Major Shaky McFumblefingers

Luke 15:1-10

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus.  And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?  And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.’  Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?  And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’  Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

This lesson highlights two ways to get lost.  Neither recommended and yet both universal and unavoidable.  The first is like a sheep.  Head down, eat some grass, spot the next tuft, move, munch, repeat until one day you look up, have no idea where you are, and discover… you’re lost.  The other way we get lost is to be suddenly and unceremoniously dropped by life right on our heads… or on our tails… like a coin.  In one sudden and painful crash, sometimes followed by a brief or extended, wobbling roll… we find ourselves concussed and wedged in some unexpected, unknown, and very undesirable spot.  Head spinning.  Lost.  

I see you all nodding.  We’ve all wandered off like sheep.  We’ve all been dropped on our heads by life, like a coin.  We’ve all been lost.  Many of us feel lost right now!  So why do we pretend for the world that we are not?  Why do we, like the Pharisees and the Scribes in this story, not admit to wandering off inadvertently or that life has dropped us on our head and we feel like we’ve rolled into some deep, dark, life-crisis crevasse?  Why is it, that when we are asked, “how are you doing”, we automatically respond with, “Oh, I’m Okay… I’m fine… I’m hangin’ in there… doin’ good” or some other culturally appropriate BS when the truth is… I’m LOST! 

Jesus knew being lost was not just a “tax collector” thing or a “sinner” thing… it was then, and is now, an every human being thing!  Every single solitary one of us wanders off and gets lost… not just once in a while… but all the dang time!  Every single one of us goes from being just fine, safe, and secure in the cozy-coin-purse of life one minute, to being suddenly and terrifyingly dropped hard on the floor, rolling to who knows where, and completely LOST in the next.  And sometimes it feels like we aren’t just the coin of a careful, tidy, woman who only drops us once.  No!  All too often this life feels like we’re a coin belonging to Major Shaky McFumblefingers who drops us hard on our heads, over and over and over and over again!

With that in mind, I’d like to propose that in this room… in this “flock” we all just agree to say “I’m LOST” when that’s what we are.  No more “I’m hanging in there” when you’re only hanging on by your fingertips.  No saying you’re “Okay” when you feel painfully alone.  As individuals, there ain’t nobody here who has never been LOST… multiple times… some of us multiple times this week!  Yes, I’m suggesting we face a scary thing… Both being LOST and more so being HONEST about it!  But here’s why I think we can do both.  Because it is BOTH God’s Speciality AND God's Great Joy to find the us when we are lost, scoop us up, bring us home, and throw a universe-thumping party to celebrate!  This Gospel tells us that God is both GOOD at finding the lost… and LOVES doing it!  I think we can brave being honest because getting lost is simply part of being human AND finding the lost is simply part of being The Divine.  It is literally a match made in heaven!   

But, you say, what about when it’s my fault I got lost?  Maybe I wasn’t just dropped by life.  Maybe I wandered off?  THE DIVINE DOES NOT CARE!  Because finding the lost, however they got that way, is the Divine’s Great JOY!  But, you say, I get lost all the time, for the same reason, over and over and over again and never seem to learn my lesson.  Again, I can’t emphasize this enough… THE DIVINE DOESN’T CARE!  Because it is God’s HEAVEN-SIZED, CALL THE ANGELS TO REJOICE, GREAT JOY to find you over and over and over again just as often as you might wander off or as often as life… a.k.a. Major Shaky McFumblefingers drops you on your head (or your tail) like a coin.  How many ever times you get lost… THAT is how many times God will REVEL in the JOY of finding you, bringing you back, and throwing another party!  

In Church-y lingo, we call that Grace, and you and I… EVEN as highly imperfect, perpetually lost, and repeatedly dropped on our heads followers of Jesus… You and I are NOT ONLY called to give thanks for the Grace that finds US over and over and over again… BUT WE ARE ALSO called to make Grace OUR Speciality and OUR Joy as well.  Of course, individually we have absolutely no chance of finding our way out of a paper bag let alone a lost sheep, coin, family member, friend, or neighbor.  Individually we are just as lost as that joker sitting right next to you right now!  Yeah, that one.  

Individually we are indeed nearly perpetually LOST… but together… OH, TOGETHER… we are nothing less than the Body of Christ!  Together, in some mystical way, we are the Good Shepherd with the fully developed specialty of finding the lost, hoisting them on our shoulders, and bringing them home to a party!  Together, in that same mystical way, we are caught up with the Divine in Feminine form, lighting the lamp of unrelenting Grace, expertly searching the darkness, lifting the lost back to life again, and celebrating with the heavenly host!  Individually we are, and can only be, completely and totally lost.  But together… Oh TOGETHER… together, members and friends, both new and old... Together we are nothing less than the Body of Christ, gifted with the power to bring God’s unrelenting Grace to our neighbors... and Grace, it turns out, is exactly what our world most desperately needs right now.  Amen.   

The Discipleship-O-Meter

Luke 14:25-33

Now large crowds were traveling with [Jesus], and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.  Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.  For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it?  Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’  Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand?  If he cannot, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace.  So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”

So, today we need to figure out how to be good disciples by hating mom, dad, brothers and sisters… Oh, and don’t forget, hating the kids and spouse too!  But before we get to THAT fun, we first need to remember that in this lesson Jesus is talking about DISCIPLESHIP and not SALVATION… two churchy words that we should not get confused.  SALVATION is going to heaven, getting your mansion in the sky, eating food rich with marrow and well aged wines strained clear at a feast that never ends… all of THAT.  THAT is SALVATION.  SALVATION is a complete and total GIFT from God.  In Christ’s life, death and resurrection we are ALL given SALVATION as a free gift with no take-backsies!  Salvation is God’s Work AND as the song says, “The Strife is O’er, the Battle is Done.”  You’re in!

THIS lesson is about DISCIPLESHIP.  DISCIPLESHIP is the particular Way that we Christians are called to walk through this thing called “life”.  I think what this lesson is trying to tell us (albeit in a super dramatic, confusing way) is that to be a Disciple means to prioritize our walking through this life on what I like to call “The Jesus Way” over all the other possible “ways” we are pushed and pulled to walk through this life… the family way, the friend way, the way of success, the career way, the money way, the way of possessions… just to name a few.  

I DON’T think Luke is using the word “HATE” here to call us to an emotional hatred of our own families.  I also DON’T think Jesus is calling us to a life cut off from all familial relationships, living a hermit’s existence without money or possessions.  What I DO think Luke is doing here is trying to tell us that as we begin to prioritize walking The Jesus Way over all those other ways we are pulled and pushed to walk through this life, it may very well FEEL at first… both to us doing the walking and to those around us… like we have suddenly begun to HATE those who now come behind walking The Jesus Way.  

I think that is what we see from the crowd that was following Jesus.  They had all been following Jesus because, well, he was awesome!  He had fed 5000 people!  He healed folks and cast out demons, he calmed storms and walked on water… People were following Jesus because… WOW!  They all said, “Let’s tag along and see what amazing thing this guy does next?”  But when Jesus turned around, he told that crowd that following him JUST to see the next awesome thing, isn’t Discipleship.  The loaves and fishes might have been free, but REAL discipleship… that costs BIG!!  So how do you even do THAT?  How do you put all those other possible ways to walk through the world behind The Jesus Way? 

I don’t know how YOU do that, but the way I do that is… POORLY… INCOMPLETELY… in fits and starts… and with grand intentions that never quite fully pan out.  That’s how I do discipleship.  Don’t get me wrong.  I FULLY understand what Jesus is asking of me.  It is the same thing he asked of all those people following him, to walk onto God’s Way and put everything, and everyone else, behind that.  I get it… and I really do try… a lot of the time… well, some of the time… I really do try though!  Honest!  But even with all that effort, I think the maximum I have ever hit on the ol’ Discipleship-O-Meter is about 10.3% Disciple… and that was on my most Disciple-y day ever.

Other folks have been known to do better.  Mother Teresa once got to about 89% on the Discipleship-O-Meter, but she also had years and years of doubt and darkness where she was down in single digits.  Saint Peter once got to a 93% for a minute when he said “Jesus, you’re the Messiah” but then just a couple of steps later and he pegged the needle back at zero when he told Jesus “by no means” should he go to Jerusalem.  The point is, nobody ever makes it all the way to 100% on the Discipleship-O-Meter.  Discipleship is a walk that is technically within our reach, because it doesn’t demand MORE than what we have, BUT, since it demands nothing LESS than EVERYTHING we have, we humans, by the nature of simply “being human”… will always fall short.

Still, even though nobody ever gets to 100% discipleship, Jesus, and Luke in his telling of this story, are trying to help us understand that it is STILL, really worth making the walk along The Jesus Way a priority for just as long and as far as we can manage each and every day.  Because as we walk, step by step along The Way; as we strive to love God more completely and love our neighbors more sacrificially… as we live each day doing more justice, loving more kindness and walking more humbly like Jesus did… step by step we will find that we are ACTUALLY living more deeply into the life we have been given… a life that is meant to be full of meaning, purpose, and contentment AND it turns out that the more we are able to prioritize that walk into discipleship itself… the more room that walk makes within our being for the joy filled, abundant life we were all created to live AND the more room that walk makes within our being for mom, dad, brothers and sisters, the kids and yes, even for the spouse!  Amen.

Chutes and Ladders, Musical Chairs, and Clown Cars

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 Jesus 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.”

Jesus 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 and sisters 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.”

Who is the character from literature or theater or film or television who, no matter what is going on around them, is simply unflappable… who can not be riled… who is eminently comfortable in their own skin, who can hear what other people think or say about them and can just as easily take it or leave it based only on their own honest, dispassionate reflection?

In the Family Systems psychology world, those people would be called, “self-differentiated.”  They are not swayed or convinced by any sort of “group think” and never feel like they have to go along to get along.  They might CHOOSE to be part of a particular group, but only after checking the group’s direction against their own values and then making a non-emotional choice for themselves.  They are also NOT people who need everyone around them to do what they do and think as they think.  Rather, they are the people who can be comfortable around others who have very different thoughts and values, but neither feel the need to become those people, nor convert them away from their way of thinking 

The people Jesus encountered at that Sabbath dinner party were NOT self-differentiated.  They were very much obsessed with what others thought, where they stood on the social ladder, and how close they could sit to the head of the table.  They were the sort of people who easily changed what they thought and routinely abandoned their values if that would move them up the ladder, get them more influence, or a better seat at the table.  These were the sorts of people who would bully others to conform to their way of thinking and being in the world, simply because allowing others to think independently around them would reveal just how much of their own SELF they had given away. 

The particular folks at this parable’s dinner party who were struggling with self-differentiation needed to hear from Jesus that a little humility was in order.  But a simple “BE HUMBLE” doesn’t get us to the real root of this parable.  I can just as easily imagine Jesus telling a different room filled with different people struggling with self-differentiation in different way, “Do not think TOO LITTLE of yourselves!”

Our world is filled to the absolute brim with people who proclaim they are the only show in town.  They call out to the world with promises of better seats and higher honors, all in exchange for the low, low price of your true SELF.  AND, if enticing you to give them your own true SELF doesn’t work, they will taunt you, demean you, and bully you until you find yourself sucked into their circus through the back door. 

At the real root of this parable, Jesus is telling each one of us… whether we happen to be erring on the side of needing a little more humility OR on the side of needing a boost of self esteem… that “What other people think about you is none of your business” or to quote the prophet Ru Paul, “Unless they payin’ your bills, pay them bitches no mind.”  

At the root of this parable is the TRUTH those folks do not want you to hear, or remember, and certainly not take to heart and that is…  Their show does not have to be your circus and you are absolutely NOT required to be one of their monkeys.  

At the root of this parable is the reminder that you and I have been loved into being, with the Divine intention that each and every one of us would be a self-differentiated, unconditionally beloved, perfectly free, child of God.  

At the root of this parable is God’s intention for you live free from the need to be told to “Be Humble” and also live free from the need to be told “Do NOT think too little of yourself!”  

At the root of this parable is the truth that God has created you with the power to take a PASS on the world’s childish games of musical chairs and chutes and ladders.  

At the root of this parable is Jesus’ call to you and me to instead, live this life in the self-differentiated, confident knowledge that we are… in every moment and every situation… nothing more than… and nothing less than… a BELOVED CHILD OF GOD… a child of GOD… for God’s sake!  What the world thinks of us compared to THAT is a grain of sand on a beach, on a planet, on the other side of the universe!  As a child of God, what the world thinks of us or has to offer us, is laughably insignificant.  We are, after all, unconditionally loved and infinitely valued children of God!  Children OF GOD!  What could the game players and clown car drivers of this world even BEGIN to offer or even threaten that could ever compare to that?

Jesus loved the people at that party.  He knew they were not made for circus life or for a life of childish games AND JESUS KNOWS… THAT NEITHER WERE YOU!  Jesus called the people at that party out of the circus, away from the monkeys, to put down the games, and to live INTO the self-differentiated, unconditionally loved life they were created to live.  Jesus calls you and me to nothing less!  So let us pay no more attention to the man behind the curtain… let us pass on any sort of ride offered from a clown car… let us not be drawn into the silly social and political games of musical chairs or chutes and ladders AND INSTEAD, let us fully live the life we were loved into being to live.  Amen.  

Sabbath: 85% Neighbor 15% God

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 to 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 being done by him.

When Sabbath became a Commandment, it was placed between first few Commandments about how to relate to God, and the remaining Commandments which are about how to relate to our neighbors.  That was no accident.  It was put in that spot intentionally to tell us that yes, Sabbath is indeed about humanity’s need to unplug from the world AND plug into the Divine one day out of seven… about 15% of the time.  But it was put in THAT particular spot to show us this Commandment IS JUST AS MUCH about humanity’s need to plug into compassion and care for our neighbors the other 85% of the time!  The Commandment about Sabbath was put in that particular spot because it is about BOTH… God AND Neighbor.  

Forgetting the “neighbor” part is what both Isaiah and Jesus address today.  Both would agree, we humans really do SO MUCH BETTER when we unplug from the world and plug into the Divine 15% of the time.  But that part wasn’t the problem either was confronting.  The problem for both Isaiah and Jesus was that folks had FORGOTTEN the part of “Remembering the Sabbath and keeping it Holy” that calls us to plug into the needs of our NEIGHBORS the other 85% of the time!   

In Isaiah’s day that forgetting led to economic injustice.  A “yoke” of unjust economic practices filled with selfishness, greed, indifference and exploitation had been piled on the most vulnerable in the country.  Isaiah told the people that until they removed that yoke from the people, the 15% of their time they were plugging into the Divine would do them absolutely no good.  Loving God for one day each week was not a permission slip to exploit your neighbors the other six!  These two dimensions of Sabbath are inextricably bound together.  When we live in a way that creates a community built on economic justice… a community that both sees and cares for it’s neighbors generously… for about 85% of the time… It is in living that way that we are opened up to receive the “Delight of the Sabbath” when we plug into the Divine the other 15% of our time.

The people in Isaiah’s day forgot that.  The leader in the synagogue who chastised Jesus forgot that.  SO many people who claim the title “Christian” in our government today have forgotten that.  They ALL focus exclusively on the Sabbath’s demand on us for that 15% of our time while completely abandoning the Sabbath’s equal demand on us for the remaining 85% of our lives!  In Isaiah’s day that led the leadership to forget the suffering of the least, the lost and the last.  In Jesus day that led them to let a woman continue to suffer for 18 years.  In our day it has led to legislation that abandons the poor and the homeless, the hungry and the sick, the elderly and the stranger all while our leaders make a continuous show filled with God-talk, kneeling in prayer on the legislature’s floor, and posting the Commandments in public.

Isaiah makes it clear.  THAT kind of performance doesn’t “Remember the Sabbath… it TRAMPLES on the Sabbath!  None of THAT will connect anyone with God.  ONLY the radical care of your neighbor will do that.  ONLY food for the hungry will do that.  Only satisfying the needs of the afflicted will do that.  Jesus too makes it just as clear.  The time you spend dramatically and publicly defending the sanctity of the part of the Sabbath that calls for 15% of your time to be plugged into God, will get you nothing, if you ignore the call of the Sabbath on the other 85% of your life!

God has never been fooled by that sort of religious performance and Isaiah told the people just that.  Jesus was never fooled by that sort of self righteous religious show and he told the leader of the synagogue just that.  And neither are we fooled by those who kneel on the floor of the legislature or have the Commandments posted in schools.  God knows.  Isaiah knows.  Jesus knows.  You and I know.  The only way ANYONE receives ANY benefit from following this Commandment to connect to the Divine for 15% of our lives, is by following the same Commandment when it calls us to love our neighbors and create a neighbor-loving, justice-practicing, hungry-feeding, foreigner-welcoming, crippled-healing, elderly-caring community in the other 85% of our lives!  

No one is fooled.  The way we FULLY remember the Sabbath and GENUINELY keep it Holy, is to live our lives in community… doing justice and loving kindness 85% of the time and having done that…  only then, unplugging ourselves from the world and plugging into the Divine for the other 15% of the time we are given.  It is in living by those percentages that we will have a life “riding on the heights of the earth”.  It is in that way of living that we will find we are sharing the in the “Delights the LORD”.  It is in that way of living that we will find that we have life, and it is in that way of living that we will have it… abundantly.  Amen.  

Brains and Woke Nonsense

Luke 12:49-56

“I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how Iwish it were already ablaze! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided:

father against son
    and son against father,
mother against daughter
    and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
    and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain,’ and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

Our brains evolved to create high speed neural pathways for the things we think and do all the time.  Those deeply ingrained neural routes allow the regular things we do all the time to become automatic.  Driving is a great example.  Think back to when you first learned to drive and how hard that felt.  A few years later, as those neural pathways firmed up a bit, driving became less anxious, right?  Eventually those neural pathways became so ingrained… so solid in your mind that even driving in the city became automatic.  

It is an AMAZING gift… until, let’s say, you rent a car in New Zealand.  There you discover the down side of having deeply ingrained neural pathways and how VERY hard they are to change.  But in New Zealand you really NEED them to change because there, they drive on the left.  Roundabouts go the other way round.  The turn signal and windshield wipers are on opposite sides of the steering column, so when you go to signal a turn, those ingrained neural pathways move your hand automatically AND... turn on the wipers… EVERY SINGLE TIME!  All those well worn neural pathways your brain had created over the years to make driving easier… NOW ARE WORKING AGAINST YOU!  You feel dumb, incompetent, and foolish... like fire has been brought to the earth!  And this is why… CHANGE… IS… HARD!

 

That’s what Jesus was telling the crowd.  CHANGE… IS… HARD!  AND YET… Jesus also told this and every crowd, that he wished the fire of change was already ablaze, ushering in the Kingdom of God.  That's because Jesus was out to do nothing less than CHANGE the WHOLE world, as Bp. Curry always says, “from the nightmare it is for so many into the dream that God intends.”  

Now, you'd think that if a change would make the world better for you personally, then it would be easily and eagerly embraced, but that’s not necessarily true.  There are countless stories of people sticking with the familiar rather going with something better.  I have gay friends who still choose not to get married even now, because for them, their neural pathways firmly laid down the idea long ago that marriage was not for them.  Those neural pathways that our brains create to make our world easier, are often so strongly laid down that the idea of changing them… even for something that might be a whole lot better… just seems too hard to even try.  CHANGE it turns out… really is BIOLOGICALLY hard. 

You'd also think that if a change would make the world better for someone you loved, then THAT change would be easier for you as well.  But that too, is not necessarily true.  When Kelly and I started dating we went to a Halloween party.  For the person I was falling in love with, I REALLY WANTED to instantly change and be completely comfortable at a Steel Magnolia’s themed Halloween party full of gay men complete with Bleeding Armadillo Grooms cake… I really did!  But the automatic neural pathways that had been laid down in my brain about gay men up to that point in my life could not be unmade in a single evening!  WANTING them to change was not enough… it took a lot more time and work to unmake, and then remake, those pathways in my brain.   

That’s why in these most recent times, so many of us are finding new names and pronouns and gender identities so hard!  Even when we WANT to do it perfectly, we inevitably run up against the biology that makes those things are some of the most deeply laid down neural pathways humans have.  The neural pathways for things like names and pronouns are sometimes forty, sixty, even eighty years deep!  Our brains did that so we didn’t have to re-meet people every time we ran into them.  But now, when someone asks you to use a new name and new pronouns you find that you are just as good at doing that as using the turn signal in New Zealand without turning on the wipers!  

Just WANTING to do once doesn't make it happen and that is frustrating in our instant gratification world.  Folks try to remember but inevitably fail.  Not understanding the biology of how hard this change is for everyone, people find themselves feeling dumb, foolish, and incompetent.  Those uncomfortable feelings burn like fire and make people want to dismiss the whole thing as "woke" nonsense!  But as followers of Jesus, when we encounter people who tell us that the way the world works for them is a nightmare, we have a Divine calling to work through our own uncomfortable, burning feelings, put in the time, and do the hard work to help them change the world so that their nightmare ends!  

To do that you don’t have to feel in your body like they feel in theirs.  You won’t.  You don’t have to understand "WHY".  You can’t.  All you can do... all we are called to do, as a followers of Jesus... is to hear our neighbor when they tell us that the way the world works now is a nightmare for them, and then work with them to change the world so it becomes more like the dream God intends for them.  

And YES… THAT will take much, MUCH more time than ANYONE involved wants it to take.  YES we'll all feel foolish, incompetent, and dumb along the way... that change will be hard… in fact it will be FRUSTRATINGLY HARD… for EVERYONE!  And yet THIS is part of the work to which we have been called as followers of Jesus.  This is a part of changing the world from the nightmare it is for so many, into the dream God has for it.    Amen. 

Guy Bring It!

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."

The year was 1969.  My parents and I were staying in a Motel in California.  I looked out of the window and below in the courtyard I saw a man carrying a large platter of food.  I asked my parents what he was doing and they told me that in a motel, you can pick up the phone, order food, and a guy will bring it right to the room.  Never, in all my two whole years of life, had I ever seen anything like it!  So… as the story goes… I walked over to the phone, picked it up, and said, “GUY BRING IT!”  No more waiting.  “GUY BRING IT!”

Abram and Sarai were frustrated with waiting.  Waiting for a child… a long, long, long promised child.  GUY BRING IT!  But beneath their waiting for a child in particular was a much deeper waiting for a sign that there would be any future for them at all.  Because without a child in that time and culture, they had no future.  They would be forgotten.  It would be as if they had never even existed.  They were waiting to see if there would be a future. 

In the Psalm, the psalmist is waiting for God’s Steadfast Love to deliver their nation from the horrors that all too often afflict the nations of this world… war, famine, and death.  GUY BRING IT!  Finally in the Gospel, the slaves were waiting for the Master to return from a Wedding Banquet.  Not a costume party or a retirement dinner or the Historical Society’s Garlic Festival, but a WEDDING BANQUET which meant Jesus was talking about waiting for The Kingdom of God.  GUY BRING IT!

The Kingdom of God, as Jesus talked about it, was God’s vision for how the world... our right now, every day, get up, eat breakfast, run to an appointment, stop by the Big Y, eat and sleep world… should really work.  Like a Wedding Banquet, the Kingdom of God would be a world where there is PLENTY!  More than enough food, water, shelter, peace, dignity, purpose, healing, safety and wholeness for everyone.  Like a Wedding Banquet, in God’s Kingdom EVERYONE would have a place set for them, so no one’s left out.  Like a wedding banquet, the Kingdom of God would be filled with joy!  THAT… my friends… is how God would LIKE this world… OUR world… our “RIGHT NOW” world… to work!  GUY BRING IT!  

Which sounds amazing!  Until you remember that in this parable, you and I… we weren't at the Wedding Banquet.  In this parable we’re the slaves stuck back at the house.  We’re like Abram and Sarai… stuck waiting for a future.  We’re like the psalmist… stuck waiting for God’s Steadfast to deliver us.  We are like two year old me… stuck waiting for “GUY BRING IT” in a California Motel room.  

We are, it would seem, unable to secure a future for ourselves.  We are, it would seem, unable to guarantee the people of our nation will be okay.  We are, it would seem, AWARE of the Wedding Banquet… AWARE of the Kingdom of God and God’s desire that ALL of creation be included, but unable to get ourselves to the party!  We are, it would seem, stuck at home with the hope for a future, the promise of security, and the joy of God’s Kingdom beyond our reach.  That’s how it would seem.  And why does it seem that way?  Because that’s how it is!  Look around and you will have to admit, we are just as successful at securing our own future, finding our own salvation, and creating the Kingdom of God as I was at getting food by yelling into the phone “GUY BRING IT” back in 1969.  

All of which would sound downright hopeless IF that was the end of these stories… but it is not!  In 1969 my yelling into the phone did not make “GUY BRING IT”, but the Steadfast Love of my parents, their good sense of humor, and their dialing up the restaurant and ordering room service did.  Abram and Sarai’s fear and worry did not secure their future, but God’s Steadfast Love and Faithfulness did, in time, make sure that “no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.”  The nation’s military and country’s bravado did not insure the psalmist’s security, but the psalmist’s hope, placed in God’s Steadfast Lovingkindness, brought them peace.  And while none of the slaves could get themselves to the Wedding Banquet, it turns out that it is “God’s Good Pleasure” to bring the Wedding Banquet back home to each and everyone of us, to sit us down at the table, tie on an apron, and serve up an Eternal Feast for all of creation as a gift.  

We live in times where we regularly question if there will be a future.  We live in times where we regularly question the safety of ourselves and particularly our neighbors in this nation.  We live in times where God’s vision for this world run in a way where everyone has enough seems laughable.  So what do people of faith do in these sorts of times?  Abram and Sarai just kept walking into God’s promise, voicing their doubts and fears and frustrations all along the way, until the promise was fulfilled.  That’s something we can do too.  The Psalmist continued to call on God to be true to the Divine Character of Steadfast Love and Faithfulness, and I’d like to think the psalmist did their best to reflect that Divine Character as they waited and although that’s not in the text that is something WE can do.  The slaves stayed dressed for action and kept the lights lit, doing the work they had been called to do until the Master brought the Banquet home to them.  We can do that too.  We can “walk in love as Christ loved us” for as long as we have to wait and as far as we need to walk.  We can do it together and together we can make our ongoing prayer… GUY BRING IT!  Amen.