No! Listen!

Matthew 13:1–9, 18–23

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!” “Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

A farmer went out to plant seeds in his field so that he might have a harvest of thirty, sixty or maybe even a hundredfold, right? “No” Jesus says, “LISTEN!”  A SOWER went out to sow!  This parable is called the Parable of the SOWER, but what I think a lot of us are tempted to do with it is to turn it into the Parable of the FARMER.  Farmers have a goal of maximizing a harvest.  They plant to maximize the return on their investment.  To achieve that goal farmers understandably care only focus on the GOOD SOIL.  But Jesus says “LISTEN!”  

“LISTEN!”  This is the Parable of the SOWER, not the Parable of the FARMER.  The Sower sows!  And she sows with a much broader vision than the vision with which the farmer farms.  The Sower cares only about sowing the seeds of God’s infinite and unconditional love, grace, forgiveness and compassion in EVERY kind of soil EVERYWHERE!  The Sower knows, you see, that seeds have important work to do in EVERY kind of soil… work much broader than just a simple harvest.  

When Farmers come to the hard packed soil of a path, a farmer wouldn’t plant there because hard packed soil would not produce the harvest he is looking for.   The Sower, however, has a greater vision for her seeds.  The Sower intends, in addition to a harvest, that the birds of the sky will be fed when they eat the seeds on the path and eventually those same birds will “deposit” those seed, along with a healthy dose of fertilizer right where they need to grow.   The Sower loves, values and has important work for that hard packed soil do, and for the hard packed places in each of us, Jesus has love, value and use for those as well, because the work to be done there can’t be done in any other sort of soil.

The same is true of the Rocky Soil.  A farmer would never plant in Rocky Soil where the plants would spring up but fail to take root and wither away.  But the Sower knows that even quick growing plants without deep roots have something to give.  Even plants that quickly whither in the sun make compost and the compost builds the soil making a place for another seed to grow.  The same is true for the Rocky parts of each of us.  God has use for enthusiasm that launches out in a particular moment.  We all know that the energy to turn out to protest in the past month will not be sustained by everyone for the long run, but that quick reaction, that short lived energy made things happen I never thought I’d see!  Mississippi took down their state flag with the confederate battle emblem!  That had never happened before, even with decades of work by people with deep roots in anti-racism.  

Even the seeds that are sown among the thorns... and you know who we are!  Even us, in our thorniest soil, have value and is important to the Sower.  The realists, the prophets, the truth tellers, those that hold up mirrors we are loathe to peer into.  They challenge us, refuse to allow us to get off easy, keep us from falling into cheap grace.  They insist we work meticulously through our history and our fears. 

In the end, when Jesus says “LISTEN!” he’s challenging our narrow vision of what we think God is up to in our world and the narrow ways we believe God has in the Divine tool box to get that work done!  This parable tells us that the power of God’s infinite love, compassion, grace, forgiveness and the transformational power of what God is sowing among us reaches WAY beyond our limited idea of what “good soil” looks like and is actually at work.... in, with and under every person, every type of soil, in each one of our churches, and in every red, blue, and purple part of the world.    

  

Our call as people of God, as we confront the plagues of our day… pandemic, denialism, white supremacy, injustice, hate and despair is to talk and dream and plan and work in the way of the Sower!  That as we meet and talk with others and build relationships and ask questions and plan how to move forward, we are called to do that by sowing the seeds of God’s love and God’s promise literally everywhere… into everything… with reckless, uncalculating abandon and then do our best to help each other trust that God will get each of those seeds, no matter where they have landed to do whatever it is God needs that seed to do in that particular place, person, church or corner of the world.  

The Gospel calls us in this lesson to be SOWERS not Farmers.  We are called by Jesus to recklessly cast into the world God’s love with the same generosity with which God put stars in the sky… remember, God put stars in the sky that we can’t see from where we live!  It is that level of reckless sowing we are called to.  It is that far flung we are meant to distribute God’s love and grace.  

What will happen when we recklessly spread God’s love even more than we do now?  I have literally NO idea!  But this parable reminds me that we’re called to be the SOWER, not the Farmer and that God will certainly see that none of what we sow goes to waste.  Amen.  

I Don't Like It!

Genesis 22:1-14

After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together. When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.

But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

It’s horribly disturbing… this story from Genesis… and I don’t like it. I don’t. A “testing” God is not the sort of God I’d pick. A “go kill your son” God is not the sort of God I’d pick either! And while we’re on what I don’t like, I also don’t like that Abraham mindlessly responds to God’s insane request to kill his son, by saying, “Alright, sure.” I don’t like ANY of it. But, there it is… this horribly disturbing, awfully confusing, terrible story… just sitting there… demanding that we deal with it. Have I mentioned I don’t like it?

Well, I don’t! Because it just sits there.  It doesn’t suggest or even ask… it INSISTS that faith in THIS God will not be simple nor can it be casual. It will be deadly serious… “Go and sacrifice your son” serious… and God must be taken as God is. God is not a buffet from which we can pick and choose the parts we want and leave the rest behind. This story DEMANDS that somehow, we, like Abraham, hold all of God together in our faith. The God who makes impossible and deadly demands, AND ALSO the God who promises to provide not just life, but a life that is as abundant as the stars in the sky and as infinite as the grains of sand on the beach. Sound impossible? You’re in good company! I haven’t been able to do it! Even Martin Luther confessed he couldn’t do it, but still the story insists that is exactly what we must do to be faithful!

Because it’s SO VERY HARD we often try to cheat and just pick just the one part of God we want for the moment. Sometimes we pick the God of deadly demands, insisting that God hate exactly the same people we hate. In those moments we dismiss any idea that God is, at the very same moment, also a God of unlimited, unconditional love and grace. In those moments we imagine that we have the power to tie God’s hand of grace-filled providing behind God’s back and send God out to do some serious smiting! But this story insists, that’s not God!

In the next moment we attempt to lock up the God of deadly demands saying, “That’s the OLD Testament God, not my God.” My God is only a God of only unlimited love and grace, compassion and forgiveness, generosity and abundance. We don’t have a God who makes deadly demands or gives life or death tests!  But this story insists, that’s not God either!

In this story, as Abraham reaches the top of the mountain in Moriah, he also reaches the pinnacle... the goal of our faith. There, he does what Luther couldn’t do… certainly what I have never been able to do! There on the mountaintop he holds together these seemingly dispirit aspects of God, and accepts that God will always be God. Abraham says “yes” to the God of impossible tests and deadly demands and walks toward the mountain of sacrifice AND with every step he is also absolutely sure… completely convinced… totally certain… that God… and this God alone without any help from Abraham, will provide exactly the right thing… and will provide it with as much generosity as God used when God put stars in the sky and sand on the beach.

I don’t know about you, but my faith is not yet an “Abraham on the mountain top” level. I still try to “help” God out, give God advice, or try to strong arm God, insisting God should do things my way in the world. It doesn’t ever work. But that doesn’t mean I don’t still try! I still want God to change the people I want changed, the way I want them to change! (maybe even some selected smiting?) I still want God to be more grace than consequences, more gospel than law, more resurrection than death, more light than darkness. And all the time God just keeps being the God of ALL of it, ALL of it... TOGETHER… grace AND consequences, law AND gospel, death AND resurrection, light AND darkness, all at the same time.

I do think, however, there is Good News in this story which calls us to what seems like an impossible destination... this mountaintop level of faith. And that is that this God of ours… this God of both command and promise, is accepting of us even though we’ve not yet reached the mountaintop. This God of both command and promise is willing to work with us. To meet  us right where we are today. To help us and hold us, pulling us and pushing us with both command and promise to move us along the Way in this life of ours. God is accepting of where we are, but is also determined that where we are, is NOT where we will stay! After all, Abraham wasn’t ALWAYS at this mountain top level of faith either, you know! There are 11 chapters before this story describing a series of epic faith plants that Abraham made as he walked toward this mountaintop!

The path toward faithfulness is a journey. Growing deeper in relationship with God takes a lifetime. It takes a lifetime to grow toward a place where we can trust that God to use both deadly serious command and unfathomable providential promise in order to keep us moving along the Way. Getting moved along by God will not always feel good. It will sometimes, actually, look and feel and BE full-on horrible! But we walk this path, just like Abraham walked his path, pushed with commands and pulled with promise, ALL while living within the covenant which God has made with each of us.  That covenant that promises each of us has been created in Divine love. That God will be with us always as we walk, and as we fall… all along the path of this life. That God will meet us where we are, but never leave us where we were found. That God will push us and pull us, not for some Divine twisted pleasure, but so that we might experience the abundant life God created us to live!  And that no matter how long it takes, God will never leave us stuck along the way. Amen.   

You Are Entering Hope

Romans 5:1-8

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

We find ourselves on the road this morning. In the first lesson, Abraham and Sarah are camped out at the Oaks of Mamre. In the second lesson Paul shares with us his journey from suffering to endurance, from endurance to character and from character to hope. Then, in the Gospel, Jesus and the disciples are on the road as well, going from city, to town, to village, proclaiming the Good News and healing the harassed and helpless.

Paul’s road trip is especially interesting since it begins in the town of Suffering, which from my personal experience is a terrible little town. He continues on through the little villages of Endurance and Character, which are better than Suffering but not really places anyone would want to settle down forever. Then finally… finally he ends up in the town of Hope.

Hope is the place we’d all like to end up I think.  In fact, I think we’d all rather just race past the exits for Suffering, Endurance and Character, at well over the posted speed limit, and just go straight to Hope. The trouble with that particular travel plan is that life rarely allows that to happen. Paul wrote his little travel log out of his own personal experience. Sarah laughed in the face of God at the idea that Hope was even a place they could get to, in what little bit of time they had left in their advanced ages, and the disciples, told to travel with neither case nor cash, didn’t see how getting to Hope would ever be possible either.

But I think all of these lessons are here to remind us as we journey through this life, of something Rich Simpson, one of our Canons, wrote this week. He wrote as he reflected on the lesson from Genesis that “God is in the business of doing laughable things on God’s own timetable.” I see that truth in all of our lessons today and I think all of these lessons have been gathered here together on purpose to help remind us that our role in this life is to find our part in joining with God to accomplish God’s laughable agenda and learn to accept that God’s agenda WILL HAPPEN, but in God’s own time and not ours.

God’s agenda is, as Bishop Curry would say, “to change the world from the nightmare it is for so many, into the dream that God has for it.” That agenda is laughable because it seems utterly impossible. I mean, have you looked outside lately, God? You’ll need to completely dismantle the current culture of policing in our country and raise up a new one! Nice idea, but laughable. Then, completely undo 400 years of systemic racism! Noble and needed and also totally laughable in its enormity. And, oh yeah, lots of folks have forgotten it, but there’s still a pandemic raging out there as well!  So HOW? How are we… how CAN we… even BEGIN to join with God in trying to accomplish God’s completely wonderful but also completely laughable agenda? 

The answer this week, turns out to be the same as it was last week.  We begin by taking one, first, step. We Go! We Move On! We take that first step with what feels like nothing for the journey, just like the disciples did.  We take that first step with not nearly enough time, like Abraham and Sarah did. And we start, as Paul honestly tells us, by taking our very first shaky step into the terrible little town… called Suffering.

To begin the journey we must start, with neither the things, nor the time we think we need.  From there, with nothing, we just step right into the world of our neighbor’s nightmare. We begin by stepping into our neighbor’s suffering. As we do that we know we will never fully feel what they feel, but we are still called to sit and listen and eat with those who long for the nightmare to end. It’s what those three mysterious travelers modeled for us at the Oaks of Mamre… finding Abraham and Sarah right where they were, sitting with them in their childless suffering… THAT is where we begin. We begin by sitting down and listening… listening not to respond, but to understand. That is where this journey of doing God’s laughable agenda begins. Paul reminds us however, that starting here, in that terrible little town called Suffering, is not for nothing. By staying in Suffering and hearing all the disappointments and betrayals encrusted into our neighbor’s story… by listening… really listening to their experiences… that is the way… the only way… we will get through that terrible town and move down the road... on to Endurance and Character, and then, in God’s own timeline, we eventually enter into Hope.  And as we finally enter into the town of Hope, we’ll not be alone.  We will be arm in arm with our sisters and brothers, who we’ve picked up along the way, way back in that terrible town of Suffering.

God’s agenda ain’t easy. No money, no staff, no sandals or fashionably matching bag! But even without the usual things the world leans on, Jesus tells the disciples then, and tells us disciples now, that even without the world’s usual things, we don’t step onto that road with nothing. We won’t have the “usual” resources, but to be honest, the “usual” resources haven’t done much to change the world yet, have they?  But as we step onto that road, we step out with something different.  The different thing we have is the Holy Spirit blowing at our backs and Jesus’ permission to be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 

Now, what does that mean? That stuff about serpents and doves. Well, the really smart people (who are not me!) can’t decide what it means!  But I think it’s Jesus way of telling us... if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got! I think it’s Jesus way of telling us... that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and still expecting different results. I think it is Jesus’ way of telling us... that we can’t use the same thinking to solve our problems that we used to create them. 

Jesus is telling us to put the Holy Spirit’s rushing wind at our backs and try new ideas ranging from those that are wise as serpents to those as innocent as doves in order to change the world from the nightmare it is for many into the dream that God has for it. I think Jesus is telling us to leave the old thinking, the old baggage, the old concepts of time at home and step out on the road with the Holy Spirit blowing at our backs.  Jesus is telling us to step out on the road and into our neighbor’s suffering... gather them up in our hearts and minds and arms and start walking from Suffering toward Endurance and then on toward Character and then all the way into Hope.  Because it is in Hope where we will find God’s promise that ALL of creation is meant to share in God’s beautiful dream. Amen.

Go!

Matthew 28:16-20

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

A week ago I could not have imagined what could drive a global pandemic with over 100,000 dead Americans out of our minds and off the front page of every paper in the nation. Now we know. Over 400 years of the evils of white supremacy expressing itself in its latest evolution of horror, sin, and systemic racism. THAT is what.

Even in my extremely privileged position, sitting here in the Berkshires, away from the overflowing ICU units in Alabama... away from the tear gas that forced my fellow Episcopalians from the steps of their own church… even here… far away from all of it... it is hard to know how to process it… what to say… what to DO. So I understand the disciples in this reading, both worshiping, and doubting… after all, how do you KNOW what to do when you are face to face with something so overwhelming.  What do you say? What do we think? What do we do?

The answer, Jesus tells us…. is to start.  “Go!” he says.  Take a step. Even before we’ve begun to wrestle with our belief and doubt, let alone have it resolved… we are called by Jesus... to GO! Steven Sondheim, in his musical, Sunday in the Park with George, wrote it this way:  “Move on… Stop worrying where you’re going… Move on. If you can know where you’re going, you’ve already gone… Just keep moving on.”  

The truth that Jesus and Sondheim are teaching us is that we will only make the road ahead of us… the road through a global pandemic... the road through the horrific legacy of white supremacy in which we are all tangled… we will only make that road by walking it… by moving on… by going. By taking one first step toward doing justice, and then another step in loving kindness, always walking humbly toward the hope filled vision we have been given by Jesus.  The vision of a Promised Land, a New Jerusalem, a place where love is stronger than hate, healing is greater than infection, justice is stronger than oppression, peace is stronger than violence and life is stronger than death.

Part of the truth of taking each of those steps, is that we must take each one in both wonderful faith and terrible doubt.  We will never be completely sure before we go.  But GO we must! Taking one first trembling step toward making disciples by SHOWING people the Way Jesus taught us to live. SHOWING the world that disciples are not made in our minds but in our lifting up the lives of those who have been thrown down and thrown out.  Today we focus particularly on black lives which is right.  But as disciples we GO to lift up the lives of all who can not breathe.  Whether that is due to the crushing knee of Caesars or Presidents, occupying armies or combat troops, corrupt police or authorities, implicit bias or systemic racism.  Our calling is to Go!  To take a step toward those who have been thrown down and lift up the lives of those who have been labeled and treated as if they are the least or the lost or the last to matter.

Our call is to Go! To Move On!  To lift and heal, feed and comfort, confront... and yes, even turn over tables when that is the only thing left to get their attention!  Oh, I know. Raised voices and turned over tables... not very stoically Lutheran.  Not too properly Episcopalian. Does GOING and DOING ALL of what Jesus did… have to include the hard bits?  “Yes” Jesus tells us...  GO! Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. GO! Take a step! Move on!  That step might turn out to be right!  … Or wrong.  But it is our Baptisms that free us to GO! To step out right... or wrong but to KNOW either way that we remain forever intimately connected to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! So, Move on! As Sondheim says, the choice you make may turn out to be mistaken. The choosing is not. You have to move on. Look at what you want. Not as where you are, Not at what you’ll be.

To Go!  To Move On!  I know it is hard!  I am sure that you, like me, would rather KNOW what to do next, not just guess.  To figure it out BEFORE we commit to that first step. You, I am sure, like me want to do RIGHT by George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and David McAtee as well as the centuries old pile of broken black and brown bodies that this country has knelt on to death... the pile of black and brown bodies that are buried in the foundation of this “land of the free” and “home of the brave.”  All of those black and brown lives... They DESERVE our next step to be a RIGHT step. I… we… literally owe it to them to step RIGHT so I don’t want to make a WRONG step... but how CAN we know?

Jesus teaches us in this lesson that we can not know.  But we still must Go.  I know, we want to do justice RIGHT… to love kindness RIGHT… to walk humbly RIGHT… but Jesus commands us, his beloved Baptized disciples, not to wait until we are sure we will get it RIGHT because if we wait to be sure we are RIGHT we will simply never Go.  So Jesus says GO! Move On!  Take a step!  Go and do your best to bind the whole world to God’s promise that love is stronger than hate and life is stronger than death. GO! Do your best in each moment to teach the world the Jesus Way of Abundant life for all of creation by living as examples of that Way, that Truth, that Life.  And as you GO, loaded down with doubt and fear along with your genuine intention to do it RIGHT... REMEMBER... with every shaky, doubt laden step you take toward God’s promise... with ever fear filled step you take to lift the least, the lost, and the last...  Jesus is with you... ALWAYS... always... always, to the end of the age. Amen.

Chester's Choice: A Zanforb Tale

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.

Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.

And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.

In Chester’s eyes… all three of them mind you… we’re the aliens! Of course “Chester” is her earth name. Her Zanforb name is Beebglabop, but for the purposes of this story, we’ll just stick with Chester. Now over the years, like all beings in the galaxy, she has experienced suffering. Oh, yeah, the name Chester and the pronoun “she” is confusing, huh? Yeah, it turns out they can figure out how to travel between galaxies but they can’t ever seem to pick earth names that match their gender pronoun preference! Intelligent life… right?!

Anyway... She has, of course, experienced the sort of suffering that just comes with being from the planet Zanforb. Things like droopy eye stalk virus, DFSD, dry flaky scale disorder, and an unfortunate allergy to the purple Bobo Bird cheese they use to construct their homes. She, like all of us, has also experienced the kind of suffering that comes when others, acting out of their own brokenness, have caused her to suffer and also the kind of suffering that comes from just making bad choices. On one of her missions to earth, she decided to take up smoking, which was not a good choice over all, but it turned out to be a PARTICULARLY a bad choice when she was visiting her home on Zanforb and decided to light up there. As I’m sure you know, the Bobo bird cheese they use to construct their homes is HIGHLY flammable and smoking around highly flammable dairy products led her to some real suffering.

But those two types of suffering are not the only kinds of suffering she has experienced. She’s also found, particularly on her expeditions to earth, that she is inextricably drawn into the suffering of the other beings around her. It isn’t the same as the suffering that comes simply from being a mortal being from Zanforb and it isn’t the same as the suffering that happens when you light your flammable cheese house on fire. This third type of suffering is the suffering that comes when we finally come to the realization that WE ARE ALL ONE… when one of us hurts, we all hurt... when one of us has life, we all have life!

This is the sort of suffering that happens when those around us hurt and we make the choice to enter into their pain with them, so that they will not suffer alone… so that we may be ONE, even when being ONE hurts. It is the suffering we enter into by choice when we give up luxuries, conveniences, freedoms, desires, necessities, and in rare instances, even life itself, for the benefit of our neighbors. It is the suffering we experience when we put our neighbors ahead of self… when we act in a way that is best for the community, even when that way might not be best for me, myself or I.

That is the sort of suffering Peter was talking about in today’s second lesson. That sort of suffering is the “fiery ordeal” he tells us should not surprise us, even though in my experience it always does! It is that self giving, empathetic, voluntary entering in to someone else’s pain that we are called to as followers of Jesus. That is the suffering of the cross. Jesus entering into the suffering of the whole world so that we would not be alone… so, as we read last week, we would not be left orphaned. This sort of suffering does not usually lead us into a literal, crucifixion-level of suffering, but it often can feel nearly that bad as we sit with another being and share their darkness.

Part of the Good News that comes with following Jesus into this sort of suffering, is that we are promised it will not be forever. It will likely FEEL like forever while you are in it, but as the lesson from First Peter says, “in a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, WILL himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.” It will seem like forever, but this sort of suffering isn’t ever quite that long and it is always worth it because it is along this path where we will inevitably encounter the Divine.

For Chester, my alien friend from Zanforb, the suffering of humans is difficult to bear at times. She wishes they could be free of the suffering that comes with just being human and she really wishes they would work harder to eliminate the suffering that they cause one another when they act out of their brokenness. But she also knows that, even with all the intergalactic technology at her tentacle-tips, eliminating those kinds of suffering remains out of her control.

What Chester has found IS within her control, however, is the choice to enter into another being’s suffering with them, choosing to act in ways that are in the other’s best interest, and making sure no one sits alone in their darkness. In her electronic cloaking suit which, as you also know, makes her appear as a human wearing a black shirt with a white tab, she finds she has many opportunities to not only do this herself, but to guide others into making these kinds of self-sacrificial choices. What she inevitably tells the people of earth is that living this way… living for the other… living by choosing to enter into our neighbor’s pain with them, is not only the best way we have to bring life into this world, but in fact, it’s the best way to bring abundant life to the entire galaxy. Amen.

The Emmaus Method

Luke 24:13-35

Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.” Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

If this story was meant to simply be a historical account, they wouldn’t have left the other disciple unnamed. We would have been told about how Cleopas and Chuck were walking down the road. But this story ISN’T meant to simply be a historical account. This story, with an unnamed disciple placeholder which is meant for you and me, is here to pull us into this story so that we might learn something alongside our friend Cleopas about the “Jesus Way” of living in and caring for one another in the world.

We are meant to imagine that it is each of US... and old Cleopas there... who have experienced a horrible trauma. It is you and I who are grieving the loss of what we had hoped the world would be.  In the original story, the trauma was the crucifixion, but with this story, Jesus is modeling how we can walk with ANYONE who has experienced ANY sort of trauma. You could just pick a trauma at random… say a worldwide pandemic, for instance... and this story is meant to model for us how to care for our neighbors in the midst of that crisis... the loss of friends and family... the loss of how we knew the world worked... the loss of what we had planned and what we had hoped for that has now been ruined.  

The first thing Jesus does is to just walk with them. He is with them right where they are.  He doesn’t stop them in the street. He doesn’t try to turn them around or try to fix what he thinks might be wrong. He just slides up beside them, lets them set the pace, and is present with them. Eventually, Jesus asks a question. “What are you talking about?”

For humans like you, me, and old Cleopas there, our brains are hard wired to wonder about any question we get asked. It may only be for a split second, but we WILL wonder.  We can’t help it.  The tricksy part is that the place in our brains where we MUST wonder about a question, is NOT in the part of our brains in charge or fight or flight. So in the split second that Jesus asked you and old Cleopas there that little question, the part of our brains that are capable of thinking beyond just one thought... running away from Jerusalem in a panic... has been opened up for our potential use.  

Next Jesus asks them another question.  “What things happened in Jerusalem?” And they tell Jesus their story. Even though Jesus knew the story they were telling better than they did, he still let them tell it. Jesus is showing us another part of how to care for one another in a crisis. We need to take the time to listen to each other’s story. Just listen. Listen to understand… not to reply. Ask questions and listen. Listen even if you’ve heard it before.  Listen even if you’ve heard it a hundred times before.

At this point Jesus calls them foolish and slow of heart which is frankly a quadruple black belt, ninja type counseling move right there! But what Jesus did was to throw them off balance as a way to continue to help them get unstuck from the fight or flight part of their brains. For those of us without a counseling quadruple blackbelt, we might want to be less direct, but the model still works.  The model teaches us to keep asking questions.  Get them talking through their experiences of the past.  Ask them to tell you the stories they know best. “What happened when this sort of thing happened to you before?  How did Moses and the prophets deal with their traumas? How did those stories turn out?” “Do you remember when something looked impossible in Jesus’ life? Do you remember storms on a sea, a man with a legion of demons, a guy born blind, lepers, 5000 hungry people, Lazarus who stanketh? How did each of those impossible stories turn out?” In times of trauma, locked in fight or flight mode, the wiring in our heads which connect us to those powerful lessons, experiences, and stories of the past are cut off. What Jesus did was to use questions to move them over and over and over again, out of the fight or flight parts of their brains and into the places in their minds where it would be POSSIBLE for them to see more options for their lives than just running away.

As they get to Emmaus, Jesus models something else about this Way of helping. Jesus doesn’t ASSUME they are ready to try something different than just running away. He asks those questions, helps them move into a place where more can happen, but then... just “walks ahead as if he were going on.” Jesus is modeling for us the reality that the people we care for in a trauma will be ready to do more than run, ONLY when they are ready. There’s no guarantee that will happen in a month, or in a year, or by the time we walk to Emmaus. Jesus is modeling for us the need to allow the other to set the pace.

Finally Jesus shows us how very powerful it is to be present with those who are in pain. How incredibly powerful it is to bless one another with deep compassion. How wonderfully powerful it is to be generous with each other, being fully present with them, and sharing what we have. 

In the end, Jesus didn’t tell those two disciples anything they didn’t already know before Jesus joined them on the road to Emmaus. Jesus simply walked with them for a while, asked them questions, listened deeply as they told the story they needed to tell, and helped them regain access to the powerful truths, stories, and promises that had been cut off from their memories by their trauma in Jerusalem.

May all of us, as we walk with and care for others in our time of pandemic trauma, follow the “Jesus Way” of caring for each another. May we be creative in being present with each other. May we share with each other the power of deep compassion. May we be generous with our neighbors with our presence, our questions, and our listening... so that we might help one another regain access to the stories, promises and truths which give us all hope.... stories, promises and truths that are even now, burning within us all. Amen.

Stand Up Messiah

The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 20th Chapter

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.

Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?”

He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! What flavor?" He said, "Lutheran." I said, "Me, too! ELCA or Missouri Synod?" He said, "ELCA." 

I said, "Me, too! LCA or ALC?” He said, "LCA." I said, "Me, too! Augustana Lutheran Church in America or American Lutheran Church in America?" He said, “American Lutheran Church in America.” I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.

The original of that joke was written by Emo Philips about Baptists, but whether you start with Lutherans or Baptists, starting today with a joke is the liturgically proper thing to do.  Today is Bright Sunday or Holy Hilarity Sunday or if you want it in Latin, Risus Paschalis.  It started in the 15th century when priests would insert humorous stories into their sermons on this second Sunday of Easter.  Of course, since it was fun, the practice was eventually banned by Pope Clement X, otherwise known as the Party Pooper Pope.  

Jokes are, of course, stories with unexpected endings and Jesus being raised from the dead is probably the MOST unexpected ending to a story EVER told!  But unfortunately, like all jokes, not everybody gets a joke right away and not everyone got the resurrection right away either. The disciples, locked away in fear in that upper room, obviously didn’t get it at all.  

Let’s see if you do better than the disciples with this one?  What did the Buddhist say to the hot dog vendor? ... Make me one with everything.

Sadly, with the disciples, Jesus was forced to break one of the cardinal rules of comedy by appearing to them and showing them the wounds in his hands, feet and side.  In doing that he was breaking the rule that you should never explain a joke, but that’s what he had to do for his disciples to get it, and thankfully after that, they finally, REALLY got it.

I’m actually really glad Jesus broke that comedy rule, because it is so important that everyone gets THIS joke that it’s worth breaking the rules to explain it. So, following Jesus’ lead we’ll start explaining this joke with the punch line.  Are you ready? Here it is!  CHRIST IS RISEN!  That’s the punch line! Christ is really and truly raised from the dead!  He didn’t just wake up from a really deep sleep and he wasn’t just “mostly dead” either.  He had pulled the pin, he was pushing up daisies, he had bought the farm, he was swimming with the fish, he had kicked the bucket, he was six feet under, he had bit the dust, shuffled off the mortal coil, croaked, cashed in his chips, and had given up the ghost!  Jesus was dead... BUT... NOW… here’s the punchline… Christ is Risen!

It's an amazing punch line! But a punchline without a setup just isn’t a joke.  For the setup we need to go all the way back to when Jesus was tested in the desert. The devil offered to give Jesus power over everything…but there was a catch.  Jesus had to bow down and worship the devil.  Jesus didn’t take the bait and after that, the devil decides that he would “GET” Jesus the old fashioned way…the devil will have him die!  Plot, plot, plot…scheme, scheme, scheme and we arrive at Good Friday and Jesus dying on the cross.  People surround Jesus laughing at him.  The devil is right there too laughing and taunting Jesus, “You should have taken my offer" says the devil, “if you had, these Bell Hops from the Roman Arms Motel wouldn’t have had to ‘put you up for the night’!”

You see, the devil, the Empire, darkness, evil and death itself all thought they had won!  BUT WAIT!  Just when death, darkness and the devil thought that they had pulled the ultimate fast one on God… THOUGHT they had killed God’s Son forever, it turns out that the joke was actually on THEM!  CHRIST IS RISEN! And with that punch line God took the horns off the devil, turned the world up side down, defeated death, and shined the zillion watt light of Christ into even the deepest darknesses of all the world!

With that one punch line... CHRIST IS RISEN!... God not only gave Jesus new life, but gave new life to you and to me and to ALL OF CREATION as well!  This new life is one that is meant to begin here in this life and go on for all eternity!  It’s a life full of meaning, purpose, dignity and love.  That's what makes this the biggest and best joke of all time.  Death, darkness and the devil ended up snatching total defeat, right out of the jaws of victory!

Speaking of the resurrection, do you know why didn't Jesus replace the stone from the tomb when he rose from the dead? ... Because he was born in a barn!

Once you get THE joke it changes EVERYTHING!  There will still be people that say you have to work your way into heaven, but now that you know the joke, you can laugh at that ridiculous notion! There will still be people out there who think there’s an ongoing battle raging between good and evil and that evil still has a chance to win! But now that you know the joke, you can laugh at that ridiculous notion too and sing them the hymn...  the strife is over, the battle is won!  So, do you get it now? Do you get how funny it is to think that death, darkness and the devil have any power in this world anymore? Christ is Risen! And they got nothin’!

Now there’s one last thing. Because once you get a good joke, you can’t just keep it to yourself. You’ve got to pass it on! So go now and tell this joke to the world... LIVE this joke out in the world and don’t forget the punchline… Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!! Amen.

Wait. Just one more. So it’s after the resurrection and Jesus is in the mood to party! He gets his disciples together and they all head out to the club!

They hit the dance floor, but something’s terribly wrong - Jesus just can’t seem to get his groove on. He tries and tries, but finally yells out. . .

Help! I’ve risen and I can’t get down!