Stretching To a Place Beyond Words

The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 3rd Chapter

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” 

Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

In Lent we are reminded to start with WHY.  Ash Wednesday was socked in by fog, so I’ll catch you up on what I mean.  The WHAT of Lent are the things we do, like extra prayer, fasting, acts of service and giving to the poor.  The HOW of Lent, as we’re reminded on Ash Wednesday, is to do the WHATs of Lent, NOT like the hypocrites do them!  So the HOW is to pray, not to be heard by others, but so it’s between you and God.  Giving and doing service, NOT to get kudos from others, but in secret so only God can see what you’re doing.  

The WHAT of Lent (those extra prayers, fasting and giving) is good for our faith, but not all that deep.  The HOW of Lent, doing the WHAT’s of Lent in a way that connects you to God is deeper, but still not the goal.  Lent is meant to draw you even deeper, from the WHAT and through the HOW so we begin to wrestle again with… WHY.

The WHY of Lent is really the big WHY… WHY am I here… WHY do I have this life?  We begin Lent being reminded that our lives have been carved out by God’s creating, redeeming love from nothing more than dust.  Your miraculous, beautiful, improbable life…  carved from dust by God, with infinite love, has been given to you so you might really, really LIVE that life ABUNDANTLY between “remember that you are dust” on one side and “to dust you shall return” on the other.  LIFE lived ABUNDANTLY!  That’s the WHY… but what does that even mean?

Nicodemus had seen WHAT Jesus was doing.  It was Jesus’s SIGNS that had caught his attention.  In John’s Gospel, a SIGN is what the other Gospels call MIRACLES.  Turning water into wine was the first of Jesus' SIGNS.  Nicodemus knew WHAT Jesus was doing AND, to give him a ton of well deserved credit, he didn’t get stuck on the surface with WHAT.  Nicodemus also knew HOW Jesus did all these things.  “No one can do these signs apart from the presence of God.”  The presence of God was HOW Jesus did these things and to give Nicodemus even more well deserved credit, he was willing to risk his status, safety… even his life to seek Jesus out, because he was ready to wrestle with the hardest question… WHY.  

The trouble Nicodemus ran into when he went to wrestle with WHY is the same trouble we all run into when we take the plunge into wrestling with WHY.  The depth and breath of WHY… the depth and breath of this LIFE lived ABUNDANTLY is literally beyond words.  Jesus wasn’t trying to be tricky or secretive or difficult when he attempted to help Nicodemus by talking about wind and Spirit and being born from above.  Jesus was trying to help Nicodemus understand the fullness of something that is simply beyond words.  The fullness of our lives… Our lives created by God in love out of the ashes… the entirety of the WHY of our lives is just more than our words can contain BECAUSE our lives are inextricably tied up with the boundless, creative power of God.  Fully grasping the WHY of life, requires fully grasping the entirety of God… which just can’t be done.  

That’s why Jesus talked about water and the Spirit and being born from above here and used stories and parables throughout his life.  That’s why Jesus did signs and miracles.  That’s why Jesus didn’t just sit in one place and talk, but LIVED OUT the WHY of life… SHOWING us that LIFE is lived most deeply… most abundantly… when we care for the least, lost and last.  He SHOWED us the life God carved out for us from dust can’t be defeated by death but in his resurrection SHOWED us that LIFE is meant to be eternal, but not just eternal either… Because after all, if your life is horrible AND eternal, how good is that?  Taking on the WHY question is like trying to get your arms around a giant redwood… physically it can’t be done, but the stories, signs, parables and rituals help stretch us further and wrestle more deeply with the enormity of the WHY of ABUNDANT LIFE, beyond the point words begin to fail.

Nicodemus is so often shown as someone who just didn’t “get it”… someone who tried to take a swing at what Jesus was pitching and whiffed it.  But I think maybe John put this story in here to show us that wrapping our minds around the WHY of this LIFE which God has given us, isn’t that simple, and if we’re really willing to stretch and wrestle with the depths of WHY, it will mean stretching and wrestling in a match that goes on round after round after round.  Nicodemus did that throughout John’s Gospel.  He was never able to fully wrap his mind around that WHY question, but since that WHY question contains the limitlessness of God it’s really no wonder… but he kept at it.  I think John put his story here for us to see in Nicodemus a model for our wrestling and stretching with the depths and breadth of WHY... to inspire us to keep at it. 

WHAT, then HOW, then maybe WHY.  Most of the world reads this Gospel story that way.  First the WHAT of the signs.  Next the HOW of God’s presence and then, where do most people stop?  They stop at John 3:16 and when you stop there, you don’t even get to the deeper WHY… that “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved… that the world might really live the abundant life they've been given, beginning now and never ending… through him.” 

In Lent, we're reminded to start with WHY.  To start with the bottom of this lesson and work up from there… Wrestling first with the WHY, that Jesus came so that we would have LIFE and have it ABUNDANTLY.  From there we can move to the HOW.  HOW do we live this life abundantly?  John reminds us that believing in Jesus is the answer to HOW, as long as we remember that BELIEVING, as Jesus meant it, is not done with our minds, but with our feet and our hands, DOING the WHATs Jesus did day after day… living a Jesus kind of life.  The WHATs we do in our daily lives flow out of HOW we walk, and HOW we walk is the Jesus way and WHY we walk the Jesus was is walking that way is the best way to ABUNDANTLY live the life we have been given by the One who carved us in love out of dust.  And WHY were we given this life to live abundantly?  The short answer is because it makes God happy.  The long answer is what Nicodemus wrestled with and stretched for his entire life.  May each of us do the same.  Amen.  

Night Prayer

Gathering

The angels of God keep watch over us through the night,
and quiet the powers of darkness.

The Spirit of God guide us through the night,
and lead us to the peace of God’s Kingdom.

It does us no good to rush and hurry, rise up early, stay up late, put off our rest, and eat the food of anxiety, worry and dread throughout the day and night.  For those who are children of God, we are given all that we need, even while we sleep.

Silence

My brothers and sisters, our help is in the name of the Lord,
who is making the heavens and the earth.

Dear God, 

We thank you for all that is good, for our creation and for our lives, for our role as stewards of planet earth, for the gifts of life and our neighbors, for your love which is without limit and eternal.  We thank you O God, most holy and beloved, our Companion, the Light upon our pathway, our bright and guiding evening star.  Amen.

We repent the wrongs we have done:

Silence

We have wounded your Spirit.
God of Creation, heal our brokenness.

We are lost in the darkness.
Light of God, who shines in the darkness, transfigure us.

We forget that we are in your hands.
Spirit of God, lead us to our home in You.

Forever loving, forever living God, it is in You in whom we live and move and have our being.  All that we are, all we have been, and all we will ever be is known to you.  You know us and love us to the deepest corners of our broken hearts.  You know all that wakes us in the night with worry.  God shines into you a light that banishes all darkness, even in the depths of your hearts.  God blows the Holy Spirit through you, drying pools of bitter tears, even in the depths of your heart.  Forgiving God, flood now your children’s hearts with sweet, renewing, living water that they may live abundantly, love relentlessly and serve unceasingly in their peaceful slumber and in their rising service.  

Amen.

The Word

Eternal God, open our ears and open our lips,
that our ears may hear your Word and our mouths may proclaim your praise.

Psalm

Reading

The Prayers

Into your hands, O God, I commend my spirit,
for you have redeemed me, O God of truth and love.

Keep me, O God, as the apple of your eye;
hide me under the shadow of your wings.

Preserve us, O God, while waking, and guard us while sleeping,
that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep may rest in your peace.

Praise be to God, I have lived to see this day.  God’s promise is fulfilled, and my duty done.

At last you have given me peace, for I have seen with my own eyes
the salvation you have prepared for all nations - a light to the world in its darkness,
and the glory of your people Israel.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.  Amen.

Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

O most Compassionate Life-giver, in whom we live and move and have our being,

may we forever honor and praise your name; Establish Your rule of justice, peace and love; 

throughout our neighborhoods, country and world.

With the things for life we need, feed us.  From the hurts we inflict on one another, forgive us. In passing on your forgiveness to others, inspire us. 
In times of trial, strengthen us. From darkness too great to bear, spare us.
From the binding chains of evil, free us.

For yours is the kingdom of justice, the power of love and the reign of glory
now and for ever.  Amen.

Concluding Prayers

I will lie down in peace and take my rest,
for it is in God alone that I live without fear.

Let us bless the Compassionate life giver,
let us praise God above all else forever.

May God’s name be praised beyond the edges of the universe,
with glory and exaltation forever.

Lord, it is night.

The night is for stillness.
Let us be still in the presence of God.

It is night after a long day.
What has been done has been done;
what has not been done has not been done;
help us to let it go.

The night is dark.
Let our fears of the darkness of the world and 

the darkness of our own lives
rest in you. 

The night is quiet.
Let the quietness of your peace enfold us,
all who are dear to us,
and all who have no peace in your embrace.

The night, though dark, proclaims the dawn.
Let us look expectantly to the new day,
new joys, new possibilities.

In your name we pray.
Amen.

Blessing

Christ be within us to keep us, beside us to guard us,
before us to lead us, behind us to protect us,
beneath us to support us, above us to bless us.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Amen.

The Comma Between the Dust

The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 6th Chapter

“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

WHAT... are you doing for Lent?  That’s the question we hear for Ash Wednesday, isn’t it?  WHAT are you doing for Lent?  The answer often includes something like…  “giving something up”… maybe ice cream or swearing or beer.  Others might answer the WHAT question by saying “prayer”… an additional devotional or worship time maybe.  They might even answer the WHAT question with a plan to give to a charity, either with their time or their money or maybe even both.  

All of those are good answers to the WHAT question… Not a definitive list, by any means, but a good place to start… after all, giving alms, prayer and fasting are all the themes Jesus talked about in the Gospel text for today, but there’s a deeper question that lives next to the WHAT question.  It's the HOW question.  HOW will you give alms?  HOW will you pray?  HOW will you fast?

Jesus was all over the HOW question.  If you give alms, do it quietly… privately… so it’s between you and God, not between you and everyone else.  If you pray, don’t pray on the street corner, or shout it out in church… pray in private… so it’s between you and God.  The same for fasting.  The HOW of fasting is that it should not be done so the people around you notice and feel sorry for you, but fasting should be done so it’s between you and God.  

The WHAT question is where most folks stop.  It’s not bad to stop there, but there is more.  Deeper than WHAT, is that HOW question but there’s more… still deeper… the place that Lent is really meant to begin, even if it’s the place we almost always get to last… if we get there at all.  That deeper place… the place where LENT is meant to begin… is with WHY.  If someone asked you WHY LENT or WHY Church or even WHY faith… do you know how you’d answer?  

It’s hard.  It’s hard because in most of our lives we start with WHAT, we might go deeper into HOW and then maybe… but really not all that often… go from there on deeper into WHY.  The season of LENT… but Ash Wednesday in particular, is meant to JAR us out of the usual and turn that WHAT, then HOW, then WHY series of questions inside out.  LENT is meant to be a time where we START… WITH WHY.  WHY is often avoided because its so much harder, in part because it isn’t so much spoken as it is experienced.  The fullness of WHY is really beyond our ability to fully describe with words.  

The answer to the WHY of Ash Wednesday is there, in between the ashes and the words which are proclaimed as you receive them, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  The WHY of Ash Wednesday is right there in the space between “You are dust” on one side, and “To dust you shall return” on the other.  In between those two… in the place held by a simple comma, is each of our entire lives.  On one side of that comma we were dust.  On the other side of that comma we will be dust again.  

The WHY of Lent is there in the seemingly insignificant space of that comma… a space that actually contains the entirety of God’s amazing, grace filled, love fueled, miraculous, wonder-packed creative work that is YOU.  YOU and all that you have been and all that you will ever be, is there in the space of that comma, between “You are dust” on one side, and “To dust you shall return” on the other.  

The answer to WHY lies there between the dust.  It is the answer, not only to the WHY of Lent but to everything else as well.  WHY Lent? WHY Church? WHY Faith?... Because... between the dust on one side and dust on the other, the awesome, amazing POWER of God’s creating love, INSISTED… INSISTED… that the ENTIRETY OF ALL OF CREATION would not be complete, without your life perfectly, beautifully, fabulously filling the space between “You are dust” on the one side and “To dust you shall return” on the other.  

In our busy, frantic, fear filled lives we forget that.  Our forgetful world trains us to start with WHAT.  Sometimes we move to HOW but we often forget to even wonder about the WHY.  On Ash Wednesday we begin a season where that is turned INSIDE OUT and we BEGIN with WHY.  The WHY is simply because God, with an entire universe to be concerned with, has chosen in love to carve YOU out of dust, because God is convinced that Creation... the ENTIRE Universe, would simply NOT be complete without you.  The WHY is LIFE!  You have been given LIFE between the dust!  THAT'S the WHY!  Given as an extravagant gift... to YOU... with unmeasurable love from God.  

Embracing and living into that WHY... NOW you can move to HOW.  HOW will you connect more deeply with the One who loves you… YOU… with an infinite amount of creative and redeeming power?  Humility, passion, intimacy and dedication are some good answers to HOW.  Now, WHAT are some ways you might act on that connection?  Prayer, fasting and giving alms are a few ways, but by no means an exhaustive list.  

WHAT are you doing for Lent turns out to be the least important question.  WHAT you do for Lent or for any other day of the year for that matter...  will become clear if you let the WHATs and the HOWs start from and flow out of the WHY.  May you approach each of the forty days of Lent beginning each and every morning, marveling that God has loved into being your LIFE which lives now in the space between "you are dust" and "to dust you shall return."  May you experience the season of Lent embraced in and living out of that wondrous WHY.  Amen.  

Invite it on the Bus!

The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 17th Chapter

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 

While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Six days later, my wife took with her, our dog and me and led us to our long kitchen table.  I knew this was bad.  The dog didn’t care.  There, she became super serious looking so before she said anything I said, “Hey, it’s good you brought us here to the kitchen table, because with all this snow coming we’re going to need to just stay right here, hunker down and not go anywhere and I think chili would be good for dinner.”  And while I was still yammering, a voice from heaven said, “Erik, this is your beloved, she is really QUITE a bit smarter than you.  Shut up and listen to her.”  When I heard this I was overcome with fear.  The dog still didn’t care.  He’s sort of a jerk that way.  But then my wife touched me and said, “Get up.  Don’t be afraid.  Go and get new tires… TODAY.”  

Six days-ish before that I had come to Augusta for Everyday Basics and when I left to come home, I started down the big hill on Winthrop Street toward the river.  The road was covered in that thick, not quite slush but not quite snow, sort of snotty, winter mess and as I applied the brakes, my tires slipped and the anti-lock brakes, anti-locked, and still I slid almost all the way down the hill.  The good news was I stopped before I slid into River Street or the river.  The bad news was that I needed new tires and the thought of new tires gave me great fear.  

Now, I don’t have some bizarre new-tire phobia.  What I fear is spending money… almost always, but particularly with two kids in college.  I wanted to take a couple of months to squirrel the money away and pay with cash.  But then the pre-blizzard came, which was to be followed by the REAL blizzard  which was going to be followed by the post-blizzard, and Kelly said, “I know you fear putting tires on the credit card.  I know spending $500 on tires will feel like death to you and I know your fear won’t magically go away if I tell you not to fear.  So invite your fear to come with you to the tire place and the two of you get new tires on your car TODAY... because new tires mean life.”  So, my fear and I got into my car and we went and got new tires, because God's right… she's QUITE a bit smarter than I am.  

The thing that happened six days before today’s Gospel lesson is that Jesus told the disciples he needed to go to Jerusalem, where he would suffer and die and be raised from the dead which is ALMOST as bad as me having to get new tires.  The disciples were well aquatinted with the suffering and death part… THAT was a part of everyone’s regular world, but the being raised from the dead part seemed pretty far fetched, so they, very understandably, had a real fear of going to Jerusalem.  But in the middle of the disciple’s yammering, God spoke and said, “Disciples listen, this is Jesus, my beloved, he is QUITE a bit smarter than you, shut up and listen to him” and then, Jesus touched them, they got up, loaded their fear on the bus and went down the mountain and on to Jerusalem anyway.  Because even though the disciples couldn’t wrap their minds around it, and even though they were still scared by it, somehow the death and resurrection that would happen in Jerusalem, they believed, was the path to abundant life.  

Here’s the thing about these stories that’s really important… Kelly telling me not to be afraid didn’t magically take away my fear.  Jesus telling the disciples not to be afraid didn’t magically take away their fear either, but faithfulness is not fearlessness.  Faithfulness is seeing your fear and maybe even grousing, complaining and fidgeting about it but eventually... even if it’s begrudgingly... accepting it and inviting your fear onto the bus with you and driving on down the mountain toward the promise of new life even with that fear in tow anyway.  

As humans, those yucky, sticky, feelings like fear and anxiety and exhaustion and worry and indifference and all the rest, don’t ever magically get zapped away.  So if we wait to be fearless BEFORE we make a step toward the things and people whom God has placed in our lives to help us experience the Abundant Life God created us to live, we'll never even take the first step toward living in God's gift of abundant life.  

The answer, Jesus showed the disciples, is NOT to wait for the day you become fearless.  The answer is to acknowledge the yucky, sticky spots of fear... stand up and invite those sticky, yucky fears to come along with you and Jesus as you take a step toward LIFE.  The answer is not to wait for fearlessness but to take a step in faithfulness... even just one tiny step, then another and another and another… on down the mountain and out into the world, one tiny, even seemingly insignificant little step toward loving God and loving neighbor... one step after another, toward LIFE.

It's a good answer, but easy to forget.  There is a handy way to remember it, though.  Because, you see, we LIVE OUT this lesson every single Sunday.  Every Sunday we start like the disciples, confessing our fears, confessing that we would rather build a booth, dig in where we are, not change, not go down the mountain or go out into the world where life is even scarier, stickier and yuckier.  And every week God tells us, “Yeah, I know. I love you anyway.”  

Then God says, “NOW listen to Jesus, he’s quite a bit smarter than you” and we listen to stories about Jesus being quite a bit smarter than we are.  We then come to Jesus's Table and Jesus touches us… literally touches us… as the host is placed in our hand, Jesus touches us and tells us to stand up... He tells us that, “The Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthens you and keeps you always in his grace” and then together, you and me, along with Jesus... we take all of our fears, anxieties, worries and all the rest of life’s sticky, yucky stuff and with Jesus, we load it all on the bus and head down the mountain, moving as best we can toward ABUNDANT LIFE.  One tiny step after another.  First out that door (and then we get a snack) and then out the other door into the parking lot and then out into the world… not fearlessly, but faithfully, always doing our best to move toward LIFE.  

Jesus said, "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."  That's why we're here, week after week... to receive abundant life again... to live this story again... to be touched by Jesus again... to have Jesus stand us up again... to be strengthened again... to invite all that we fear to join us on the bus again... to love God and neighbor again... to drive down the mountain on the Way again... even through death again... but always toward LIFE again.  Let us all step toward LIFE again.  Amen. 

Autopilot Off!

The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 5th Chapter

“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire. So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell. “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

“Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.

I believe that God created you and me not only to RECEIVE life as a gift from God, but also to BRING that life into the world… and that’s not just a “sorta-gettin’-by” kind of life, either!  But an ABUNDANT life!  We are called to be God's ABUNDANT LIFE BRINGERS!  I also believe that sometimes… often for long stretches of time… the choices that move us toward life are clear and consistent, so bringing that life... moving toward, and choosing that life can become automatic, which isn’t a bad thing... as long as the world doesn't dramatically change.  

But life changes, doesn’t it?  And life doesn’t stop to ask whether we think that’s a good idea or not.  So when life DOES change, the former, clear, consistent and automatic moves and choices that led to life before, might not move us toward life anymore.  In those times, we need to take our lives off automatic pilot, sit down, open our eyes and make new, thought out, conscious decisions about what we need to do NOW to choose life, in that NEW place and in that NEW time. 

Moses lived in one of those times.  The people of Israel had been making choices about how to move toward life out in the wilderness for a really long time.  The choices for life they made on the road, out in the wilderness had become second nature… automatic.  But now, the people of Israel had come to the end of the wilderness.  Instead of plowing on into the Promised Land, like nothing would be different, Moses sat the people down and told them, “Over there, life WILL BE DIFFERENT from how it’s been over here.  The choices that will lead to life over there WILL BE DIFFERENT than the choices that led to life in the wilderness.  Take your life OFF automatic pilot.  Open up your eyes!  Remember your CORE… loving God, walking in God’s ways and following God’s rules… now, THINK about what that CORE looks like, and THINK about what it will look like NOW to CHOOSE LIFE… to step toward life in this NEW time and this NEW place.  

Jesus lived in one of those times too.  Loving God and loving neighbor were at the core of the Law, but the focus had drifted from the practice of loving God and neighbor, and folks had become focused on the laws ABOUT loving God and neighbor.  Jesus knew it was time to sit the people down and tell them, “Take your life OFF automatic pilot.  Open up your eyes!  Remember your core… loving God, walking in God’s ways and following God’s rules… now, think about what that CORE looks like in this NEW place and in this NEW time and choose again to take a step in that direction… to choose life!”

We’re living in one of those times too.  The world and the church that lies behind us, is not the same as the world and the church that lies ahead, so here’s a story to help us take our lives off automatic pilot and open our eyes…  I don’t know if you’ve ever ridden the subway in New York, but there’s an automatic pilot way that New Yorkers ride the subway.  Blank stare, ear buds in, don’t look around, don’t make eye contact, no matter what is going on around you, pretend it isn’t really there and don’t get involved.  

That’s the automatic pilot way New Yorkers ride the subway that has led to life for them FOREVER.  But last week something happened, and the people in one New York Subway car were challenged to take their lives off automatic pilot, open their eyes, remember what they valued at their core and make a NEW and different step in that direction.  They were challenged in that moment last week to make a NEW choice for life in a new time.  

This group of New Yorkers piled onto a subway car late in the evening.  As they settled into their seats, they all began to realize that every window, all the glass covering every advertisement, had been marked with swastikas and hateful, anti-semitic messages in black Sharpie.  The train was silent.  Everyone looked around at each other, uncomfortable but unsure what to do.  Living on automatic pilot, riding the subway the usual way… the way they had ALWAYS ridden the subway… the thing to do would be to stare straight ahead and not get involved.  That’s the way they had ALWAYS ridden the subway.  

But then, into the silence… into the way things had always been done… someone said, “Hand sanitizer gets rid of Sharpie.”  Suddenly, in a flurry of activity, everyone on the train was reaching into pockets, purses and bags to find hand sanitizer and tissues.  In less than two minutes all the hateful graffiti was gone.

In that one moment, that person who said, “Hand sanitizer gets rid of Sharpie” did EXACTLY what Moses had done on the edge of the Promised Land… EXACTLY what Jesus had done on the mountain.  He challenged the people around him on that train, to take their lives OFF automatic pilot, open their eyes and REALLY SEE that what was happening around them NOW was NOT the same as it had always been.  He challenged them to remember what they valued… what they REALLY valued at their core, and then offered them a way to purposefully, physically, intentionally, consciously move toward what they valued… He offered them the opportunity to choose life!  

The automatic pilot which has helped us faithfully choose life for our whole lives will no longer fly us effortlessly toward life in this new world in which we live.  We are being called, like the people Moses and Jesus addressed, to STOP and open our eyes!  To remember our CORE, and take a NEW step TOWARD that TIMELESS CORE of loving God and walking in God’s ways… but a NEW step, a DIFFERENT step… a step for this NEW age… a NEW choice again for life!  

The people who reached in their bags for tissues and sanitizer made an amazing step toward life that evening.  But I believe THIS church is called to MORE than simply being like the people who reached in their pockets, purses and bags to find hand sanitizer on that train.  I believe THIS church is called to be the voice in our community that speaks into the changing world around us… that LEADS the way and is the one who speaks into the silence like the one who said, “Hand Sanitizer gets rid of Sharpie” did.  I believe this church will not only choose life, but that together, YOU are the leaders of our community who are not only taking those first, courageous NEW steps toward life, but will continue leading our neighbors as we all take NEW steps toward life.  Amen. 

Away with the Bushel!

The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 5th Chapter

“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The image this week was a gift from Rev. Brett Ballenger, with thanks as well to Leslie and Liz for your contributions as well!  

Pastor Martin Niemöller was a Lutheran pastor in Germany.  He was a U-boat captain in the First World War and then went to seminary and became a pastor.  He was not perfect.  He was often slow to catch on and he often learned to do the right thing, only after doing the wrong thing first.  I can relate.  But he was never shy to confess his wrongs and vigorously work for what was right.  He is probably best remembered for something that illustrates that perfectly.  He said with perfect hindsight, “First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.  Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.  Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.  Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.  Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."  

You’ve probably heard that, but you might not have known that today’s Gospel text was the text he had for what would be his last sermon before being arrested and sent, first to prison and then to a concentration camp for the remainder of the war.  In the first part of his sermon on this text he talked about the need for the church to remain salty.  

The problem he was facing was that the rising Nazi government was looking for all of the churches to come together and fall in line with them, forming one Reich’s Church.  Niemöller said the Church was in danger of “being thrown into the same pot as the world.”  But for Niemöller, he understood that the Church needed to remain distinct from the world with it’s unique “saltiness.”  The government would say to him, “When you start to suit your message to the world around you, then you will again be influential and powerful.”  But Niemöller didn’t think that was the Church’s calling.  He thought the church was called to be salty.  He didn’t think losing it’s saltiness was faithful.  “But,” he said, “if the salt remains salt, we may trust God with it and God will use it in such a way that it becomes a blessing.”

We in the Church have a distinct and counter cultural message… a distinct “saltiness”… a certain flavor which is often different from the flavors of the world.  Our saltiness says that the poor and the meek and the reviled have God’s blessing, as Jesus told us last week.  That’s often not a popular in our world, where wealth and power and success are more fashionable flavors.  Our saltiness says every human being has worth and dignity.  Our saltiness, Isaiah reminds us this week, is to loose the bonds of injustice and bring the homeless poor into our homes.  And if all of that makes us nervous, our saltiness also reminds us that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  We don't have any reason to fear because NOTHING can separate us from God’s love.  So even as some of this generation’s most skilled merchants of fear, cook up conspiracies and brew lies and the world around us simmers and boils in a perpetual stew of fear, we in the Church are called to something of a distinctly different, more salty flavor.

WE are called to stay salty, even while high profile TV preachers hurl themselves into the same stew that feeds fears, excludes, demonizes and persecutes, WE are called to stay out of that stew and stay salty.  But that’s not to just stay salty for salt’s sake.  We’re called to stay out of that stew of fear and hatred so that when we DO see someone preparing a dish in our neighborhood that DOES lift the lowly, welcomes the stranger or gives bread to the hungry, we can throw in our saltiness there and enhance that dish.  That’s what salt does, it enhances flavors and you and I are called to be salt.  We’re called to lift up, bring out and enhance the bits of the world that bring life out of death.

  

In another part of Niemöllers’ sermon he said,  “You are the light of the world.”  We hear those words and we immediately start worrying about our light going out.  What are we worrying about?  We look around and see the winds and the storm that is blowing through the world right now and we think it’s all so enormous that it’s bound to blow out the Gospel candle.  So we think we must protect it!  Take the Gospel message out of the storm and put it safely in a little nook.  

Niemöller goes on to say, It is only in these days that I have realized… that I have understood what the Lord Jesus Christ means when he says, “Do not take up the bushel!  I have not lit the candle for you to put it under the bushel in order to protect it from the wind.  Away with the bushel!  The light should be placed on a candlestick!  It is not your business to worry about whether the light is extinguished or not by the wind!  That is God’s concern!  We are only to see that the light is not hidden away… not even hidden away with the nobel purpose of protecting it so we can bring it out again in calmer times.  No!  Let your light shine!"  

Away with the bushel!  That needs to be a t-shirt!  AND a bumper sticker!  Away with the bushel!  THAT is EXACTLY the message we need for today!  That was Isaiah’s message to the people of Israel.  That was Jesus’ message to the people gathered for the Sermon on the Mount.  That was Pastor Niemöller’s message to the people of Germany.  And that is the same message you and I and the people of our country need to hear once again.  Away with the bushel!  

Because what is the bushel?  THE BUSHEL IS FEAR.  It’s fear that temps us to cover the light which God has given us to shine into the world.  It’s fear that causes us to horde what we have and not share with our neighbor.  It’s fear that causes us to lash out at people who are different in even the most illogical ways.  It’s fear of losing the light that God has given us in Baptism, that causes us to hide that light from the world.  It’s that irrational fear, that sharing your light will dim it, even though every Christmas we see that the flame of one candle can be shared with everyone and the light only grows when it's shared... It never dims.

Many of the people around us have thrown themselves into this cultural stew of fear and as a nation we’ve taken our light and hid it away… it’s as if, as a nation, we’ve taken the torch of the Statue of Liberty and covered it with a bushel basket.  For what?  For fear… an irrational, destructive, fear which leads only to death...not life.  No-one has been killed by a refugee in this country.  No-one.  Not last year, not for more than forty years.*  More people die of lightning or falling out of bed or lawnmowers.  How have we become so filled with fear?

The world around us is brewing this horrible stew of cowardice and hate, exclusion and scarcity that has no touchpoint in reality.  They want us in the Church to throw our saltiness into their stew, where our saltiness will get stirred in and lost in demonizing the other, turning our backs on the stranger and dismissing the cries of those in desperate need.  But like Isaiah, Jesus and Pastor Niemöller told the people of God in the past, I’m going to tell you now... WE MUST REMAIN SALTY!  We must stay out of this simmering and boiling stew of fear that is cooking around us, but also ALWAYS be ready to add our salt to the places we find that are doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly... to the people who promote the dignity of all people and bring life into the world.  You are salt!  You have the light!  It was given to you in the waters of Baptism.  It is the light that shines in the darkness!  It is the light no darkness can overcome!  So, away with the bushel!  Let your light shine!  Amen.  

* You may wonder about this statistic, particularly in light of events such as the Boston Marathon Bombing, San Bernardino and the Pulse Night Club.  It is true that since 9/11, 123 people have been killed in the United States by people who claim to have been acting out of their Muslim faith (every one of my Muslim friends would say their action was a betrayal of the authentic faith). However, none of these people came through the rigorous vetting process as a refugee.  You may say that is a technicality and 123 deaths are tragic and both would be absolutely correct. But it is an important technicality because it is important in creating public policy to address the actual, statistical issue rather than creating policy on statistically unfounded feelings.  None of the new policies put in place would have stopped any of those 123 deaths, but those new policies have already led to additional deaths.