Build A Longer Table

Luke 13:1-9

At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”

Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

They told Jesus about some Galileans whose “blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices”. Pilate had slaughtered worshipers in the midst of their worship and so the people wondered, does God punish sin that way? That isn’t just a 2000 year old question, is it? Mother Emmanuel Church in Charleston. The Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. The mosques in New Zealand. That’s a “today” question too! Jesus tells them… and us, NO! God does NOT work that way! And not with collapsing buildings, hurricanes, flooding, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes, plane crashes or anything else either! God does NOT work that way!  

That word “sin” carries a ton of baggage with it, and apparently sin, and the consequences of sin have been misunderstood... well, basically forever.  Here, Jesus is talking more about capital “S” sin, otherwise known as our very human condition of being broken.  For me, that root brokenness seems to always boils down to “fear.”  Fear is always the gross, crusty, toxic mess left at the bottom when you boil off  all of humanity’s creative “lower case” sins... things like anger, hate, greed, selfishness, violence and all the rest.  Jesus was less interested in those “lower case” sins here and more interested in healing the root human “capital S” sin of brokenness.  Jesus came so that we no longer had to walk only a path out of brokenness, but could instead know and walk the path God created us to walk... a path toward abundant life.  

God did not create us to walk this life in fear.  We were created to walk a path that leads to abundant life... a life filled with meaning and purpose and dignity!  Jesus told the people then, and tells us today, that when we keep walking a path that begins out of our brokenness... the path of fear... it may feel familiar, but it’s filled with pain.  The world, our culture, the neighbor kids, TV preachers, the devil... they all might insist that path, the path away from fear, is the only one there is... but Jesus came to insist, “NO, no it’s not” and put us on a path toward life!  That “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” path... that “might makes right” path... that is a path that leads only to pain, and God did not love us into being, only to live our lives in brokenness and pain.

The horrific and tragic deaths that happened in Jesus’ time were not caused by a God punishing sinners. The horrific and tragic deaths that happen in OUR world and in our time are not caused by a God punishing sinners either! But in Jesus’ time AND in ours, the reality remains... human brokenness... capital “S” sin... living out of  fear... all of that leads to pain and eventually to death. We see that all too often. Anger, hatred and violence, all born out of fear... fear of not being in control, not being first… THAT is the sin that led to the death of worshipers in Jesus’ time and fear is what leads to the white supremacy that leads to the slaughter of worshipers in our time too.  It’s a pain we walk into, not a pain God inflicts upon us.  So, what’s a broken human to do?

Jesus answers that question with a parable. A vineyard owner plants a fig tree counting on it to make her some figs.  God’s the vineyard owner and we’re the trees... we’ve been planted to bear fruit... to live!  We’ve been planted to reach out to our neighbors, care for the other... mourn with our community after a tragedy... stand up against hatred, selfishness, lusting after obscene amounts of money and power, white supremacy, racism, sexism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and all the rest.  THAT’S what we’ve been planted for, but speaking for myself... THIS particular bald fig tree is full of figgy brokenness.  Perhaps you can relate to some of that.  Bearing fruit is hard.  My neighbors are all too often mean and cruel and ignore science! And so... I just don’t make the fruit I was planted to make.  

But here’s the thing... that may not be very good, but it’s about the best I can do on my own... living out of my figgy brokenness!  And here’s a secret, NONE of us trees can do any better!  We need a gardener! That’s Jesus, by the way... to give us more time, to dig around us and pile on the manure with grace filled abundance.  Then, because that was first done for us, God calls us to get out there and make the fruit God created us to make!  To do the same for others that the gardener has first done for us!  Giving our neighbors... even THOSE neighbors... more time than we are inclined to give them… digging deeper in those relationships than we are inclined to go… AND piling on more of our precious resources than we think we able to share.  

And these days I am more and more convinced that talk isn’t enough.  We need to SHOW the world what that looks like. We can’t just talk about the Promised Land... we need to show them what the Promised Land looks like… not just talk about the Kingdom of God but SHOW them and give out tons of free samples of the fruit that grows there... the fruits of compassion, love and joy.  We must SHOW the world that longer tables are better than higher fences. We must SHOW the world the steps onto a path of love, compassion and peace… so they can SEE where to put one foot and then another and another.  We need to SHOW them that it’s possible to walk a path that doesn’t lead over the edge of a cliff. 

God doesn’t zap sinners from on high.  But a path walked out of fear leads inevitably through terrible places filled with hatred, bigotry and violence and if we stick to that path long enough, it eventually ends at the edge of a cliff where gravity is always turned on.  God’s desire for us is to walk a path toward abundant life and not death.  God desires that so much, God sent Jesus, God’s Son to put us on that path toward life.  May we SEE the path we’ve been loving put on by the Gardener and then boldly show a hurting world what it looks like when a community of regular people, all filled with normal, human brokenness, but lovingly cared for by that Divine gardener, walks together, not in fear away from death, but joyfully in faith on a path toward abundant life instead!  Amen.

Us Chickens

Luke 13:31-35

At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

Every summer, my grandparents would move their family from the house in the “big city” of Escanaba, Michigan out to Camp for the summer. With new buzz cuts and a large box of .22 ammo for both my dad and his brother they were set for the summer. This was before helicopters, let alone helicopter parents, so there was a ton of unstructured time, but still, my grandparents had plenty of projects and chores to attempt to keep Ben and Bob busy and out of the most serious, life-threatening sorts of trouble... which in hindsight did work... but based on the stories, it was never a sure thing. One of those projects involved raising chickens and one summer that meant painting the chicken coop. My uncle Bob was sent out to start the project while my dad finished up something inside. Before long however a giant commotion was heard coming from the direction of the chicken coop and as my dad and grandma looked out the window, they saw Bob chasing the chickens around the yard with a paintbrush full of green paint, painting not the chicken COOP but the chickens… it was a lovely shade of green as the story tells.

Chickens, it turns out have the reputation of taking a coat of paint well… but not cheerfully. A chicken’s reputation does NOT, however, usually include being an animal of great power and might. But here we have the power and might of God, made flesh in Jesus Christ, living in the world… like a chicken! Jesus isn’t acting like a lion, intimidating the countryside with a mighty roar and razor sharp claws. Jesus isn’t describing himself as an eagle, soaring high above the earth with piercing vision. No, Jesus identifies himself with the animal most likely to be painted green by my Uncle Bob on a summer day in the late 1940’s… a chicken.

Jesus… the Christ… the Son of God… Savior of Creation… is… a chicken? It’s not where you might have expected Jesus to go when he was picking an animal avatar for himself. Chickens are not the most majestic creatures.  Most do not sport particularly colorful plumage. They are neither strong and mighty nor sleek and stealthy. They don’t have a soaring wingspan or powerful claws… they are…. well… chickens. But leave it to Jesus to identify with the underdog. Born to a poor, unwed mother, he ate and spent his time with social outcasts and religious rejects. He constantly healed and ministered to the people that society wouldn’t even look at, let alone touch. Jesus never hung out with the popular or the powerful but, like the hen, he was faithful... even to death, to those whom God put in his care.  

The Pharisees who came to scare Jesus away from his mission with a bogus death threat from Herod were trying to expose Jesus as a fraud. They figured with a death threat from the King, Jesus would turn and run, rather than take the chance of coming face to face with that sneaky fox-like King Herod and his deadly set of razor sharp teeth, otherwise known as the Roman army. But Jesus called them on their bluff and told them he would leave, but only when it was time and not a moment sooner. Jesus knew THIS threat was a bluff. He also knew, however, that if he kept to his calling… walking toward Jerusalem, healing people, teaching crowds, casting out demons and proclaiming a VERY different Kingdom than the kingdom of Caesar, the threat would eventually become all too real.

Jesus deeply desired that all of God’s people, and indeed all of creation would come to him to be cared for, and just like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings for safety, Jesus wanted to gather all of creation into the peace, safety and justice of the Kingdom of God. Like that hen though, Jesus had no real defense. What he did have was an incredible willingness to sacrifice himself for the sake of the people. When a fox comes into the barnyard, a mother hen covers her chicks and bares her breast to the fox, enticing the fox to take her and leave her chicks alone. She can’t fight. All she can do is die for her chicks. Jesus too, we’ll see later, would not take the path that would lead him to fight. He would not return violence for violence. He would only offer himself to be killed, so that God’s children might live.  

The Good News for us is that each and every one of us are one of God’s little chicks! The fox of darkness, pain, meaninglessness and despair has already made it’s way into the human chicken coop and in response, Jesus has already gathered all of us and all of creation under his wings and sacrificed himself to make sure we all have life and not just a get-by life, but an abundant life, filled with meaning, purpose and hope.  

The question for us little chicks is not IF we have been given this gift of abundant life, but rather HOW will we now live into the gift of abundant life we’ve each been given through this sacrifice? We are alive! Even though, by all the laws of nature, we should have been eaten, digested, and left in a pile of fox poo long ago! God’s hope for us, and our calling by the Holy Spirit, is that by knowing and understanding that we have been saved from the sneaky, sly, fox of sin and death; we might live our lives from here on out, thanking God for the gift we have been given by passing God’s love… the love that first gathered us under those wings, to everyone around us. 

That’s the kind of life you and I have been called to. That’s the kind of life we have been saved FOR! That is the kind of life that would fill our Divine Mother Hen with the greatest amount of pride and joy a Divine Mother Hen could ever have!  

May each of us live more deeply into the gift of life we have been given… joyfully, abundantly, and thankfully… and may we do that TOGETHER as the coop of chickens known as the people of Christ Trinity church! And may we share that love of God which first saved us… with just the same sort of reckless abandon as Jesus first had for us.  Amen.

A Plague of Locusts!

Luke 4:1-13

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’” Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

Baptism, is our entry into Christ… into the Body of Christ and the Body of Christ is another name for what we call the Church. That’s one of the reasons our Baptismal font is way back there… because way back there, it’s by the entrance of our Church! Baptism isn’t a destination, but rather, the very beginning of a life long journey.  Because of that, the Church in its ancient wisdom, thought that before a person set out on that sort of life-long journey it would be smart to take some time to help them get ready. How much time? Well, the PERFECT amount of time of course! And that… in Biblical figuring means FORTY. Forty days and nights for Noah and the flood. Forty years for the people of Israel going from Egypt to the Promised Land. Forty days of fasting before Moses received the ten commandments. Forty days for Jesus in the wilderness and Forty days for the season of Lent. Forty is Biblical shorthand for the time God takes to prepare something amazing! And because this is God’s time we’re talking about, it hardly ever ends up being exactly forty by our human ways of counting. That’s why the Season of Lent, is forty days long… as long as you don’t count the Sundays! 

So Baptism is where we all start.  In the water washing of Baptism, God promises us abundant life... a life filled with purpose and meaning and also salvation... a promise that this abundant life God gives us as a gift goes on beyond time itself. Baptism, you see, is God’s work, not ours, so it goes well beyond our ability to fully comprehend.  That’s why we talk about it in so many different ways, trying to get a handle on something that is way too big for us to ever fully grasp.  It’s God giving us a Cleansing Bath, it’s a New Birth, it’s citizenship in God’s Kingdom, it’s being clothed in Christ, it’s being brought Out of Chaos and Death, it is our Adoption as a Child of God, it is God grafting us into Christ and joining us with Christ’s death and resurrection. 

Our second lesson today says we “believe with the heart” and “confess with the mouth.” Notice, it doesn’t say “believe with our heads.” That’s because believing is not so much a decision we make in our heads as it is a step by step journey following the One we have come to love, because we have come to realize that One we love has been loving us all along! At the beginning of the service today we recognized how Peter has begun noticing God’s love working in his life and we welcomed him to join us as a community... a community doing our best to “believe with our hearts” just like him.  In just a moment, we’ll all have the opportunity to bless him and equip him for this forty day journey… Together, we’ll give him the sign of the cross on his eyes, ears, lips, heart, shoulders, hands and feet so that he knows that all of us are walking with every part of him on this journey… both his journey through Lent and his journey through all of life! At the Great Easter Vigil, we’ll all continue with him on this journey and together we’ll “confess with our mouths” and then, in some mysterious way, God will grab hold of him with Water and with God’s Word, binding him together with all of us... a part of the Body of Christ and promise to never let him go, no matter what, from then, to the end of time and to beyond time itself!  

Now all of that might make you think that after you’re Baptized every day will be magically filled only with unicorns, gumdrops and rainbows!  But since Jesus himself was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit after his Baptism, only to run into the Devil and all those temptations, it’s pretty much a sure thing that we’re in for the same.  What Jesus ran into after his Baptism was not a question about whether or not he was God’s Child. That was a done deal and even the Devil agreed with that!  What he ran into, were questions about HOW he was going to be God’s Son. Since in our Baptisms we’ve are adopted as Children of God, the questions Jesus faced are inevitably the questions we face in our wilderness times too.

The first question: Bread for me, myself and I, or bread for US, OURSELVES AND WE? Jesus was hungry and we all get hungry!  The question is will we use the gifts we’ve been given to satisfy me, myself and I, or will we use what God has given us for US, OURSELVES and WE?  Jesus chose not to make bread in the wilderness then, but held off and instead made fish sandwiches for thousands a little later!  

The second question: Arm muscles or heart muscles? Jesus was sent by God to make things right in the world, and so are we!  But HOW do we do that? Do we use the world’s ways of violence, intimidation and manipulation… OR do we do like Jesus did and instead use the power of self-sacrificial LOVE to transform the world to work the way God wants it to work?

The third question: Cheat death or defeat death? Jesus had the power to get the angels to save him after jumping off a tower and cheating death in a spectacular way. That would have brought him millions of adoring fans!  Instead he chose not to Cheat Death, but DEFEAT death, once and for all for all of creation through his own death and resurrection.  Will we avoid the hard things in life or will we dare to go through them, trusting God’s promise of new life on the other side?

Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to begin his forty day journey.   You and me, along with Peter are being led by that same Holy Spirit into our shared forty day journey through the wilderness of Lent. We too will wrestle with those same old temptations… Will we live for others or will we live for ourselves? Will we work in the world by "might makes right” or by self-giving love? Will we do everything to avoid what we fear, or will we dive deeply through it, toward the promise of light and life?  

I feel incredibly thankful that Peter has asked us... this beautiful gathering of the Body of Christ... to journey with him this Lent.  I hope that you too can see in these forty days, the blessing and the great honor it is to walk with one another, sharing with each other the joys and the difficulties of this season of life as we walk together toward the Great Easter Vigil and Peter’s Baptism. Peter, thank you for the trust you have placed in all of us and the incredible gift you’ve given us by allowing us to share your journey with you. Come now and let us bless you for the journey we are all about to take together!  Amen.

With Fear and Slipping

Luke 9:28-36

Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” —not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

Eight days later, my wife took with her, our dog and me and led us to our long table to “talk".  I thought, “This is really bad.”  The dog was fine with it.  There, she became super serious, so before she could say anything I said, “Hey, it’s good you brought us here, because I’ve been thinking about building some birdhouses,” (not really knowing what I was saying.) And while I was still yammering, a voice came from the clouds and said, “Erik, this is your beloved, she is really quite… QUITE a bit smarter than you.  Shut up and listen to her.” 

You see, eight days before that I had driven to Augusta and when I left to come home, I started down this giant, steep hill.  The road was covered in that thick, not-quite-slush… not-quite-snow, sort of snotty, winter mess and as I applied the brakes, my very bald tires slipped and the anti-lock brakes did all they could but I still slid all the way down that hill. The GOOD news was that I stopped before I slid into Water Street. The REALLY good news is that I stopped before going into the stuff beyond that for which that street is named! The bad news was I needed new tires and that filled me with great fear. 

Now, I don’t have a weird new-tire phobia.  What I fear is spending money.  I wanted to take a couple of months to squirrel the money away and pay with cash.  But that snow was just the pre-blizzard, which was going to be followed by the REAL blizzard, which was then going to be followed by a post-blizzard, and Kelly said, “I know you fear putting tires on a credit card.  I know spending $500 will feel like death to you. But I also know your fear won’t magically go away even if I tell you not to be afraid.  So, invite your fear into the car with you, tell it to buckle up, and the two of you GO… get new tires on your car TODAY... because new tires means life.”  So, my fear and I got into my car, buckled up and we went and got new tires, because God was right… she's quite…QUITE a bit smarter than I am.  

The thing that happened eight days before today’s lesson is that Jesus told the disciples he needed to go to Jerusalem, where he would suffer and die and be raised from the dead. The disciples had no idea what he meant by being raised from the dead but they were all TOO clear on what suffering and death was! They, very understandably, had a real fear of going to Jerusalem.  But in the middle of the disciple’s yammering, God spoke and said, “Disciples listen, this is my Son, my Chosen, he is quite… QUITE a bit smarter than you, so shut up and listen to him.” With that they shut up, loaded themselves… and all their fears… on the disciple-bus and drove down the mountain and on to Jerusalem.  Because in that encounter… even though they still couldn’t wrap their minds fully around it, and even though they were still scared… they knew that somehow going down that mountain following Jesus toward suffering and death was somehow ALSO the path Jesus was leading them down toward abundant life.  

Here’s the second most important thing about these stories… Kelly knew that telling me not to be afraid wouldn’t magically take away my fear.  Jesus telling the disciples not to be afraid didn’t magically take away their fear either. But you and I are called to FAITHFULNESS… NOT FEARLESSNESS.  Faithfulness is taking your fear, inviting it onto the bus with you and driving on down the mountain toward new life, even with fear riding shotgun and incessantly changing the radio stations the whole way down.  

If we wait to be fearless BEFORE we make a step toward the Abundant Life God created us to live, we'll never even take the first step.  Cornel West says it this way, “To be a Christian is to live dangerously, honestly, freely - to step, in the name of love, as if you may land on nothing. Yet to keep on stepping… because “the something” that sustains you… (is something) no empire can give you… and no empire can take away.” To his “dangerously, honestly and freely”… I’d add fearfully. We as Christians are not called to wait for safety or comfort. We as Christians are not called to wait for fearlessness. We as Christians are called to take a step… just one little step in faith and in self giving love… then another… and then another… on down the mountain and out into the world.  One tiny, seemingly insignificant little step toward loving God and loving neighbor... one step… after another, toward LIFE.

All of that is true. But true doesn’t make it easy. Fear is still very real and, by it’s nature, fear is REALLY scary! But here’s the part of this lesson that I think is MOST important for us today. Notice HOW those disciples came down that mountain. They came down that mountain and walked into the scary world following Jesus… TOGETHER. TOGETHER... that’s how God created us to do this thing called life!

Following Jesus. Walking the Jesus Way. Living life in the Jesus Way of living… Loving God. Loving Neighbor. Giving of self. Caring for the lost, last and least of our world. We’re called to ALL of that… BUT NEVER… are we called to walk ALONE! This is the stuff us fear-filled humans can only do when we do it TOGETHER! Today we officially welcome new members to join us hiking down the mountain and out into life with us TOGETHER. It is an incredible gift! To us AND, I hope, to them.  Because we need each other if we’re going to keep stepping out in love and putting one foot in front of the other down the mountain and out into the world. We ALL need others who in our moments of fear are “quite a bit smarter” than us to help us invite our fear on the bus and keep driving. We ALL need others, to remind us that every step taken in love lands on “that something”, even when that next step is anything but clear. We ALL need each other, to remind us that in this life, there’s a Promised Land on the other side of EVERY wilderness and there’s an Easter on the other side of EVERY Good Friday. May we TOGETHER… TOGETHER as the Body of Christ that we call Christ Trinity Church, dangerously, honestly, fearfully and freely, keep on stepping out, each and every day, in the name of love. Amen. 

It Didn't Seem Likely

Genesis 45:3-11, 15

Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence. Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. I will provide for you there—since there are five more years of famine to come—so that you and your household, and all that you have, will not come to poverty.’ And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.

Luke 6:27-38

“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

Joseph was the second to the youngest but he was dad’s favorite and dad never made any effort to hide it. As if the coat of many colors wasn’t too much already, there were his annoying dreams as well. Joseph dreamed he would be in charge, that he had all the power, that his whole family would bow down to him. The coat, the dreams, the favoritism… it all came to an end one day with Joseph staring up at his brothers from the bottom of a well. Would the dream make it out of that well? It didn’t seem likely.  

But the brothers had a second thought. Slavery would be just as good at getting rid of Joseph as the well was, AND they’d get some cash, so they hauled him out of the well and sold him into slavery in Egypt. Would the dream make it out of slavery? It didn’t seem likely.  

In Egypt he worked for the captain of the guards… in charge of his whole house. Everything he touched was successful until the Captain’s wife put the moves on him.  When Joseph rejected her, she got mad, told some lies and Joseph got thrown in jail. Would the dream make it out of jail? It didn’t seem likely.

In jail a couple of Pharaoh’s men got thrown in with Joseph and they had some dreams. Joseph told them the meanings of their dreams and what Joseph told them came true. “Don’t forget me,” Joseph asked. But would the dream be remembered? It didn’t seem likely. 

Then one day Pharaoh had a dream. No one could figure out it’s meaning until that guy from jail remembered Joseph. Joseph told Pharaoh what his dream meant. He told Pharaoh there would be seven good years for farming and then seven years of famine. Joseph told Pharaoh he should get someone to manage the country and save up for the next seven years and prepare for the famine to come. Pharaoh told Joseph the job was his. Would the dream ever be free? It didn’t seem likely.  

But life is strange and things that go around seem to come around again, so when the famine hit, it hit everywhere and not just in Egypt, but only Egypt was prepared. Joseph’s dad sent his older brothers down to Egypt to get some food and when they arrived they ended up buying grain from none other than Joseph himself. They didn’t recognize him. After all, who would have thought that the little brother they threw down a well and sold into slavery all those years ago would be running Egypt? Joseph gave the brothers the grain but said they better bring their younger brother back with them if they came back wanting more.  

And OF COURSE they needed more! It was a seven year famine! So they brought back Ben which almost killed their father. Then Joseph told them to leave Ben and go get their dad. The brothers knew that returning home without Ben really would kill their dad and they pleaded with Joseph. In the end Joseph couldn’t take it any more and he told them who he was. Their jaws bounced off the floor. Here was the brother they had put in a well and sold into slavery, running Egypt and in complete control of their lives, just as his annoying dreams had predicted all those years before. So what did Joseph do? Throw them down a well? Sell them into slavery? Toss them into jail? Send them away hungry? Have them killed? The answer to this question doesn’t seem likely, but Joseph chose grace.  

That’s been God’s answer from the beginning. Grace!  That’s the way to care for people. Grace… a way that escaped a well, and slavery and prison… a way of living that made it’s way through jealousy, lies and deception. A way of loving that found it’s way through pain, power plays, and prison. God, it seems, will have Grace survive, and actually, it seems, God INSISTS that Grace WILL not just survive… But THRIVE! Even when it doesn’t seem likely at all!

Grace, is the middle way and God insists on it even to this day! Grace insists we BOTH… not turn our back on, or give in to evil AND at the same time, Grace ALSO insists we not return violence for violence or plot our revenge or try to get even.  Grace, is the “Third Way” a way in-between denial and avoidance on the one hand and getting mired and hopelessly ensnared on the other. Grace is the way to confront the hard, the difficult, the troubled and even the evil of our world without getting drawn into it and becoming difficult, troubled and evil ourselves. Grace is the way to move both the one who is attacking and the one who is being attacked BOTH to a shared place of peace… neither becoming a “winner” or a “loser”… but BOTH ending up in a shared place of peace. 

Grace never seems “likely” to make it out into our world and yet it made it out of a well, out of slavery, out of jail and out of a famine to bring to a place of peace, a terribly divided family. Giving up your shirt as well as your coat, doing good to those who hate you, blessing those who curse you… the world never sees those teachings of Jesus as very “likely” solutions for the real evils of our world and yet Jesus himself made it off of a cross and out of a tomb to bring to a place of real peace, the terribly broken people of our painfully divided island home. 

We will all have times… as individuals, communities, countries or as a whole world… where life feels as if we’ve been thrown to the bottom of a well, like we are have no control of our own future… like we are cursed, abused or condemned… as if we are suffering an endless assault of lies and deceit and treachery… trapped in a place where for all the world, God’s Grace seems unlikely at best, to make it out into the world where we need it most of all. In those times remember this story… Remember that God’s Grace ALWAYS makes it out through that often ignored and always undervalued and perpetually forgotten middle way. Every. Single. Time. Amen.

It's No Great Honor Either!

Luke 6:20-31

Then Jesus looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. “Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Teviah, in Fiddler on the Roof says, “Dear God, you made many, many poor people. I realize there's no shame in being poor ... but it's no great honor either.” From my own personal brushes with not having enough money to buy the basics for my family, I have to say, I’m in full agreement with Teviah! 

But here in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus seems to have a completely different perspective. Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor.” Not, blessed are the poor in SPIRIT, like in Matthew’s Gospel.  Nope! In Luke’s Gospel it’s blessed are the poor in wallet! But Jesus isn’t done.  Blessed are you who are hungry, he says.  Not, blessed are you who hunger and thirst for righteousness like in Matthew’s Gospel.  This isn’t any sort of spiritualized poverty or hunger Jesus is talking about here.  This is straight up, not-enough-money-to-pay-the-rent, poverty.  This is a growling-stomach-that-doesn’t-know-where-to-find-a-meal kind of hunger. THAT is what Jesus is calls blessed. 

How is THAT a blessing? People see being poor and hungry as a pity or a challenge, or, with a cold, hard, heart, as something that is deserved… but a blessing? Not so much! Yet here we are with Jesus telling his disciples clearly, calmly and without stuttering at all, “Blessed are the poor and hungry” and as if THAT wasn’t already too much to make sense of, he takes it one step further and proclaims, “Woe to the rich and the full!”  

Most folks like Matthew’s version better because Matthew’s version allows us to SPIRITUALIZE the poverty and the hunger. That allows you and me and the TV preachers to still feel blessed by Jesus and still keep our private jets! But Luke’s version isn’t so easily manipulated. Luke’s version INSISTS that it is precisely those who KNOW that real, don’t-have-money-for-diapers poverty… those who KNOW through their own, deeply felt pain… their own terribly felt shame…. their own cruelly hard knocks and devastatingly broken life… THOSE are the ones who are blessed!  Jesus is saying that it is the broken, the hungry, the poor, the weeping, the ones who have slammed into the rock hard bottom of the deepest, darkest hole with the smoothest, most slippery sides… THOSE are the ones who are blessed, BECAUSE they are the ones who have come to the point where they understand that there is NOTHING… NOT ONE THING they can do, apart from God.  

The poor, broken, hungry and lost… THOSE are the ones who KNOW… who REALLY KNOW… that it’s ONLY through an unearned, totally free, completely unexpected, bring tears to your eyes, gift from God that they have any life at all. They KNOW it was ONLY through a Divine rocking of their world that they were able to find a bed, have a meal, and make it through that first day of sobriety.  They KNOW the truth… while the rest of us can still go on fooling ourselves into thinking we’re doing life all on our own.  The genuinely poor and hungry KNOW that in one way or another, no matter how well WE fool ourselves, we are ALL hungry, homeless, bankrupt and addicted, refugees without God’s infinite and unconditional love and grace poured out freely upon each and every one of us, long before we even begin thinking to ask God for it.  

Being poor, being hungry, being broken, being a loser are all held up by our world as the most horrible things you could ever be and from my personal bushes with those things, I STILL have to agree with Teviah… I may have been blessed by those times, but they sure didn’t feel like any great honor either! 

Yet, in what has thankfully become hindsight, (and will hopefully REMAIN hindsight!) I think I understand a little of what Jesus was trying to tell his disciples. Jesus was saying that when we find our lives inevitably broken, (and we all do, at some point, in one way or another) even though it’s horribly painful and frightening and terrible… it is those cracks in our lives that become a window through which we see the light of the Kingdom of God shining deeply and powerfully into our lives. 

In Japan, there is an art form called Kintsugi.  The artisan takes a ceramic bowl that has become broken and repairs it. You might expect them to hide the cracks but instead they do the exact opposite. The artist repairs the cracks with gold and that bowl, with the cracks now highlighted with that precious metal, becomes more beautiful and more valuable than before it was broken. Jesus tells us… that we are blessed when life drops us to the ground and we shatter like a ceramic bowl. Jesus insists that we are BLESSED by those experiences because it allows us to see more clearly the Divine Artist who is ALWAYS at work, filling the cracks of our broken lives with love... a substance more precious than gold, and through that experience we are made more beautiful and more precious than we had ever been before and then, because of our experience, we are better able to pass on God’s love to the rest of this broken world.

I think all of this is true and I also think all of this is very hard.  I still don’t like that seeing God at work in my life is best done through the painful cracks that come from being broken.  Now, I DON’T think Jesus asks us to go out and break ourselves and he certainly doesn’t ask us to break others so that they can discover this truth.  Jesus simply knew, that with enough years on this planet we each will eventually know what it is to be broken.  And because that is inevitable, Jesus wanted each of us to know that God, will take even that experience of being broken and fill in our cracks with a Divine love more precious than gold and continue to make each of us more beautiful and more valuable even through the pain of being broken.  So, as the Leonard Cohen song says, “Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” Amen.  

Too Early for Propheting!

Isaiah 6:1-8

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”

Isaiah’s alarm clock turned over to 6 a.m. with an unwelcome and deafening clunk as the radio crackled to life. The DJ was telling Jerusalem that today would apparently be another scorcher. Isaiah slowly reached over and with the full force of gravity pounded the snooze bar. Isaiah was NOT a morning person. For a moment he was tempted to skip work and head for the mountains. But while Isaiah had always been good at preaching about the need for selfcare and Sabbath he wasn’t that great at following his own advise so, when the radio kicked back on after the world’s shortest five minutes ever, Isaiah rolled out of bed. He looked in the mirror and not really recognizing the THING looking back at him, he continued on to the shower. That did something toward waking him up but not anywhere near enough. He got dressed, remembered deodorant at the last minute, got in the car and headed out for the Temple. On the way he drove through Dunkin’ for a large cup of high-test… Jerusalem runs on Dunkin’ you know and if THAT didn’t get him running… he couldn’t imagine what would.

Isaiah pulled his car into the Temple parking lot and parked in the spot with the sign that declared, “If you park here, you preach!” As he got out of the car and turned to walk to the Temple he heard music. “GREAT!” he yelled at no one in particular, “those kids are messing with the organ again!” But then as he swung the door to the Temple open and his eyes began to adjust from the bright Middle Eastern sunshine outside to the dim, candlelit Temple inside… Isaiah saw the absolutely LAST thing he ever expected to find in the Temple on that hot, boring, regular day… Isaiah saw God.  

There’s nothing like slipping into the office a few minutes late, still rubbing sleep from your eyes, holding a half drunk cup of Dunkin’ and finding the Big Kahuna, the Big Cheese, the Head Honcho, the Queen Bee, the Boss, the Creator of all that was, and is, and ever will be sitting there waiting for you. Ironically this was indeed, “the Temple of the Most High”, but the “The Most High” was literally the LAST one Isaiah expected to see there.  On that painfully regular day, Isaiah expected to find the painfully regular things he always took for granted would be there. Things like paraments, pews and prayer books. But not in a million, zillion years did Isaiah expect to walk in and find himself staring at the Divine’s pedicure with the hem of God’s flowing robes filling the entire place to overflowing!

Isaiah began to sing, Holy, Holy, Holy... “something” I’m sure, as the remains of his large Dunkin’ dropped to the floor. One of the Seraphim came down and gave Isaiah a hot-coal-kiss and told him that his sins were now forgiven, blotted out forever and the minute that happened the Lord spoke, asking for “someone” to volunteer for an assignment. Not seeing anyone else around and happy not to be dead… or worse, Isaiah volunteered. 

God’s presence that morning changed Isaiah. It didn’t fix his life to be magically forever filled with rainbows and puppy dogs from then on out. He still had plenty of troubles ahead. But standing there in the Divine presence… with all of the distance from God in body, mind and spirit removed… with his relationship with God perfectly repaired… not by anything Isaiah had done, but by God making it right with that hot-coal kiss… Isaiah was changed. Now, that’s all wonderful for Isaiah of course. He goes on from here to get a huge three volume Biblical book deal. But the question you and I have to ask ourselves today is what does Isaiah’s experience with the Creator of the Universe meeting him at the office have to do with you and me, here today? 

Now, I can’t speak for you, of course, but maybe you can relate a little to my experience, because you see, I’m a lot like Isaiah. I preach about Sabbath and don’t do it very well. I appreciate the benefits of coffee in the morning and while I walk to work instead of drive, beyond those few, very superficial differences, I walk in here in the EXACT same way Isaiah walked into the Temple. I walk in here NOT expecting to see God’s toes up close and personal. I expect to see just what I always see… things like the paraments, pews and prayer books. I NEVER expect to see seraphim with a burning hot coal heading for my face. Like I said, I can’t speak for you, but perhaps part of that is true for you as well.

And because of that, I think maybe what this lesson is trying to suggest to us, is something Richard Rohr is fond of saying. And that is, that it’s not God’s PRESENCE that is missing from our lives, but the AWARENESS of God’s presence that is missing from our lives. So, could it be that wasn’t the one morning God was present in the Temple for Isaiah, but for whatever reason, THAT was the one morning Isaiah DIDN’T look past God like he had done a hundred times before? Because the truth is… GOD IS ALWAYS PRESENT. Right where we are. All the time and not just in churches and Temples. But most of the time we simply look past the ever-present Divine presence in the same way we look past the ever present paraments, pews and prayer books and so many other things that just fade into the background of our everyday lives.

I think that this lesson is asking US to stop and REALLY SEE, even if like Isaiah, it’s for the very first time, that God is ALWAYS… ALWAYS… RIGHT our midst. And while we might not have hot coals crossing our lips in church today, we DO have the Body and Blood of Christ crossing our lips, doing the same thing that the Seraphim’s coal did for Isaiah… erasing the distance between us and God and repairing our relationship with God and each other, through Christ, forever. 

I think the take-home for today is that God is here! Emmanuel, as we say at Christmas… God with us! God is here… with us… right here in THIS awesome little boat we call Christ Trinity, asking you and me to row out just a little further and cast our nets of unconditional love and radical inclusion right out there into our little corner of the world, casting just a little further every day until God’s will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. So, take an energizing shower, rub the sleep out of your eyes, don’t forget deodorant, grab an extra large coffee and really, REALLY SEE!  God is with us.  And God is looking for “someone” to volunteer.  Amen.