The Top 3 Things You’ve Never Thought About the 23rd Psalm

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd;

  I shall not be in want.

 The Lord makes me lie down in green pastures

  and leads me beside still waters.

 You restore my soul, O Lord,

  and guide me along right pathways for your name’s sake.

 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil;

  for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 

 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

  you anoint my head with oil, and my cup is running over.

 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,

  and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. 

Sometimes it’s the things we’re most familiar with that we take the least time to examine closely.  The Psalm for today is one of those things.  Almost everyone knows something about the 23rd Psalm.  Even people who have never been in a church have probably heard it in a movie scene or something.  Most folks, regardless of their level of churchiness, probably even know that first line… “The Lord is my shepherd.”  But have you ever taken the time to really dive into it?  To really notice what’s happening in this thing?  Yeah, me neither!  So, with a click-bait title… here are “The Top 3 Things You’ve Never Thought about the 23rd Psalm.”  

The first thing you’ve likely never thought about comes from your 8th grade English class.  Don’t worry, there won’t be a test.  The Psalm starts out with “The Lord is my Shepherd” and “The Lord makes me lie down.”  THEN, it changes to… “YOU restore my soul, O Lord.”  Did you catch that grammatical shift?  It starts out talking about God in the third person… like you were telling someone ABOUT God at the grocery store.  But then suddenly, it shifts to speaking TO God in the second person!  Oh, there you are, God!  

This is really a great reminder of how much power there is in telling and hearing the story.  When the Psalm says, “I shall not be in want” and then paints the picture of green pastures and still waters, the Jewish folks hearing that would have been immediately put in mind of the Exodus… when the people of Israel were freed from slavery in Egypt and led across the wilderness to the Promised Land.  The Hebrew verb for “not being in want” used in THIS Psalm, is the same one used in THAT story when God provided manna to feed the people, just like shepherds provide green pastures to feed sheep.  And that same verb is the one used in THAT story, when water flowed from the rock to give them something to drink, just like sheep led to still waters to get a drink.

The power in remembering that ancient story isn’t that it magically forces God to suddenly show up.  No.  The power of this story is that it changes US… in the re-telling of this story we remember, no matter what’s going on around us, that God’s never left God’s people and we’re ALL God’s people!  God’s not somewhere, out there in the third person!  God’s right here… God with us… always!  

The second thing you might not have thought about is the part about the Valley of the Shadow of Death.  Because this Psalm is used at funerals… A LOT… I think we often assume “Death” is the exclusive sort of darkness this Psalm is allowed to cover.  Some less poetic, but more accurate translations, translate this instead as the “darkest valley” or the valley of the “deepest darkness.”  Those end up being more accurate because in truth, this Psalm covers EVERY sort of life’s darknesses.  The death of someone we love is for sure one of life’s deep darknesses, but life doesn’t limit dark times to just that one situation.  Life, in my experience anyway, seems to be wildly creative, dealing out ALL SORTS of deep darknesses with the generosity of Oprah giving out cars… You get some darkness and you get some darkness and you get some darkness!  This Psalm insists that God is PRESENT with us, caring for us, and walking with us through ALL of life’s darkest times.  

This part of the Psalm also reminds us that God’s M.O. is presence rather than magic.  God doesn't magic dark times away, swoop down with angels to fly us off, or numb us into a narcotic-like haze until it’s all over (all of which I’ve asked God for over the years, by the way).  God’s M.O. is to walk with us, be present with us, THROUGH those times.  Once again, reciting this Psalm, telling each other about the bad old days, doesn’t “magic” the latest darkness away… but it does remind me that in spite of how this current darkness feels… God will see me through this latest dark time too.  

The third thing you might not have ever thought about this Psalm is that bit where God prepares a table for me in the presence of my enemies, anoints my head with oil, and pours a cup to overflowing.  This DOESN’T say, “God prepared me a fabulous dinner, locks my enemies outside where they’ll be cold, hungry and finally get what they deserve!”  That may be what I WANT it to say… but it doesn’t say that.  

What this says is that this finally-able-to-let-your-guard-down, overly abundant, feast happens in the PRESENCE of my enemies.  That goodness and mercy only happens when we’ve been reconciled with our enemies… when our enemies sit down and join us at the table and become our friends.  Goodness and mercy is God’s desire for us and all of creation and God isn’t just “following us” with it.  God's "Pursuing us” with it!  Pursuing is actually a much better translation!  And God PURSUES us with enough goodness and mercy for EVERYONE… so that we can ALL finally sit down, be reconciled to one another and finally, finally, FINALLY be at peace. 

So, there you are!  “The Top 3 Things You’ve Never Thought about the 23rd Psalm.”  A grammatical reminder that God’s not far off, out there, somewhere, but always right here with us.  An honest acknowledgement that life has more than just one particular deep darkness, but that God sees us through them all.  And finally, a promise that God is not just following us, but is pursuing us, dogging us, chasing all of creation down with goodness and mercy.  So that all of creation might experience the genuine, lasting sort of peace that comes through reconciliation.  

It turns out, the Lord really IS your shepherd.  You really don’t need to worry and you’re never alone, even walking through the worst of life’s many darknesses.  And God will pursue you and me and all of creation with an abundance of goodness and mercy until we all finally accept God’s unconditional gift of real and lasting peace.  Amen.

The photo above is by Peter Ralston, a wise, good, friend. You can visit his gallery in Rockport, Maine or shop for his work at www.ralstongallery.com

Got Any Snacks?

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the 24th Chapter

Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

When Jesus said, “Peace be with you” this wasn’t, Jesus saying, “Hey, guys you look tense.  You should really like, you know, get some peace, man.”  No.  Jesus was ORDERING peace to get into the disciples!  “Hey Peace!  See these joy filled, disbelieving, wondering, freaked out, still hiding behind locked door, disciples?  Get in them now!”  Those disciples couldn’t get peace on their own!  They couldn’t even go OUTSIDE on their own!  In their entirely understandable, overwhelmingly human, completely flesh and blood, guy-who-was-dead-but-now-shows-up, shocked disciple brains… they needed peace, not SUGGESTED to them… No, they needed to be grabbed by the shoulders, thrown in the shower and the faucet labeled “peace which passes all understanding” turned on them full blast until they were soaked to the bone with it.  

We forget, I think, having had this story told for the last 2000 years how traumatic this must have been for the people who first lived it!  The person they had been following for years, who they pinned all their hopes on, gave up jobs, family, friends and everything to follow… had just being brutally crucified!  Then his grave was discovered to be empty!  Then these two jokers, Cleopas and that other guy, show up talking about seeing Jesus on the Emmaus Road and then BAM!  Here he is in their living room!  HOLY S#@T!  If I had been in that room, FIRST I would have said it, THEN I would have done it!  

Those disciples needed very tangible help with their very human, flesh and blood reactions to this mind blowing, earth shattering event.  And so, Jesus says, “Hey, you got anything to eat?”  Wait!  Huh?  Jesus Christ!  They’ve just been through a horror that’ll be told for millennia to come and you want some SNACKS!?  Apparently so… and so the disciples found him some broiled fish.  Not grilled, fried or poached but broiled.  Not baked, steamed, roasted or sous vie, but broiled.  Not sushi, not sashimi, not en papillote, but broiled!  What gives, Jesus?  And what gives Luke, with your oddly specific “broiled” fish thing?  

It turns out that both Jesus and Luke are first pretty smart, and more than that, just a little bit tricksy too.  By asking the disciples this everyday question, “Hey, you guys got some snacks?”  Jesus helps them get their brains un-stuck from that fight or flight, traumatized part of their brains so they at least have a chance at doing something more than just cowering behind locked doors.  Human brains can’t resist thinking about a question.  It happens subconsciously, so a question asked is a question wondered about, and in that moment of wondering, locked mental doors are opened up to new possibilities.  Jesus was giving them the peace they needed so that they could step out from behind those locked doors and take one, next, step on The Way they had walked as they followed Jesus in his life before Good Friday.  

Luke was being sneaky here as well.  When Luke wrote his Gospel there was a debate over how the faithful were to follow Jesus after the Ascension.  Some argued that since Jesus was now up in heaven, his disciples should now only concern themselves with heavenly things.  The worries of the flesh, down here, were no longer to be a concern, they argued.  Physical, fleshy, earthly things like sickness, injustice, wounds and hunger were simply inevitable consequences of a broken, flesh-filled world.  It was just something to be endured until we all joined Jesus up in heaven in the sweet by and by.  

But Luke didn’t buy that for a minute!  Because he knew the story of this post-resurrection Jesus with his real, earthly, flesh and blood wounds and with his real, earthly, human, stomach-growling hunger!  And clearly, if Jesus was concerned with those flesh and gut things before HIS ascension… then to Luke it was perfectly clear… us disciples were to be concerned with those things before we went to heaven too!  

Luke reminded those early followers… Christ was PHYSICALLY present, giving his peace.  That the disciples touched his REAL, flesh and blood wounds and fed his PHYSICAL, earthly hunger not with some symbolic, spiritual meal but with a piece of broiled fish!  Luke was reminding them and us that all those human, earthly concerns that Jesus had before Good Friday for God’s people… THOSE were all STILL Jesus’ concerns after Easter too!  This troubled world, filled with broken bodies, imperfect people and difficult neighbors… we aren’t to look past them in our lives, because they all bear the same wounds and hunger of the risen Christ! 

With that oddly specific story about a piece of broiled fish, Luke reminds us that when we reach out to our neighbors in their physical, worldly hurts and pains, their every day grief and brokeness, their earthly flesh and blood, real-life wounds… When we do that… we reach out and touch something holy... in THEIR wounds we encounter the risen Christ with HIS wounds.  In hearing someone whose physical, earthly, growling stomach needs something to eat... we hear the voice of Christ asking for something to eat.  And in giving them something to eat, we see in their face the face of the risen Christ.  

This story insists that our focus is to be here… in THIS world where Jesus breaks into the locked rooms of our biggest fears, gives us his PEACE and asks for something to eat.  And that peace that Jesus gives?  THAT’s the same peace we share with each other every Sunday.  When we share the peace, it's not meant to be just a foretaste of the coffee hour to come, you know.  It’s infinitely more powerful than that!  It’s Christ’s peace we’re commanding to get into one another!  The peace that breaks into fearfully dark, locked places… the peace that snaps us out of our deepest fears... The peace that drives us out into the world, to bind up the broken flesh of our neighbor’s wounds and satisfy the growling stomachs of our neighbor’s most profound hungers.  THAT’s the peace we’ve been given.  THAT’s the peace we give one another every week!  It’s powerful stuff.  Because it empowers us to reach beyond our fears and touch the wounds and feed the hungers of our neighbors… and in doing that, we see the face of the risen Christ.  Amen.

The Joke's On You, Death!

The Holy Gospel According to St. Mark, the 16th Chapter

When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Today is Easter Sunday AND it’s April Fools Day!  Now, if the world worked MY way, every pew cushion would be a whoopee cushion today!  Some would say we shouldn’t mix these two days, but the truth is, “HE IS RISEN” is the greatest punchline in the history of everything!  Even the punchline to the joke about the golfing priest isn’t as good.  Have you heard that one?  There once was this priest who was an avid golfer. Every chance he could get, he was on the links.  One Sunday morning he woke up and it was a picture perfect day for golfing.  The sun was shining, no clouds in the sky, and the temperature was just right.  The priest just couldn’t stand it.  He called his assistant and told him he was sick and couldn’t do church.  Then he packed the car, and drove three hours to a golf course where no one would recognize him. 

An angel was watching and was disgusted.  He went to God and said, "Look at the priest!  He should be punished for what he’s doing.”  God nodded in agreement. The priest teed up, hit the ball sending it sailing effortlessly through the air and landing right in the cup!  A picture perfect hole-in-one!  The priest jumped for joy!  The angel was shocked!  He turned to God and said, "I thought you were going to punish him?”  God smiled.  "Think about it -- who can he tell?"

Jokes are funny because they are stories with an unexpected ending that take us in a new direction.  Jesus’ resurrection is probably the MOST unexpected ending of any story, EVER!  But reading the story from Mark’s Gospel like we did today, it looks like this was a story that was almost never told!  Where this lesson ends today is where the whole book originally ended!  No one tellin’ nothin’ to nobody!  But over the years, clearly it was too good to keep to themselves and the story got out in the end!  

Speaking of “the end,” an atheist was spending a quiet day fishing when suddenly his boat was attacked by the Loch Ness monster.  In one easy flip, the beast tossed him and his boat high into the air.  Then it opened its mouth, intending to swallow him whole and as the man sailed head over heels, he cried out, "Oh, my God! Help me!”  At once, the scene froze.  The atheist hung in mid-air.  The monster frozen with his mouth wide open.  And a booming voice came down from heaven, "I thought you didn't believe in Me!" The atheist responded, ”Come on God, give me a break!!  Two minutes ago I didn't believe in the Loch Ness monster either!"

That’s a good one, but not the best one.  Like I said the best one of all time has the punchline… ALLELUIA!  CHRIST IS RISEN, HE IS RISEN INDEED!  But even the best punchline isn’t much without the right set up and the set up for this one is hard.  The set up is all the hurt and all the pain, all the injustice, brokenness, and horror of the world… The set up, is that darkness all too often seems overwhelming and light, so very often, doesn’t seem to have a chance.  The set up for this joke is that it seems that the powerful always win, that the answer to violence is always more violence and that death is the inevitable and very final end.  The set up leaves us wondering… just like the original ending to Mark’s Gospel, is that all there is?   It leaves us wondering if death is inevitable, joy improbable and hope, well, just impossible.  

That’s where the setup leaves us… But then, into that tomb of darkness, comes that incredible punchline!  ALLELUIA!  CHRIST IS RISEN, HE IS RISEN INDEED!  Because if death can’t kill you, seriously, what can!?  And if death isn’t the end, then maybe light has a chance too.  Then maybe, along with death… violence, hatred and pain might just grab defeat from the jaws of victory and justice, peace, joy and love will make a buzzer beating come back!  Maybe, just maybe, there could be reason… still… in spite of all evidence to the contrary… that maybe… in the dim, morning, light that shines way back into the far back corner of an empty tomb… maybe in there, just maybe… there’s a reason… for hope.  

You see, this joke has the power to change EVERYTHING for EVERYONE!  But man, do we have trouble remembering the punchline!  The setup… well, that we seem to remember just fine, but it takes something miraculous for us to remember the punchline!  And that’s EXACTLY why we tell the short version of this joke every week.  Both setup AND punchline!  I stand right back there and say, “Therefore we proclaim the mystery of faith.”  And together we say both the setup AND the punchline… “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again!”  Because once we’ve remembered the punchline, THEN we can remember that impassable seas… well, those can be walked through!  A childless family?  Well, a whole nation of descendants can come from them!  Hungry and thirsty?  Bread can fall from the sky and water can be squeezed from solid rock.  Once we’ve remembered the punchline, we can remember that terrible deserts ALWAYS give way to promised lands.  That the blind end up seeing, the lame end up walking and five thousand hungry folks can eat their fill of fish sandwiches down by the sea, with baskets and baskets of leftovers to spare!  

But that same punchline isn’t just there to remind us of someone else’s miracles from some long past time.  That same punchline is also there to remind us that in our own lives… winter eventually gives in to spring, addictions can turn to sobriety… that the senseless deaths of children can be transformed into improbable movements, that dark, hopeless times can become light-filled, hope-filled times again.  That punchline reminds us that that our anxiety can be replaced by peace and our sadness can be overcome with joy.  Because if God has the power to turn death into life… well then, there’s no good, right or just thing in the world that remains impossible!  So here’s my Easter prayer for us.  Lead us, dear Lord, from death to life, from falsehood to truth; lead us from despair to hope, from fear to trust; lead us from hate to love, from war to peace and may this Holy, Easter laugh fill our hearts, our world, our universe with the endless possibilities that come with new life in You.  Amen. 

Even the Greeks!

The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 12th Chapter

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

When the Greeks came to Jerusalem they stood out.  It was Passover and the Greeks were… well, Greek… not Jews.  People noticed.  They were “God-fearers” which meant they practiced the Jewish faith but they could never be REAL Jews, because they were not BORN to a Jewish mother, and if you’re not born into it, you would never be a REAL Child of God, and THAT... as they say, was THAT. 

But the Greeks had heard about Jesus.  The teaching.  The signs.  Maybe the Messiah?  Who knew?  So they wanted to see Jesus.  And not just set their eyeballs on him, but really SEE him... connect with him... because maybe, just maybe… if by some long shot this WAS the Messiah… well, then the Messiah would have the power to change the way things had always been.... the Messiah would have the power to change the world so even Greeks could become Children of God.

And this WAS the moment.  THIS was the judgement of the world, but not a “heaven and hell” kind of judgement.  This judgement is the Greek word “krisis” which is more like the Chinese characters for “crisis” with one character for “danger” and one for “opportunity” put together to form a new word.  THIS was the moment of a dangerous opportunity… an opportunity to walk out of the darkness and become the light, go from death into life… an opportunity to cast down the mighty and lift up the lowly… this was the time to turn outsiders into insiders… a time to begin changing and healing all of creation.  And all that change is EXACTLY what made all this so DANGEROUS… because people in power back then, like people in power today, did NOT want things to change.  But for the Greeks, it was worth the risk... because THIS might be their opportunity... maybe their only opportunity... to really become Children of God.  So, in spite of the danger, these Greeks chose this dangerous opportunity to SEE Jesus.

Jesus, of course, was the very center of this dangerous opportunity and this was the moment.  In John’s Gospel, everything points to this moment.  Remember the wedding in Cana when Jesus told his mother that his hour had not yet come... Well, THIS was now the HOUR he had been talking about!  This was the HOUR of his death and resurrection… the moment the world is turned upside down… the moment death ceases to have the last word… the moment that would ripple out in waves from that place and that time through every time and every place.  The Greek grammar makes this VERY clear...This was THE moment God turned the world upside down but it wasn’t a one-and-done thing… it was a particular moment for sure, but like a stone dropped into a pond, it was a moment that rippled out from that point into forever, transforming all of creation in waves, continually changing everything... year after year, all over the world, through the centuries and even rippling into here and now.  The ripples from Jesus being lifted up continue to change the world… to change us… even here… even today.  But now, just like back then, joining in with a world changer is a dangerous opportunity.  Even today, changes that feel like ripples to some, feel like world ending tidal waves to others.  

Way back then, those Greeks leaned into that dangerous opportunity.  They knew the dangers of seeing Jesus… of joining in with an earth shaker and a world changer, but they also knew that seeing Jesus meant the opportunity to be transformed… to become fully the Children of God they felt called to be… to be accepted unconditionally into a community of faith… to be wrapped up in God’s love and God's peace which passes all understanding… to not just walk in God’s light but to become the light shining the way to the Kingdom of God.  

Those same ripples… that same tidal wave (depending on your perspective) from that same moment when Jesus was lifted up then, is here for us today.  The same dangerous opportunity to join with God to do nothing less than transform the world into the Kingdom of God is here for us today.  The same question the Greeks faced all those years ago is the question we are being asked today.  Will we choose the dangerous opportunity to join with Jesus… the earth shaker, the tidal wave maker, the Kingdom bringer and transform the world?  Will we join the One who insists that a few is just not enough and that only drawing ALL to himself will do?  

If that’s the dangerous opportunity you are looking for, there’s some Good News for you today!  If you, like those Greeks, want to see Jesus, there is some Good News for you today!  Because today Jesus is lifted up, right there in the bread and the wine!  In fact, EVERY Sunday he is lifted up to draw all, all, ALL of creation to himself including you!   If that makes this dangerous opportunity something you feel called to lean into like those Greeks, then come to the table!  Taste and see!  Everyone is welcome.  Everyone… even you Greeks.  Amen.  

Pies, Potato Chips and Power

The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 2nd Chapter

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

I would like to be able to tell you that this Gospel lesson today is about Girl Scout Cookies.  I’d like to tell you that this Gospel clearly forbids Girl Scouts, Brownies and especially Daisy Scouts (because their cuteness is impossible to resist) from selling me cases of Samoas.  I’d like to tell you that because, I have no self control and can only eat Samoas by the box.  So, I’d like to tell you this lesson is about evils of selling addictive cookies covered in lavish amounts of cocoanut-y, chocolatey goodness in church… but I can’t, because this lesson isn’t really about that at all.  

In Matthew, Mark and Luke’s Gospels this story at the end.  This rampage in the Temple square is part of what motivates the authorities to arrest Jesus and have him killed, but here in John’s Gospel, it's at the very beginning of the book.  My dad was a career Air Force officer and he always said when you give a briefing you first tell them what you are going to say.  Then you say it.  Then you tell them what you said.  With these actions… Jesus was beginning his briefing.  He was telling the world what he was going to say with his whole life.  

Jesus was telling the world that he was about pulling down barriers and turning over antiquated ideas that kept people separated from one another and from God.  The Temple was the place Jewish people came to get right with God.  But over the years, it had also become a place where human relationships got flung apart.  Men could go here, but women had to go over there.  Jews could go here but Greeks had to stay there.  The clean could go here, the ritually impure had to be way over there.  To make matters worse, just the practical requirements of getting an animal all the way to Jerusalem for a sacrifice, favored the wealthy.  The wealthy could afford to just simply buy the best animals right there on the spot.  The poor could not.  The wealthy could pay to move to the head of the line.  The poor could not.

When Jesus cleansed the Temple he was showing the world the character of his whole life’s work… which was leveling the playing field so that EVERYONE could come to God on a level and equal playing field.  It’s the same thing St. Paul talks about in our second lesson for today.  There, Paul focuses just on equalling the difference between Greeks and Jews but in Galatians, Paul uses the long form of the same list and says, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”  As quickly as the world sets up one table for some people and a different one for others, Jesus will be there to turn them over. 

Now, of course, not everyone was super excited about Jesus’ idea to change things around.  The wealthy Jewish men who’s great, great, great grandfathers had built this Temple by carrying heavy stones, in the snow, uphill, both ways…  THEY thought it was fine just the way it was!  Thank you very much!  “Jesus, we’ve always done it this way!”  “Doing it THIS way is beautiful... it's part of our identity!”  “Jesus, doing things differently, letting others in, changing the order of what goes on here... You're asking us to give up a part of who we are!”  

And you know what?  They weren’t wrong.  Jesus WAS asking them to change.  To do things differently.  To give up their privileged position of being the only ones who could easily connect with God.  For them… that was scary.  It was scary because human nature whispers in our ear and tries to convince us that if I share this thing that’s so important to me with someone else, that means there’s going to be LESS of that important thing for me!  And that little, whispered voice makes a bit of sense because if I have a bag of potato chips and give you some, then I have less chips for myself.  If I slice up a pie and give you a piece, that’s one less piece for me.  If one church joins with another church then your church is going to want a say in how things go and I won’t have as much power as I had before.

That little voice says “you won’t have it like you’ve always had it.”  It says, “You’ll have to do it differently and everything will be LESS than what it used to be!”  That little voice is hard to resist because for so much of what we experience in this world that little voice is right.  But here’s the thing Jesus knew as he crashed his way across the Temple square… God’s love, compassion, forgiveness and presence doesn’t work like potato chips, pecan pie or power.  

God is different.  When we share a handful of the forgiveness and grace we first get from God with someone else, there’s still an entirely FULL BAG of God’s forgiveness left over for us!  When we take that love we get from God and cut it into slice after slice after slice after slice and give it and share it and give it and share it wider and wider and deeper and deeper… when we look back… that pie plate is ALWAYS still FULL of God’s love… an endlessly powerful procession of pie for us and for all of creation!  

Folks, I’m here to tell you… I am the poster child for the fear of scarcity.  My “not having enough” button is the size of Montana and I’ve lived in Montana… believe me… it’s huge!  But when it comes to God’s love, God’s grace, God’s forgiveness and God’s care for us.  There isn’t a limit.  We need not worry that there will be less for us if we join with Jesus and turn over the tables and throw open the doors.  We don’t need to fret that there won’t be enough.  We don’t need to play the games of this world and constantly jockey for positions of privilege, power or place.  Because ALL that we have comes to us as a gift from God.  May we let down our guard, open the doors, flip over the tables and share all that we've been given with the world.  Believe me, after we’ve shared it, there’s still plenty more where that came from.  Amen. 

This Is Only A Test

The Holy Gospel According to St. Mark, the 8th Chapter

Then Jesus began to teach the disciples that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Do you remember mimeograph machines?  The smell?  How many of you did badly on algebra tests because you were high on mimeograph fumes?  For those from that era, the word “mimeograph” immediately connects with exactly what it was.  For others, not from that time, the word “mimeograph” has no connection with anything at all!  Mark’s Gospel (not originally printed on a mimeograph machine, by the way) uses a lot of language long separated from it’s original meaning.  Because of that, over time, some of the words and phrases have taken on new meanings that neither Mark nor Jesus ever intended.  

One of those is the idea that God must demand suffering as “satisfaction” for humanity’s sin.  That didn't originate with either Mark or Jesus.  It was an idea, created in the middle ages, because it seemed to make sense in that time.  Back then an insulted knight would throw down their gauntlet and “demand satisfaction!”  Human sin began to be seen as an offense to God’s honor and therefore God must “demand satisfaction” through suffering.  It made sense to the knights.  It’s just not what either Jesus or Mark meant.  

Jesus’ prediction that he would suffer, was not about God demanding suffering in payment for our sin.  That prediction was simply an acknowledgement that if Jesus was going to follow God’s call and confront the exploitive, violent powers of Rome… that was going to inevitably lead to his suffering.  He was planning to take on an Empire!  Taking on empires always hurts… a lot.

Another thing that’s gotten lost over the years, like kids knowing how to use a rotary phone, is what Jesus meant when he talked about "elders, chief priests and scribes".  Some now read that as Jesus attacking Judaism.  But for Mark, “elders, chief priests and scribes” was code for Roman collaborators.  Jesus never had an issue with Judaism.  He was Jewish after all!  But he had serious issues with folks who championed their religion one minute and then in the next minute, used Roman violence and corruption to make a themselves very rich and powerful at the expense of the poor and most vulnerable… something opposed over and over again in their religion.  

  

And then there’s Satan!  As confusing to many, as texting with thumbs is to me, Satan is that red guy with horns and a pitchfork, right?  Well, in reality, that idea of a personalized character with the proper name of “Satan” didn’t show up for well over a thousand years after Jesus was around.  In Jesus’ day, “a satan” was a job, NOT a red guy with horns.  A satan was someone who administered a test of morals and character.  When you came to a place in your life where you needed to choose which way to go… someone would inevitably offer you the choice.  Would you choose to go God’s way or a different way?  This week, Peter gave the test… Peter played the satan... and the test was HOW would Jesus be the Son of God.  Would Jesus confront the powers of the Roman Empire and their collaborators in God’s way... in other words, directly but non-violently, confronting their injustice and corruption and calling them, like the prophets before him, to return to God’s way of living?  OR would Jesus do it another way?  You see, Peter and almost the entire population of Israel at the time, thought the Messiah would usher in God’s Kingdom a different way… they would raise an army… fight a holy war… defeat the Romans, throw Herod off the throne and rule with strength and might like King David did back in the glory days!  He'd make Israel great again!  But going to Jerusalem unarmed, without an army? That'll just get you killed.  

The test Peter administered to Jesus all those years ago is the same test we are being given today.  Like Jesus, we too are being called to usher in God’s Kingdom… to work at changing the world.  Now like then, suffering happens today for those who work for God’s Kingdom, not because God demands satisfaction for our sins, but because confronting violence, injustice, racism, sexism and all the other isms that make up the brokenness of our status quo world, will run us directly into very angry people and seemingly immovable systems who do NOT want their world to change.  

Today, just like back then, there are people who hide behind the words and images of their religion, but who have set aside the principles of that religion to cozy up to those in power.  They do twists and bend principles in a way that a sideshow contortionist would envy, simply to justify collaborating with those in power… even though those in power embrace the same sort of violence, corruption, and immorality that the law, the prophets and Jesus opposed all those years ago.

This, like other times in history, is a time of testing.  The test, as it always does, has two parts.  A part that asks us what sort of world we want to work for, and a part that asks us HOW we will work to create that world?  Will we work toward the Kingdom of God… a world where everyone has enough… enough food, shelter, health care, safety, dignity and purpose… or will we work for a world where only the strongest survive?  Will we do that work the Jesus Way… through compassion, sacrifice, direct, but non-violent confrontation, caring for the least, the last and the lost along the way?  Or will we look to use might to make the world right, using stronger armies, greater force, and spiraling violence believing the ends justify any means we might use along the way?  These were the questions back then for Jesus and these are the questions for you and me today.  How will we answer?  Our test begins… now.  Amen.  

Down By the Riverside

Genesis 9:8-17

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Do you know that song, “Down By the Riverside”?  

I’m gonna lay down my sword and shield, 

down by the riverside (x3)

I’m gonna lay down my sword and shield,

Down by the riverside

Well that song’s been stuck in my head all week because the first lesson for today is all about laying down a weapon of war.  That bow God sets in the clouds… that bow ISN’T simply a rainbow.  When God said, “I have set my bow in the clouds” the Hebrew word for “bow” is specifically the word for a WAR BOW… It’s a weapon of war that God’s hung up.  So even though it’s not about a sword and shield, God’s still saying…

I ain’t gonna study war no more (x3)

God knows how tempting it is to use violence to get what we want… tempting to be used even as a means to achieve peace, security and safety for the world.  This story says it’s SO tempting that even God, it would seem, was once willing to try to achieve peace through the violence of a flood.  

Surely, God once thought, with a God-sized war bow a God-sized flood could be rained down on the earth and surely THAT would bring the world to peace.  But it didn’t.  Even a good guy with a bow couldn’t force the world into peace.  Even in Biblical proportions, it STILL didn’t lead the world back to safety and peace.  This story is put right at the very beginning of the whole of Scripture, in the hopes that we might learn, right off the bat, that even if we could bring God-sized violence to the earth, it would still NEVER lead to our security, our safety or to peace.

This story screams at us, using the most dramatic and awful imagery we could possibly ever imagine, that our path to security, safety and peace will NOT be found with more or more powerful bows of war, raining down even Biblical amounts of fury on the world.  In this story God is pleading with creation to learn this lesson… to learn directly from the Divine experience… the ONLY place for a bow of war, is hanging in the clouds.   

This week, was the 18th school shooting this year… that’s three per week… so once again it's clear, that we have not yet learned that lesson.  We have turned our national back on the wisdom of our God who showed us the futility of violence and demonstrated for us the only way forward was to hang up the bow.  In 2012 following Sandy Hook, Gary Wills wrote an article for the New York Review of Books entitled “Our Moloch.”  I try to share it, following the lead of a friend, after every mass shooting… although there are so many, I confess that I miss some.  Moloch is the name of a demon from Leviticus… a god to whom communities would sacrifice their children in exchange for the Moloch’s promise of security.  Wills writes, “Few crimes are more harshly forbidden in the Old Testament than sacrifice to the god Moloch… Ever since then, worship of Moloch has been the sign of a deeply degraded culture.”  “The gun,” Wills contends, “is our Moloch.”  

What that means, is to think that we have simply have a gun problem misses something much more deeply disturbing and that is that we have a demon problem.  This demon insists on being fed our children three times a week in exchange for the promise that we will somehow be safe!  I have yet to see even an inkling of a delivery on that promise of safety and in any case, the price this demon asks is much, much too high.  Now, I’m not into literal demons, although there is much more to the universe than I can wrap my mind around, but this metaphor is the best way I’ve found to explain the senseless, illogical, continued devotion and worship of a thing that demands the lives of our children three times a week!  

So where do we go from here?  How do we fight a demon!  Where do we find hope?  I believe hope is to be found, not coincidentally, DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE.  In the waters of Baptism we have the answer.  Because in the sacrament of Baptism there is an exorcism.  It's not referred to by those words anymore and it's not anything like the movies, but that's what it is.  We ask, “Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God?” and the reply is “We renounce them!”  We ask, “Do you put your whole trust in God’s grace and love” and the reply is, “I DO!”  And when we come up out of the water we hear the same words said over us that were said over Jesus… “You are my child, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” and so in Baptism we put down our trust and devotion and worship of the sword and shield and exchange them for the long white robes of Baptism as we are clothed in Christ: 

I’m gonna put on my long white robe,

Down by the riverside (x3)

I’m gonna put on my long white robe,

Down by the riverside

You see, in baptism, we, like Jesus are given the strength to go into the wilderness of our lives and into the wilderness of this world and live even among the wildest of beasts, resisting the temptation to take down that bow of war and attempt to manufacture our own safety.  In our baptisms we are connected to the power of the resurrection, a power no weapon of war could ever even begin to match.  In the resurrection is the real power to bring peace out of fear and life out of death.  

May we hold tight to God’s promise made to us in our Baptisms, that there is safety and life only in the ways of the God, who long ago hung up the Divine Bow for good and proclaimed so that we might follow:  

I ain’t gonna study war no more (x3)