden realization that went with that, AND their first steps on their new way home?  Maybe what happened in between those things took only a split second.  Maybe it was an hour or maybe it took as long as a dream.  However long it took, I think what happened in between first seeing Jesus and tying the last piece of luggage on the camel, was that they let go of the ropes they had always held onto with an iron grip developed over a lifetime.  They let go of the rope labeled proper political statecraft.  They let go of the rope labeled deference for royalty.  They let go of the rope labeled academic accountability.  They let go of all the ropes that had tied them to their previous Way and then… only then… after letting go of all those ropes… they could go home by another way.  

What are the ropes you’re holding onto right now?  Have you noticed how tight your grip is on them?  Have you noticed how your powerful grip makes the rope burn your hands?  Have you noticed how the muscles you use to hold that rope so tightly have become incredibly sore?  Have you noticed how the need to maintain that unrelenting grip has left you physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted?  Have you noticed that all preachers preach to themselves?  Have you noticed that a few preachers will even admit it?  

What are the ropes you’re holding right now?  I know the ropes I’ve been holding onto.  All of you (as far as I know) are fellow humans so it's a sure bet you too have ropes you’re holding onto with a death grip as well.  I suspect there are actually a few ropes that we’re holding onto together!  That rope labeled “the future of our country”… who has a death grip on that one right now?  Have you noticed how holding onto it so tightly has started digging deeply into our hands?  Have you noticed that no matter how tightly you hold that rope, it doesn't change the country?  Yeah, me too.  

I think THIS Epiphany, you and I are being invited to follow the lead of those Wise Ones, let go of all our ropes, and head toward home a different Way.  Those things our ropes are tied to won’t all just magically disappear when we let go, that is true.  But it's also true that continuing to hold onto those ropes with an iron-death-grip won’t change any of the things we worry about one way or another either!  Holding onto those ropes will only leave us with rope-burnt hands, tired muscles, and an exhausted mind.  So this Epiphany, what do you say we just let ‘em go.
 

I know… I know… easier said than done.  But remember, you CAN ask for help letting go of the ropes you have trouble putting down.  The original Wise Ones didn’t do it alone after all… there were three of them who did it together!  And the last thing for us to remember this morning is that Epiphany is a season, not just a day.  Letting go of our ropes is something we can work on together over the whole of this season.  Don't you think Epiphany would be a good season to let go of the ropes we’ve been holding?  Ease our grips, open our hands, and just set them down?  The promise of Epiphany is, that if we do that… loosen our grip, open our hands, and set down those ropes... the promise is that another way home will absolutely present itself…  a way toward the ones we love… a way toward the things we value… another Way entirely.  Amen.