Hog Futures Washed Out! Pork Belly Market Sinks!

Luke 8:26-39

Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me”— for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

When Jesus stepped off the boat it wasn’t after a nice weekend cruise.  The boat he stepped off of had just been in a terrible storm.  The storm had rocked the boat and scared the disciples out of their minds all while Jesus slept.  The storm was on the verge of sinking the boat and the disciples finally woke Jesus up and then Jesus commanded the water and the wind to stop and they did.  

That was the boat Jesus stepped off of into that Gentile land.  That is what the disciples had just seen and now they were seeing yet another amazing thing.  A man possessed by demons; lots of demons it turns out.  They called themselves “Legion” and a Roman legion was 6000 men so that’s gotta be a lot of demons!  The man didn’t wear cloths, he lived in the tombs among the dead bodies, he was a gentile, and... on top of that, oh yeah, he had demons…lots of demons.  From the Jewish point of view this was way more than three strikes; any one of those things; no cloths, dead bodies, being a gentile... not to mention the 6000 demons was enough to make him unclean.  Unable to have a relationship with God. 

Jesus changed all that.  Simply with his presence, Jesus intimidated 6000 demons to beg for a transfer to the pigs on the hillside and then Jesus let them go.  (As a side note: This of course was the first time anyone ever made deviled ham.)  The pigs then proceeded to run down the hill and like lemmings they ran off the cliff and into the sea and drown.  Everyone was amazed.  The disciples had just seen Jesus quiet a storm and now they saw him have power over a legion of demons.  Where did this man’s power end?  Could it end?  If that is what Jesus could do to the wind and the sea and to demons, what could Jesus do to me?

That last question, “what could Jesus do to me” is the question that seized all those pig farmers and people of Gerascene with a great fear.  Jesus’ presence had already affected the people in a way they could not have liked too much.  While Jesus’ presence had cured the town demoniac and made the cemetery safe again, his presence had also just washed out Hog futures for the town.  The pork belly market sank in an instant.  The people of that town had seen their hard earned bacon drown and Jesus was the one who made it all happen.  

The bottom line fact of the matter is that the presence of Jesus came with a price.  The presence of Jesus transformed the world in which these people lived.  People’s lives were different now that Jesus was here and in the end the people made a decision and they decided that they just didn’t want their lives to be that different.  They didn’t want Jesus and his presence transforming things. Today it was a demoniac cured and that was nice, but look at the cost; look what they had to give up.  Tomorrow who would be transformed by Jesus, and what would be the cost then?  It could be someone in my family, it could even be me, but then what would that cost me?  How would Jesus transform me?

In the end, the fear of being transformed by Jesus and the fear of what that would mean and how much that would cost scared the people so much that they asked Jesus to leave.  They didn’t want Jesus’ transforming presence around anymore.  I don’t believe Jesus loved them any less after they made that choice.  He certainly didn’t give up on them.  He sent the healed man back to be with them and to keep working with them after all.  It’s just that for that moment, the cost of being changed by Jesus was higher than the people were willing to pay. 

That ends up being the hard question this lesson asks of us today; Is the cost of being transformed by Jesus higher than we are willing to pay?  We may believe that Jesus is around.  We may even see God at work in this amazing world.  But are we as individuals and us together as a church ready and willing to let him work in us?  Are we willing to allow Jesus to heal those who are broken in this world even if that means loosing everything we have?  Are you willing to have everything you have worked for, everything that you have been given, all the privilege, all the wealth, all the trappings of your life, all that you believe will secure your future run down the hill and jump into the lake so that just one other human being can be clothed and given his right mind?  We have so, so much and because we have so very, very much it makes it so very, very hard to let it go, to let Jesus transform our lives.

It’s no wonder those people were afraid.  It’s no wonder the people didn’t want Jesus around anymore.  There is, as Deitrich Bonhoeffer said, a cost to discipleship; a cost to having Jesus around.  That cost is more than just giving an hour on Sunday morning.  It is more than throwing a few dollars in the plate.  It is more than volunteering for a couple of things at church.  Those things are good... just not the whole cost.

The whole cost of discipleship, the cost of having Jesus’ transforming presence in our lives is our willingness to loose it all.  All of it; to have everything you have, everything simply run down the hill and jump into the sea.  This is not just giving up the optional stuff or the extravagance.  The cost of discipleship means giving up everything…giving up your life.  When Christ calls us to discipleship, says Bonhoeffer, he calls us to come and die.  Die to ourselves, die to our stuff, die to our greed, die to our need for control, die to insisting on things being done my way, die to our desire for more and more and more… we are called to die to all of our demons for only then can we be clothed in Christ, put in our right minds and receive the gracious gift of true and real and everlasting life that God wants for us all.  Bonhoeffer reminds us that discipleship is costly because it demands everything and at the same time discipleship is filled with grace because it leads us to the only kind of life that is a real life; one filled with meaning, purpose and worth... a life that makes a difference in the world.

I don’t really know you or your town so all I can do is leave you with some hard questions to wonder about.  They are the same questions I struggle with myself so you are far from being alone.  What is the thing in your town that causes a legion of trouble for the weakest and most vulnerable of your neighbors?  Are you ready to invite Jesus to stay for a while here in your town?  Are you ready to have him use your hands and minds and resources to send that legion of trouble off the nearest cliff?  Are you willing and ready to pay the price of having Jesus around?  Are you ready for discipleship?  Amen.  

Will we?

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and took his place at the table.  And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment.  She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment.  Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him--that she is a sinner."  Jesus spoke up and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." "Teacher," he replied, "Speak."  "A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?"  Simon answered, "I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt." And Jesus said to him, "You have judged rightly."  Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.  You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet.  You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.  Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little."  Then he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."  But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"  And he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him,  as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.

We all love those kinds of movies where the good guy is obviously good and the bad guy is obviously bad.  We enjoy being able to pick out the evil guy by nothing more than his black top hat, cape and handlebar mustache.  We don’t even need to see him tying the heroine to the railroad tracks to know where he stands.  We love to be able to pick out the good guy too.  He’s the one wearing a white outfit and his light saber is calming green, not angry red.  These stories make things simple and in our complicated lives we like simple.  Everyone is easily identified as either 100% good or 100% bad.  

The temptation when we read this gospel story from Luke is to read it like one of those clear cut Hollywood scripts and at first, the actors in Luke’s story seem to do a good job playing their parts. The Pharisee starts out by being rude, arrogant, inhospitable and kind of a jerk, so he seems to be well on the way to being a perfect 100% bad guy.  

The woman too seems at first to be playing her part well.  She enters the room with proper humility having realized God’s love and forgiveness in her life.  She gives Jesus proper thanks for those gifts.  She gives him the respect, honor and treatment due the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  So she too seems to be well on the way to playing the perfect, 100% good guy in this drama.  

They play their roles well at first but people just aren’t that simple.  The truth is that the Pharisee who is arrogant, rude and a kind of a jerk also, like all Pharisees, has committed the whole of his life and being to growing closer to God.  We might argue with his methods and theology but deep in his heart, the thing that drives him every minute of the day in every aspect of his life is a desire to grow closer to God.  The truth is, it’s just really, really hard to be 100% evil when your heart’s deepest desire is to grow closer to God.  

The woman too, it turns out, isn’t exactly 100% good.  Even if we do our best to make excuses for her past, imagining a horrible childhood or a series of seemingly unavoidable and tragic decisions, the truth of her life is that she became a prostitute and in doing that she hurt herself, her family, others and her community.  The reality of this story is that neither the Pharisee nor the woman is 100% anything other than 100% human.  

At the synod assembly this past weekend, instead of a guest speaker, the Bishop gathered a group of people who, when surveyed about their religious affiliation, check the box labeled “none” on the survey.  In current religious lingo, these folks are called “nones”... not the nuns with the habits, but “nones” as in people with no religious affiliation.  In New England, 75% of people choose to fill out that survey question in that way.  

One temptation when church folk think about the “nones” is to see them in a similar, simplistic, good guy - bad guy way.  The gathered group of pastors and lay delegates to the assembly being 100% “good” and those that claim “none” on their religious affiliation survey as maybe not “bad” but at least as people lacking something very important... something we church folks have got and they are missing. 

The truth about the Pharisee and the prostitute is that neither was 100% bad or 100% good... they were both 100%  human with all the good, bad, nice, mean, shine, muck and mire that humanity entails.  The other truth about the Pharisee and the prostitute is that both had something the other needed... and both needed something the other had.

The Pharisee needed to learn about the depth and breath of God’s forgiving grace and love.  He needed to learn that no one is ever, EVER beyond God’s infinite and unconditional love and he needed to learn how to be hospitable, compassionate, humble and caring.  She had all of that!  She KNEW God’s love!  She KNEW God’s forgiveness!  She KNEW how to respond to God’s love and grace and she KNEW how to be hospitable, thankful and caring of her neighbor.  Whether he recognized it or not he needed her and what she knew and understood.  Would he set aside his pride and be honest with the ways he was broken?  If he could see her as an equal and as a gift in his life, she had something special that could help him grow in faith, she could help him in his desire to grow closer to God.  

But it wasn’t just him that needed her... she needed him just as much!  His gifts were passion and an understanding of discipline.  He knew the Law could be a gift and by dedicating yourself to the law it could help you live within healthy boundaries and living that way made for a less anxious life.  He knew the peace of having God in your heart and knew rituals and the practices that could bring peace into her life too.  

Would she could dare to risk being hurt by a religious institution that had treated her badly?  If she could set aside the way of life she had fallen into and if she could see in herself that she was just as worthy of God’s love and grace and just as worthy of being in God’s presence as he was, then she too could shed the guilt, shame, fear and loneliness that plagued her; learn from him, grow in faith, and more fully become the beloved child of God she was created to be.  

At the synod assembly it became very clear from the conversation the bishop had with the “nones” and from the questions that followed that the lesson Jesus was trying to teach at dinner is a lesson the Church desperately needs in our time.  We too must realize that those outside of the Church have something that we inside the church desperately need... and I’m not talking about a check book either!  The folks that check the “none” box often have a way of understanding God’s love and grace and a perspective on faith that we need to hear and learn from and if we can do that, then eventually we may someday get the opportunity to share the wonderful perspectives on faith that could help make their lives more beautiful as well.  

But an attitude of superiority... an attitude that we in the Church are better and those outside the church can’t live without us just won’t fly.  It won’t fly because it simply isn’t true!  Those of us in the Church are NOT superior, we are no different than the Pharisee... no different from the woman... we are all just 100% human like everyone else in this world. 

And just like the Pharisee and the woman, the truth is that we NEED each other for the same reasons the Pharisee needed that woman and that woman needed the Pharisee:  To expand our understanding of breath and depth of God’s love and grace in our lives in ways we just can’t see from our perspective inside the Church!  From their unique perspectives they could help us grow in faith in ways no one inside the Church ever could!  Inside or outside of the Church we are all broken.  Inside or outside none of us have all the answers.  Inside or outside all of us need a caring community to help us make it through this life.  Inside or outside, God is working in amazing ways in everyone’s life.   

There are lessons for us that we can learn.  Lessons to be taught to us by people with experiences and thoughts and perspectives we know nothing about.  Our teachers though won’t be coming here to teach us what we need... if we want to learn the lessons God has to teach us through them we will have to go to them.  In the story from Luke we don't know if the Pharisee learned the lesson the woman had to teach him.  We don't hear if the woman learned what she could learn from the Pharisee and the story of whether we in the Church will learn what the "nones" have to teach us has yet to be written.  Will we set aside our pride, decide to take a risk, go outside our walls and seek the lessons God has to teach us through the "nones"?  That is the question for us today... will we?

Prophecy and Judgment Needed Fast and Furry-ous!

There is a need in our time to reclaim the proper understanding of Biblical prophecy and divine judgment.  To do this, the work of mid-twentieth century Biblical scholar, Wile E. Coyote S.G. can be instructive.  His unique approach helps students understand how biblical prophecy really works by arranging a humorous story in such a way that the audience is quickly shifted from a passive, observational role into the prophetic role within a few moments of the opening scene.  

In his seminal work, “Fast and Furry-ous,” Coyote immediately establishes the overarching context with a fruitless foot chase of the Roadrunner carried out with knife and fork in hand.  Seeing a direct pursuit to be ineffective, Coyote then begins a series of efforts intended to trap or trick the Roadrunner into becoming his next meal.  The first effort is to lie in wait and at the last moment hold up a metal trash can lid into which the Roadrunner is meant to collide at full speed.  The Roadrunner stops short and turns in a cloud of dust to run off in the other direction.  When Coyote then attempts to take up the chase, the Roadrunner returns at the precise moment needed and holds up the same metal lid and Coyote is the one who collides with it.  

In the very next scene the pattern of the Roadrunner actively using Coyote’s methods against him is continued as Coyote attempts to capture the Roadrunner with a boomerang.  Once thrown, the boomerang returns to ring the neck of Coyote and to further the lesson, we see that the Roadrunner has also thrown another boomerang and after he runs off, that boomerang also returns to assault Coyote.  Coyote uses this scene to both reinforce the pattern whereby his malicious efforts are used against him but also to help students understand that Roadrunner’s active participation is not necessarily needed for the pattern to continue.  Coyote then uses several scenes to demonstrate this new aspect of the lesson when he attempts to ride a rocket which ends up launching him into an overhanging rock formation and pulling a keystone from under a boulder only to have the boulder fall in the wrong direction crushing Coyote.  

At this point Coyote has first established that the proper understanding of Divine judgment is not that God guides natural disasters such as hurricanes or tornados to harm or kill one population in an effort to change the behavior of a completely unrelated population.  Divine judgment is rather the natural and often painful consequences that are returned to one group of people who have not lived in a loving, generous or compassionate way toward another group of people who are in a less powerful political or economic position.  The lack of care, cruelty and malice that one group throws at another less powerful group will, as Divine judgment is delivered, literally boomerang on the first group and at least figuratively if not literally ring their necks.  

As the lesson continues it becomes increasingly easier for the audience to not only see the natural and consequential nature of Divine judgment but also to personally take on the prophetic role.  After Coyote runs into the tunnel painting that he just created on the side of a cliff and the plunger explodes in his face when he tries to detonate the dynamite hidden in a mound of bird seed, the audience may not know the exact details of what will happen when he straps an ice making refrigerator to his back, fits it with a meat grinder and straps on snow skis but the audience is now prophetic enough to know that it will end poorly for Coyote.

  

At this point the audience has not simply heard about biblical prophecy but they have been drawn in by the story and BECOME prophetic in a similar way in which many biblical prophets, such as Jeremiah, were prophetic.  The audience was able to see the historical pattern of malice and cruelty that Coyote intended for the less powerful and knew from that history that as the Coyote continued on the same path, there would follow further reversals and misfortune for him.  

In our time, as in every time, there are historical patterns of cruelty and malice being directed at the poor, weak and marginalized by those with greater wealth and power.  As safety nets are removed and opportunities for fair wages are undermined, history reminds us that these actions eventually always lead to Divine judgment which play out in the lives of the oppressors as dramatic and often horrific reversals.  The goal of biblical prophecy is not to predict an inevitable future but instead to remind those in power of what will happen if they continue to walk the path of cruelty and malice that they are currently walking.  Prophecy is meant to wake up those in power to their Biblical calling of care for those who are weaker, unfortunate or oppressed before the judgment falls.  

We need to reclaim prophecy from those who have attempted to make it a sick joke linking hate and weather and stand up and warn those in power to change their oppressive and manipulative ways.  God does not delight in judgment and is happy to see the repentance of those who have been walking down a malicious path, but if the people, governments, corporations and organizations of this world played so brilliantly by Coyote continue to insist  on living the real world version of jumping out from behind a billboard with an ax to attack the weak and powerless, God’s divine reversal will just as certainly insure that the “beep-beep” they jump out to assault will turn out to be the horn of an oncoming bus rather than their intended victim.

A God of MORE

John 16: 12-15

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Libby Montana is in the far, Northwest corner of Montana on the Western side of the Rocky Mountains.  Because its on that side of the mountains the climate is milder.  They call it the banana belt of Montana but I never saw any banana plants there.  There is a river in Libby that begins at the Libby Dam.  The lake behind the dam goes all the way up into Canada and the river is a blue ribbon trout stream.  The town of Libby is on US Highway 2 and along the highway there is a Pamida, which is sort of a junior K-Mart and a grocery store and off the highway a couple of blocks is Christ Lutheran Church where I did my internship for seminary.  Running perpendicular to US 2 is the Main Street which has the library, the county court house, some stores and restaurants and at the other end, Dave Blackburn’s fly fishing shop.  A couple of blocks off that street is St. John’s Lutheran Hospital which has around a dozen beds and is where our daughter Maggie was born.  

That’s my experience of Libby Montana and if you went there I am sure you would see that it is accurate.  Libby is mountains, river and town.  I’m equally sure that if you asked someone else who has experienced Libby to tell you their experience they might very well add something else and if you went one day you too would do the same.  It’s not that I told you wrong, it is just that Libby is always going to be MORE than the sum of words and ideas about it than I can put together.  

The Trinity works in a similar way.  While the words, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are accurate in telling about God; God will always be MORE than the sum of the words and ideas we humans have put together.  I think at it’s best, the Trinity helps us start from a place where God, in our minds, is flatter and works in a single dimension and expands that notion so that we remember and understand that God is always MORE.

For me, THAT is the Good News of the Trinity.  God is MORE.  More than I had thought before.  Bigger, more powerful, more present, more loving, more compassionate, more in control than anything else that we might come across in this life.  THAT is Good News because I think we all need God to be MORE; I know I do, because the things we encounter in this world that work hard to make us less than what God created us to be seem also to be MORE than I can bear on my own.  

In the book The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg, he talks about the human condition.  The things in this life that cause us to be less than we were created to be; the actions, the situations, the circumstances that take life from us every day.  At some point in the past, Christians took all of that; all the things that bring us down, that make us less than God created us to be and lumped them all under one enormous heading and called it “sin”.  Sin is our problem, our one and only problem and of course the solution for sin is forgiveness.  The great thing about sin being our one and only problem in this world and forgiveness the solution, is that God, in Christ has fixed that problem with forgiveness!  Problem solved!

But what I’ve noticed in living this life and what Marcus Borg described in his book is that sometimes the things that plague us; the things that make us less than what God created us to be don't perfectly fit into that category of sin.  It’s not that sin isn’t a problem; it is.  And it isn’t that forgiveness isn’t the solution; it is.  It is just that sometimes the thing that is keeping us from living as God made us to live isn’t best described by the word “sin”, but is better described as something else... maybe captivity.  

Held captive by economic situations, by prejudice, by discrimination, by hate, by physical abilities the solution for being in captivity isn’t really forgiveness.  What you really need when you are held captive is to be set free!  The Good News of the Trinity is that God is MORE!  God is more than just a God of forgiveness.  God also sets the captives free!  Remember the people of Israel held captive in Egypt.  They were there living beside the Egyptian people until a change in the political situation caused them to suddenly become slaves.  The people of Israel hadn’t sinned, they hadn’t done anything that needed forgiveness, but in slavery they certainly were not living as God created them to live!  The solution for what was plaguing them was not forgiveness but freedom and because God is MORE, that is exactly what God gave them.  

Sometimes though, the problems in our lives are neither sin nor captivity.  Sometimes it is being disconnected.  Disconnected from support, from family, from friends, from the ability to make ends meet, from our home or even from God.  Certainly sin may have played a part in getting us disconnected, but not always; and no matter HOW we end up disconnected the solution to that terrible feeling situation is neither forgiveness nor freedom.  When we become disconnected, when we find ourselves (as the Bible calls it) in exile, the solution that we need is to be brought back and be reconnected.  The Good News of the Trinity is that God is MORE!  More than a forgiver of sin and more than a freer of captives... God is also one who brings home the exile.  

But the God of MORE doesn’t stop there either.  Throughout Scripture we hear lots and lots of words and images that describe our human condition when things are not going as God intended them to go and every time our God who is MORE has just the solution we need.  Sometimes it isn’t sin or captivity or exile.  Sometimes it is that we are hungry.  It could be physical hunger or maybe we are hungry for meaning, a place to belong, hungry to be heard or to be loved.  When we hunger we don’t need forgiveness or freedom or a return from exile.  When we are hungry our God who is MORE gives us what we need and we are fed!  And the list goes on and on.

When we are blind, God gives us sight, not just fixing our physical blindness but allowing us to SEE the world around us, the creation, the love, but also the suffering and the needs of our neighbors.  When we are deaf, God allows us to hear.  Not just the sounds but to really hear the good stuff... the difference we make in each other’s lives but also hard stuff like the cries of the hungry and the lonely and allows all those sounds to work themselves all the way down into our hearts. 

When we’re thirsty we are given a drink, when we’ve been forgotten we are remembered, when we grieve we get the comfort we need when we are sick we are healed and when that nasty, ugly voice comes to us in the middle of the night and lies to us and tells us we are no good, our God who is MORE punches that voice in the face, casts out that demon and tells us the truth; that we are loved, that we are worthy, that we are needed, that we matter!  

There is another thing about our God who is MORE that we need to keep in mind on this Trinity Sunday.  And that is that our God who is more loving, more compassionate, more forgiving and more powerful than any of those things that make us less than what we were created to be, is also MORE present than we could ever ask or imagine.  

This is the part of our God who is MORE that I often forget or underestimate.  When the things that plague me seem so gigantic, enormous and overwhelming, I look for God’s presence in equally gigantic, enormous and dramatic ways.  I forget, in those times of anxiety and worry that our God of MORE works really big solutions into relatively little packages and I need to be reminded that, for example, God worked the solution to sin and death for all of creation through the relatively small package of a poor Jewish carpenter’s son from Galilee.  With that in mind, the solution to my problems will likely be given in something or someone a little more subtle than I might think.  

That is the message of the Trinity.  God is MORE than we could ever ask or imagine; bigger and more powerful than anything that plagues us in our lives.  And, at the same time, God works the biggest solutions to those things that plague us through the smallest and sometimes most unsuspecting packages.  

On this Trinity Sunday, you and I are called to tell the world about the God who is MORE, because everyone struggles with those things that plague our human existence but not everyone knows about the God who is MORE.  You and I are also called this Trinity Sunday to allow God to work those big solutions through the seemingly small and unsuspecting connections you and I have with the people around us every day.  After all, if God worked the solution to sin and death through the relatively small package of a poor man named Jesus from rural Israel, what solution to someone’s seemingly insurmountable problem might God be trying to work for them through you?  Amen.  

  

Let's Change the Focus

John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

When I was a kid we had two cameras in our house.  One was my mom’s camera.  It was a Kodak 110 point and shoot camera.  It was a little bit fancy because you could slide this button and an additional lens would flop over in front of the primary lens and you could get a telephoto shot!  Of course you couldn’t control the focus with that camera.  You just aimed at what you wanted to have in focus and then hope for the best when you got the pictures back a few days, weeks or sometimes months later.  If my sister and I asked, we were allowed to take a couple of pictures with that camera.

The other camera in our house was my dad’s.  His was a 35mm Minolta with interchangeable lenses.  That camera was extra cool because you could change the focus, among other things and choose to highlight things in the foreground or the background and be a lot more certain that when you got the pictures back the thing you wanted to be in focus would be.  My sister and I were not allowed to take pictures with that one! 

Today’s gospel lesson is a little different.  Normally for any given Sunday in the church year the lesson you hear is on a three year rotation so normally it would be three years before you heard that same lesson again.  But on this Sunday, the first Sunday in Easter, we always read this lesson.  And I think because it comes after Lent, Holy Week and Easter, pastor and people are a bit worn out and, to use the camera metaphor, we pastors tend to just grab the point and shoot camera and snap a shot of the obvious subject in this story...Thomas.  But this time I’d like to look at this story through a different lens.  I’d like to change the focus and make the other things and people in this story the focus instead.

The first scene deserves at least a quick, in-focus snap shot to set the stage.  The disciples were in a room and the door was locked.  It may not seem strange to us to have locked the door, but in their time and culture it was REALLY strange.  Back then people knew and freely admitted they couldn’t survive alone.  They knew they had to count on a community for support and because of that it was normal for folks to walk in and out of each other’s homes helping care for kids, make meals and lending a hand.  Doors were NEVER locked.  When the disciples locked the door, they didn’t just lock the scary world out, they also cut themselves off from the only way to survive in the world.  Locking the door was a move that was literally like cutting off your nose to spite your face.  So now that you have a picture of that we’ll move on.   

The next thing that happens is that Jesus appears and says, “Peace be with you.”  The peace Jesus gives here is WAY more than just Jesus’ way of telling the disciples not to freak out.  It includes that, but it’s so much more.  Jesus peace is also infinitely more than just simply an absence of violence.  The peace that Jesus is giving includes a blessing for wholeness, well-being, enough to eat, complete health, a feeling of safety, a sense of self worth and an abundant life that makes a difference in the world.  ALL of that is there when Jesus says, “Peace be with you.”  It’s a really nice picture of what Jesus wants, not just for each of us individually but what God desires for all of creation.  This picture is worth getting it enlarged and framed so you can look it and remember it all the time.

Then Jesus says is “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  If you were to take a quick snap shot of this lesson you might miss how deep this is... how challenging this part is.  Jesus is saying, “All of the things God sent me to do... NOW I want you to go do those same things.”  So, what did God send Jesus to do?  Well, he proclaimed the Kingdom of God.  He told the world that the way things were working in the world was not the way God wanted the world to work.  But he went further than that.  He didn’t just talk about it, he actually made it happen wherever he went.  He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, fed the hungry, made the deaf hear, made the lame walk, raised the dead, calmed storms, confronted the Empire, pointed out the injustice in the political and religious institutions and insisted that things change, he called people out for getting rich on the backs of the poor, which made the powerful people very angry.  He insisted that the world was God’s world, not the Empire’s world and he insisted so loudly he was executed.  THAT, Jesus told the disciples was now their mission.  Then Jesus gave them the Holy Spirit... the tools they needed to do this mission, and was gone. 

Thomas, of course missed Jesus that day.  We don’t know where he was... I like to think he was out getting pizzas for the guys... but when he came back, notice what the disciples told him... “We’ve seen the Lord”... Now change the focus and notice what the disciples DIDN’T tell Thomas...  all that really hard stuff about going out into the world and turning the way the world works up side down.  Thomas, as we all know, didn’t believe them.  

But is Thomas alone here?  Change the focus and check out the disciples.  Notice where they are a week after seeing and hearing Jesus himself give them their mission to get out into the world and do what God first called Jesus to do... well, it sure wasn’t out there in the world doing that mission!  They were still right there!  Still locked in that room!  Not exactly the picture of perfect faith.  

When Jesus appears to the disciples again, this time Thomas isn’t out getting pizza.  The first thing Jesus says is “Peace be with you.”  Even though the disciples aren’t out doing what they are supposed to be doing, Jesus still desires wholeness for them.  Jesus’ grace even in the face of less than perfect discipleship is something I hold onto all the time when I think about my less than perfect discipleship.  

Now, after Jesus and Thomas have their encounter Jesus says, “Do not doubt, but believe.”  Traditionally this is seen as something directed only at Thomas, but I’m not so sure.  Still locked away in that room a week later..., none of the disciples seem to be exactly models of faithfulness.   

The really hard part about that particular picture is that among those disciples still locked away in fear, paralyzed by the idea of personally taking on Jesus’ mission in the world, I can see my face among those frightened disciples.   When I think that this mission that God gave to Jesus is now my, personal mission, hiding seems like a good idea... it is overwhelming.

  

But before we go and nail 2x4s over the doors there’s one more zoomed in, perfectly focused picture we need to take.  Go back to that scene where Jesus gives the disciples their mission.  He says, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  The “you” here is the plural “you.”  At Southern Seminary we would have translated this passage, “As the Father has sent me, so I send ya’ll.”  

I think THAT makes all the difference!  You see, Jesus does not mean for each of us individually to take on Jesus‘ mission in the world all alone!  Jesus means for us as a community, TOGETHER to take on this mission.  With God’s Peace and the gift of the Holy Spirit, together we ARE the Body of Christ and together as the Body of Christ this mission of caring for the people of the world who have been hurt and forgotten and challenging the systems that hurt and forget people becomes not only possible but inevitable.  May we all not doubt that, but believe!

Of "Nones" and "Balds"

Our daughter recently went from having a long hair style to a very short style and as her dad I have the totally unbiased opinion that it is super cute!  I was, however, unaware before the hair cut that the new style would require a whole different set of hair care products than it did when it was long.  My ignorance may be due to the fact that I’m old, bald and male.  The fact that I’m old, bald, male and a pastor may help to explain what happened next. 

I wondered what would folks in the hair care industry do if they suddenly realized there was a rapidly growing number of their customer base who were embracing baldness?  What would they do about a rapidly growing population of “balds”?  Would they meet, talk, study and write books about how they might change the formulas of their shampoos, conditioners, gels and mousses so that the “balds” would come back and be customers again?  They might, but speaking as a “bald” I have to say I would never even know if they did.  The fact is that we “balds” simply pay NO attention to anything the hair care industry says or does.  They could create the best product for the follicle challenged and it would never even make it onto my radar screen.

With that in mind I began to think about the “nones,” those folks who willingly, without shame or cultural hesitation clam “none” as their religious affiliation. Could the same be true here?  Often in the Church it seems as if we have a vision that the “nones” are actually out there watching us; eagerly hoping and longing for the day that we’ll “get it right” at which point they will all rush into (hopefully our) church.  I think the reality is very different.  Even if we managed to hit on some perfect, mythical combination of worship style, theology and political bent, the truth is the “nones” would simply never know.  The reality is they are not watching us.  “Nones” are “nones” not because they have yet to find what they are looking for in a religious organization.  “Nones” are “nones” because they aren’t even looking for a religious organization and honestly can’t imagine a reason to start. 

I am certain that if a group of “balds” really became a serious market segment, the hair care industry wouldn’t just rework their formulas and wait to see if the “balds” noticed.  They would rework their formulas and then go to where the “balds” were and make sure they knew there was something the hair care industry had to offer that they just couldn’t live without!  

There is no doubt that in much of the church we need to rework our formula but we can’t stop there.  If we hope to connect with the “nones,” we will need to leave the comfort of our churches and get out into the world and live in the places that the “nones” call home rather than live (or actually slowly die) holed up in our church buildings.  We will need to show them, much more than tell them the Gospel message and wait for them to realize for themselves that we do indeed have something that they simply can’t live without!

The Wedding at Cana

In 1912 my grandfather was 19 years old and, like many others he had decided to leave his home and head to America.  I'm sure he was looking for new opportunities but I think he was also looking to relieve his family of the burden of a teen aged appetite in very difficult times.  When he left home he had two things.  A steamer trunk had "Joseph Gustafson" written on it and a ticket for passage to America on which was written "RMS Titanic."

For some reason, now lost to history, my grandfather literally missed the boat.  There is only a story in the family as to what happened that made him miss the boat, but its a good story.  The story is that somewhere between the small, central Swedish town of Laxo and England where the Titanic left for its maiden and final voyage, he met a girl.  To add some extra spice to the story that girl was not my grandmother, but she delayed him long enough to miss the Titanic.  He had plans, but his plans got changed.

In John's gospel, more than in any of the others you get the sense that Jesus is following a very careful plan.  From the beginning where Jesus knows under which tree his next disciple will be sitting to the end of the gospel where, from the cross, Jesus says, "I am thirsty" not because he's thirsty, but in order to fulfill Scripture.  He said that because it was part of the plan.  The sense that there is a very firm, strong plan runs throughout John's gospel except at the wedding in Cana.  Jesus came to that wedding with his disciples and his mother.  Weddings in those days weren't just Saturday afternoon affairs; they were parties that went on for a long time and running out of wine wasn't just a bummer either, it would have been devestating to the family, perhaps labeling them as the "ran out of wine" couple for the rest of their lives.  Mary obviously knew this and knew that Jesus had the power to make a difference.  The trouble is that this was not part of the plan but Mary didn't care.  So she did what every mom does to every son at some point in his life... she told him to change his plans.

Remember, in John's gospel there was a plan but Jesus' plan wasn't like my plans.  Jesus' plans were for the salvation of all of creation.  My plans are to have lunch today at some place I haven't thought about yet.  It's a relatively small thing to change my plans for lunch today.  It's an incredible thing to change Jesus' plans for all of creation.  And that is the first thing this story has to tell us today.  That Jesus will set aside his plans to come to our need, no matter how important his plans may be and no matter how trivial our problems might be, Jesus will be there for us no matter what.  Henri Nouwen, a Catholic priest wrote about his discovery of this idea when he said,  "My whole life, I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted until I discovered that my interruptions are my work."

The second thing this story is telling us is in how Jesus met the needs of the wedding couple.  They had run out of wine and Jesus had some very important plans.  He could have simply called up a box of Earnest and Julio, slapped a band-aid on the problem and returned to his plan for saving all of creation. But that's not what Jesus did.  Instead, he looked around and saw those containers holding between 160 and 180 gallons of water and transformed all of it into wine.  He didn't do just enough to get by.  He didn't just slap a band-aid on their problem.  He met their needs with an overwhelming abundance... a 600 to 900 bottle abundance.

The third thing this story has to say to us today is also in how Jesus met the needs of this wedding couple.  The story tells us that it was the middle of the party.  The guests had moved past the part of the party where their taste buds still functioned.  They were now into the part of the celebration where the taste of the wine was much less important than its lubricating qualities.  With that in mind, Jesus could have easily just transformed the water into Mad Dog or Thunderbird and everyone would have been fine, but that's not what he did.  He transformed that water into the very best that could be made.

He set aside his important plans, he met their needs with generosity and abundance and he gave them the very best.  If I was smart I'd wrap this up with a nice little literary bow and we'd all have a nice warm feeling about Jesus.  But I'm not that smart and as I thought more and more about this story I thought about those containers of water.  Each one held between 160 and 240 pounds of water and it occurred to me that this story is trying to tell us one more thing.  Each of us is basically a container that holds between 160 and 240 pounds of water as well and this story is also challenging us to make ourselves available to be transformed by Christ so that we might become the abundant and very best help to the people around us who are in need.

On the night the Titanic hit that iceberg there were all kinds of reactions... denial, panic, worry and more.  As time went by and people began to realize that the ship was really sinking people made their way to the lifeboats.  Among those people was a very elderly couple.  The older woman was placed in a lifeboat but when she realized the man she had lived with for the vast majority of her life would be left behind, she decided that she would stay behind with him and allow someone younger take her place.  In that moment, she allowed herself to be transformed from a simple container of water into the exact thing that met the needs of a fellow passenger with incredible generosity and with the very best she had to offer.  Another story of this kind of transformation happened with members of the orchestra. Understanding that there were only lifeboats for about half the passengers the decided to set up their instruments on deck and play music for those who would be left behind with them.  They allowed themselves to be transformed from simple containers of water into something that was incredibly generous and was the very best they had to offer to those around them in need.

Loving God, open our eyes to see the needs of the people all around us.  Give us the courage to make ourselves available to be transformed by the power of Christ into the precise, generous and perfect gifts that are needed most.